All environmental Flashcards
1
Q
defintion of environmental psychology
A
The study of transactions between indivudals and their physical settings- gifford 2007
2
Q
Key points about environmental psychlogy
A
- problem over approach theory- solve real life problems and have applications
- environment is not an external factor but a key figure in the relationship
- the environment as context for behaviour vs impact of human behaviour on the environment
- theoretically and methodologically eclectic
3
Q
Kurt lewin
A
founder of modern social psych and kind of the founder of environmental psychology
- use naturalistic settings and base action from these observations
- field theory= Lewin’s field theory rule states that ‘analysis starts with the situation as a whole’. By gaining an overview as early as possible, we intend to broaden the perspective from which we as scholarly practitioners engage with the general characteristics of the challenge or opportunity facing our organisational clients.
4
Q
Barker
A
first to use ecological psychology
need to understand the setting behaviour takes place in
behaviour patterns are coded to their setting, they are molar (distinct and specific to a setting). This is situationism.
he did a behaviour setting survey and found 884 places which had distinct behaviour streams
5
Q
when and why did environmental psychology start to make head way
A
60s/70s
After the war there was so much pollution and chemicals, carson released a book called silent spring and it urged people to think about how our actions had effected the environment
Nasas first pictures of the earth
crime rates
6
Q
Place identity
A
where you are from affects your identity
7
Q
Paris aggreement 2015
A
- policy to avoid ‘dangerous’ climate change: 2°C temperature increase, urging efforts for 1.5°C limit
8
Q
UK climate change act 2008
A
25% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) by 2020 (didn’t reach); 80% GHG reduction by 2050 (2019: ‘net zero’ amendment)
First legally binding rule setting limits
9
Q
COP26 2021
A
climate pledges on emission reductions
10
Q
Policies on climate change prevention
A
- UK climate change act 2008
- Paris agreeement 2015
- COP26 2021
11
Q
why is the built environment key in achieving environmental sustainbility
A
20-25% of all energy consumption is used for space and water heating- a part of built environments
12
Q
proenvironmental behaviour
A
“The extent to which [a behaviour] changes the availability of materials or energy from the environment or alters the structure and dynamics of ecosystems or the biosphere” (Stern, 2000) not a very clear definition.
“Behaviours that harm the environment as little as possible, or even benefit the environment” (Steg and Vlek, 2009)
13
Q
differing perspectives on how to define environmental behaviour
A
-consumption
- relative impact, comparing a behaviour to another and seeing which has a less bad impact (poor way to look at it and can justify still bad actions)
- environmental impact
14
Q
indirect vs direct energy use
A
indirect is how extraction, production, distribution and disposal of goods uses energy
direct is our consumption
15
Q
energy efficient behaviours
A
energy efficient equipment
16
Q
curtailment behaviours
A
change and reduce use of certain things
17
Q
why are people more likely to pick EE behaviour to save energy rather than CB behaviours
consumption shift makes energy saving measures less acceptable
A
CB have to be repeated and may be viewed as decreasing a persons comfort or quality of life whereas making one big change to a more energy efficient equipment is a one off
18
Q
framework used in germany to try encourage energy efficient behaviour
A
Dalkmann and brannigan 2007
avoid- e.g. travel and the need to travel
shift e.g. to more efficient modes of transport such as public transport
Improve e.g. existing vehicle effieciency such as electric cars
19
Q
Dalkmann and brannigan 2007 model in terms of CB, EE and consumption shift
A
CB = avoid such as shorter showers
Consumption shift = shift such as meatless
energy efficiency = improve such as house insulation
20
Q
discussion points for having less kids
A
- if we all had less kids this the the most proenvironmental thing we can do
- BUT this is only due to western standards of living as more people mean more things and more electricity
- must consider that if you are in a tribe or a rural place having more children doesnt mean the extra energy use so this isnt as big a deal
- is it a point rather than making everyone conform to our standards whether we should adopt other cultures way of life to reduce energy impact
21
Q
orientations of environmental behaviour as said by stern 2000
A
Intent-oriented environmental behaviour
– behaviour defined by its motivation (e.g., recycling)
– behaviours you think are good - and are willing to do - for the environment
– symbolic behaviours
Impact-oriented environmental behaviour
– behaviour defined by its impact
– …in terms of (reduction in) energy use; water consumption, or waste production
22
Q
3 distinctions between direct and indirect environemntal behaviours in terms of private/public
A
private sphere environmentalism- direct and personal such as recycling
non activist behaviours in the public sphere such as environmental citizenship (supporting environmental policies)-indirect
- environmental activisism- indirect
23
Q
distinction between sustainable behaviour and sustainable lifestyle
A
Sustainable Behaviour often refers to individual actions that are beneficial for the environment (e.g., recycling, buying energy saving light bulbs etcetera).
