environmental psychology Flashcards
1
Q
environmental psychology
A
- the discipline that studies the interplay between individuals and the built and natural environment
- we focus on the influence of the environment on human experience, behaviour and well-being
2
Q
behaviour in context
A
- behaviour occurs in particular environmental contexts
- context imposes major constraints on range of behaviours
- environment can determine patterns of behaviour
3
Q
Boutellier et al. (2008) - office layout study
A
- studied effects of office layout on communication at work
–> frequency of face-face communication
–> average duration of each event
–> assessed via observation - cell offices vs multi-space layout (x2)
- in Switzerland
4
Q
results of Boutellier et al. (2008)
A
- number of events per person, per hour:
–> people talk to each other more often in multi-space office
–> 5.5 per hour, compared to 2 per hour - mean duration of events:
–> less time spent in each interaction in multi-space (3 mins)
–> longer interaction in cell office (9 mins) - time spent without communication per hour
–> more time spent alone in multi-space office (17 mins) compared to cell office (3 mins)
5
Q
is type of environment always impacting behaviour?
A
- no
- effect of the environment is dependent on the nature of the task
6
Q
Seddigh et al (2014) - nature of task and environment
A
- lots of different office types
–> people either alone of with people in different contexts - looked at nature of task:
–> how much concentration does it need
–> how distracted do you get
–> how much cognitive stress do you feel (how hard has it been to think clearly?
7
Q
results of Seddigh et al (2014)
A
- when a task is easy and needs less concentration, you get less distracted
–> can do the easy tasks - in harder tasks that need more concentration, we get more distracted
- feeling distracted and concentrating less causes more cognitive stress
–> if we need high concentration but have more distraction, we have more stress
8
Q
is the environment always impacting behaviour?
A
- no
- effect of the environment depends on the nature of the person
9
Q
Field Theory (Lewin, 1940)
A
- behaviour is determined by the interaction between a person and their environment
–> person, environment and task all interact and impact behaviour - Lewin’s Equation: 𝐵 = 𝑓(𝑃, 𝐸)
–> p is the person
–> b is behaviour
–> e is the environment - uses topology
10
Q
what is topology?
A
- P is the individual
- O represents their current situation or behaviour
- G is the goal that they wish to achieve
- maps out where the individual is in comparison to there they want to be
11
Q
environmental response inventory (McKechnie, 1974)
A
- includes need for privacy:
–> there are often times when I need complete silence
–> I am happiest when I am alone
–> I get annoyed when people drop by without warning
–> I am easily distracted by people moving about - need for privacy can impact how the environment impacts behaviour
12
Q
Gifford (1980) - need for privacy study
A
- found negative correlations between need for privacy and evaluations of a café (r = -0.22) and City Hall (r = -0.17)
- those who value privacy more, dislike cafes and city halls more
13
Q
Roskams et al (2019)
A
- characteristics of the task:
1. task complexity
2. interactivity - characteristics of the person:
–> Big Five Mini-markers Extraversion sub-scale
–> Weinstein’s (1978) Noise Sensitivity Scale - outcomes:
–> acoustic comfort
–> disturbance by speech
–> difficulties in concentration
–> perceived stress
–> work engagement
–> office productivity
14
Q
results of Roskams et al (2019)
A
- Ps with higher noise sensitivity tended to:
–> rate the acoustical quality of the office more negatively
–> were more disturbed by speech
–> had greater difficulties in concentration
–> were more stressed
–> had lower self-rated productivity
15
Q
conclusions of Roskams et al (2019)
A
the appropriateness of open-plan office for effective work performance is largely moderated by an individual’s noise sensitivity
16
Q
overarching message of environment on behaviour
A
- type of task AND environment AND type of person behaviour/outcome
–> certain tasks require certain environments
–> certain people require certain environments
17
Q
restorative environment
A
- ‘happy place’
- places we comfortable and safe
- ‘restores’ us
–> gives us energy
18
Q
what makes an environment ‘restorative’?
A
- Perceived Restorativeness Scale:
- how fascinating is it?
–> my attention is drawn to many interesting things - is there a sense of ‘being away’?
–> spending time here gives me a good break from my day-to-day routine - is it coherent? (extent to which it makes sense)
–> there is too much going on - are you compatible with it?
–> i can do things I like here
19
Q
what aspects of zoo attractions make them restorative?
A
- a restorative environment doesn’t need all the features of a restorative environment
- specific features for different environments
- e.g. those that got please from the butterfly enclosure did so because they found it fascinating
–> whereas those who got pleasure from the baboon enclosure did so because it felt like an escape - different features for different environments
20
Q
Jiang et al (2021) - what effect(s) do ‘restorative’ environments have?
