Crowding, Perceived Control, and Relative Power: An Analysis of Households in India¹

Abstract

Data from rural villagers in India suggested that the perception of control was related to physical health but that household density (persons per room) had few effects. In a second study, separate interviews were conducted with the husband and wife in each of 167 households, which varied greatly in terms of number of household members and number of rooms. Results indicated that, once socio‐economic status and demographic factors were statistically held constant, household density had no effects. However, the density of the household in which respondents were raised did significantly affect several measures, with people who were raised in more crowded homes generally experiencing more negative outcomes in their present homes. Although number of persons in the household had few effects on respondents, the number of children in the home had several negative outcomes, particularly for women. Results also showed that, even when other variables were held constant, the perception of control over the environment was a significant predictor for both men and women on almost all dependent measures and that other perceived ways of dealing with problems (control over self and acceptance of things as they are) were much less important. At the bivariate level, the greater the difference between husbands and wives in perceived control over the environment, the more negative were the wives' reactions and experiences. However, when all other variables were held constant, this difference added no significant explanatory power for women but did explain some measures for men, with men suffering more mental distress and reacting more negatively to their home the greater their relative power.

Privacy and control: Are they related?

“…To that extent, the finding generally corroborates the earlier empirical findings pertaining to control in the context of crowding and personal space. For example, the positive relationship between control and privacy preference is generally consistent with the negative relationship between perceived control and perceived crowding, reported in a study of Indian households (Ruback & Pandey, 1991).…”

“…They concluded that crowding reactions are actually attributions resulting from a loss of any of the three kinds of personal control. In the context of Indian households, perceived control (which would be more situation-specific than locus of control) was found to have positive effects in high-as well as low-density households (Ruback & Pandey, 1991). All of these forms of 'control' imply a control over the external environment or other people.…”

Mental Distress and Physical Symptoms in the Slums of New Delhi: The Role of Individual, Household, and Neighborhood Factors1

“…For example, research indicates that the number of people with whom an individual interacts affects attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Baum & Valins, 1977;Paulus, 1988). Research from India indicates that household density is negatively related to psychological health (Ruback & Pandey, 1991) and females' reported physical symptoms (Ruback & Pandey, 1991), although there appears to be a stronger relationship between subjective crowding and health than between objective crowding and health (e.g., Fuller, Edwards, Vorakitphokatorn, & Sermsri, 1993). Moreover, the effects of density are often greatly reduced when psychological variables (e.g., perceived control) and environmental conditions (e.g., poverty) are held constant.…”

Social psychology in India: Social roots and development

“…Based on his research, Jain (1987) published a book on crowding and its consequences. A number of studies were conducted at Allahabad (Nagar & Pandey, 1987; Ruback & Pandey, 1991) to explore the environment‐cognition‐behaviour relationship. Another research programme on crowding, daily hassles, and coping was initiated at Pune University (Lepore, Evans, & Palsane, 1991).…”