ancient cities

overload causes long-term adaptations within
the individual.
2. Situational theory is supported by lab
experimenters like Bibb Latane and John
Darley, who identified a purely external
explanation for bystander inaction during
urban emergencies—that “diffusion of
responsibility” naturally increases with the size
of any group that witnesses an emergency, be it
in a village or a city.
3. Selection theory is supported by archival
demographers like Marshall Clinard and Leo
Srole, who study the “selective migration” of
people in and out of cities.
4. S-O-R, the least researched theory, is exemplified
by the laboratory research of Chalsa Loo, who
documented how the effects of crowding vary with
gender: Women tend to become more withdrawn,
whereas men tend to become more agitated.
5. Subcultural theory is supported by the research
of its originator, Claude Fischer. His book, The
Urban Experience (1984), documents how the
size of cities allows a “critical mass” for the
formation of all sorts of diverse subcultures and
lifestyles which, in turn, impact individual
behaviors. For example, the city does not
directly cause people to collect postage stamps,
but the city’s large size naturally increases the
chance that its stamp collectors will find each
other, form a club, and thereby promote their
philatelic behavior.
Topics in Urban Psychology
Urban psychology uses empirical methods to better
understand a wide range of topics, listed in Table
2. Examples of empirical research on these topics
abounds.
1. About attitudes, survey research by Clause
Fischer and others documents high rates of
urban malaise and anonymity, more so in
Western than non-Western megalopolises.
2. About behaviors, field experimental
comparisons between cities and villages by
Milgram, Robert V. Levine, and others
document clear regional differences in behavior.
Urban Psychology
Table 2 Some Specific Topics Within Urban Psychology
1. Attitudes: malaise, anonymity, overload, stress,
creativity
2. Behaviors: prosocial, antisocial
3. Values: faith, secularism, unconventionality,
deviance, manipulation, pace, happiness
4. Interpersonal relationships: with strangers,
neighbors, friends, family
3. About values, archival and survey research by
Edward Banfield on “the unheavenly city”
profiles the shift from faith toward secularism
in cities.
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5. Physical environs: noise, climate, architecture, land
use, sanitation
6. Social environs: crowding, density, congestion,
privacy, mobility
7. Health: physical, mental, spiritual
4. About relationships, survey research by Thomas C.
Wilson documents the complex impact of
urbanization on family relationships.
5. and 6. About the physical and social environment,
environmental psychology research in such
journals as Environment and Behavior examines
the impacts of crowding, noise, and environment
on individual behavior and cognition.
7. About health, survey and archival research by
Barbara Dohrewend and Bruce Dohrewend
documents how rates of mental disorder vary by
city and town.
Paradox
A key theme permeating urban psychology is the
striking inconsistency between people’s attitudes
and behaviors. On one hand, Western culture continues
to express a strong “anti-urban bias” that
predates even Sodom and Gomorrah in the Holy
Bible—that cities are crowded, polluted, crime-
ridden, and unhealthy for body, mind, and spirit.
At the same time, people “vote with their feet,” by
continuously pouring from villages into cities
worldwide, to the point of creating problems in
both the overflowing cities they enter and the emptied
villages and farms they leave.
Do non-Western and Western cities impact
individuals the same way? This question of