Don’t Stand So Close To Me: Review
The study of psychology has been questioned to be an authentic study of science. However, the deciding factor of psychology being called “science” is not simply whether it matches a certain definition, but how the psychology is analyzed. Members of Georgetown University’s psychology department Joana B. Vieira and Abigail A. Marsh conducted a scientific experiment that addressed psychopathy and the regulation of interpersonal distance. They tested preferred interpersonal distance as it relates to psychopathic traits, specifically that of callousness, or cold-heartedness. Their thesis revolves around the amygdala function, and how lesions in the amygdala can cause an organism to react differently to interpersonal distance. Cited in the article are studies of amygdala on both humans and monkeys. This research aligns with amygdala dysfunction in psychopathic patients, and a new research question was contrived to add to this prior knowledge.
The experimenters make a clear connection to the amygdala dysfunction to interpersonal distance but decide to take it a step further by measuring psychopathic traits as well. They used a system called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) to measure the psychopathic trait of cold-heartedness in the participants. Since prior research supports cold-heartedness to amygdala activity, they hypothesized that PPI-R Cold-heartedness scores would predict one’s preference of interpersonal distance. The experiment was a combination of administering this test, and a task allowing subjects to choose their preference of distance.
Forty-six participants were tested, each one receiving 32 trials that were divided into two blocks, Experimenter-walking and Participant-walking. For each block, there were four variables: eye contact/no eye contact, approach/withdrawal (approach trials were started at a distance and withdrawal trials were started up close). When the participant felt satisfied with the distance he would stop and the distance between his and the experimenter’s chin would be measured. It is important to note that the experimenter kept a neutral face and showed no signs of uneasiness to the experimenter, like previous experiments measuring psychopathy. When analyzing their data, they found that PPI-R scores for Cold-heartedness were significantly associated with interpersonal distance preferences (higher scores preferred lower distance).
This article was not only in line with previous scientific knowledge, but it added to that knowledge. No previous article has explored the relationship between psychopathic traits and interpersonal distance. However, the scientists used many prior research studies that helped them make claims in order to conduct their experiment smoothly. They referenced a previous experiment led by Daniel P. Kennedy that addressed personal space and the amygdala function, but took it a step further in adding a new variable: cold-heartedness PPI-R scores, a trait of psychopathy. In their data analysis, they were careful with certain interfering biases, like sex and cultural background. In their conclusion, they suggested ways to take the study further, therefore encouraging other scientists to develop their experiment the way they did with previous studies.
In short, this article explored the relationship between preferred interpersonal distances between cold-heartedness, a common trait in psychopathic individuals. The experiment was well thought out and implicated, and accounted for cultural and gender biases. This form of psychological study and data analysis is in fact a science, with many doors opening to more concentrated experiments.
Literature Cited
Vieira JB and Marsh AA (2014) Don’t stand so close to me: psychopathy and the regulation of interpersonal distance. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:907. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00907
