Love Thy Neighbor?   

Episode #1: Noisy Neighbor Rage

By Caroline Agbayani

Self-Witnessing Observations

Discussion

The Theoretical Component of Neighborhood Noise Rage and

Why It's Hard to Live Collectively within a Community

Can living in a city be good or bad?   Some have ambivalence toward living in cities because they feel that cities demean human beings.  In my case, it's hard to live in a neighborhood with so much people that you can't or don't have time to get to know all of them. 

Urbanization Theory

• In my Psy 280 Introduction to Community Psychology class, I learned that living in cities have advantages and disadvantages.  I lived in Honolulu all of my life and am accustomed to urban life.   There are many interesting things that I have learned about urbanization and my professor for this class, Dr. Anthony Marsella, have presented the following information on the theory of urbanization:

The Challenges of Contemporary Urban Life

• Sense of Community denied and distorted: Increased scale and proportion of the cities-pushed by growing & diverse human population concentrations and needs may have exceeded human capabilities to live collectively.

• Increase in population size, density, and diversity frustrated best of efforts to build cities that are responsive to human needs and concerns.

• Idea of promoting human health is becoming extremely difficult:  Forced to yield to anonymity, caring to indifference, and altruism to narrow self-interest. 

I feel that these challenges validate my hostile feelings towards neighbors who make too much noise.  I have been putting up with noisy neighbors all my life because more and more people are being squeezed into neighborhoods and therefore, create more noise.  I started to feel like my neighbors were inconsiderate jerks who didn't care about those who lived around them.  In other words, my sense of community almost disappeared because of the bad experiences I've had with noisy neighbors.  I didn't care about saying hello to them when I see them and I only cared about my house and those living in it.  My neighbors were just people that lived next to me and not people I had to care about or conversate with.  It's not like the good old days where you say hi to your neighbors and be polite and friendly.   Now, cities are increasingly developing at such a fast pace and with so many things to do, one can't really get personal with your neighbors.

Examples of Urban Life Stressors from Psy 280 - Intro to Community Psychology

• Environmental Stressors:

Pollution (air, visual, noise), Population density and distribution, traffic congestion, loss of open space, toxins (e.g., lead, carbon monoxide), contagious diseases, urban sprawl, excessive stimulation

• Socio-Economic Stressors:

Ghettos, gangs, migration (rural ---> urban), housing, crowding, marginalization, poverty, unemployment, alternative economies, industry control/domination, segmentalization, community disintegration

• Urban Psychosocial Stressors:

Social isolation, homelessness, life complexity, family collapse, rapid social change, crime/violence, social drift, cultural disintegration, cultural conflict, secularization, acculturation/assimilation, diversity.

• Urban Psychological Stressors:

Decreased quality of life, low sense of coherence, powerlessness, alienation, questionable personal meaning, rootedness, fear, anxiety, lack of identity, isolation, depression, despair

Dr. Marsella mentioned that certain neighborhoods with a lower socio-economic status than others, are more prone to experiencing more of urban stressors.  I live in Kalihi, an area known to have a lower socio-economic status and I can say that I have witnessed several of these stressors.  I lived in Kalihi all my life and now I understand why my feelings toward certain neighbors are negative.  For example, all of my neighbors are all ethnic minorities like Filipino, Japanese, Portuguese and Hawaiian.  It is clear that these minorities experience acculturation assimilation, and cultural conflict.  Because I know what stressors they may be experiencing, it allows me to be more empathetic to my neighbors and tolerable of the noise they make.      

The Theoretical Component of Noise

by Jacqueline LaMuth - taken verbatim from Ohio State University website article

Noise is defined as unwanted sound. Noise is an inescapable part of everyday life - the television, a plane flying overhead, a faulty muffler on the passing car, dogs barking, children laughing. Mild noise can be annoying; excessive noise can destroy a person's hearing. People do not easily become accustomed to noise. The slightest unwanted sound can become very annoying if it continues for any length of time. While the continuous hum of a busy freeway may be ignored by some nearby residents, others will never be able to ignore it and increasingly will find it irritating.

• The Difference Between Sound and Noise

Not all people are affected the same way by the same sounds. Often, we take for granted the sounds we hear everyday. On different occasions and in varying situations, however, common everyday sounds can interfere with our routine task. When this happens, sounds become noise.

What may be a disturbing noise for one person may be a pleasant sound for someone else. For example: A couple lives in a small town and every morning a nearby rooster crows at daybreak. The wife finds it a pleasant way to awaken each day; the husband can't stand it. He awakens before the rooster crows and waits for it to begin. When it does, he flies into a rage. Train whistles, children playing, someone coughing during a symphony, and people talking in a movie are examples of sounds that can evoke extreme reactions.

• Noise as an Irritant

It is not so much the pitch or loudness of a sound that makes it unbearable as it is its repetitive nature, the distraction it causes and the lack of control over it. A voice in normal conversation is normally around 60 dB. Normal city or freeway traffic registers 70 dB. According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development study 1991 State of the Environment publication, people consider noise to be the main local environmental problem, sometimes even more important than air pollution or the quality of drinking water.

• Noise as a Psychological Fact

Introverted people seem to be more bothered by noise than extroverted people. Individuals prone to depression, hypochondria and anxiety or who are going through a difficult emotional experience such as divorce or unemployment tend to be more sensitive to extraneous sounds and consider them noise.

• A Health Problem or a Social Irritation

Noise generates conflicts between the participating and nonparticipating groups. There is a difference between loudness of an unwanted sound and the annoyance it causes. People generally tolerate noise more easily if they are causing it, if they feel it is necessary, and/or if they know its source.

Conclusion

So What Does This All Mean?

I believe that as our world increases its capacity to develop into urbanization centers, our capacity to tolerate and keep up with this exponential change and growth decreases.  The world just demands too much at times for us to keep our sanity. 

Neighborhood noise is a product of urbanization.  Noise is an environmental stressor which can lead to temporary psychological impairment and dysfunction.   

More and more areas of the world today are progressively becoming urban.  These people may suffer from urban stressors as aforementioned but we must remember that cities are also centers for various developments and have positive aspects.  Some of them include more opportunities, jobs, cultural development, health services, social services, and education.  Now that I have shared some interesting theories about urbanization, we can be prepared to face our common stressors and deal with them as necessary.  Our understanding in itself gives way to coping constructively with urbanization rage.

References

The Theoretical Component of Noise taken from an article from the Ohio State University website.  Link to original.

Urbanization Theory & Urban Life Stressors - Obtained from Psy 280 lecture notes - Introduction to Community Psychology, Professor Anthony Marsella, University of Hawaii - Manoa, Spring 2001.

Got questions about how to cage your own rage?

Any suggestions or comments?

Send me some e-mail!