Sustainable Lifestyle refers to a pattern of behaviour/consumption in line with environmental values and attitudes – with minimal impact on the environment
24
Q
what is sustainable energy use? what is the real probelm regarding this energy use?
A
ideally energy comes from non polluting renewable sources
not so mcuh the amount of energy which we use as it is the source that the energy comes from. Fossil fuels which are for petrol, gas and electric are polluting
25
compare wind energy and coal use from now to the 90s
In 2020 more than 50% of electriivty at a point was generated by wind when in the 90s 50% was generated by coal.
26
personal energy/carbon budgets
Durr 1994 suggested a personal energy budget, this makes sense since there is such an uneven distribution of energy use across the classes. 50% of carbon emissions are from the elite, top 10%. The poorest 50% only responsible for 10% of total lifestyle consumption emissions.
27
Research methods used in environemtnal psych
questionnaire studies
laboratory experiments
simulation studies
field studies
case studies
28
Consideratio points when evaluating research methods
- cost effectiveness
- inferring causality
- control of variables
- realistic (even simulation studies may be perceived as fictitious to those using them)
- richness of data
- generalisability
29
what does sustainability mean
using, developing and protecting resources at a rate and in a manner that enables people to meet their own needs and ensures future generations can meet their own needs to achieving an optimal balance between environmental, social and economic qualities.
30
How has the field of psychology contributed to psychology as a field/ expanded our knowledge
* development of novel constructs and methods for analyzing the links between environment and behavior,
*increased emphases on cross-paradigm research,
* transactional models of environment and behavior
*group-environment as well as individual-environment relationships,
*expanded application of environment and behavior research to the development of public policies and community problem-solving efforts
31
Ittelson 1973 definition/ distinctions about what environment means
distinctions between environment and object percpetion, object is a thing whereas the environment surrounds and engulfs us, no one can be isolated from it.
32
novel research methods from environmental psych
sketch maps, wayfinding, and photographic recognition tasks were combined to measure the "imageability" of urban environments.
Indexes of perceived environmental quality and techniques of environmental simulation were developed to evaluate people's reactions to existing or imagined setting.
Behavioral mapping protocols and behavior setting surveys were used to assess activity patterns within buildings, public parks, and whole communities.
physiological probes to measure people's reactions to environmental demands
33
Situationist vs interactional vs transactional theories
Interactional theories account for the joint influence of environmental and personal factors on behavior
Situationist theories account for behavioral change in terms of the specific stimuli and events occurring within an individual's social or physical environment.
Both situationist and interactional theories are linear or unidirectional, in that they predict behavioral changes from environmental conditions, alone, or from both situational and intrapersonal factors
Transactional theories emphasize the reciprocal or bidirectional nature of people-environment relations—individuals not only respond to environmental conditions but also take steps to influence and restructure their surroundings. They highlight the interdependence between people and their environments.
34
real life examples where environemntal psychology has made changes to places
research on people's reactions to density and crowding, conducted during the 1970s, yielded guidelines for improving the design of residential environments (Aiello & Baum, 1979)
And experimental evidence for the psychological and behavioral benefits of exposure to natural environments was applied in offices and health care settings to reduce stress and enhance occupants' well-being (Kaplan, 1993;
postoccupancy evaluation (POE) techniques were used to assess people's reactions to newly designed or renovated buildings, parks, and public plazas (Carr, Francis, Rivlin, & Stone, 1992
35
The New Environmental Paradigm Scale (NEP)
measuring people’s views on the human-environment relationship. NEP can be considered as a worldview on the vulnerability of the environment to human interference
36
Poortinga et al. 2004 research
Poortinga et al. 2004 -
home and transport energy use were especially related to sociodemographic variables like income and household size
people who valued environmental quality more had a higher environmental concern.
