Psychological Correlates of Housing in Central America
Traditional or developing areas of the world are moving toward urban and industrial societies characterized by rationalistic behavior. To an appreciable extent this transition is identified as the rise of urban middle sectors or classes, at least in the case of Latin America. One phase of the transition from a stage of economic underdevelopment to an industrial system has been the advent of public housing. Latin America in the last twenty years has witnessed extensive migration of families from the rural hinterland—in addition to the ever expanding families of the city itself— to the squatter shacks and slums, with eventual transfer of limited numbers to public housing. This article proposes to report on some differences in behavior and values of residents of private dwellings as opposed to those residents of public housing in two Central American capitals.