ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what happens when a small group is isolated in a small space for a long time, and presents three conclusions. First, the small space leads to physical confinement. The space is almost undifferentiated for the various activities, and borders are strong between in-group and out-group. Second, the social isolation from outside—a counterpart of physical isolation—becomes social confinement inside. Third, there is unreduced time. The members of the group do not spend a short period of time together, but a long one; the time is no longer distributed nor differentiated. In an isolated small group, as is particularly obvious in Altman's experiments, there is an additional disharmony in the correlations between the order of physical distances and the order of emotional relationships. Altman presented a model of individual personality as related to social environment and exchanges with the others; but, however rich it may be, it is not a model of the group.