The Self-Enhancement value dimension was (negatively) related to environmental concern
support for government regulation was positively related to the Environmental Quality dimension, whereas support for market strategies was positively related to the Self-Enhancement value dimension. These results indicate that the relationships between values, environmental concern, and environmental behavior might be more complex than assumed
37
values vs world views
values are situation-transcending beliefs about what is important in life
worldviews are general beliefs related to a specific domain of life.
38
why would support for government regulation was positively related to the Environmental Quality dimension,
but support for market strategies be positively related to the Self-Enhancement value dimension?
people with a low environmental concern think that market-oriented policies are less strict. By preferring freemarket solutions, as opposed to government regulation, people shift the responsibility for solving environmental problems to others.
39
personal quality related to engaging in prosnevironmental behaviour
Openness to Change was significantly related to transport energy use. (Poortinga 2004)
40
defining environmentally significant behaviour
defined by its impact: the extent to which it changes the availability of materials or energy from the environment or alters the structure and dynamics of ecosystems or the biosphere itself (see Stern, 1997). intent vs impact orientated
41
why do we need to consider both impact orietated and intent orientated definitions of environmentally significant behaviour
adopt an impact-oriented definition to identify and target behaviors that can make a large difference to the environment (Stern & Gardner, 1981a). This focus is critical for making research useful.
It is necessary to adopt an intent-oriented definition that focuses on people’s beliefs, motives, and so forth in order to understand and change the target behaviors. Understand why they do or do not do something
42
environmental impact is largely a biproduct of what?
environmental impact has largely been a by-product of human desires for physical comfort, mobility, relief from labor, enjoyment, power, status, personal security, maintenance of tradition and family and of the organizations and technologies humanity has created to meet these desires.
43
4 types of environmentally significant behaviour
environmental activism
non acitivist behaviours in the public sphere
private spehre environmentalism
other
44
what is environmentalism
defined behaviorally as the propensity to take actions with pro environmental intent.
45
sterns value belief norm theory
believed to be the best explanatory account to date of a variety of behavioral indicators of non-activist environmentalism.
e.g.
{ values ] biospheric and altruistic values --[ beliefs ] > ecological worldview --> beliefs about adverse consequcnes for valued objects ---> percieved ability to reduce threat --> proenvironmental personal norms (sense of obligation to do proenvironmental activities) --> environmentally significant behaviours
46
how values impact proenvironmental norms/ action
the values most strongly implicated in activating proenvironmental personal norms are, as norm-activation theory presumes, altruistic or self-transcendent values.
Self-enhancement or egoistic values and “traditional” values such as obedience, self-discipline, and family security are negatively associated with proenvironmental norms and action in some studies. The ways these values affect behavior are not well understood, but they may be important bases for principled opposition by some individuals to environmental movement goals.
47
ABC theory
Guagnano 1995- behaviour is a product of the organism and their environment
behavior (B) = personal-sphere attitudinal variables (A) + contextual factors (C)
The attitude-behavior association is strongest when contextual factors are neutral.
48
4 causes of environmentally significant behaviour
- Attitudinal (Norms, beliefs and values)
- Contextual forces (interpersonal influences like modelling and other things like community expectations
- Personal capabilities (knowledge and skills required for actions)
- Habit or routine
49
gardner and stern 1996 review of intervention for changing environmentally significant behaviour- what were the intervntions
4 types of intervention
religious and moral approaches that appeal to values and aim to change broad worldviews and beliefs;
education to change attitudes and provide information;
efforts to change the material incentive structure of behavior by providing monetary and other types of rewards or penalties;
community management, involving the establishment of shared rules and expectations.
50
gardner and stern 1996 review of intervention for changing environmentally significant behaviour- findings
each of these intervention types can change behavior.
moral and educational approaches have generally disappointing track records, and even incentive- and community-based approaches rarely produce much change on their own.
the most effective behavior change programs involve combinations of intervention types.
These findings underline the limits of single-variable explanations for informing efforts at behavior change. The behavior is determined by multiple variables, sometimes in interaction. Often the nature of the interaction can be well described in terms of barriers to behavior change. Interventions do little or nothing until one of them removes an important barrier to change.
51
example of how a good intervention can not work based on barriers to change
public policy saying solar panels needs to be adopted is no good unless solar panels are made cheaper, giving suggestions of good providers and making information easily available.
