The Effect of Community Size on Peer Interaction

This topic submitted by Renee Carollo, Julie Hess, Elisabeth Herron, Alexis Weitner, Sarah Woracheck ( herronel@muohio.edu ) on 10/10/03 .

Natural Systems 1 Syllabus---Western Program---Miami University

Renee Carollo, Julie Hess, Elisabeth Herron, Alexis Weitner, Sarah Woracheck
Lab Proposal
10:00 Meyers
October 9, 2003

The Effects of Community Size on Peer Interaction

Question

Are people on MiamiÕs Main campus or Western campus more or less likely to positively interact with peers that they do not know? Which community, Main or Western, is more likely to foster positive social interaction with strangers, and is that a result of social anxiety, environment, or predisposition in its citizens?

Hypothesis

We hypothesize that people on Western campus are more likely to act in a friendly manner toward unfamiliar peers. We believe that people who are based on Western campus have a broader group of friends as a result of their willingness to interact with others, which we predict is a product of the small community environment. Being such a community, Western has wider recognition among its students, which affects the comfort level of those who reside there. Because Main campus does not share in this small community environment, it does not exude the same friendly environment and thus does not have the same comfort level, leading to a less friendly persona among its residents.

Introduction

The way people interact with each other is very diverse. There are many factors that can influence reactions when coming in contact with others. How well a person knows another person, the community they live in, and how a person has acted with strangers in their past as well as how he or she carries himself of herself in the presence of others are all factors that can sway a person to be more or less friendly with others. These are all factors that contribute to how the community on Main campus as well as the community on Western Campus conduct themselves.
Students coming to Miami University often find themselves in unfamiliar and awkward situations in which they have to form new social groups. This unfamiliarity is often reacted to in a variety of ways; some students will thrive on new acquaintances, while others will withdraw from the community. Miami is unique in its dual environment, the two different parts of campus provide a unique setting for a study of interaction among populations of small and large communities.
Familiarity can play a huge role in peer interaction. If a person does not recognize another that person may not be as receptive to a friendly gesture from the other as if he or she did recognize the other person. Becaus all of the students conducting this experiment live on Western Campus, this factor may play into parts of our study. We will have to carefully plan how we will take data on Western Campus to avoid personal recognition.
TaftÕs study of immigrants in Australia can easily relate to college students. This essay is comparable to our study if you relate immigrants to freshman. It analyzes the stresses on immigrant children in the school systems of Australia and their various forms of maladjustment while they seek approval from their new peers. Some seem to adjust well in all situations, because they branch out and interact well with others around them, even though they may not be familiar with them at first, they are accepted and learn to interact with others even though they are not as well known at first.
In an article written by Ponzetti, he states that college students usually suffer from effects of loneliness. One of the conclusions he comes to is that college students are generally lonely because they are worried about not being able to find a romantic relationship and being hurt or rejected in an intimate setting. These factors cause lower self-esteem as well as a greater pessimism and dissatisfaction with their interpersonal networks. However the effects are magnified in males. College studentÕs long for interaction with others, which leads them to make friends and relationships with others more readily. In our study we will take into account sex and see if it correlates with friendliness. We believe there will be a difference in similar feelings among Western students and Main campus students due to greater acceptance on Western.
Bagley and Mokhtarian address this topic as well. They say that students usually obtain a different taste in friends and they may look for different qualities in their friendships when at college, but may have a difficult time in establishing long-term friendships because of a fear of rejection. In order to create ties with other students the student must branch out and interact with their peers despite these fears. Because these young adults are in a new and different environment they feel like they have to make new friends. This longing helps them to be more diverse and rounded individuals. In order to discover whether or not students who feel more pressure to find friends are friendlier, we will research how students who come to Miami with a large friend base react differently to strangers than those who come with few or no previous acquaintances.
A similarly different approach is taken by Huffman and Quigley. They address the idea that a long-term residency or a residency in which one is content makes a person more apprehensive to leave or move. They associate this to the feeling of being comfortable which comes from the ties they make in their community. If a person feels comfortable where he or she is living then it is not necessary for him or her to leave and go elsewhere. This concept also ties into already being friendly within a comfortable community. The friendships they make which are the result of their daily interactions have a big impact on whether or not they want to leave and how they interact with others. People tend to establish roots and which keep them grounded in the fact that they want to stay where they are. Because they are in a community setting they have the feeling of belonging and loving relationships, but citizens are willing to positively interact with others from other communities because of their comfort level. The community setting makes its dwellers feel more settled and at ease. The relationships students on Western Campus have with their peers make them more comfortable and therefore lead them to act in a friendly way toward unfamiliar peers.
One key researcher to our topic, Wandersman, makes an interesting point when he addresses the issue of community values. He states that in order to better understand the community one has to reach out and go to the community area. By going out to do research in our first ÒhelloÓ test, we will be able to candidly interact with students and accurately gauge their responses. Only the people in the community know how the community works and in order to better understand a community we must interact with the people there.
Shinn and Toohey describe the way that a community influences the behavior of its citizens. They claim that environment plays a major part in the way people act. A social capitol is also a large part of communities. This social capitol is associated with lower crime rates and a greater sense of security within the community, which allows for more interaction between the people who live there. This interaction makes for more contact and thus more friendships. Community values affect the people who dwell there. Because the community makes the person feel more comfortable it has influences on that person. Smaller communities may foster and environment that will be more likely to positively effect dwellers in this way; Western Campus may mimic such a community.
Wilder also believes that a group can influence how individuals act. When a person is involved in a group he or she becomes more like that group. This relates in that the small community of Western may influence people to be more focused on small community values, and a large community like Main Campus may influence people to be more focused on the individual because of the number of people. These different focuses may cause people to react differently to others. Some people, because they are on the smaller campus, may be very open to the small community values; others may reject the closeness and veer towards main campus ideals. This hypothesis is a large part of what we will be testing, are students on Western Campus more friendly because of the effect the community has on them, or does Western Campus draw them because of their inherent personality.
Along with environment, inborn traits greatly influence people. The personality of the individual has a huge impact on how the individual reacts to others. Creed says socially anxious individuals tend to get more nervous when they are faced with situations in which interaction with strangers is necessary. Some individuals tend to be shyer than others, which can affect their treatment and reactions towards others. If a person is self-conscious or insecure with whom they are, they will be less likely to branch out and try to interact with people around them.
Fuller also responds to this issue, saying that the self-esteem of an individual can make how they interact with others very different than would be expected otherwise. If a person is very confident then he or she does not have to worry about branching out and making more friends as much. If a person is not confident then he or she will not branch out very easily. How involved a student is in his or her environment can add to or detract from their self-esteem, and thus their interaction with others. When groups get together with collective self-esteems they are able to adjust better to college, they help each other and are making friends in the process, which helps their peer interaction. Being connected with a group brings collective self-esteem up, and therefore makes a member of a group more willing to interact with others outside that group. Western Campus may be such a group for its citizens and therefore may help those who live with in its community interact more readily with strangers.
Li and Hong conducted a study in which they compared small and large communities. They discovered that citizens in smaller communities were more connected with one another than those in bigger communities. We expect that Western, the smaller community, will be more connected and thus friendlier than Main campus, the bigger community. We hope that our research will concur with the results of Li and Hong when we conduct out study of community size and peer interaction.

