Crowding and Personal Control: Social Density and the Development of Learned Helplessness.

Although the experimental literature on crowding has expanded dramatically, much of this work has focused on one or another of a number of conditions, all plausibly caused by high density. Crowding has been operationalized in terms of the amount of space available (e.g., Freed- man, 1975; Stokols, 1972); close physical proximity (e.g., Aiello, Epstein, & Karlin, 1975; Worchel & Teddlie, 1976); behavioral constraint and interference (e.g., Schopler & Stockdale, 1977; Sundstrom, 1975); and increasing levels of social stimulation, unwanted interaction, and overload (e.g., Baum & Valins, 1977; Desor, 1972; Saegert, 1978). More recently, research has suggested that people respond differently to social and spatial antecedents (Baum & Koman, 1976; Stokols, 1976) and that studies emphasizing one of these conditions may not generalize to situations in which other conditions are salient. More integrative descriptions of crowding, focusing on its control-debilitating effects, have appeared (e.g., Altman, 1975; Baron & Rodin, 1978), and since both social and spatial conditions associated with high density may affect an individual’s ability to regulate social experience, the use of control constructs may provide a broader perspective with which to view crowding. At the very least, such a perspective should suggest interesting and important directions for future research.