Week 12 - Environmental Psychology Flashcards
Environmental psychology
Interdisciplinary field of study that examines the complex interrelationships between individuals and their physical and virtual settings
Lewin’s field theory
Behaviour is a function of the combination of the person and the forces in the surrounding environment of field.
Environmental cues
elements in the environment that convey information that triggers affective reactions
what are the 3 goals that influence normative behaviour
normative goal = to act appropriately
hedonic goal = to feel better right now
gain goal = to guard and improve one’s resources
Personal space
Interpersonal area surrounding a person’s body, undefined by visible boundaries, and determined by circumstance, distance, angle or orientation and type of interaction
Proexmics
study of the perception, use, and communication of personal space
Crowding
a personally defined subjective experience of too many people in a given space
Territoriality
A pattern of behaviour and attitudes held by an individual or group based on perceived, attempted, or actual control of a definable space, object, or idea by means of habitual occupation, defence, personalisation, and demarcation
what are the 3 types of territoriality?
- primary
- secondary
- tertiary
Primary territoriality
Space owned or controlled on a relatively permanent basis e.g. home, bedroom
Secondary territoriality
space used regularly where control is less important; often shared e.g. desk at work, favourite seat in class
Tertiary territoriality
public area open to anyone e.g. beaches, footpath
Place attachment
affective bonds we form with place (intersection of people and their physical, virtual, or imaginary setting)
Schannell and Gifford’s (2010 tripartite framework dimensions
person: individual + collectively based meanings
place: physical components and social aspects
process: how people attach psychologically to places and how they express it
Tragedy of the commons
Depletion of a shared resource due to individuals, acting to further their own interest, behaving in a manner which is contrary to the common group of the group
Climate change
long-term shifts in temperatures and weather pattens primarily due to human activities such as fossil fuels
Attitudes and attitude change
Source: credible/attractive sources
Message: humour versus fear
audience: need for cognition
heuristics
people use easily accessible judgements as opposed to less accessible ones
Availability heuristics
If relevant weather events are accessible/come to mind, they influence our perceptions
Affect heuristic
Mental shortcut in which people make decisions heavily influenced by their current emotions
group processes
- stereotype each other in ingroup-favouring ways
- use of ingroup messengers to increase norm conformity
- use of superordinate goals to reduce intergroup conflict
Psychological barriers to action (Gillford, 2011)
- Limited cognition - ignorance / uncertainty
- Comparisons with others - social comparision
- Perceived risks - physical, fincaial etc
- Sunk costs - finacial cost, aspirations etc.
- Ideologies - worldview
- Discredence - mistrust
- Limited behaviour - tokenism, rebound effect
Norms
desciptive norms - what is done
injunctive norms - what ought to be done
What did Cialdini’s 2008 study find?
Found that descriptive norms (person’s perspective of how people typically behave) was most effective
Attitude-behaviour models
theory of planned behaviour applied to recycling (attitudes, subjective norm/pressure from others, identity)
Helping behaviours
- extending models of helping to nonhuman other (living organisms and nature)
- personal norms for helping (moral obligation)
What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?
more empathetic individuals reported greater concern for the harmful consequences of environmental problems and also higher levels of pro-environmental behaviour
Green consumerism
Younger people are generally more willing to pay more for environmentally safe products
what is green consumerism challenged by?
The motive for status recognition (what brands people want to be seen purchasing)
