Privacy Regulation, Territorial Displays, and Effectiveness of Individual Functioning

Critical Analysis

In this text, the authors describe a study with college students to identify the strategies they use for regulating their privacy in college. Students develop different approaches for indicating their own territory, and for ensuring they can attract, or push away, other students when they need to.

Altman’s theory, leveraged heavily in this paper, describes privacy as “the selective control of access to the self.” This access is controlled through verbal and non-verbal behavior, environmentally oriented behaviors of territory and personal space, and conforming to rules and norms. The intent of the study was to describe the mechanisms specifically used by college students in their dorm rooms. This emphasizes “territorial behavior,” serving two functions: “(a) communication of personal identity, whereby people display their personalities, values, and beliefs on the physical environment and (b) regulation of social interactions, which is achieved by control of spatial areas and objects.”

The authors’ hypothesis is that people who can better regulate privacy function better than those who cannot. This regulation occurs through delineating territory for “chairs, beds, and areas of living space,” which exhibits a sense of control.

The results of the study confirm that students use a variety of techniques to make themselves available to others (or to hide their availability). Additionally, they indicate their territory by displaying aspects of their personalities, interests, and values. These are correlated with student success and drop-out rates; one reason is that “given the dormitory environment inherently provides many opportunities for social contact, it may be more important to develop effective avoidance techniques in such a setting” and successful students are able to establish those avoidance approaches.

The authors conclude that privacy regulation and territorial displays are related; they avoid making causal claims due to their sample size.

Research Value

The value of this work in informing my own research is that it:

• Proposes that time spent in studio may be counterproductive, as it minimizes opportunities to develop and leverage avoidance approaches
• Indicates that efforts made by studio for students to be continually visible may also be harmful
• Offers a precedent of studying students and their connection with territory and privacy