52
how can we make interventions for stopping environmentally destructive behaviours good ?
- consider barriers for change, how to get rid of these
- multiple inervention types is most successful
-take the actors perspective
-make limitted cognitive demands
- consider credibility
- reevaluate
- give people choice so they feel like they have more power
53
two broad ways of world view
Anthropocentrism – emphasises the function of nature for humans, i.e., our wants and needs (extrinsic value)
Ecocentrism – nature has value in its own right, independent of humans (intrinsic value)
54
what is the dominant social paradigm
(anthropocentrism) where humans control and manage the environment, natural resources are infinite, industrial growth is unlimited
54
what is the dominant social paradigm
(anthropocentrism) where humans control and manage the environment, natural resources are infinite, industrial growth is unlimited
55
paradigm shift since the 70s?
Shift from DSP to NEP since the 1970s in tandem with
growth of environmental movement, e.g. Silent Spring (‘the environmental decade’; Dunlap et al., 2000)
56
what has the new environmental paradigm been used to predict in research? issue with this?
Xue 2018 in china predicted climate change perceptions
Capstick 2016 NEP score predicts concern about ocean acidification
Circular reasoning: environmental concern predicts itself?E.g. nature is fragile predicting we need to look after nature will obviously be related
57
issues with the new environmental paradigm
Circular reasoning: environmental concern predicts itself? E.g. nature is fragile predicting we need to look after nature will obviously be related
Construct validity and cross-cultural variability is unclear. Western-centric?
May be an outdated measure; alternatives exist including ‘connectedness to nature’ (Mayer and Frantz, 2004
58
are we actually gettng greener as a nation? evidence
mixed thoughts-
Kesebir prevalence of nature related wpords in popular songs and finds a decline over time this is also replaicted in films and fiction so dspite encoromwemtnalism is on the rise this is not present in our media.
BUT number of Britons reached record levels of reporting what their top national issues are in 2021
August 2022 the environment was rated very highly even above the NHS for top concerns
59
how intent vs impact orientated world view affects our perceptions of others
These definitions effect who we view as more pro environmental (someone who doesn’t care about the environment but doesn’t drive, small flat, poor vs someone who cares but drives and has a big house etc). Negative again as it means we view more poverse people as trying less hard even though they aren't even the main causers and are actually contributing less than say a rich person recycling.
60
evidence that intent orientated approaches are more popular
Whitmarsh and oneil 2010 we spend more of our time doing things which intend to be green but probably aren’t impact rather than doing more impactful things, so 70% of people recycled but only 33% cut down on car use. Intent orientated behaviours are ore common than impact
61
are proenvironmental behaviours always caused by proenvironmental intent, if not why?
Whitmarsh 2009
Reasons for things like turning off lights are more likely to be caused by saving money or habit (an unconscious driver) and things like walking to work are more likely to be done for health reasons than the environment. e.g. implementing a government recommendation for walking to work in january will be heavily confounded by people tryign to get fit in january as this is when the health kicks kick in
Have to control for this when looking at people undergoing proencigornmental behaviour.
62
One reason people might not engage in impact orientated proenvironmental behaviour
Awareness of what actually works/ personal comfort
Wynes et al 2020 when asking people whats the most effect thing you can do to reduce green house gases they say drive less etc but they don’t consider things like getting a green energy supplier- need to make people more aware of their options.
Peoples perceptions of how impactful things are aren’t always well aligned such as being vegan. Also some people have dietary restrictions and/ or would rather have the comfort of sticking to what they know so would rather remain eating meat.
63
issue with classifying impact of different categories of envrionmtnally signfiant behaviour
Sometimes it is hard to measure the impact of certain indirect actions such as public sphere non activist behaviours like voting which leads to a cascade of things not directly positive environmental impact.
