CH.9 Environmental psychology

• Environmental psychology


  Field combining theory and evidence to improve environmental conditions and promote health
• Environmental psychology


  • Emerged 1960s out of social psychology
  • Borrows methods from different sciences
  • More recently, merged w/ public health to examine role of small-and-large scale environmental features to promote health and healthy behaviors
• Physical layout


  1. Sociopetal configuration: facilitate social interaction

  2. Sociofugal configuration: impede/discourage social interaction
• Social capital


  Compromises community cohesion (shared values, social support) as well as informal social control (monitoring youth behaviors)
• Proxemics


  The study of how people use space to communicate nonverbally
• Zones of personal space


  • Intimate distance: direct contact
  • Personal distance (1-4 ft): at arm's length for interaction among close friends and family
  • Social distance (4-12 ft): used w/ acquaintances
  • Public distance (12-25 ft): no physical contact and very little direct eye contact are possible
• Focal points


  • Areas that facilitate social interaction
  • Well-designed focal points are activity generators
  • Include sociopetal furnishings
  • Are centered located near multiple circulation paths
  • Function as neutral territories
  • Provide visual prospect (one can see who is in a space prior to making a behavioral commitment to the space)
• Wayfinding


  Information systems that guide people through a physical environment and enhance their understanding and experience of the space
• Footprint & Cognitive Map


  The most fundamental contributor to getting lost is the inability to form a legible mental image of the space
• Principles of Defensible Space


  • Territoriality: establishment of ownership
  • Surveillance: monitoring
  • Image: the message the building portrays; should be well taken care of and fit in with community
  • Milieu: placement of high-density housing in relation to other land use
• Principles of Defensible Space (Oscar Newman)


  • Enhance a sense of territoriality and create social legibility w/ communal spaces and entries shared by only a few families
  • Use environmental design elements to create continuum of spaces from public to private
  • Limit the scale of buildings to 3-5 floors
  • Increase visual surveillance (cameras, security guard, motion sensor lights
  • Foster an ambiance of caring (no trespassing sign, getting your neighbor's kid from out the street)
• Pruitt-Igoe (1954 - 1976) - troubled high-rise that came to define Urban America in 1954
• Environmental Stress - Crowding


  • Associated w/ elevated cardiovascular and stress indicators (high blood pressure)
  • Index of crowding: people/room
  • Difficulty completing complex tasks
  • Physiological outcomes of crowding: more pronounced in males
  • Link between residential crowding and poor cognitive achievement in children
  • When the home is crowded, ppl find it difficult to maintain positive social relationships with whom they live or care
• Most research data on crowding from N. America & Europe
• Environmental Stress - Noise


  • Units: decibels
  • Inc. in 10 db- perceived as twice as loud (log. scale)
  • High freq. Sounds & duration of exposure- produce more stress
  • High demand tasks; harder w/ more noise → requiring elevated efforts for same task performance → inc. stress response
  • Delayed reading acquisition among children
  • Children w/o hearing loss who are chronically exposed to noise have worse auditory discrimination abilities
• Noise: Learned Helplessness


  • People who have to live/work in noust conditions (can't control!) → learned helplessness
  • As a result: Diminished motivation, persistence, ability to pay attention, and stay on task
• Housing & Neighborhood Conditions


  • Suboptimal housing - stressor
  • Inadequate housing: stigmatization, diminished self-esteem
  • Safety & health concerns
  • Poorly-designed housing: can damage coping resources; stressor
  • Housing quality: linked to elevated physiological & psychological stress among adolescents & adults
• Late 1900s/early 2000s, U.S. obesity epidemic prompted shift from individual → community intervention
• Diet & physical activity


  • Green outdoor play = inc. physical activity
  • Low physical activity = inc. vehicle miles
  • Supermarket availability linked to obesity rates and dietary intake
  • Implementing convenience, attractiveness, and normativeness in school cafeterias inc. fruits and veggies consumption
• Pro-Environment Behavior


  • Environmental activism
  • Planting trees, picking up trash, accessible public transits
  • Supporting public policy changes
  • Personal behaviors (ex: recycling, walking, carpooling, consuming fewer resources, environmental purchasing)
• Strategies to promote pro-environment behavior


  • Focus on personal or social norms, social comparison
  • Goal setting and commitments
  • Altering environmental cues
  • Removing barriers, inc. convenience
• Light and Color


  • Aesthetic preference: research shows people prefer natural light
  • Lights affects comfort, health, and well being
  • Exposure to full spectrum lighting at high intensity reduces seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

  Red: Inc. brain activity and physiological arousal, Cue for dominance, Evokes avoidance motivation

  Blue: Facilitates creativity, (may) evoke motivation to connect & socially bond
• Moving alcohol rub dispensers in hospital rooms to be at line of sight (instead of near hospital bed, move to front of door) and Adding alarm to properly located dispensers increased hand hygiene compliance and lowered hospital-based vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus infections