The relationship between the number of persons per room in the home and the relative occurrence of stress-related morbidities of hospitalized patients is investigated. The social factors of age, social class, and level of social support also are examined as they relate to both density and morbidity type occurrence. The population under study is composed of all Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program members twenty years of age and older, discharged from Bess Kaiser Hospital during 1974, and whose diagnosed morbidity was included in specific morbidity categories. All data were obtained through the facilities of the Health Services Research Center, Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Portland, Oregon. The data are largely ordinal in nature, and are presented in the form of contingency tables, utilizing chi square and Tau B as measures of degree of association and strength of relationship. An interval level of measurement is obtained through dichotomization of the variables and the derivation of Pearsonian correlation coefficients, and regression coefficients which are utilized in path analysis. The findings indicate that higher residential population density is related to disproportionate occurrence of some, but not all, stress-related morbidities, and that some stress-related morbidities are associated with low population density. However, in comparing stress-related morbidities with non-stress related morbidities, it is found that more stress-related morbidity categories tend to be over-represented in the higher density regimes than those morbidities categorized as non-stress related. In addition, it is found that those stress-related morbidities that exhibit such a pattern of over-representation maintain it, in general, regardless of the controls applied. Age is found to be negatively related to density and to the occurrence of stress-related morbidities, while being positively related to socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status is found to be negatively related to both stress-related morbidity occurrence and to density. Social support is positively related to both density and to the occurrence of stress-related morbidities, but appears to have no relationship to either age or class. Hospital during 1974, and whose diagnosed morbidity was included in specific morbidity categories" All data were obtained through the facilities of the Health Services Research Center, Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Portland, Oregon.

This dissertation addresses the following research questions: How do physical features of high density college dormitories affect residents' perception of crowding, and what kinds of design strategies are available for alleviating the perceived crowding? The data source was responses to a self-administered questionnaire from residents of living units which were randomly sampled from three dormitories of comparable physical density at Oregon State University. Seven hypotheses were used to examine the relationship between perceived crowding and physical features associated with different settings in selected dormitories. The first hypothesis sought to clarify how selected physical variables, compared with selected social and personal variables, contributed to perceived crowding both in dormitory dwellings (floor crowding) and rooms (room crowding). For the remaining hypotheses, comparisons were made to determine if differences existed between groups living on floors with varied corridor length, floor height (distance above ground level), and bathroom location, and between groups living in rooms with varied desk location, room location, and window orientation. Using multiple regression analysis and analysis of variance as the major tools for hypothesis testing, the study found that: (1) both room and dwelling crowding were not significantly affected by the selected physical, social, and personal variables; (2) floor crowding was significantly lower among residents of short corridors and among those who shared suite rather than community bathrooms. Variations in floor level did not affect perceived crowding; (3) room crowding was not significantly affected by variations in desk location, room location, and window orientation, but rather by the interactive effects of window orientation and floor height.

Previous research has found that if a population were allowed to exceed a comfortable density level, then many catastrophic events occurred such as increased mortality among the young, cannibalism, homosexuality, and lack of maternal functions. The most influential researcher in this area is Calhoun (1962), after whose experimental design a pilot study was fashioned to replicate his results. The results of this pilot study inspired a more detailed research project of which this thesis is an account. Forty-eight albino mice of the Swiss Webster strain were divided into three groups of sixteen each. Each group consisted of ten females and six males chosen randomly; two groups were to serve as experimental groups and the other group as the control. The experimental groups were placed into apparatus 15 5/8” x 20 1/2"x 8" and the control group in an apparatus 47 7/8" x 61 1/2" x 8". The three groups were allowed to multiply freely with nesting material, food and water provided proportionately as their numbers grew. The experimental groups were allowed to overpopuate while the control group was not. There were six behavior variables noted as the experiment proceeded: (1) grooming, (2) homosexuality, (3) nest building, (4) retrieving of young, (5) fighting, and (6) mortality of the young. It was predicted that grooming, nest building, and retrieving of the young would decrease in frequency as the population increased, while fighting, homosexuality and mortality of the young would increase with the rising population density. The experiment was conducted for six months and fourteen days. The result of this experiment was a total lack of overpopulation. The two experimental groups never weaned any pups though they produced many, and the control group grew to the comfortable limits of its apparatus and then ceased weaning any further pups. In an effort to ascertain the reasons for these results, one of the experimental groups was artificially reduced in number; whereupon it promptly weaned forty-one percent of its first litter, thirty percent of its second, and none of its third. At the time of its first weaning, this group was technically overpopulated. In conclusion a hypothesis is proposed to explain the results. It is felt that each population has an innate knowledge of its comfortable limits with regard to density and will maintain this crucial density level if necessary. The group's ability to control its popu1ation is directly related to a time factor in that if a population were allowed to approach its crucial density level gradually it would not exceed it; however if there were little or no approach time, then this level would be exceeded.

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare open plan housing to semi-open and closed-plan designs on perception of crowding and reactions to crowding and (b) formulate a theoretical basis for explaining housing and human behavior. The objectives were to determine (a) if the number of people who could occupy open-plan housing without feeling crowded would differ from the number who could occupy semi-open or closed plans and (b) if the crowding accommodation time and reactions to crowding would be influenced by floor plan design. Analysis of Variance statistical techniques were used. Forty-five women who worked outside the home and occupied households of four or more persons with at least two children under the age of 18 were were randomly assigned to one of the three floor plan groups. Three identical models constructed with varying degrees of openness to 1" = 1'-0" scale represented the public areas of a dwelling approximately 1,150 square feet in size. Figures and furniture were constructed to the same scale. Subjects independently placed figures in the models in four typical family activity scenarios until one more figure was perceived as one too many. The scenarios, which represented goal-directed and non-goal directed activities, varied in the level of social interaction that was anticipated. After figures were placed to simulate crowding, subjects were asked questions related to their attitudes and responses to crowding. At the .05 level of significance, subjects placed fewer figures in the open plan model than in the semi-open and closed plans when given a scenario in which low levels of social interaction (privacy) were desirable. Significant differences were also observed among the four different scenarios. When scenarios represented goal-directed behaviors, fewer figures were placed, accommodation time was less, and reaction to crowding was greater than when scenarios represented unstructured social activities. The results suggest that small dwellings constructed for families with children should have some division of space in the living, dining, and kitchen area to support low-social interaction and goal-directed behaviors. Further research is needed to determine if uncontrollable high social interaction within a dwelling reduces goal-directed behavior. / Ph. D.