64
can private and public sphere actions be classified as such easily? research example
private and public sphere contrast is blurred due to social contexts and roles, e.g. as Consumers, Investors, Participants in organisations, Members of communities (incl. families), Citizens
Graziano and Gillingham (2015) saw “a strong relationship between adoption [of solar panels] and the number of nearby previously installed systems”- solar panels might be private sphere but it has wider social consequences
65
can EE and CB behaviours be easily seperated? example
energy efficient behaviours such as buying an electric car is more energy efficient but it may also put you off driving such long distances due to the lack of charging points and the fact you cant drive as far without top up so it is also a curtailment behaviour
66
How a persons wealth might affect what their carbon emissions pimary source is
In europe a massive proportion of the top 1%s CO2 is from air travel whereas less weathly CO2 comes from other sources primarily
67
biospheric values
values which relate to helping the environment
68
examples of norms effecting proenvironmental behaviour
- descriptive norms for the fact we recycle becuase everyone does it we feel inclined to
- normative appeals such as towel reuse in hotels
- injunctive (behaviours that one is expected to follow and expects others to follow in a given social situation) / personal norms for energy conservation
we want to align with norms
69
environmental self identity
Van der Werff et al. (2013)
- Environmental self-identity* is related to a broad range of PEBs (e.g. energy conservation, driving). Environmental self-identity mediates the relationship between values and behaviour
Whitmarsh and O’Neill (2010)
- Environmental self-identity predicted waste, shopping and conservation PEBs but not political action, transport PEBs, one-off domestic actions
70
three ingrients to create a habit
frequency
automaticity
stable context
71
is PEB always intentional?
no it can be habitual, once it is a habit it is easier,need to create interventions to faciliate the creation of habits
also need to consider how we break environmentally destructive habits
72
klockner 2013 - habits research
found that a third of peoples environmental behaviour was influenced by psychological variables. tells us that policy needs to consider things like attitudes, worldview, behavioural control, norms etc
73
Ajzen theory of planned behaviour
attitude-- subjective norms (outsider approval)-- percieved behavioural control ---> intention to do behaviour ---> behaviour
74
how much do intentions predict variations in behaviour?
Sheeran 2002 found intentions expain 25% of variation in behaviour
75
theory of planned behaviour in terms of PEB
- just because someone thinks they can do something, others approve and you want to thus have the intent doesnt mean this is actually doable
- harland 1999 sees subjective norms not contribute to behavioural variance
- should include self identity and group membership as behaviour and expectations of the group contribute to behaviour
- is altruism as rational as the TPB makes out?
76
list the models of PEB
- theory of planned behaviour
-protection motivation theory
- norm activation model
- value belief norm model
- social identity model of collective action
- goal framing theory
77
protection motivation theory
Rogers 1975
People are more likely to act proenvironmentally when both threat appraisal and coping appraisal are high (perceived risk and perception of whether engaging in PEB to control said threat).
Coping potential is based on percievd self efficacy (like behavioural control in TPB), perceived outcome efficacy and perceived costs of the PEB.
PMT successfully explained adotopion of electric cars, more likely when people think fossil fuel use risk is high and how capable of driving an electric vehicle and how effective one will be.
78
norm activation model swartz 1977
swartz 1977
awareness of consequcnes interats with ascription of responsibility (feeling responsible for adverse consequcnes of not doing PEB) leading to personal norms/ obligation and then behaviour
79
NAM research
Steg and de groot 2010
higher problem awareness (which was manipulated by text given) resulted in stronger ascription of responsibility, personal norms and intention to participate in actions to reduce the emission of particulate matters.
80
what are personal norms activated by
- problem awareness
- ascription of responsbility
- outcome efficacy
- self efficacy (an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments)
81
value belief model
stern 2000
very comprehensive
extension of the norm activation model
values (biospheric, altruistic, egoistic) lead to ....
beliefs (ecological world view --> awareness of consequences --> ability to reduce threat/ our responsbility --> sense of obligation to do PEB) leads to ...
behaviours (activism, non activist public sphere, private sphere PEB, behaviours in organisations
82
why all models can be helpful at some points
VBN able to predict environmental citizenship, household energy use, policy acceptability. Overall, NAM and VBN can explain ‘low-cost’ PEBs
TPB better at explaining ‘high-cost’ or difficult PEBs (see Steg and Nordlund, 2012) as these are often more rational and require hard thinking
83
social identity model of collective action
SIMCA van Zomeren 2008
moral conviction --> injustice, identity, efficacy --> collectiv action
Most research on PEBs assumes action at the individual leve but public sphere PEBs and activism are done with others and/or are a form of collective action
The SIMCA takes into account group identity and emotional response to perceived injustice
Identity- Do you feel like you belong to an environmentally friendly movement?
