Unit 5 - Crowding and Privacy Flashcards
Distinguish between density and crowding. How closely are density and crowding related?
Density: is a measure of the number of individuals per unit area. It may be calculated for any area, from the whole Earth to nations, cities, neighborhoods, buildings and homes, or even rooms. - Density is an objective measure of individuals per unit of area.
Crowding : Refers to a person’s experience of the number of people around. The subjective feeling that too many others are around. May be experienced as too many people or too little space.; these are not the same.
Although crowding may correspond to high density, the connection is not as strong as thought.
Distinguish between the following:
social density and spatial density
indoor density and outdoor density
Social Density and Spatial Density : Social density is the amount of people per set amount of space, whereas spatial density is the amount of space per set amount of people. - The distinction is made because reducing the amount of space for same number of people can lead to different psychological outcomes than adding people to the same amount of space.
Indoor Density and Outdoor Density : Indoor density is the ratio of individuals to space inside buildings, whereas Outdoor density is the ratio of individuals to space outside, usually the neighborhood. - this distinction matters.
According to Eric Knowles’s social gravity theory, how is proximity related to crowding?
Social Gravity theory argues that effects on an individual may be posited to be a function of mass (number of others present) and their distance. As predicted, judgements of crowding closely paralleled a proximity index composed of these variables.
Proposed hypothesis : The effects of others on an individual will increase with the square root of their number and decrease with the square root of their distance
Outline Montano and Adamopoulos’s three components of crowding.
Montano and Adamopoulus elaborate on the three components of crowding:
- Four situation modes include experiences in which people feel that their behavior is constrained, interfered with physically, the mere presence of others cause them discomfort, or their expectations have not been met.
- Three affective modes include negative reactions to others, negative reactions to the situation, or positive feelings. (positive emotions occur when individuals feel they have successfully coped with high density).
- Five behavior modes in response to crowding including assertiveness (protesting, expressing an opinion, changing the environment); activity completion (getting out of there!); psychological withdrawal, physical withdrawal (leaving immediately), and adaption (Making the best of/ enjoying the situation).
How does Irwin Altman define privacy?
He defines it as the selective control of access to the self or to one’s group.
In other words, privacy is the management of social interaction, not necessarily the seeking of isolation.
What are the four types of privacy according to Alan Westin?
Solitude : is the popular but limited notion of privacy: being alone.
Intimacy : refers to group privacy, as when a pair of lovers wish to be alone together.
Anonymity : is the form of privacy desired when a person wishes to be among others but does not want to be personally identified or to interact on a personal basis.
Reserve : The creation of a psychological barrier against intrusion. - the wish to limit communication about oneself to others.
Outline the methods used to study crowding and density. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each method?
Methods for studying Crowding and Density :
The Aggregate Approach - examines the density of a city, census tract, block, or building, and then looks for connections between density and such outcomes as social breakdown and disease - usually ignores the immediate interpersonal and experiential aspects of crowding - Research following this approach this approach has progressively become smaller scale as it is generally more productive - Any links found using the aggregate approach must be treated cautiously, because it does not use experimental techniques that allow for drawing causal conclusions.
Field Studies - Take place in natural settings and try to study natural density variations and crowding in otherwise comparable settings. - looks for situations where a person may be randomly selected to live in higher or lower density housing - field studies can combine some of the advantages of pure experimental designs with external validity.
Laboratory Experiments - Offers the best opportunity for drawing causal conclusions because the researcher has more control over the variables and can randomly assign participants to conditions. - Lab experiments have the drawbacks of (1) brevity of exposure (usually an hour or even less) and (2) potentially low external validity.
Field Experiment - Is the ideal method and combines random assignment and experimenter control of variables with realistic longer-term exposure to high density in everyday settings. - Unfortunately field experiments are very difficult to carry out. Researchers are rarely given the kind of control over everyday settings that would be necessary for a field experiment.
How do researchers study and measure privacy?
Privacy may be measured in individuals, groups, across different communication channels, and over time.
Privacy has been studied with surveys questionnaires, or interviews. May also be studied naturalistically in some settings.
Summarize three types of factors that influence crowding:
personal factors
social factors
physical factors
Personal Factors - Personality, attitudes, psychiatric status, expectations, norms, mood, and preferences influences whether one experiences a situation as crowded or not.
Internal Locus of control, high affiliative tendency, a tendency to screen unwanted stimuli, non-purist attitudes about the setting, a preference for high density, and an expectation for low density predispose a person people to experience less crowding when density is high.
Personal experience with high density may reduce crowding stress in secondary but not primary environments.
In confined settings, women usually manage high density better, but men seem to cope better when escape is possible.
Social Factors - Social influences can either worsen crowding or ease it. Sheer numbers of others sometimes, but not always, produce more crowding.
If others are watching or touching you (particularly for males), or if the person is engaged in disliked activities, crowding may be worse even when density is equivalent.
Being left out produces more crowding than sharing space with another person with whom one is compatible.
The provision of objective, accurate information about high-density settings reduces crowding.