Methods

General Population Survey
Methods.1

A population test will be done by saying hello to various people in various locations. Their responses were then ranked Ònot friendly,Ó Òfriendly,Ó or Òvery friendly.Ó Alexis will take data at Bell Tower and Shiver on October 29, 2003 and on October 31, 2003. Julie will take data at Alexander Dining Hall and Peabody on November 3, 2003 and November 5, 2003. Elisabeth will take data at Dorsey and Morris on October 29, 2003 and November 3, 2003. Renee will take data at Simms on November 5, 2003. Sarah will take data at Thompson on October 31, 2003. A third-party who does not live in Mary Lyon will take data on November 5, 2003 to prevent recognition of the tester.

Method for greeting process:
1. Go to specified location
2. Situate yourself to appear natural in selected environment i.e.- if at food court, eat food
3. As someone walks by you, casually smile and say ÒhelloÓ
4. Record their response on sheet
5. Repeat the previous two steps the desired amount of times

Ranks of responses:

Not friendly: ignores hello and/or gives rude look

Friendly: responds in a manner equivalent to your salutation

Extremely friendly: A conversation stems from greeting
i.e.- ÒHow are you?Ó or ÒWhatÕs up?Ó

Name of Greeter: Gender (Circle one):
M / F
Location:

Number of
Person Gender (M/F) Not Friendly Friendly Very
Friendly
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

In-depth Personality/Acclimation Survey
Methods.2

In order to do a more in depth population study, 25 students will be surveyed from 6 dorms, two main campus dorms (Dorsey and Morris), two western dorms (Mary Lyon and Peabody), and two control dorms (Havinghurst and Clawson). Random students in the dorms will be asked to fill out the following survey about their social relationships and their personalities. The surveys will be done the week of November 3, 2003.

