Just+the+theory+no+illustrations

I'm saving a copy of this page with the bare bones theory as it was before I started adding illustrations and examples to provide the reader with an easier grasp of the theory. I might want to revert to this at some point if the extended theory gets too cluttered.

Keeping your distance, a theory of human social behavior. A theory of basic social behavior emerged during a study that began by examining the behavior patterns of participants in distance education as they solved problems and resolved concerns. This analysis has revealed a general theory that explains a distinct pattern of social psychological behavior. What follows is the elucidation of that theory using the "conditions and consequences" model. These are not "findings" but an integrated set of hypotheses. Illustrations and examples will be provided for the purpose of establishing imagery and understanding and should not be considered as descriptions of the process used to derive the theory or proofs.

The Theory of Keeping your distance. People respond to conditions in their world in idiosyncratic ways but display patterns of behavior that have common elements. Analysis of data in this study discovered one such pattern of behavior identified as keeping your distance or KYD. Essentially, people arrange their world in such a way to have physical and emotional control of their circumstances by maintaining distance in various realms. Arranging for physical distance is the most obvious response set. People use physical distance to maintain safety, autonomy and preserve energy while engaging with the world. The physical distance may be a response to a perceived physical threat, but physical distance may also be used to manage other perceived threats. People also employ a number of characteristic techniques to maintain emotional distance even when in physical proximity to others.

Conditions that evoke the KYD response may be an outward actions or internalized mental/attitudinal adjustments. Similarly, the consequences of a chosen KYD strategy maybe be manifest externally but are more likely to to be internalized and not readily apparent to casual observers. Conditions and consequences often have mutual effects. The action taken creates a new set of conditions that sets up a new response and consequence. Reflection allows people to adjust their strategy set to result in the optimal consequences but there is a tendency to default to "distance". People want/need to keep their distance and they "err" on the side of distance. As people accumulate experience they increasingly value "distance" to maintain personal autonomy and control. Degrees of constraint and freedom are continually being calculated for best results but KYD can justify forgoing what might be otherwise be considered optimal.

Conditions that evoke KYD

There are a number of terms that are used inter-changeably to refer to conditions such as qualifiers, causes, sources, reasons. The main conditions under which people respond with KYD are perceived threats to personal safety, personal autonomy, emotional stability, and psychic integrity (self-definition). KYD is also used to preserve physical and emotional energy under conditions of unacceptable demands.

Conceptual elements of KYD

The theory of KYD reveals distinct patterns of behavior as people solve common problems or concerns in their everyday lives.

Maintaining distance for physical safety The most obvious pattern of behavior is to create distance to physically avoid interactions that could have a injurious physical effects. Activities typical for this realm are often used as proxies for responses in other dimensions. Even if there is not necessarily a physical threat from an interaction the KYD response is to physically move away.

Maintaining distance for emotional control This pattern is apparent when engaging in personal relationships. The desire for intimacy is always balanced with a need for emotional independence. Even in the closest and most harmonious relationships a sense of space is critical for emotional stability. KYD is an important element in emotional relationships. In a productive and valued relationship the distance is kept to a minimum. However, even within positive relationships a need is perceived for personal space and at least some occasions of emotional distance. KYD is also used to maintain distance from emotional encounters that are potentially painful or embarrassing. Under this condition, keeping your distance may entail actual physical distance but may also entail other strategies such as withholding or redirecting conversation, avoiding eye contact, negative verbal cues and hostile body language. Other physical cues may signal a wish to maintain distance from certain individuals and reduce distance to others.

Maintaining distance for autonomy This pattern is manifest when people feel that their autonomy is threatened. A sense of personal autonomy is essential for identity formation and KYD is adopted to establish and maintain the necessary space where a person can feel that they are self-determining. KYD is also used to avoid interactions that threaten sanity. It is a response to chaos, where there is no clear connection between cause and effect. The standard practice is to physically or emotionally to physically withdraw to avoid chaotic situations until ambiguity is resolved. KYD is a response to problematic or toxic relationships such as those that involve bullying, racism, or persecution. Response sets in this realm may employ political behavior strategies that scale to manage physical arrangements in a private home, an office, a neighborhood, or country. The relationship between stress and physical crowding have been studied from a number of perspectives. [1]

