Transcription
[Music] foreign [Music] I'm broadcasting from my shower because I needed some privacy. Today we're talking about privacy, a process of interpersonal boundary regulation. It's been a topic in environmental psychology almost from the start.
You know that environmental psychology is interdisciplinary, and today we're working at the interface of social psychology and environmental psychology. Privacy, as you'll learn, is about controlling other people's access to us--including controlling what they know about us. It's all about the interpersonal boundaries, Baby!
Privacy is a topic in environmental psychology because physical spaces can support your privacy needs, or make it harder to achieve your desired level of privacy. This is part of the interrelationship between people and the physical environment, which, of course, is what environmental psychology is all about. I'm sure you're going to relate to this topic in some very personal ways. After all, privacy is essential in our everyday lives and in our relationships.
[knock] Privacy please! Some people need to keep their dang shorts on! Our first order of business is a definition, and environmental psychologists generally define privacy as "the selective control of access to oneself and to one's group." So yes, privacy is about the selective control of access to yourself and also to your group. It's about controlling who has access to us and also what they know about us, and as you're about to learn, this is a dynamic interpersonal boundary regulation process.
[Music] Irwin Altman, one of the founders of environmental psychology, thought long and hard about privacy, and then he thought about it some more. He explained that privacy is about interpersonal boundaries and regulating other people's access to us. He concluded that privacy is really a process in three different ways.
First, Altman said that privacy is a temporal dynamic process of interpersonal boundary control. And "temporal" always means "time," and "dynamic" means it's sort of waxes and wanes, it flexes, it changes depending on a number of things. And in the case of privacy as a temporal dynamic process, let's just think about that for a second and how your desired level of privacy and the actual level of privacy changes, you know, based on the time, the particular social situation, the people involved, and even your developmental stage. So, you know, adolescents, for instance, generally have pretty high privacy needs compared to young children.
[Music] Now, second, Altman said that privacy is a process and, in particular, it's a "dialectic process." And I don't know if you've ever heard this word "dialectic" before, but basically a dialectic is a tension between two opposing yet related forces. And in regards to privacy, the idea is that there's a dialectic between wanting to be alone and wanting to be together. You know, with each stronger at different times, right? So again, privacy as a dialectic process. I think that's interesting to consider too that privacy is a dialectic process in regards to relationships. This often takes the form in a relationship of wanting to be completely open and transparent, and at the same time, keeping some aspects of yourself and your personal stuff off limits to your partner.
[Music] Now remember, Altman said that privacy is a process in three different ways. Another way in which privacy is a process has to do with privacy regulation. So he said that people regulate their privacy in a lot of different ways--so a multi-mechanism process of privacy regulation, interpersonal boundary regulation. So, for example, we can verbally regulate, right? We say things like, "Mind your own business!" "Leave me alone!" "Can't you see I'm studying!" "Can you give me some privacy here?" We can signal a need for privacy non-verbally--right? You can refuse to make eye contact. You can stare at your phone. You can turn your body away at a bus stop. You can cross your arms or your legs. You can signal a need for privacy by changing your location, right? You can get up and go to your room and shut the the door. We also regulate our privacy through negotiations, sometimes working it out with a family member or a roommate or a friend what is on and off limits, and how to respect each other's privacy.
[Music] Next, I want to talk about different types of privacy, and we have to start this by talking about Alan Weston, an attorney and political scientist who really launches the the field of privacy law here in the United States with his 1967 book, "Privacy and Freedom." But his ideas on privacy also continue to influence environmental psychology today. So in "Privacy and Freedom," one of the things that Westin postulates is that there are four different types of privacy, and those are: solitude, intimacy, reserve, and anonymity--and these are largely accepted today with a few additions and tweets.
Sometimes we just want to be alone, and that's what we call "solitude privacy." It's about being able to be alone when you want to be, free from observation by others. For many students, dorm life is difficult precisely because solitude is hard to achieve, and those of you that shared a bedroom or a bathroom with multiple family members also understand this type of privacy. When I was a mother to a young child, solitude privacy was hard to achieve--those little ones are glued to you no matter where you go or what you're doing.
