Spatial Behavior of University Undergraduates in Double‐Occupany Residence Rooms: An Inventory of Effects

Abstract

The spatial behavior of 116 male and 190 female pairs of university under‐graduates was examined in the context of their self‐reported own and shared territories within double‐occupany residence rooms. The variables were divided into a number of conceptual categories, R‐squared calculated for the contribution of each category to own and shared territory estimates, and finally regressions for the entire set of variables were calculated for each gender on these estimates. The conceptual categories used were: personality; subjects' physical characteristics; distal or past environments; behavior in the room; sports, social, outdoor, and aesthetic behaviors; attitudes toward room and roommate; and physical characteristics of the room. The entire set of variables accounted for 53% of the variance in the own territory and 42% of the variance in public territory for the males, while the figures for the females were 46% and 39% respectively. Generally, the males' reported spatial behaviors were more influenced by “internal” variables, such as personality and attitudes, than were the females' spatial behaviors, which were more influenced by “external” variables, such as the physical characteristics of the room and the social situation.

Territoriality

“…Territoriality can also vary with individual characteristics such as gender and personality (Gifford, 2002;Mercer & Benjamin, 1980;Taylor, 1988). Males are more territorial and tend to exhibit more nonsharing behavior and less personalization of space than females (Kaya & Weber, 2003;Mercer & Benjamin, 1980). Individuals with more sociable personalities have less need for nonshared living space (Switzer & Taylor, 1983).…”

A New Perspective of Staff Encouragement：Review on Psychological Territoriality

“…Differences in employees' psychological territoriality of gender have a great relationship with the staff, while in other demographic characteristics did not show significant differences, most of the existing research shows that more men than women have a stronger psychological territoriality. Findings of Mercer and Benjamin (1980) on the marked area showed that the area of their own subjects was marked men than women [11]. Because men tend to occupy higher positions than women, and therefore will usually require a larger working space, Mercer and Benjamin after exclusion of posts factors, the results also show that male students have a stronger territorial nature.…”

The Sustainability of Motivation Driven by High Performance Expectations: A Self-Defeating Effect

“…We controlled for educational level, age (in years), income, and gender in our analyses. Scholars have previously found that gender [34,35] influences territoriality and that gender [36], educational level [37], and income [38] affect stress. Thus, it is important to control such factors that may potentially affect stress and territoriality.…”