Unit 1 - Nature and Scope

Question 0

What is environmental psychology?

Answer 0

• Relationship between individuals and environments

- People change environments and environments change people

Question 1

Why study environmental attitudes?

Answer 1

1. Concern for the environment is something worthy of protection and understanding
2. Attitudes often translate into behaviours

Question 3

What are the components of environmental attitudes?

Answer 3

Attitudes have 3 components:

1) Cognitive
2) Affective
3) Conative

Question 4

What distinguishes environmental psychology from other areas of psychology?

Answer 4

5 characteristics:

1) Study environment-behaviour relationships as a unit
2) Study interrelationships of environment and behaviour
3) Lack of distinction between applied and theoretical research
4) Interdisciplinary appeal
5) Mixture of methods

Question 5

5 ways in which people relate to built environments

Polly’s father cartwheeled across sidewalks

Answer 5

P F C A S

1) Physical
2) Functional
3) Cognitive
4) Affective
5) Social

Question 6

Define representative design

Answer 6

1. Design should include a wide range of environmental stimuli
2. Stimuli should be representative of the real world

Question 7

What is a behaviour setting?

Answer 7

Social rules + the physical-spatial aspects of our daily lives

Question 8

7 theories that organize how we think about person-environment transactions

S C B D I O E

Brilliant Italian Shells Create Dark Orange Eggs

Answer 8

1. Stimulation theories
2. Control theories
3. Behaviour setting theories
4. Decision-making theories
5. Integral theories
6. The operant approach
7. Environment-centered approaches and ecopsychology

Question 8

2 ways in which environmental stimulation can vary

Answer 8

1. Amount
2. Meaning

Amount refers to intensity, duration, frequency, and number of sources of environmental stimulation

Meaning refers to each person’s integration and interpretation of the stimulus

Changing the amount of stimulation changes the meaning given to the environment

Question 10

What are the 5 stimulation-oriented theories?

A O R S P

Argo organized retouched silver prints

Answer 10

1. Adaptation level theory
2. Overload theory
3. Restricted environmental stimulation theory
4. Stress theory
5. Phenomenology

Question 11

Define adaptation-level theory

Answer 11

1. Individuals adapt to certain levels of stimulation
2. No particular amount of stimulation is good for everyone at all times
3. Stimulation that differs from one’s adaptation level changes one’s perceptions and behaviours

Question 12

What is overload theory?

Answer 12

• Examines the effects of too much stimulation - too much light, noise, heat, cold, or crowding

Question 13

What is restricted environmental stimulation theory (REST)?

Answer 13

• This is when there isn’t enough stimulation in an environment
• Too little stimulation can give rise to anxiety
• Doing a task that requires high concentration - a stimulus-free environment can be helpful

Question 13

What are acute stressors?

Answer 13

Stressors that are negative, intense, relatively short impact that are in the forefront of consciousness

Question 14

What are stress theories?

Answer 14

• Explain the behavioural and health effects that occur when environmental stimulation exceeds an individual’s adaptive resources
• Stressors include high population density, air pollution, hopsitals, offices, extreme temperatures, traffic, noise, and disasters

Question 15

What are daily hassle stressors?

Answer 15

Stressors that are negative, nonurgent, and recurrent

Question 16

What are ambient stressors?

Answer 16

Stressors that are negative, chronic, global environmental conditions that usually remain in the background of consciousness and seem hard to alter

Question 17

Outline Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome

Answer 17

• A model of physiological stress
• A pattern of bodily reactions that remains similar even when the specific source of the stress varies
• The pituitary and adrenal glands respond to stressors in a particular sequence - alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Question 18

What are the 2 stress models?

Answer 18

1. A model that emphasizes physiological responses

2. A model that emphasizes psychological responses

Question 20

What does phenomenology mean with respect to stimulation theories?

Answer 20

Contemplation in which one goal is to understand what a setting truly means, especially to those who regularly spend time in it

Question 21

What is the theory of personal control?

Answer 21

• We behave differently based on how much control we have over our environments
• When we feel we have little control, we react with psychological reactance, which is the attempt to regain the freedom one has lost

Question 22

What is learned helplessness?

Answer 22

Conviction that no amount of effort can succeed in overcoming an unpleasant or painful situation

Question 23

What do boundary regulation mechanisms do?

Answer 23

Boundary regulation mechanisms attempt to achieve personal control through personal space and territoriality

Question 23

What is staffing?

Answer 23

• A given behaviour may attract too many or too few who wish to participate in an activity
• When there are too many individuals around, it is called overstaffing
• When there are too few individuals around, it is called understaffing

Question 25

What are decision making theories?

Answer 25

We make decisions that have environmental consequences

Question 26

What are integral theories?

Answer 26

• There are 5 major elements to integral theories:

1) Instigators - environmental stimuli that trigger particular behaviours
2) Goal objects and noxients - situations that can satisfy needs or produce pain or unpleasantness
3) Supports and constraints - aspects of the physical environment that facilitate (lights, desks, roads) or restrict (fences, locks, trackless wilderness)
4) Directors - features of the environment that tell us where to go or what to do
5) Global environment - generalized characteristics of an environment (the Arctic is harsh, the jungle is wet)

Question 27

What is the human interdependence paradigm?

Answer 27

• We make choices without knowing with any certainty what the outcome for us, or the environment will be, or when the outcome will manifest itself
• My decisions impact you, and your decisions impact me

Question 27

What is interactionism?

Answer 27

• A second form of integral theory

- When the environment and humans interact and no one part is fully responsible for human behaviour … it is a mixture

Question 28

What are the 4 kinds of integral theories?

Answer 28

1) Geo-behavioural environment
2) Interactionism
3) Transactionalism
4) Organismic theories

Question 29

What is transactionalism?

Answer 29

• A person and the environment are part of one entity
• Neither can be defined without reference to the other
• The activities of one influence the other

Question 30

What is organismic theories?

Answer 30

• Emphasizes the interplay between of social, societal, and individual factors in a mutual, complex systems

Question 32

What is the operant approach?

Answer 32

• An approach based on reinforcement principles
• Its goal is to modify the behaviour of those who actions are contributing to some environmental problem
• Examples would be those polluting rivers, not recycling