Territorial Spacing on a Beach

This exploratory study focused on people's use of a large, open beach. The main concern was to see how naturally occurring groups of different size and composition claimed territory and shared this type of unstructured space with others. Findings showed that (a) group territories did not grow regularly with group size, but that space claims per person tended to decrease as group size increased; (b) females tended to claim smaller territories than males, and- were found under higher local density conditions; (c) certain territory characteristics (size in some groups, markers in others) tended to change with time; (d) the influence of local density on respondent's estimates of the crowding capacity of the beach varied with the respondent's group size and sex composition. Additional data revealed (e) a significant relation between density and respondent's occupational background among certain groups.