Physical Factors - Crowding is likely to be worse when density is higher, the building is higher, the corridors are longer, the ceiling is lower the walls are curved, sunlight rarely finds its way in, and perhaps, if one lives or works on lower floors of a tall building and arranges furniture in certain ways (sociofugally potentially).
Crowding is more then the number of people around !
Summarize four types of factors that influence privacy:
personal factors
social factors
physical factors
cultural factors
Privacy preferences, expectations, needs, values, and satisfaction are influenced by personal characteristics, the social situation, the physical setting, and culture.
Personal Factors - City-raised individual prefer more anonymity and intimacy. Women more often manage privacy in close groups by discussing more interpersonal and intimate matters; men more often achieve privacy by removing themselves from the setting and talking less about delicate matters. Personality studies suggest that individuals who have greater-than-average privacy needs are less sure of themselves and more anxious.
Social Factors - Depends on the situation whether intimacy or reserve may be more desired - whether the person has been through considerable social exposure (thereby probably considering more privacy), and how stress may moderate the desire for privacy (such as an interview situation).
Physical Factors - The physical setting has important effects on privacy preferences, expectations, and satisfaction. Open space work often breeds dissatisfaction, whereas at home it is preferred. Physical manifestations of privacy needs are found indoors - such as in the doors and partitions surrounding us - and outdoors, as in the distance between houses and the number of neighbors visible from one’s house. Room lighting and decor can influence the type and amount of information we communicate to one another.
Cultural Factors - Members of different cultures probably have similar privacy needs but, depending on how the environment supports those needs, may use different means of achieving it.
Outline the relationships between high density and stress, and physical and mental health.
Studies show that high density leads to physiological stress and arousal, with those with preferences for larger interpersonal spaces having a greater physiological response. - physiological arousal can lead to lower immune functioning and greater contraction of disease.
Their are generally correlations between high density areas and mental health issues however some of these correlations may be due to other factors such as industrialization. However those who live alone (low indoor density) were at greater risk for mental health issues when outdoor density was also low.
Both low and high density can lead to low levels of social support and an increased risk of mental health problems.
High density may also increase alcohol abuse
-endanger child development through less responsive mothers, - results in suffered growth, development, and behavior of children
How are high density and task performance related?
High density’s effect on performance depends on multiple variables
Simple Versus Complex Tasks - Performance of complex tasks is affected greater by high densities
but simple tasks are not affected. - may also depend on personality and other variables like gender
Tasks that Require Physical Interaction - Performance is affected by high density when people must interact with others.
Whos Watching? - Participant’s being watched had decreased performance with growing audience, but also retained more information
Expectations, Norms, and Goals - People who believe the will perform poorly in high density will, and false expectation about density will also decrease performance.
Those experienced living in high density performed better then those who did not have the experience
Goals affect desire for density.
Describe the relationships between high density and social (and antisocial) behavior.
Social Pathology - Pathologies generally correlate with city size, but only certain pathologies like robbery correlate with density.
High density usually correlates with increases of aggression (especially among males). This finding may be related to a deprivation and therefore increased competition for resources.
Dislike Hostility - Particularly when high density is undesirable, social outcomes are generally negative: others others in the situation seem less attractive, or one feels more hostility towards others. - mere anticipation of high density can lead people to like others less.
(Un)helpfulness - High density generally leads to greater competition and antisocial behavior. -Whereas the best predictor of helpfulness in a between city survey was low density.
Social Withdrawal - Those subjected to high density often withdrawal socially.
Humor - High density enhances humor appreciation, possibly through a contagion effect, or tension release. - although more studies may have to be conducted to fully understand this relationship.
Describe briefly how culture can moderate the effects of high density.
Culture typically moderates how one is affected by high density in various ways.
Crime and Fear of Crime - Although high density accounts for increased crime rate in some North American places, it has less of an effect in other areas with different cultures.
Cultures Gradually Learn - Older cultures adapt by creating customs that regulate high-density social interaction to avoid potential trouble, whereas younger cultures may fail to cope with high-density and face greater violence, mental and physical illness, and crime.
Cultural Strategies for Handling High Density - Different norms can help regulate potential issues resulting from high density - attitudes about others noise, interaciton’s with other classes or genders, personal choices, level of emotional involvement,
- Culture with highest density typically have the strongest norms against personal contact, both physical and emotional. - This norm helps manage density
- High density societies have developed preferences for objects that cohere, such as ones that take up little space.
Outline the four functions of privacy as described by Alan Westin. How much has research supported Westin’s ideas?
Alan Westin argued that privacy serve four important functions
- Protected Communication - Research shows that work environments that disallowed for protected communication, made employees feel that the confidentiality in their conversations suffered and were thus dissatisfied with their lack of privacy.
- Sense of Control - Having little control leads an individual to feel deprived of autonomy or independence. - Research shows that prisoners given more space felt a greater sense of control from the gained privacy - is related to a sense of self-determination
- Sense of Identity - Privacy allows for integration of daily information from others, people may feel conflict when entering a intimate relationship for fear of losing themselves.
- Emotional Release - Because society discourages emotional public displays, privacy may serve as a vehicle for emotional release (such as a person running away to cry alone).
