Residential Crowding and Design PDF
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Residential Crowding and Design Residential Crowding and Design Edited by John R. Aiello Rutgers-The State University New Brunswick, New Jersey and Andrew Baum Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Bethesda, Maryland PLENUM PRESS· NEW YORK AND LONDON Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Residential crowding and design. Includes index. 1. Crowding stress-Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Personal space-Address es, essays, lectures. 3. Architecture-Human factors-Addresses, essays, lec tures. 4. Architecture-Psychological aspects-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Aiello, John R. II. Baum, Andrew. HM291.R455 301.1 79-357 ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-2969-5 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-2967-1 001: 10.1007/978-1-4613-2967-1 ©1979 Plenum Press, New York Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t ed ition 1979 A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011 All righ ts reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher To Our Parents Contributors John R. Aiello • Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey Andrew Baum • Department of Medical Psychology, Uniformed Ser vices University, School of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland Lisa E. Calesnick • Department of Psychology, Trinity College, Hart ford, Connecticut Sheldon Cohen • Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon Verne C. Cox • Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Ar lington, Arlington, Texas Glenn E. Davis • Department of Psychology, Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland Gary W. Evans • Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, California Jonathan L. Freedman • Department of Psychology, Columbia Univer sity, New York, New York Orner R. Galle • Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas vii viii Contributors Walter R. Gove • Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Charles J. Holahan • Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas Paul J. Hopstock • Department of Psychology, Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York Garvin McCain • Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas Dennis P. McCarthy • Environmental Psychology Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York Walter Ohlig • Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Ir vine, California Paul B. Paulus • Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Ar lington, Arlington, Texas Susan M. Resnick· Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, California Judith Rodin· Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Susan Saegert • Environmental Psychology Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York Allen Schiffenbauer • Research Division, Needham, Harper, & Steers, Inc., Chicago, Illinois Janette K. Schkade • Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas Donald E. Schmidt • Societal Analysis Department, General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, Michigan Drury R. Sherrod • Department of Psychology, Pitzer College, Clare mont, California Contributors ix Daniel Stokols • Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, California Stuart Valins • Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York Brian L. Wilcox • Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas Preface The intent of this book is threefold: (1) to summarize recent research concerned with residential crowding, (2) to present some new perspec tives on this important subject, and (3) to consider design implications and recommendations that can be derived from the existing body of research. We have sought to bring together the work of many of the researchers most involved in these areas, and have asked them to go beyond their data-to present new insights into response to residential crowding and to speculate about the meaning of their work for the present and future design of residential environments. We feel that this endeavor has been successful, and that the present volume will help to advance our understanding of these issues. The study of residential density is not new. Studies in this area were conducted by sociologists as early as the 1920s, yielding moderate corre lational relationships between census tract density and various social and physical pathologies. This work, however, has been heavily criticized because it did not adequately consider confounding social structural factors, such as social class and ethnicity. The research that will be presented in the present volume represents a new generation of crowding investigation. All of the work has been conducted during the 1970s, and a range of methodological strategies have been employed in these studies. Several teams of investigators have used multiple methodologies in their examination of the processes involved in the physical concept of density and the psychological experience of crowd ing. More importantly, the focus of these studies has been on mediating factors as well as on the consequences of crowding. One of these mediating influences is architectural design. The build ings that we shape in turn shape us, and some of the literature on xi xii Preface residential crowding has addressed the effects of building design in crowded conditions. Several papers in this volume are concerned with the relationship between architectural design and high-density residen tial settings, reporting evidence of mediation of crowding, suggesting ways of input into design processes aimed at reducing residential crowd ing' and discussing the relationships among design, crowding, and so cial behavior. It is hoped that the issues considered in this volume help designers and practitioners as well as researchers to ask more informed questions about residential crowding and design. We (along with others) have noted the importance of studying human response to high-density conditions in situations where they naturally occur because of the setting-specific nature of crowding ex periences. Crowded residential environments were among the first envi ronments to be studied and continue to be of great importance for researchers as well as for practitioners. Although our primary purpose for this book is to provide resource material for professionals interested in residential crowding and design, we have attempted to keep the writing style as jargon-free as possible so that the book could also be used in the classroom. We hope that it will prove to be a useful adjunct to other texts for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in the environment and behavior or architecture and design areas. Initially, several of the chapters in this book were recruited for a special issue on residential crowding for Plenum's Human Ecology by the first editor, who was then associate editor of that journal. We soon found that it was necessary, however, to expand the breadth of our treatment of this topic so that the design implications of residential crowding research could be sufficiently developed. We would like to thank Andrew P. Vayda, then editor of Human Ecology, for his com ments on several chapters, and Daniel Stokols, who as chairperson of a session on crowding and design at the 1976 meeting of the Environmen tal Design Research Association, suggested several of the contributors who have participated in this book. We would also like to express our appreciation to Seymour Weingarten, former executive editor at Plenum, and to Donna E. Thompson and Carlene S. Baum, who en couraged and facilitated this undertaking. Also, we thank Amy Green, Nan McSwain, and Margaret Wideman for their help in the preparation of the indexes. Lastly, we are grateful for the grant support that we have received in support of our work, HD 0854601, HD 0754501, 5S07 RR07087-12. JOHN R. AIELLO ANDREW BAUM Contents PART I • THE STUDY OF RESIDENTIAL CROWDING Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Residential Crowding Research .............................. 9 Paul J. Hops tack, John R. Aiello, and Andrew Baum Chapter 2 Crowding and Behavior in Chicago, 1940-1970 23 Orner R. Galle and Walter R. Gave Chapter 3 Crowding in Urban Environments: An Integration of Theory and Research .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Donald E. Schmidt Chapter 4 Residential Density, Social Overload, and Social Withdrawal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Dennis P. McCarthy and Susan Saegert xiii
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