Maintaining distance for energy conservation Social engagement requires varying degrees of investment of physical and emotional energy. In some circumstances people evaluate the energy invested with the amount of personal return. The return may be reciprocity or it may be the sense of personal satisfaction and positive personal self-regard. People learn to manage their distance to maintain personal energy for causes and engagements that they consider the most rewarding. KYD is used to preserve physical and emotional resources. Some interactions with people and institutions drain personal energy and interfere with goal directed behavior. KYD strategies are used to minimize the impact of such associations. In some cases the preservation of energy aspect of KYD simply involves the avoidance of people or circumstances that the individual finds annoying or unappealing.

Consequences of KYD

Consequences, (outcomes, efforts, effects functions, predictions), related to the development and deployment of KYD strategies were positive, unintended positive and negative. In most cases, individuals develop a set of KYD strategies that serve them well to solve everyday concerns and problems. Individuals are able to participate in society with the necessary degree of security, sanity, autonomy, and energy. KYD strategies buffer against strife and conflict or at least mitigate and keep the individual feeling connected but still autonomous. KYD is a model or templates for action. Unintended negative consequences of KYD occur in two respects: the failure to develop adequate KYD strategies, and an exaggerated KYD response. Either situation can be self-limiting, self-defeating and in some cases clinically significant from the perspective of pyscho-pathology.

Positive and intended consequences of KYD strategies relate to an individuals ability to engage with the others on acceptable terms. The individual is able to balance autonomy, independence, and personal freedom while still maintaining the desired degree of personal closeness and human contact. Positive unintended outcomes are often realized and incorporated into KYD strategy sets. Response that result in negative outcomes are unintended and are culled from the action repertoire.

Internal impulses usually based on emotional or cognitive elements fear, loneliness, sexual interest may cause a person to act against their KYD. One may consciously tell oneself that they should be more warm, neighborly, approachable etc, but they ignore their KYD to their regret.

Keeping your distance is a theory about a pattern of behavior people use to manage personal social interactions and engagement. This distance may have temporal, spatial and/or experiential elements. The goal of the action strategy is to gain or regain personal control over a situation or relationship that is problematic. Maintaining physical safety, psychic integrity, personal autonomy, and preserving energy are the primary functions of KYD.

Contingencies of KYD KYD is a model or template for action.People perform a calculus of KYD for each social engagement. They implicitly or explicitly compute the relative advantages of physical and emotional proximity to other, people, communities or institutions. They use a personalized social algorithm, a set of rules that lead to the solution of a problem. [2]Each calculation trades off an ideal personal sphere of control and influence for the benefits of association with others. Some people may tolerate a suboptimal situation for a period of time if a more desirable set of circumstances is likely to emerge. Intra-personal and inter-personal events and experience impact the development and deployment of KYD strategies and temper the need for KYD or increase it. The cost of closeness is weighted against benefits, corrected by the KYD factor, the tendency to err on the side of maintaining distance.

KYD factor varies based on life experience and history. Effects associated with class, age, gender and economic status also influence the KYD factor. Another determining factor in this regard may be 'skin thickness' or the ability to tolerate circumstances. This calculus requires a delineation of the dimensions of KYD. Other dimensions of KYD are based on social evolution eg digital consciousness, environmental awareness, political affiliation, even brand preference. The metrics of distance are considered. How far is far enough? Each person has different physical criteria for acceptable distance. Decisions motivated by personal KYD strategies may be conscious and clearly articulated, but just as often they are unconscious and implicit in action choices. Covariance occurs when conditions accumulate across contexts to increase the likelihood of triggering KYD. One of the consequences of this accumulation is to have KYD become the default strategy. Covariance also occurs when conditions are favorable in a contexts mitigating the impact of threats that would normally trigger KYD. ( presence of a mentor, a supportive group, an engaging distraction, a sport) KYD acts as an "always on" filter for annoying or bothersome things. The strength of the filter varies from time to time with the intensity of connected variables.

KYD applies across contexts

The tendency to engage in KYD persists across contexts although the strategy sets may vary. The strategies that a person uses in their everyday exchanges with family maybe different from the strategies used in pursuit of education, career or other social contexts.

