territoriality
behavior characterized by identification with a geographic area in a way that indicates ownership and defense against invaders.
Altman’s 3 types of territoriality
- Primary: exclusive domain of owner ex - home, bedroom, body
- Secondary: Not as central to daily life, nor clearly exclusive BUT more conflict over these territories ex - tv set, kitchen utensils, neighborhood bar.
- Public territories: available to anyone for temp ownership ex: parks, beaches, place in line,
temporary occupancy
ownership of public territory such as seat in class
Invasion and defense
police interrogation, gangs defending territory, international disputes
Prevention
staking our territory so others recognize it as ours via markers ex: walls, objects, middle seat empty
reaction - face to face
physiological
Altman’s 3 types of territorial encroachment
- Violation: unwarranted use of others territory ex - looking at eyes, taking up two subway seats
- Invasion: Attempt to take over another territory
- contamination: defiling territory by what we leave behind
Density
of people per unit of space
crowding
feeling that nay develop in low or high density situations ex: crowing of rats let to aggressive and unusual sexual behavior
Behavioral Sink
Calhoun rat experiment: the collapse in behavior which resulted from overcrowding.
Coping mechanism
- Spending less time with input ex - shorter conversations with people
- disregard low priority inputs - ignore drunk on street/not talking to daily commute u c
- shifting responsibility of transactions to others
- blocking inputs - door man
high density on humans
- not always bad such as concerts but sometimes negative do occur
- blame high density for other undesirable effects ex: late registration bc too many kids, not bc u fucked up and didn’t fill out form on time
E T. Hall category of informal space (WHITE MEN)
- Intimate: reserved for closest activities about 18 inches
- casual personal: 1.5 - 4 feet
- social consultative - 4 - 12 fet
- public: 12-limits of vision
Sex
females are approached closer than men
female-female close
male-male far
age
after age 7 held accountable for personal space of others
culture/ethnic background
Contact culture: arab, latin american, southern europeans
non contact: asians, indians, pakistanis, north europe, use
topic or subject matter
kids who were praised sat closest, kids who were given negative comment sat further
setting
cocktail party vs. home
physical characterisitcs
height: smaller individuals closer interaction
weight: fat people = greater distance
disability: closer then further
attitude or emotional orientation
friendly closer vs. unfriendly further
characteristic of interpersonal relationship
like = closer dislike = further
personality characteristics
extrovert = closer introvert = further
Small Group Ecology
how we use space, seating behavior, pic seat on what we want to happen, strategic about it
leadership
head of table
