Unit 1 - Introduction

Question 1

Define environmental psychology.

Answer 1

It is the study of the relations/transactions between individuals and their physical settings. In this relationship - individuals change the environment, and their behavior and experiences are changed by the environment.

Environmental psychology uses theory, research, and practice aimed at improving our relationship with the natural environment and making buildings more humane.

Question 2

Identify the major forces that led to the birth of environmental psychology.

Answer 2

Environmental psychology is only 50 years old as a recognized and named field but some issues covered by this field have been worked on for quite some time.

Most early research has concentrated on processes within persons, later emphasis was extended to interactions between persons. Yet, considering the enormous cost of misusing nature and natural resources and the huge costs of building and maintaining buildings - it makes sense that research has since been extended to the environment

Question 3

Using the definitions of environmental psychology, provide two of your own examples of issues or topics studied by environmental psychologists.

Answer 3

Violence in overcrowded prisons

Hot summer days and aggression

Question 4

What does the word “environment” mean in environmental psychology? Illustrate your answer with two examples of your own.

Answer 4

The term environment refers to natural settings, natural resources, national parks, wilderness, wildlife, the climate, built settings such as homes and schools and so forth. Also involves transactions between people, small groups and sometimes society.

All in all, problems in environmental psychology involve not just the environment but some transaction between individuals and their physical settings.

Question 5

What are the two goals that environmental psychologists need to accomplish? Explain how these goals are related.

Answer 5

Two goals of environment psychology include gathering data in order to create theory as well as putting these theories into practice by applying the knowledge to create better person - environment interactions

Question 6

Summarize the value of theory and research.

Answer 6

Research provides concrete findings and information into individual/environment relations whereas theories integrates research findings while also demonstrating new areas to conduct research in.

Question 7

What is the value of applying knowledge to real-life settings?

Answer 7

Application of knowledge to real world settings helps guide public and private policy, improve the built environment, and provide suitable answers to environmental issues such as sustainability issues in the natural and global ecosystems -which is extremely important in our current climate crisis.

Question 8

Outline the characteristics that distinguish environmental psychology from other areas of psychology.

Answer 8

Environmental psychology is set apart from other areas in psychology is it commitment to research and practice that subscribe to the following goals and principles:

• Improve our stewardship of natural resources and the built environment
• Study everyday settings (or close simulations of them)
• Consider the person and the setting to be a holistic entity.
• Recognize that individuals actively cope with, and shape, environments; they do not passively respond to environmental forces.
• Work in conjunction with other disciplines.

Question 9

Explain why Gifford says that “environmental psychology has deep roots within the field [of psychology] and is at the same time at the edge of the discipline” (p. 5).

Answer 9

It has always been on the edge of psychology in two sense:

1. It still is not part of the central core of psychology. It is not taught in every university or college, nor can it claim as many researchers as some other areas of psychology.
2. The main concern of environmental psychology-the physical environment- has rarely received serious attention in psychology

Nonetheless theoretical work of prestigous psychologists such as Egon Brunswik and Kurt Lewin demonstrate its grreat roots

Question 10

When was environmental psychology born? List the activities that marked the birth and early growth of environmental psychology.

Answer 10

Environmental psychology was officially born around the late 1960s, however earlier activities that marked the birth and early growth of environmental psychology include:

• Brunswick’s strong advocation of representative design, which argued that research designs should include a much wider array of environmental stimuli than psychologists of the time typically employed. Brunswick and others believed that environment can and does effect people
• Kurt Lewin’s field theory was one of the first to give active consideration to the molar physical environments
• Lewin’s students, Roger Barker and Herbert Wright and practiced ecological psychology and studied behavioral settings (small ecological units enclosing everyday behavior). Behavior settings include both the social rules and the physical-spatial aspects of our daily lives - Barker and colleaugues worked hard to identify social and physical characteristics of different settings
• By the 1950s psychologists were researching in this field even though it did not have its name such as through rated attractiveness in a nice room or and ugly room, personal space studies, and observations on behavior after rearranging furniture

Question 11

Characterize the status of environmental psychology today.

Answer 11

It still remains one of the smaller areas of psychology, however it now has an international journal and published comprehensive handbooks.

Searches of papers about enviromental psychology has consistently doubled throughout the years suggesting consistent and healthy growth.

