This presentation explores the psychological definition of privacy, examines provisions for privacy in occupied offices and offers a process to increase the likelihood that workplaces will satisfy occupants' privacy requirements. Visuals will illustrate examples of both where privacy has been achieved, and where lack of it is causing problems. With the presenters, participants will tease out individual perceptions and needs. Solutions will be considered, and action plans developed. The concept of privacy is complex.
Different disciplines provide quite different interpretations of what privacy means.
The range of approaches to the concept, in such disciplines as anthropology, architecture, law, philosophy, sociology and psychology, shows clearly that theorists do not agree on what constitutes privacy. Several authors suggest individuals' attitude to privacy changes as they develop, and that this is affected by the specific environmental conditions or context which they inhabit. However, all agree that privacy is a vital to the healthy functioning of the human being. This includes retreat from people, control over information, and control of contacts, interchanges, and boundaries. Central to a definition of privacy is the idea of self-centredness, and a concept of refuge.