Analysis of interpersonal experience as a function of psychological distance and the level of acquaintanceship

Psychological distance between self and others was assumed, semiologically, to be experienced in four aspects (active representation, active presentation, passive representation and passive presentation) which can assume different values from one another. It was further assumed that there is a behavioral tendency to reduce differences among these aspects by means of two types of behavioral principle: egoistic and contextual. With acquaintanceship classified into four levels (total acquaintance, peripheral acquaintance, known stranger including familiar stranger, and total stranger) in terms of psychological distance and behavioral norms, it was hypothesized that the ‘other’ person who embarrasses us most is an acquaintance by norm but a stranger psychically. The results of questionnaire surveys supported this hypothesis and confirmed that it is difficult to treat the peripheral acquaintance as an acquaintance.