Question 12

Environmental psychology has taken root in many countries. What is unique about the research carried out in different countries?

Answer 12

Because each country has distinct environmental problems and philosophies, each area has unique findings.

Question 13

What are the future prospects of environmental psychology? Outline the challenges for environmental psychology.

Answer 13

Future prospects and challenges of environmental psychology:

1. Translating research into practice: Practitioners may have to become much more political to have greater impact
2. Further integrating and developing theory
3. Discovering more powerful research methods
4. Achieving a more coherent core:

Question 14

State the underlying assumptions of the stimulation theories. List the theories that are based on these assumptions.

Answer 14

Stimulation theories emphasize the fundamental influence of the physical environment physical environment as a crucial source of sensory information - Stimulation is considered to be information from or about the real world
Environmental stimulation can vary in terms of amount, varying in such obvious dimensions as intensity, duration, frequency, and number of sources - Varies in meaning i.e. the integration and interpretation of the stimulus information that arrives. Meaning and stimulation is related : changing the amount of stimulation can change its meaning.

Theories based on these assumptions:

1. Adaption-level theory: Individuals adapt to certain levels of stimulation in certain contexts, no particular amount of stimulation is good for everyone at all times
2. Overload theory: Concentrates on the effects of too much stimulation
3. Restricted environmental stimulation theory (REST): Too little stimulation may cause issues in some circumstances, but may yield positive results (easy cognitive tasks for example).
4. Stress theories: Investigates behavioral and health effects that occur when environmental stimulation exceeds adaptive resources. There are acute stressors (negative, intense, fairly short, impacts at the forefront of our consciousness), Ambient Stressors (negative, chronic, global environmental conditions that usually remain in the background of consciousness and seem hard to alter), and daily hassles (negative, non-urgent, recurrent stressors).
5. Phenomenology: Analyzes the meaning of stimulation and the bestowal of meaning together with our selection, construction, modification, and destruction of the environment - personal meanings given to a place by persons are essential to experience of the environment

Question 15

Briefly describe and compare the adaptation-level theory, arousal theories, overload theory, and restricted environmental stimulation theory.

Answer 15

Adaption level theories concentrate how people adapt to their environment, but argue that no particular level of stimulation is good at all times and stimulation differs from ones adaption level and changes one perceptions and behaviors

Arousal theories focus on measured physiological arousal from environmental stimulation (such as increased heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, adrenaline excretion and so on). Includes Yerkes-Dodson law argues that performance is maximal at intermediate levels.

Whereas overload theories are focuses its research and interest on environments of too much stimulation.

Finally, REST theories are interested in environments with too little stimulation and when this can be either beneficial or detrimental to us depending on task or context

Question 16

What role does stress play in environmental stimulation? Describe and assess the environmental stress model.

Answer 16

Stress is considered a mediating variable that is defined as a reaction to circumstances of the environment which are aversive such as noise and crowding and so on.

The environmental stress model combines systemic stress (physiological arousal) with psychological stress (behavioral and emotional reaction) along with the causation in the environment/reactions to the environment into one theory as all these components are interrelated and do not occur alone.

Assessment of model: Stress as a mediator for a theoretical approach in environmental psychology does well in a predictive domain. Predicts consequences of environmental stressors, applies to many situations, suggests many directions for new research, can be applied to control for unwanted environmental stressors.
However, faces the issue of defining stressors becomes ambiguous (what is defined as stressful between persons?), has difficulty predicting when individuals will cope with stressors, and what strategies will be used to cope.

Question 17

Describe a theoretical approach that emphasizes the meaning of the environment.

Answer 17

Phenomenological approaches emphasize the meaning of stimulation, through the bestowal of meaning- together with our selection, construction, modification, and destruction of settings. Emphasizes how personal meanings given to a place by a person , analyzes experiential accounts of the environment, meaning of stressors in the environment, seeks to understand what an environment truly means - especially to those who regularly spend time in the setting,

As we spend time in a setting we create meaning for it. Meaning may be positive or negative, different meanings are attached by others, weak or strong.

Places without meaning affect us differently then places with meaning; thus we treat places with or without meaning differently.

Question 18

Describe and assess the personal control theory approach.

