Unit 4 - Section 2 - Territoriality Flashcards
4 factors that define territoriality
- Behaviour/attitudes - held by individual/group
- Ownership - Perceived, attempted, or actual
- Definable - space, object, or idea
- May require occupation, defence, personalization, marking
Methods of measuring territoriality
- Field studies and field experiments
- Surveys and interviews
- Naturalistic observation and unobtrusive measures
Identify personal, social, physical, and cultural factors that influence territoriality
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Describe human behavioural patterns associated with territoriality
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Compare current theories of territoriality
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Apply knowledge about territoriality to environmental design
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Compare the concepts of personal space and territoriality
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Is territoriality primarily a cognitive and affective process or a behavioural process?
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Does territoriality make it easier for groups and individuals to dominate others, or does it allow people to get along better and avoid conflict?
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Are territorial behaviours, attitudes, and feelings highly place-dependent, or are they most socially and culturally determined?
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Are territories quite small, or can they be of any size - from personal space to nation-states?
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How can territories be infringed upon?
- Invasion
- Violation
- Contamination
What functions do human territories serve?
- Privacy - Preserve and regulate privacy, exert control over activities
- Identity - Manage and communicate a sense of personal identity
- Social roles - Support, clarify social roles, regulate interactions, minimize conflict
What is Newman’s Defensible Space Theory?
Converting public territories to semi-private territories by using real or symbolic barriers could reduce crime and fear of crime
Is territoriality instinctive or learned?
2 approaches to territoriality:
- The evolutionary and genetic approach
- The interaction organizer approach
What are 5 features of human territoriality?
Ralph Taylor
- Product of biological and cultural evolution
- Place-specific
- Relevant to individuals and small groups who have face-to-face interactions
- Not hardwired
- Not always accompanied by aggression
Ardey - Territoriality is hardwired, instinctive, and has inescapable consequences
- Humans have a drive to claim and defend territory, and conflict is inevitable
- Explains the behaviours of everyone from homeowners to nations
How does territoriality help humans function psychologically?
What does it give us?
(Ardey)
- Security
- Stimulation
- Identity
How does territoriality help humans function psychologically?
What does it give us?
(Edney)
- For individuals - territory allows resident to organize behaviours
- For interpersonal relations - regulates social interaction by clarifying the roles of residents and visitors … provides order in human behaviour by making events predictable in a specific place in any culture
- For communities - territories provide fixed locations that make the search for resources easier
- Interpersonal level -
How are personal space and human territories similar?
- Both refer to space that is “claimed”
- Invasion of personal space/territory can cause arousal and stress
- Reaction to invader differs depending on person and our relationship with them
- Physical environment can be used to delineate boundaries - both personal space and territoriality are ways to maintain interpersonal boundaries
How are personal space and human territories different?
- Personal space always with us - territories can be left behind
- Territorial claims persist over time and when one is elsewhere
- Territories have marked boundaries … personal spaces have invisible boundaries
- Personal space usually smaller than a territory
Personal factors that influence territoriality
- Age
- Gender
- Personality and intelligence
Social context that influences territoriality
- Social climate
- Social class
- Competition for resources
- Legal ownership
- Task
What is the Cost-Benefit theory of animal territoriality?
Predicts that territoriality is greatest when resources are abundant, because that is when the benefits of territoriality are worth the effort of defending them
- When resources are scattered and scarce, territories must be larger to provide enough food, and the effort of defending such a large space outweighs the meager living the animal can obtain from it
- Animals living in conditions where resources are difficult to find abandon territoriality in favour of a catch-as-catch-can approach
Physical context that influences territoriality
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