A
- different sounds
–> mute
–> nature sounds
–> mechanical sounds
–> traffic sound - different vids
–> urban park
–> office plaza
-> urban street - either coherent or incoherent
- mood questionnaire before and after vids
–> how do people feel?
–> how do restorative environments impact us?
21
Q
results of Jiang et al (2021)
A
- purely visual (mute):
–> worse after watching an urban street, nothing else - when playing a nature sound:
–> better when watching the urban park
–> urban street is less distressing than when mute - mechanical sound:
–> no visual vid with this makes you feel better, urban park is now the worst visual - traffic sound:
–> ruins all the visuals
–> worst sound effect
22
Q
critically evaluate Jiang et al (2021)
A
- strengths:
–> factorial design
–> random allocation - weaknesses:
–> doesn’t have a ‘no visual’ factor with just signs
–> virtual/simulated - low ecological validity
–> people assume their answers should change (so they change their answers)
–> no cover story given
23
Q
Mayer et al (2009) - effects of restorative environments
A
- Ps randomly sit on bus 1 or bus 2
–> bus 1 drives to a park
–> bus 2 drives to city centre
–> Ps walk around a park for 10 mins and then sit for 5 mins - when on the bus, asked Ps to
reflect on a loose end in your life that needs tying (needs to be possible to solve and rational)
–> can’t talk on bus
–> sit and reflect silently for the whole journey - do not talk when at the park/city
- positive and negative affect schedule (measure of moods) after the study
- answer this question:
–> “I feel more prepared to ‘tie up my
loose end’ than I did before I began this study”
–> strongly disagree – strongly agree
24
Q
results of Mayer et al (2009)
A
- greater positive affect / moods in the park than the city
- less negative affect
–> not that city made them feel worse, just that park made them feel better than average - more able to reflect on loose end and more prepared to tackle the loose end in the natural (park) group than the (urban) city group
25
summarise restorative environments
- environments that are:
--> fascinating
--> novel
--> provide escape
--> support desired activities
- are restorative
26
why do restorative environments work? (mechanisms)
1. stress recovery theory
2. attention restoration theory
3. perceptual fluency account
27
stress recovery theory
- features in natural environments (immediately) evoke positive affect
--> without conscious recognition
- this serves to lower arousal and reduce stress
28
Kang & Shin (2020) - stress recovery theory
- students randomly allocated to forest bathing therapy or control
- for many people forest is a restorative environment
- 8 sessions in the forest doing things like:
--> walking
--> climbing
--> rope games
--> etc...
- measured stress levels before forest programme and after
- stress level after forest therapy were reduced
--> evidence for stress recovery theory
29
attention restoration theory
- most environments ‘fight’ for our attention and so are depleting
--> termed ‘directed attentional fatigue’
- however, natural environments:
--> provide fascination
--> a sense of connectedness
--> a sense of being away from daily hassles
-- are compatible with inclinations
- as a result, natural environments restore attention
--> the attention we usually lose / is split in busy environments is fully restored
--> they counteract attentional fatigue
- takes time, slow/cognitive mechanism
- focus is on attention
30
mayer et al (2009) - attention restoration theory
- same bus study as before
- also measured attentional processes
- attentional task was to look for a series of letters in a text, had to cross these out - had to remember these letters
--> digit crossing task
- those in the natural environment (park) made fewer errors than those in the urban one (city)
--> restored their attention
- however, the reason as to why people did better WASN'T due to attentional capacity, rather due to feeling more connected to nature
31
Contact with nature helps people regulate emotions? (Bratman et al., 2024)
- survey 600 adults in the US
- asked about:
--> frequency of contact with nature
--> use of distraction
--> rumination
--> use of reappraisal
--> emotional ill-being and well-being
- measured positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, purpose in life and perceived stress
32
results of Bratman et al (2024)
- more contact with nature led to better wellbeing and less likely to experience ill being
- more time in nature spent less time ruminating about behaviour
--> less ruminating leads to better well being and less ill being
- more time in nature leads to more reappraisal (thinking positively/rationally about why something happened)
--> more reappraisal better well being and less ill being
- more time with nature, less likely to use distraction as an emotion regulation technique
--> perhaps more likely to tackle issues head on, rather than distracting yourself
33
perceptual fluency account
- natural environments are processed more fluently than urban settings, due to their fractal patterns
- means that they contain more redundant information than urban scenes
- easier to process
- form a more coherent picture more easily
--> more fractal patterns
34
Hägerhäll et al (2015) - perceptual fluency account
- created fractals (patterns)
--> had fractals with more dimensions
--> had fractals that were more random
- more random fractals in nature, less random is urban areas
- presented Ps with fractals and measured brain activity using EEGs
- more response when fractals were random
--> this indicates more internal attention, a more wakefully relaxed state
--> easier to process