Year First/Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth+
Gender M/F
Major___________________________________
Dorm-
Mary Lyon
Peabody
Havinghurst
Clawson
Dorsey
Morris

Circle the appropriate response

How many friends do you have at Miami?

0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 50+

Approximately how many people live in your corridor? _______
How many friends do you have in your corridor? ________
How many clubs/activities are you involved in at Miami?
1 2 3 4 5+

How many friends have you made through a club/organization?
0 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+

How many of your fellow classmates from home attend Miami?
0 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 17+

How many of your close friends from home attend Miami?
0 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 17+

How many friends from home do you spend time with on a regular basis
(at least once a week)?
0 1 2 3 4 5+

How many friends from home do you still keep in touch with?
0 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 17+

Which group of people would you say is friendlier: Western Campus Students or Main Campus Students?

Western Campus Main Campus

How do you respond when a strangers smiles at you, or says hello in
passing?

Ignore them/Disregard them

Respond equally to them
Begin a conversation with them (e.g. How are you? WhatÕs up? Etc.)

The two most characteristic descriptions of friendly person are:
Cheerful
Talkative
Outgoing
Willing to Share
Wants to spend time with others
Smiles a lot

How do you feel the following statements apply to you on a scale of
1-10, 1 being does not apply at all, 10 being strongly applies?

I am a socially confident person

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I am concerned with my value as a person

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I am uncomfortable when I am unsure about whatÕs going on around me

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I get so anxious or worried that I sometimes become physically ill
(headache, stomach ache)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I compare myself to others

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I am talkative

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I am a happy person

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I can express my ideas well to others

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I easily fell into place and adjusted well when I first came to Miami

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I make friends with ease; I can easily find someone to talk to in a crowd

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day in Class
Methods.3

During our class presentation, the students and Chris will take the survey we used to analyze personality on the two campuses. We will discuss the results and the typical answers for each campus, thus allowing the participants to classify themselves as a Òtypical Main Campus studentÓ or Òa typical Western Campus Student.Ó We will also discuss the population test and the results we got and the studentÕs general feeling on the topic. Personal experiences with peers and the responses they often see will be shared.

Results

In order to determine the friendliness of people on Western when compared to those on Main, we began by surveying 150 students (25 from 6 different dorms). The questions on the survey are specified on another page. Based on their responses, these students are ranked Ònot friendly,Ó Òfriendly,Ó or Òvery friendly.Ó
The data will be analyzed through t-tests and chi-squares. We will use the t-test to analyze the results of our Q-sort survey. We will then use the chi-square to analyze the fieldwork and the rest of the survey questions without numerical data.

Bibliography

Bagley, Michael N.; Mokhtarian, Patricia L. (2002). The Impact of
Residential Neighborhood Type on Travel Behavior: A Structural Equations
Modeling Approach. The Annals of Regional Science Volume: 36, Issue: 2,
August, 2002. pp. 279 - 297.

Creed, A.T.; Funder, D.C. (1998). Social Anxiety: From the Inside and
Outside. Pergamon, University of California, Riverside, 19-33.

Fuller, Bret. (1999). Development of Collective Self-Esteem Among
Students: Predicting Adjustment to College. Basic and Applied Social
Psychology, 2/(3), 213-222.

Huffman, David; Quigley, John M. (2002). The Role of the University in
Attracting High Tech Entrepreneurship: A Silicon Valley Tale. The Annals
of Regional Science Volume: 36, Issue: 3, September, 2002. pp. 403 - 419.

Li, Qiong; Hong, Ying-yi. (2001). Intergroup Perceptual Accuracy Predicts
Real-Life Intergroup. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 4, no. 4
(2001): 341-354.

Ponzetti, James J. (1990). Loneliness among College Students, Family
Relations, 39, 336-340.

Shinn, Marybeth; Toohey, Siobhan M. (2003). Community Contexts of Human
Welfare. Annual Review of Psychology February 2003, Vol. 54 pp. 427-459.

Taft, Ronald (1979). A Comparative Study of the Initial Adjustment of
Immigrant School Children in Australia. International Migration Review,
Vol. 13, No. 1, Special Issue: Caribbean Migration to New York, 71-80.

Wandersman, Abraham (2001). Community psychology : linking individuals
and communities. Australia ; Stamford, CT : Wadsworth Pub.

Wilder, David A. (1978). Perceiving Persons as a Group: Effects on
Attributions of Causality and Beliefs. Rutgers University, Social
Psychology, 41, 13-23.

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