KYD strategies in a family setting maybe quite different from those used in an educational setting. In a family relationship, physical contact is usually regarded as a necessary ingredient. Parents and children are hugged, friends embraced, lovers caressed, all requiring direct physical contact. A much subtler set of KYD strategies are employed. Even the most loving relationship requires some distance. We need to allow distance in any relationship and respect the subtle KYD cues that others display. The boys night out or girls night are accepted mechanisms of ensuring that relationship boundaries and distances are observed. The distance that an adolescent establishes and maintains from parents is a necessary component of emotional maturity. KYD strategies applied in an education context would not be appropriate in a family context just as intimate exchanges, appropriate in a family relationship are inappropriate in an education context.

Another context that illustrates KYD in this analysis is the work context. KYD strategies maybe used to good and bad effect. In traditional hierarchical work places, highly bureaucratic agencies evoke a range of human psychosocial responses such as denial, displacement, and sublimation. Toxic workplaces evoke toxic strategies, aggression, passive or otherwise, and sabotage. KYD is often a prominent feature of a workplace survival response set. KYD is used to maintain distance between superiors, co-workers and difficult situations. KYD can motivate adaptive responses where an individual who finds him or herself in an intolerable situation will use discontent to energize a program of professional development that will allow them to create the desired distance. People make career change choices based on their KYD strategy set.

KYD accounts for changes over time

People experience change over time and their responses vary with conditions but KYD accounts for a basic tendency that persists. The fundamental fact of KYD remains but the strategy sets, the triggering conditions and the intensity of response can vary.

Strategies and strategy sets for KYD People fashion their KYD action strategies from a variety of experiences, incidents, events, and clues. The strategies are seldom perfectly coherent or consistent, and a certain amount of variation is important. A rigid response set is counterproductive and may result unintended negative consequences. A common mechanism for assembling KYD strategy sets is bricolage, using bits and pieces and putting them together in a patchwork of work-arounds that are continually being refined and remodeled to fit situations and changing circumstances. [3]

Definition of Terms:

Conditions: The conditions under which KYD becomes necessary. In this case when ones safety, autonomy, emotional stability, self-definition are threatened. Another condition that results in KYD is the perceived need to preserve physical and emotional energy.

Causes: Are the incidents that lead to the development of a particular KYD strategy or strategy set.

Context: The set of life circumstances where in KYD is active. Some examples of contexts are personal, family, work and institutional although KYD obtains across many other realms.

Covariance: Various factors affect the deployment of KYD and can determine the strategies used as well as the urgency and intensity of their application.

Calculus of KYD: The conscious or unconscious deliberations that go into the choices around personal interactions. These deliberations determine how physically and emotional close or distant we are with others. Many factors are considered, and there is much covariance. The calculus is influenced by a coefficient of distance that varies the KYD response.[4]

KYD Strategies: Specific strategies that are used to maintain physical or emotional distance to preserve autonomy, integrity and stability, or conserve energy.

KYD strategy sets: KYD strategies may be used in combination.

1. ^ Freedman, Jonathan L. (1975). Crowding and Behavior. University of Michigan: Viking Press. Freedman's work suggested that while crowding had an effect on behavior, psychological factors determined what constituted a crowded situation and whether that situation would cause discomfort. So a football crowd is very dense but not uncomfortable for most, another couple appearing on a solitary beach might constitute a crowd in other conditions 2. ^ algorithm=a clearly defined procedure for obtaining the solution to a general type of problem, often numerical. 3. ^ Bricolage means patchwork, a strategy formed from unrelated constituent parts that become integrated in the application. Work around is an ad hoc strategy intended to accomplish tasks in spite of systemic impediments. 4. ^ The use of the terms calculus and coefficient should not be regarded as reducing complex human behavior patterns to mechanical responses. These terms are used heuristically to aid conceptualization. An example of a coefficient used in physics is the thermal coefficient of linear expansion of metals. Metals respond to changes in temperature with a change in physical structure at a molecular level. Each metal responds differently and therefore has a different coefficient of expansion or contraction. So for every degree of temperature rise, a given metal will expand in a predictable fashion. Alloys take on the aggregated coefficients of their constituent metals. Extending the metaphor to human behavioral responses assumes that each individual responds to changes in social conditions with a characteristic response predicted by their coefficient of KYD.