Ian,
If I make every fairway wide, I make you feel comfortable. If I make every fairway narrow and the distance between tree lines tight, I make you feel anxious. If I give you five wide open holes in a row and then make the next very tight, I'm screwing with you. If I take you through a dark tree lined path all the way to a vista with no windows to what is ahead, I'm using what's called Compression and Release. The wide open vista is made grander by the experience leading to it.
That helps to clarify.
I wonder if you want to engender the same emotional response consistently throughout a round, for instance freedom, choice, and enjoyment or on the other hand constriction, direction, and challenge? One might be good for the recreational golfer and the other for serious competitive golfers. There's no one answer for all. Or do you want to vary the emotional response in segments or even hole by hole? I wonder, for instance whether your five open holes followed by a tight hole is "screwing" with the player in a bad way or a good way. Seems to me that I've heard that other architects, like Pete Dye like to play (screw) with our minds. The scenario you describe can certainly engender an emotional response. Does the response always have to be on the side of comfort? Can't it legitimately be on the side of fear, for instance?
Since Streamsong is on my mind these days, let me describe one emotional experience there. Playing the Blue course I was feeling comfortable, if not always successful because the wide fairways were inviting for my sometimes wayward driving. That is, until I walked on the 13th tee - the short par 4 - water left, gunch right, narrow fairway, elevated narrow green, and cavernous bunkers. I literally said out loud to the guy I was playing with: "What the heck is this". Tom turned the switch. Was he screwing with me or just changing the pace - freedom to constriction as you would say. I hesitated on the tee longer there than any other hole and ended up deciding to play it 5i and wedge and parred. My immediate intuitive reaction was disappointment both because I thought it was a wrenching change of pace in the course and because I couldn't see that I'd ever want to challenge it. After two weeks of second thoughts I think I've come to the conclusion that it's a pretty neat hole and a slap in the face with some serious decision making on the tee and that was a good thing. Maybe there are more options that I need to explore.