Measuring distance in personal relationships [a preliminary report]

ABSTRACT

The study is divided into three parts. The first part is aimed at identifying gender differences in the use of relational distancing tactics by university students [38 males and 38 females]. It was seen that women tend to use the strategy of disengagement significantly more than males [p < .01]. The results showed, that disengagement was used more than avoidance [t = -7.221, p < .001] and cognitive dissonance [t = 14.440, p< .001] as distance. strategies. The second study explores the relationship between Relational Distance Index and subjective distance perception on a sample of 36 students. The test-retest reliability of Relational Distance Index [Hess, 2003] as measured in the third study on 100 Pakistani students turned out to be r= .698, p< .001. Means, correlations and t-tests are used for the analysis of the data