How the environment shapes behaviour Flashcards
What is environmental psychology
Studies the interplay between individuals and the built and natural environment
How the environment shapes behaviour
Studied the effects of office layout (cell offices vs multi space layout) on communication (frequency of face-to-face communication, average duration of each event)
Found that people have more speaking events when in a multi space office vs a cell space office
But conversations are longer in a cell space
However when looking at the time spent without communication- people in a multi space office spent more time without talking to others
People in a shared office felt more distracted and therefore felt more stress- more when doing a task that needed high concentration
Environmental response inventory
Need for privacy- there are times when i need complete silence- im the happiest when alone
Found a negative correlation between need for privacy and evaluations of a cafe and city hall
Roskams et al
Measured the characteristics of the task- task complexity, interactivity
Characteristics of the person- extraversion, noise sensitivity
Measure the outcomes of these interactions
- acoustic comfort
disturbance by speech
stress
People with higher noise sensitivity tended to rate the acoustic quality of the office more negatively
Restorative environment
Perceived restorativeness scale
Fascination- my attention is drawn to many things
Being away- spending time here gives me a break from day-to-day routine
Coherence (extent)- not too much going on- scale
Compatibility- I can do things I like here
When the sound doesn’t match up to the environment it annoys people
Nature environment vs urban environment
People went on a bus to either an urban environment or a natural environment and were told to think about a loose end they wanted sorting
People who went to the natural environment reported a more positive effect than those in urban environment
No difference in negative effect- urban doesn’t make people sad but natural makes people happy
In the natural environment people reflected more on their loose end
Stress recovery theory
Features in natural environments (immediately) evoke positive effect, without conscious recognition
This serves to lower arousal and reduce stress
Forest therapy
Attention restoration theory
Most environments ‘fight for o ur attention’ and are depleting- directed attentional fatigue
however natural environments- provide fascination- a sense of connectedness- being away- compatible
Natural environment restore attention
People made more errors in a urban environment
Contact with nature helps people to regulate their emotions
Frequency of nature contact:
Causes less distraction and rumination but more reappraisal
Perceptual fluency account
Natural environments are processed more fluently than urban settings, due to their fractal patterns
Random fractals make people feel calm
More alpha response- more restorative environment
