Perceptions, Aspirations, Frustrations, and Satisfactions: An Approach to Urban Indicators

Urban indicators must tell us how the urban system is doing. Objective indices are limited; inherent factors in the situation demand that subjective data from those affected by social planning be considered. Because the city exists only to serve human needs, the question of satisfactions becomes crucial. But satisfactions depend on aspirations, and aspirations depend on how a person perceives himself, his progress, and his status as compared with others. It seems likely that frustrations of desires for status, security, recognition, and self-expression contribute substantially to the hostility and violence found in contemporary cities. Research is required to validate this assertion. A set of psychological urban indicators would focus on the frequency and intensity of satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with aspects of urban life perceived as important by the citizens of the city. Effective use of these indicators will require that they be analyzed in relation to the objective data already available. If data are sorted by census tracts or similar units, it should be feasible to test some hypotheses about urban planning by introducing a change in a restricted area and measuring changes in perceptions and satisfactions which follow.