1. The Social Use of Space 



183 



exposure to it suggests that for each degree of GSS induced by too close 

 spacing of consecutive new E's, there had transpired a drop in Th and B 

 such that Th drops relatively more than h. Each of the ten opportunities for 

 consecutive exposure to E2 and Es must have narrowed the gap between h 

 and Th. Thus the later exposure to Ei must have caused "overloading" 

 for most Group D rats to the extent that GSS had not declined to Th by 

 the end of the two hours in Ei. This meant that decline in DMA to base 

 level took place in Ei. Return to Ei for 2 hours on each of the following 3 

 days was characterized by persistence in avoiding entry into the Ei alley 

 configuration by most rats avoiding it on first exposure. Avoidance, v", of 

 any new E will thus be proportional to the degree of GSS "overloading" 

 elicited by the new E's. 



Although new E's have been considered above in the sense of physical 

 nonsocial configurations, we may consider the consequences of too closely 

 spaced new or undesirable £"s in the social sense of i^'^'s of associates. Re- 

 call that such i^^^'s represent social restraints or sanctions imposed by 

 associates. For such sanctions to become effective in reducing velocity, v, 

 that is for causing a drop in baseline of activity, consecutive sanctions by 

 the same or different associates must be sufficiently closely spaced to induce 

 a GSS. No opportunity for v" avoidance is possible. In fact, with the drop 

 in velocity v (synonymous with h), psychological area A" must be re- 

 stricted through failure to make adjustments A to E while still in the 

 presence of E. And as we have seen, as A" decHnes so will v". This means 

 that as velocity, v, declines, the individuals have even less capacity to 

 avoid strange stimuli. However, recall that as v" declines d" increases. 



I can cite no quantitative data to support this conclusion of d" increasing 

 as y" decreases. However, the following observations support its reality. 

 While making the observations on velocity of rats summarized in Fig. 38, I 

 was consistently impressed by the manner in which most very low-velocity 

 rats moved "through" their associates. During those rare times when 

 active, they would pass by associates as if completely psychologically 

 blind to their presence. Furthermore, their blase, unaffective mode of 

 posture equally failed to elicit response from associates. The completeness 

 of this psychological rejection of reality is reflected in their smaller organ 

 weight and larger amount of fat (Fig. 40), corresponding to states char- 

 acterizing rats maintained in approximate isolation by restrictions to 

 groups of 1 male with 2 females in small cages or pens. 



A further corroborative observation comes from the study referred to 

 in Section XH, A. Among the wild Norway rats in that study was a small 

 group designated as possessing an array of aberrant symptoms and be- 

 havior which I called the "syndrome of the social outcast." From compari- 



