Milgram

1
Milgrams Cognitive Overload ModelReactions to
Overload

• Represents an updating of Simmels explanation of
  the difference between rural and urban life
• Long standing interest in differentiating the
  city from the countryside
• Ferdinand Toënnies described a difference between
  Gemeinschaft (community)and Gesellschaft
  (society)

Ferdinand Toënnies (1855-1936)
2
Georg Simmel(1858-1918)

• An influential German sociologist and philosopher
  often cited for his writing on the psychological
  effects of city living
• The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) was a
  very influential paper adopted and updated by
  Milgram

3
Milgrams Cognitive Overload ModelReactions to
Overload

• Allocate less time to each input (brusque manner)
• Disregard low priority inputs
• Redrawn boundaries in social transactionsshift
  overload to others
• Receptor is blocked prior to entrance into system
  (unlisted telephone numbers)
• Filtering devices diminish intensity of inputs
  (answering machines)
• Creation of special institutions to absorb
  inputs/shield the individual

4
Loflands Privacy Model Symbolic
TransformationsSource Lofland, L. H. (1973).
A world of strangers Order and action in urban
public space. New York Basic Books

• Rules for urban behaviour
• Minimize expressivity
• Minimize body contact, keep to the right
• Sit away from others
• Minimize eye contact with strangers
• When in doubt, flee
• Disattend, pretend not to notice deviants

5
Models of Crowding

• Stokols equilibrium model (interaction approach)
  
• Uses phenomenological (subjective) reports
• Density/crowding distinction (physical vs.
  psychological measurement
• Freedman drive energization model
• Hullian learning theory approach
• E H x D where E excitatory potential
  (probability of behaviour, H habit strength
  (number of repetitions of a behaviour, D drive
  (e.g., hunger, thirst, etc.)

6

• Personal Attributes
• Personality traits
• Momentary drive states
• Intelligence other
• skills

Environmental Qualities Physical Social Amount
status configuration of power space Stressors
Noise Heat Exposure time
Experience of Stress Psychological Physiological
Response to stress
7
Models of Crowding

• Essers brain evolution model
• Based upon Macleans brain evolution model

8
Essers Crowding Model Crowding
is overstimulation of the nervous
systemMacleans brain evolution
modelOldestsection brain stem (crowding due
to overload) limbic system (crowding
when stimuli clash with expectations)
neocortical (posthetic) brain (crowding due
to excessive Newest novelty in stimuli)
section
9
Problems with Studying the Abnormal

• No phenomenological reports possible when
  studying psychotic patients
• Confound in joint manipulation of social and
  spatial density
• Different diagnostic groups may react differently
  to various environmental conditions (confounding
  variable)
• Limited adaptive mechanisms in institutionalized
  individuals
• Poor external validity (generalizability)
• Institutionalization in itself may produce
  peculiar behaviour

10
Role of Ethology

• Apply the methodology, not the results of
  ethology
• Heuristic value in stimulating research
• No phenomenological reports possible with
  animals
• Animal resources are much more limited than
  human resources

11
Generalizability of Laboratory Studies

• Limited time variable
• Weaker manipulations than real world crowding
• Projective/simulational research may be
  inappropriate
• Sex of subject is frequently confounded with sex
  of the group

12
Calhouns Research on Overcrowding in Rats

• Impossiblility of crowding in nature over a long
  time period as a result of population regulating
  forces
• Territorial behaviour
• Relationship between weight and fertility in
  females

13
Behavioural Sink(Syndrome of Crowding Effects)

• Dominance hierarchy
• Pansexuality (multiple copulations, homosexual
  behaviour
• Faulty maternal care given to pups
• Passive, withdrawn behaviour of submissive male
  rats
• Adrenal gland enlargement
• Generalization to humans?