Answer 18

Theories of personal control account for the effects of being able or unable to influence stimulation patterns. In everyday interactions, we attempt to achieve personal control through several boundary regulation mechanisms such as personal space and territoriality. Lack of control often leads to psychological reactance, the attempt to regain freedom one has lost. Whereas, individuals who conclude that control is difficult or possible to regain may succumb to learned helplessness (the conviction that no amount of effort can succeed in overcoming an unpleasant or painful situation)

Research on reactance, perceived loss of control, and learned helplessness have generated research and will continue to do so. The model has considerable, but limited utility. Perceived loss of control is useful in predicting some of the consequences, however other mediators such as stress, arousal, and overload are likely necessary to explain environment-behavior relationships. Moreover, the behavior constraint approach places much emphasis on individual reactions and may overlook or minimize the entire setting.

Question 19

Describe and assess the behavior-setting theory.

Answer 19

Behavior setting theory is a central part of Roger Barkers ecological psychology and argues that consistent prescribed patterns of behavior, called programs, are found in many places. Recurrent activities, regularly carried carried out by persons holding specific roles in specific areas such as basketball game, classroom, home, etc. Interested in uniformity of actions of those who occupy specific roles in behavior settings. Staffing is a key concept that investigates overstaffing (too many individuals in the setting) or understaffing ( not enough individuals for the behavior setting) and the environmental/behavioral consequences that result from such instances.

This theory usually necessitates using a field observation methodology that has the advantage of investigating real world behavior. However, has the disadvantage of not being able to study many detailed cause and effect relationships in the laboratory. Studies of real world behavior in context lead to difficulty of interpretation without scientific control of variables (determining causations and so on, general issues of correlation). Theory may be to broad in scope that persons behavior may be tricky to predict.

Fortunately, the theory generates many valuable research questions.

Question 20

`Gifford describes environmental psychology as a “multiple-paradigm field” (p. 12). What does this term mean? Identify some of these paradigms.

Answer 20

This means that different researchers may employ not only different methods, but entirely different kinds of methods, based on different philosophies of science.

A Paradigm is an overall perspective about what a discipline as a whole is all about - a worldview or overarching theory.

The adaption paradigm see’s biological and psychological survival as the key process. Perception, cognition, coping with stress etc. are all viewed as process’s aimed at helping us to survive as a species.

The opportunity structure paradigm considers the environment as a place for us to achieve/fulfill goals, as opposed to merely reacting to its threats and demands - we plan and use the environment or at least try to, in order to achieve our goals.

The sociocultural paradigm recognizes that environmental psychology is nested within other contexts and disciplines: history and culture, as well as economic and societal forces, cannot be ignored as we seek to understand person-environment relations.

Question 21

Summarize the research methods used in environmental psychology, including those unique to environmental psychology.

Answer 21

Environmental psychologists use multiple methods and approaches to gain knowledge

Some methods employed by environmental psychologists are standard social science techniques such as interviews, ratings scales, and laboratory experiments, However, many other methods - including some of the ways to study personal space, cognitive maps, and movement through buildings - are unique to environmental psychology.

Question 22

A central concern of research in environmental psychology is external validity. Describe and compare the options available to environmental psychologists.

Answer 22

External Validity: the degree to which results of a study apply to contexts beyond the setting where they were obtained - however their are several options available to achieving external validity through various types of experimentation.

Field Studies: Studies are conducted in the very setting that is under consideration. - however field studies usually cannot provide critical tests of theories or reach conclusions about the causal nature of events in the setting - because real settings have many influences other then those of interest to the investigator.

Field Experiments - is conducted in the actual field setting of interest, but the researcher is able to randomly assign participants to different conditions and to control all the major independent variables or presumed influences on behavior or well-being. -can claim external validity automatically, because investigation occurs in the very setting to which they must generalize their findings and they can draw causal conclusions because other influences have been controlled through random assignment and other features of the scientific method. - Unfortunately, opportunities to conduct field experiments are rare, researchers are rarely granted the kind of full control over a field setting that is needed for a field experiment.

Quasi-experimental design: may include real settings but may not assign randomly between groups - they resemble true experimental designs, but cannot manage to satisfy some of the criteria required for true experiments. - fails to satisfy some of the criteria required for true experiments but are often a compromise between field experiments and field studies.