The ecology of isolated groups

Abstract

This study examines social activity and “territorial” behavior for beds, areas of a room, and chairs in socially isolated and nonisolated dyads. Dyads were formed according to a Greco-Latin square design with composition differences on dogmatism, need achievement, need affiliation, and need dominance. Nine dyads lived in a small room for ten days with no outside contact. Matched controls followed the same schedule, but had access to other people and outside facilities. Men in socially isolated groups showed a gradual increase in territorial behavior and a general pattern of social withdrawal, the latter reflected in increased time spent alone vs. time spent in joint activities. There also seemed to be a developmental sequence of territorial behavior, with fixed geographical areas and highly personal objects subject to jurisdictional control first, and more mobile, less personal objects somewhat later. There were also interaction effects of social isolation and group composition on social activities and territorial behavior. Incompatibility on traits directly associated with interpersonal matters (dominance and affiliation) resulted in high territoriality while incompatibility on characteristics relevant to ideas and objects (achievement and dogmatism) did not have strong territorial outcomes. For social activities, personality incompatibility on “egocentric” characteristics (dominance and dogmatism) were associated with high social activity while incompatibility on “sociocentric” characteristics (affiliation and achievement) led to social withdrawal.