14
Case Studies of Extreme Overcrowding

• African slave trade ships
• Black Hole of Calcutta
• Concentration camps in WW II

15
Community Noise

• Noise is everywhere (indoors as well as outdoors)
• Noise seems accepted as a necessary evil in
  industrial society
• Noise gets less media attention than other, more
  conspicuous forms of pollution
• Noise affects health/well-being
• Unlike industrial noise, watchdog agencies are
  less obvious in community noise
• Aircraft noise may always be present
• Women, children, and the elderly are especially
  vulnerable since they spend more time in their
  homes and neighbourhoods

16
Stress and Health

• Cognitive appraisal of stress (Lazarus model)
• Perceptions of danger varies with group
  membership and value systems
• Physiological effects
• Psychological effects
• Coping attempts
• Certain groups are more at risk
• Prolonged stress is life threatening

17
Noise and Health

• Increase in hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Increased consumption of medication
• Increased hospital admissions
• Increase in physician visits
• Increase in cardiovascular problems
• Increase in sleep problems
• Increase in mortality
• Lower birth weight babies
• Slower height and weight gains in children
• Hearing loss

18
Noise and Children

• Children may be more vulnerable because
• Spend more time outdoors
• Physical growth/development is incomplete
• Better hearing
• Poorer listening skills
• Less developed language skills
• Immature attention mechanisms
• Requirement of a higher signal/noise ratio
• Weak frustration coping skills

19
Noise Effects in Children

• Poorer auditory discrimination
• Reduced physical growth
• Slower psychological development
• Poorer progress on standardized tests
• Lower tolerance for frustration
• Heightened blood pressure
• Lessened perceptions of control
• Lowered attentiveness
• Heightened distractibility

20
Bronzaft (1981)P.S.
98 is located 220 feet from an elevated train
lineclasses were disrupted every 4.5 minutes for
a 30 second interval. Mean Reading Achievement
Test Scores Before Noise Reduction Quiet
Side Noisy SideGrade 2 2.65 2.25Grade
3 3.06 2.63Grade 5 6.23 5.05Grade
6 6.94 5.99
21
Bronzaft (1981)

• Students on the noisy side did significantly
  poorer on the standardized reading test.
• After noise reduction (rubber rail mounts,
  acoustic ceilings), total noise decreased 6-8dBA
  (train noise level 81-83 dBA)
• There were no significant reading test
  differences for quiet and noisy classrooms
  following the noise reduction interventions.
• Is a Hawthorne effect possible?

22
Page (1977)

• Experiment 1
• Noise level helping
• 50 dB 60
• 80 dB 45
• 100 dB 35
• Dependent measure picking up dropped cards

23
Page (1977)Experiment 2 Dependent
measurepicking up dropped packagesNoisy street
(92 dB) 80 HelpedRegular street (72 dB) 90
HelpedProvided physical help 72 males, 39
femalesProved verbal help 14 males, 45
females
24
Mathews Canon (1975)Experiment
1Condition helpingNatural noise
(control, 48 dB) 72Medium white noise (65
dB) 67High white noise (85 dB) 37Dependent
measure Number of arithmetic problems willing to
solve
25
Experiment 2No cast condition
helpingNatural noise (50dB) 20High noise (87
dB) 10Cast conditionNatural noise (50
dB) 80High noise (87 dB) 15High noise
lawn mower running with muffler removedLow
noise usual background noise in the residential
neighbourhood
26
Possible Explanations for Less Aid Under Noisy
Conditions

• Information overload may cause screening of
  inputs and a de-emphasis on needs of others
• Noise may function as a distractor
• Noise may prevent verbal communication, raising
  costs (efforts) of social interaction
• Production of negative affect and mood change
  irritation, annoyance, unpleasantness
• Aversive quality of noise may lead to escape,
  reducing likelihood of assistance

27
Cohen Lezak (1977) Slide content Calm
DistressQuiet 2.13 2.06Noise 1.38 1.44D
ependent variable Number of social cues slides
rememberedThe data supports Milgrams overload
model
28
Korte Grant (1980Location Dundee, Scotland
(pop. 200,000) 2 locations in central business
districtNoise noise (75 dB) Low noise (70
dB)Novel Items1. Pink party hat worn by
female, balloons tied to a tree.2. Sign
Attention Project in Progress, female holding
bright yellow teddy bear.
29

• Korte Grant (1980)Location Dundee, Scotland
  (pop. 200,000) 2 locations in central business
  districtNoise noise (75 dB) Low noise (70
  dB)Novel Items1. Pink party hat worn by
  female, balloons tied to a tree
• 2. Sign Attention Project in Progress,
  female holding bright yellow teddy bear.

30
Korte Grant (1980) Dependent measure
Awareness of object Noise Level High
Low Present 35 56Absent 65 44 Suppo
rt for Milgrams Overload Model