[Music] Intimacy privacy is another type of privacy, and basically it refers to dyadic or group seclusion. It's about the freedom to be with your friends, with your family, with your lover, without interference from other people. A "dyad" is a two-person group, and a "small group" is generally defined as between 3 and 12 people. I think you'll agree that there are times when you want to be with a group of people or with a dyadic relationship partner and you really don't want anyone else to bother you, right? There were probably times when you wanted privacy with your friends when you were growing up, but a little brother or sister kept interfering or a parent kept on interfering, right? Today, one of the most important types of intimacy privacy to me is having alone time with my son. We spend time with as a small group with our partners, but I also desire, and I think he does too, just time one-on-one. So that's intimacy privacy.
Reserve privacy is about regulating what people know about you. It's about controlling or limiting what other people know about us. And if you've ever had anyone sneakily read your texts or your emails, this is the type of privacy that was invaded. If you've ever had a parent or roommate that went through your stuff while you were gone, that's an invasion of this type of of privacy. The privacy settings on social and other electronic media that limit what information can be gathered about you or who has access like to your social media--those all seem to fall into this reserve type of privacy.
[Music] [Music] And finally, anonymity privacy. And this is the freedom to be around other people but at the same time be sort of "Incognito," to not really be noticed or identified. Celebrities seek this type of of privacy. You know, one of the prices of fame is losing your ability to move through the world freely and anonymously. But this type of privacy also applies to us mere mortals as as well. If you ever go by yourself shopping or to a gym, or hiking, and the point was to be alone even though you were among others, you know what I'm talking about as far as this anonymity type of of privacy.
[Music] So these four basic types of privacy--solitude, intimacy, reserve, and anonymity, are still holding fast, and environmental psychologists still list these as the major types of of privacy. But research has been conducted to to test these, and they hold up pretty well, but Petersen tweaks Weston's privacy types. He does this by doing what's called a "factor analysis," and he separates intimacy into two different types: "intimacy with friends," and "intimacy with family." Personally, I think intimacy should also include a third type, and that is "intimacy with a romantic or sexual partner." Petersen also adds a fifth factor called "isolation," and he distinguishes this from solitude in that isolation is more about a complete geographical removal from other other people and with no one nearby. Solitude, in contrast, can be achieved in a somewhat dense setting by, you know, moving to another location within that space and shutting oneself off by closing a door, for example.
[Music] foreign [Music] Why do we need privacy? Why do we desire privacy? What explains why people everywhere seem to seek out and need some degree of of privacy? Now Westin suggested that there were four functions of privacy, and research has supported these along with some other ones I'll tell you about.
Now the first thing he mentioned was "personal autonomy," and that privacy serves the function of basically feeling in personal control of your life. So being able to control other people's access to you, and being able to control what they know about you, is a strongly connected to our sense of personal control over our life. We've talked a little bit about this before, you know, how feeling like you don't have control can translate into learned helplessness. So the idea is that if your experience tells you that you don't have control then why try? And so that's why a loss of control often leads to passivity.
Now as far as privacy goes, some of the best studies on this in my opinion come from Andrew Baum and his colleagues. So, for instance, in 1977, Baum and Valins do a field experiment at a university. They randomly assign students to either be in long corridor design dorms, or suite design dorms. And then they're going to compare these groups on social withdrawal and also helplessness--how quickly they give up on a task. So those are the dependent variables. The independent variable is the type of a dorm the student is assigned to.
Now these corridor designs that they used in this study involved sharing spaces within between 32 and 60 people--so more people in the hallway, more people in the bathroom, more people in the lounges--you know, so a lot more unregulated social contact. Contrast this with with suite design dorms. In the suite design dorms in this study students shared the lounge, the bathrooms, the hallways with between six and 20 people--so quite a difference as far as the amount of unregulated social contact that you might have. And basically the findings supported their hypothesis: the students in the corridor design showed more social withdrawal, less of a desire to work with other people on a task, and they also gave up more quickly on a challenging task.
