Assessing Groups In The Airport

The Workout

• Context: This video is shot at the baggage claim area of Newark Airport in NJ. For those of you who have gone through the Tactical Analysis program likely recognize this video from the lesson on pacifying behaviors (man on the right side of the frame) as well as the class on how to assess areas with negative atmospherics.
• Assess the relationship between the man wearing the white tee shirt and the woman wearing a green and black striped tank top.
• List the behaviors that you can observe to identify the relationship (groups dynamics) and the individual behavior that support that assessment.
• Note what behaviors could be used to counter your assessment (what would prove you wrong?) and think about why you would ignore those in this situation.
• Write your answers on a sheet of paper before viewing our answers

• What relationship does the distance between the two people reflect?
  • Intimate
• Factors leading to that assessment
  • When the video starts, they are less than a foot away from each other.
  • When the guy begins to walk away and the comes back, he is very close behind the woman and behind her back.
• Does the individual behavior (the cluster) of the two people confirm this assessment? If no, explain why you feel that your assessment is accurate.
  • No, here is my rationale:
  • Cluster displayed: both people are displaying signs from the uncomfortable cluster as they are closed off (arms crossed), both are swaying back and forth, the woman was swinging her arms at the beginning of the video and they both have elevated levels of situational awareness.
  • What should/should not be displayed: After judging the space between them as being in the intimate zone, I would typically expect that both people would be displaying the comfortable cluster if that was an accurate assessment.  When I observe dominance, discomfort or submissiveness displayed by either person in the group, I question if the space between them reflects the true relationship that they have.  For example, getting too close to a person and breaching (in this case) their intimate zone is seen as a dominant display if you don’t actually have an intimate relationship. If the other person responds with dominance, discomfort or submissiveness to that breach, it often tells me that the cause for the behavior is worth investigating.
  • Why I feel their relationship is actually the “intimate zone”: While I would typically consider the space and close proximity between them as the source of their discomfort when assessing groups (meaning that their relationship isn’t intimate, but something less than that), in this setting I believe the source of their discomfort is likely due to the fact that the area has negative atmospherics. I believe that it isn’t due to their close proximity to each other because when the man gets very close to the woman and stands behind her back, she doesn’t do anything to reveal a heightened flight response/uncomfortable cluster such as leaning away, moving away or even paying a great deal of attention to him, despite the fact he is behind her back. Because of this, I assess them as likely having an intimate relationship despite their display of uncomfortable behavior.
• Add a comment with the assessments that you made, but that we didn’t make, so that we can check for those assessments and provide feedback on those specific observations.  We will add them to our answers in the post itself for future viewings of the exercise. [/expand]