Crowding, Privacy, and Coping

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between living in crowded dormitory conditions and values and expectancies of privacy in 51 entering college freshmen. Aggression, withdrawal, and attitudes toward the environment and toward roommates were assessed. Results indicated that crowded living conditions did affect students' values of privacy but not expectations for obtaining privacy. Locus of control did not mediate responses to high-density living conditions. Crowding was differentially responded to by males and females, with females apparently being less disturbed by the crowded conditions. Females tended to increase values of privacy and spent more time in the more dense rooms while males decreased their values of privacy and withdrew from the situation, spending considerably less time in the higher density dormitory rooms. It is suggested that males and females have different thresholds for feeling crowded and may employ different cognitive and behavioral coping mechanisms for adapting to crowded conditions.