The Relationships Between Slowness of Response, State Anxiety, Social Isolation and Self-Esteem, and Preferred Personal Space in the Elderly

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Abstract
The articles prior to January 2008 are part of the back file collection and are not available with a current paid subscription. To access the article, you may purchase it or purchase the complete back file collection here Evelynn C Gioiella Preferred personal space is the amount of distance an individual prefers between himself andanother for comfortable standing conversation. The amount of space selected is related to several variables including culture, eye contact, sex, degree of acquaintance of the dyad, state anxiety, and self-esteem. The last two variables, state anxiety and self-esteem, are especially important in elderly populations. As people age, a slowing of response time occurs. This slowing is postulated to be a result of changes in the central nervous system. Research has demonstrated that slowing begins in the midthirties and becomes more profound as age increases. Tests of reaction time using simple unpaced tasks such as key tapping, show slowing of age. Complex, paced tasks such as a timed digit copying test show even greater slowing of response over age. Elderly people are required in our fast-paced modern world to respond rapidly. Crossing streets, using buses and subways, moving in crowded supermarkets are daily activities in which the healthy elderly engage. It can be hypothesized that these demands of a fast-paced environment are incongruent with the capacity of the older person experiencing slowing of response. When the individual perceives an incongruence of environ- mental demand and capacity to respond, then anxiety occurs. This anxiety is a state or situational anxiety related to the events occurring at that moment in time. Studies done on personal space show that in anxiety provoking situations, subjects prefer more distance between themselves and others. It was theorized that elderly people who experience slowing of response would also experience state anxiety, when required to respond rapidly and would therefore cope by preferring more personal space. Another variable that affects the elderly and may contribute to the variation in preferred personal space is social isolation. Western culture devalues and isolates older people. Forced retirement, changes in economic status, lack of meaningful roles for the elderly, disparaging views expressed in visual, written, and verbal media all contribute to the isolation of this group. The inevitable loss of family, friends, and otheii members of the social network compound the factors! which result in social isolation. It was hypothesized in this study that one of thçl effects of social isolation would be a loss of self-esteeiüj Theorists have linked feelings of self-worth witffl personal relationships, roles one fulfills, views held om oneself by society, and a sense of belonging to ass acceptable group. Since social isolation of the elderM implies loss of relationships, lack of fulfilling roles ands a negative view of this group, then self-esteem should! decrease as social isolation increases. Research has demonstrated that self-esteem correlates with preferred personal space. Individuals with lowl self-esteem or who feel their self-esteem is threatened bra the situation in which they find themselves, prefèîl greater distance between themselves and others. ElderM isolated persons with low self-esteem will therefore prefer more personal space. In summary the literature supports the following hypotheses: 1. There is a negative correlation between slowness of response and state anxiety in the elderly. 2. There is a negative correlation between social] isolation and self-esteem in the elderly. 3. There is a relationship between slowness of response, state anxiety, social isolation and self- esteem, and preferred personal space in the elderly. 4. These four variables each contribute indepen- dently to the variance of preferred personal space in the elderly. Correlation and multiple regression statistical tech- niques were used to test the hypotheses. Data were gathered from 100 women between the ages of 55 and 88 who attended three senior citizens centers in New York City. These women were all born in the United States, they had been retired at… 10.3928/0098-9134-19780101-10

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