Westin also said that another function of privacy is "emotional release." And so the idea is that being able to be alone, for example solitude, allows you a release from the everyday pressures of life and opportunities for emotional release. So you can have a good cry by yourself. You can wallow in self-pity, right? You can also do things like manage bodily functions and personal grooming--you know, so they're things that we can do alone that provide for self-maintenance and self-care. So privacy serves this emotional release function, right?
Self-evaluation is a third function, and and this one is all about contemplation. You know, contemplating, processing, and planning our lives. Privacy provides us this opportunity to try and make sense of things in our in our life and decide how to approach problems.
A fourth function of privacy identified by Westin is called "protected communication." The idea here is that we need and desire privacy to maintain our interpersonal boundaries and also so that we can talk confidentially with other people. I suspect we've all been in situations where we had to search for a private location or wait for someone to leave so that we could communicate confidentially without others listening in or without them being close enough to see our text or our email, and that's protected communication.
Research also points to some additional functions of of privacy, and those include "rejuvenation." So that means recovery from cognitive fatigue and overload. This one seems to be tied to something that Milgram said about privacy. Milgram suggested that people need privacy to recover from the sensory overload of being around lots of people--so interesting!
Now another privacy function identified by research is the consumption of disapproved foods and substances, and and this is an interesting privacy function to consider. I mean, what do you eat, drink, take when no one is there to give you us the the side eye other than your cat? How does this apply to the privacy needs of a person in the throes of an addiction or an eating disorder who just wants privacy to be left alone so that they can use or binge or or purge? So interesting to consider from that perspective. I haven't seen anything on that, but we do know from clinical work that addiction and eating disorders often are conducted in in private.
And then creativity. So this is a seventh function that's been identified by research. It's the freedom to do creative activities. And I think you know when you think about privacy right now in your personal life, chances are that one of the things that you need privacy for is to study, to go to online class, to write papers and so on. The privacy that you need for that would fall under under this creativity function. But you need privacy for other creative activities, you know. If you are a musician, if you do crafts. A lot of hobbies and creative activities require privacy. For me it's writing. I also quilt--yeah, I I know, really. So that's another function, this idea that we need privacy so that we can be creative.
Now when you think about it, these privacy functions can map onto the different types of privacy that we discussed before. So, for example, solitude privacy. You know, being alone when you choose can satisfy the functions of personal autonomy, emotional release, self-evaluation, rejuvenation, and the consumption of disapproved foods and substances, and also creativity. So, you know, solitude privacy can fulfill multiple privacy functions.
Environmental psychologist Bob Gifford notes that solitude and intimacy privacy types can be used to evaluate your progress in life, to think about who who you are and your choices, and to think and talk about relationships. So solitude and intimacy privacy can satisfy self-evaluation privacy functions. The intimacy privacy type can also satisfy the protected communication function, so this freedom to be alone but together with friends, family, or lovers without interference from others is often about protected communication--being able to talk to them, to be with them without interference without other people being able to hear what you're saying, see what you might be doing. And then the reserve type of privacy can serve the privacy functions of both personal autonomy, and protected communication.
[Music] [Music] Let's talk about architecture and privacy, specifically, the role of the built environment and privacy. First, I want to remind you what Altman said about privacy as an interpersonal boundary regulation process that's dynamic, and how people have multiple ways of regulating their privacy. What we're thinking about here is the role of the built environment in privacy regulation and in satisfying our varying needs for different types of privacies and different privacy functions.
Now the first point I want to make is had to do with the fact that the built environment can either support or thwart the privacy needs and desires of its users--so it can help you attain your desired level of privacy, or make it more difficult. So think about your work environment. Think about your home environment and how the the design of the built environment may support or thwart your desired levels of privacy. For instance, a restaurant is a good example. A restaurant with booths helps support the intimacy type of privacy.
