A Systematic Approach to High Density Settings: Psychological, Social, and Physical Environmental Factors

Abstract

The difficulties high density are viewed in light of behavioral constraints encountered and the experience of cognitive overload. These concepts are explained and several field experiments are reported supporting the importance of each separately and in interaction in determining responses to density. Perceptions of crowding stress spontaneously reported in an interview study of urban stress are then described; different place-related patterns of crowding stress and coping emerge from this analysis that confirm and extend the previous concepts. Finally several studies of high density residential environments are presented that lead to a more strongly ecological theoretical perspective.