The design of living accommodation should take into account density, but even more importantly crowding. One of the most often studied residential environments is the college dormitory. Some important effects of high residential density in this setting were reported by Baum and Valins (1977). They performed studies comparing the responses to students assigned to corridor-style dormitories and students assigned to suite-style dormitories. The density of the suite and corridor designs where identical in terms of space per person, however the difference in designs led to dramatic differences in the number of people that residents encountered constantly.
Corridor residents responded differently from the suite residents in a number of ways. They perceived their floors to be more crowded, they also felt that they were often forced into inconvenient and unwanted interaction with others and indicated a greater desire to avoid others. Corridor residents were far less sociable, perceived less attitude similarity between themselves and their neighbours, and were less sure of what their neighbours thought of them. It was also found that living in a suite or corridor style dormitory led to different behaviours in other places with other people. Baum and Valins reported that corridor residents looked less at confederates and sat farther away from others while waiting for an experiment. Baum and Valins observation led to the theory that corridor residents withdrawal may be associated with the high levels of social contact they were experiencing.
Baum’s and Valins study highlighted a considerable difference in the attitudes and behaviours of the corridor and suite residents. In another study, Reichner (1979) also found that when ignored in a discussion, residents of corridor style dormitories felt less badly than those living in suite style dormitories. In 1980 Baum and Davis found that dividing the long corridor into two shorter ones by adding a door in the middle reduced the overload and eliminated many negative outcomes.
This study has suggested that in terms of effects on social behaviour, high density can result in less liking for others, and is associated with the withdrawal from interaction.
The study is a field study; it may have been low in control but has high ecological validity. The study had good control as the space in both suite and corridor style dormitories were identical. The experiment was true to life but can not be generalised to all of the population it was an American study so therefore could be said to be only culturally specific. They were all students so it may only apply to American students.
Research into crowding and its effects have suggested that living in crowded homes tend to have negative effects on children. Saegert (1982) focused on the consequences of residential density for children from low income families and its effects for school performance. Children from high density homes were more likely to be rated as having behaviour problems by teachers and exhibited more evidence of distractibility and hyperactivity than children from low density homes. Also reading scores were lower and vocabularies less developed for children from high density homes.
The results of this study suggested that density played a role but there could have been many factors that contributed to the results. It was a field study so it had low control there could have been many reasons unknown to the teachers for the children’s behaviour and performance at school. It could have been the school that was affecting the children’s performance, for example the class size or quality of the teacher.
It could be said that there are many problems with animal studies, but Calhoun’s (1962, 1973) research using the behavioural sink is pertinent to the effects of crowding on behaviour and experience. Calhoun built an environment for rats where they were provided with abundant food, water, and nesting material and they were allowed to live and breed freely. As the population of the rats grew in size Calhoun was able to observe the effects of increased crowding.
The behaviour of the rats under crowded conditions deteriorated so much that Calhoun described the effect as the behavioural sink. Despite a quarter of an acre of space with no predators the population levelled off at one hundred and fifty while such a space might have been predicted to accommodate several thousand. The reason for this was the very high level of infant mortality caused by the aggressive attacks from adult males on pregnant females and often cannibalism in eating the newborn. The females lost their maternal instinct and often abandoned their young. Aggression was rampant, and aberrant sexual behaviour was common. Some animals became hyperactive while others became withdrawn and appeared depressed. In general there appeared to be a vast increase in psychopathology.
The experiment was a laboratory study so there was high degree of control but low ecological validity. There have been many criticisms of Calhoun’s research, the ethics involved with the distress caused to the animals. Critics have also suggested that the environment was not natural even for rats or mice and ultimately that the findings from animal studies cannot be generalised to humans. The research was done in the sixties if could be said that it was very much of its time, people were worried about over population. The experiment illustrated the political views at the time. Calhoun’s research could be said to be anthropomoric, but the results highly suggested that animals experience severe, negative physiological and behavioural reactions to high density.
There are many ways in which the feeling of crowding can be reduced. Architects building new structures should take many things into consideration so that crowding is less of a problem. Savinar (1975) found that greater ceiling height is associated with less crowding for males. Rotton, (1972) found that rooms with well defined corners elicit less crowding than rooms with curved walls. Desor, (1972) found that rectangular rooms seem to elicit less crowding than square rooms, and rooms that contain visual escapes such as windows and doors are rated as less crowded than similar areas without such escapes. The height of a building can also effect the feeling of crowding, Mc Carthy and Saegert, (1979) found that high rise buildings perceive a greater feel of over crowding than low rise buildings.
There are many ways that you can change an existent structure to reduce the feeling of crowding. Dabbs, Fuller and Carr, (1973) found that placing activities, objects in the centre of the room rather than putting them in a corner or along a wall elicited less crowding. Partitions giving a privacy corner in prisons elicited less crowding, inmates having the cubicles in their dormitories had much more positive reactions to their environment and had lower rates of non-contiguous illnesses (McGuire and Gaes, 1982). The presence of visual distractions for example pictures on walls and advertisements on transportation vehicles can also lead to more perceived space (Baum and Davis, 1976; Worchel and Teddlie, 1976). The arrangements of seating can also elicit less crowding; socio- fugal seating arrangements are associated with less crowding than socio- petal seating.