[Music] [Music] The next point I want to make is that different spaces or rooms in a built environment can serve different privacy types and different privacy functions. So think about a bathroom. In most homes, that is a place for the solitude type of of privacy. Think about bedrooms. They're generally for solitude or intimacy types of privacy. Think about shared living spaces in a home. They're generally about family intimacy types of privacy, or frien- roommate types of intimacy privacy.
The third point I want to make about privacy in the built environment is that the designers of built environments should consider the privacy functions and types that are relevant to the particular type of space it is, and what it's going to be used for---you know, what the privacy types and functions of its users are likely to be---when designing that space. I think pharmacy counters are a good example of that. So think about that for a second, right? Let's say you're at the pharmacy counter and picking up a prescription and you ask the pharmacist a question about what over-the-counter medication might be good for a particular problem that you that you have. You don't want everybody all around to hear your very personal business, right? You need reserve privacy for protected communication.
Finally, I want to point out that because privacy is a dialectical process where sometimes we desire more privacy and sometimes we desire less, environmental psychologists say that flexible built spaces and that meet our changing desires for contact are in some ways ideal. So a simple example of a flexible architectural feature that supports privacy is a door. Open it signals one thing, right? Closed it signals another. Hospital rooms are interesting to consider from this perspective. Shared rooms in American hospitals generally have a curtain around the beds. That does help meet some privacy needs in this setting for sure. People can't see some of the things that are being done to you that are very private, right? The curtain is open or closed depending upon the desired level of of privacy. Some environmental psychologists point out that a common type of a Japanese home is a good example of a flexible environment as far as privacy needs go. Many of these homes have movable walls that allow for changing the space depending upon the needs of the residents.
[Music] Let's talk a little bit about individual differences in privacy. Throughout our course so far, we have brought up how the way the environment affects us is partly based on who we are--our personality, our experiences, our culture--you know, all kinds of different things. The truth is, though, there's not a lot of research on individual differences and how they affect privacy needs and our desires for privacy. But we do know a little bit. We can safely say that residential history seems to make a difference. For example, if you were raised in a crowded household, a high-density household, the research suggests that you would probably, as an adult, desire a more anonymity and reserve types of privacy. We also know as far as personality goes that that introverted people and anxious people tend to have higher privacy needs, but this is an under-researched area in environmental psychology and and privacy for sure.
[Music] Culture is another thing that affects privacy, but it's also another under-researched topic. Environmental psychologists do agree, though, that privacy seems to be a need and desire of people all over the world regardless of culture. What does differ, though, is how architectural design supports privacy and also the social norms that are used to regulate privacy. As far as architecture goes, I already mentioned how a lot of Japanese homes have these movable or and removable walls. In the Middle East, the ideal Arab home has high solid walls around it which support family intimacy privacy. Cultures also vary in the norms they use to regulate privacy. So, for instance, in cultures where people tend to live in close quarters with lots of family members, norms for managing privacy often include things like averting your eyes when someone's getting dressed or managing bodily functions.
[Music] Finally, let's talk about how some groups have more privacy privileges than others, and I've sort of touched on that by just saying that high-status people in a group often have more privacy. For example, they're often given more architectural privacy than lower-status people in the group. But more broadly speaking, there are some other ways in which some groups have more privacy privileges than do others. For instance, as Bob Gifford points out, wealthy people can often use their money to limit other people's access to them. They can buy privacy, right? They can have the private club, the private gym, the private transportation. The bathrooms, bedrooms, and other living spaces which make it easier for them to regulate privacy in their home in ways that people with lower incomes can't. People in institutional environments also typically have very little of privacy--people in hospitals, psychiatric treatment facilities, group homes, transitional housing, shelters, prisons, jails--you know, they tend to have relatively little control over their contacts with other people and few rights to a privacy. Sometimes that's problematic, especially in some types of environments. It doesn't really help you heal not to have autonomy. It doesn't help you become more empowered if you don't have basic privacy.
Next time we're talking about personal space and territoriality. These are definitely related to privacy because they are related to regulating access to us. So until next time, hoping that you get all the privacy you need and all the social contact that you desire. All right, until next time, take care, be safe, be well.
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