Injustice- emotional response to injustice like anger
Efficacy- do you think your actions make a difference
Moral conviction (added later)- having a moral foundation is a driver
84
what has the SIMCA been able to explain
Bamberg et al. (2015) found supportive evidence for social identity and the SIMCA model for: student intentions to participate in an environmental initiative, local energy groups, attending a talk
Brügger et al. (2020) found social identity explained participation by young people in climate strikes
85
goal framing theory
Lindenberg and steg 2007
Three general gaols frame the way people process information and act on it
- Hedonic goal (to feel better right now)
- Gain goal (guard and improve resources)
- Normative goal (act appropriately)
One goal is focal and influences information processing the most while the other are in the background. Normative goals provide the most stable basis for PEB. If people do PEB for the sake of gain/ hedonic they will not do so consistently, only when it is beneficial to them.
Different values mean different goals are salient for different people.
86
Why does goal framing theory offer an integrative framework for understanding environmental behaviour?
Three goals coincide either the three theories commonly used in enviropsych
- Affect focussed theories= hedonic goals
- TPB= gain goals
- NAM and VBN = normative goals
- PMT= gain and normative.
87
Social / behavioural contagion
how interpersonal influence develops ad spreads over time so we all end up doing the same thing
88
how can awareness and creating new norms affect flight behaviour ?
awareness of the harmful impacts of flying has begun to shape new social norms set against this and to influence demand for flights
in Sweden, where the phenomenon of flygskam (flight shame) took root, domestic air passenger numbers fell by 9 per cent between 2018 and 2019 as a result.
89
not only do the wealthy disprortionalty impact CO2 emissions but they have more control over reducing it, why
their personal resources put them in a better position than most to invest ethically and influence professional practice
if they are famous they are also often trend setters so people will follow
government need to lead by example as they cant expect people to follow rules set by them if they dont do it themself
90
who first made the case of needing to consider climate change in terms of risk perception
pidgeon and fishoff 2011
91
risk vs hazard
hazards are things which can lead to harm
risks are probabilities so the liklihood and severity of an adverse event occuring
92
formal defintion of risk
risk = probability x severity
93
are risk assessment and perception the same?
risk assessment is objective and typically needs experts and is used in risk management
risk perception is subjective thoughts and feelings and experiences and is a more qualitative assessment done by all individuals
94
how do experts and non experts differ in assessment and perception of risk
Slovic (2000) looked at a range of 30 risk issues, and asked both experts and non-experts (in risk assessment) to rank them. Things like bicycles, nuclear power. there was some correspondence between actual risk (death rates) and perceived but experts were more accurate. Differ dramatically for between experts and students for things like swimming
95
why do we need to know if non experts are less accurate at risk assessment
If people aren’t perceiving risk correctly we want to improve educational efforts and communication so we can correct the biases/ misperception.
Inform risk management strategies
Predict and understand public responses so we can do PR strategies and how to advertise products/ things so their reaction is better.
96
cognitive psychology and risk perception
Tversky and Kahnman 1974 argued humans are not rational decision makers- systematic biases.
represenstative heuristic
availbility heuristic
framing effect
affect heuristic
acceptability judgements
97
research example of health risk perception- gerend 2004
gerend 2004
Women’s perceptions of susceptibility to health issues. Perceived similarity to the ‘typical woman’ who gets cancer / heart disease / osteoporosis biases risk perception. E.g. “How similar do you believe you are to the typical woman who gets [disease]?” “factual data (age, lifestyle, background etc) accounted for a small to moderate proportion of the variance in perceived susceptibility” “Beliefs reflecting use of the representativeness heuristic
(perceived similarity) are key components of women’s perceptions of risk” we use baseline less than representative.
98
example of availibility heuristic in risk perception
Demski 2016 when asking people to spontenously say top three issues those affected by floods were much ore leikly to say flood as this is raised in prominence in your head
99
how can framing effect be used to encite percieved severity and attitudes to climate action
(Spence and Pidgeon, 2010)
The same climate information framed in gain or loss outcomes; distant or near effects, e.g.“By mitigating (reducing) climate change, we can prevent further increases in winter floods…” vs “Without mitigating climate change, we will see further increases in winter floods…”
“Many areas in Britain OR Europe (proximity of the place) are expected to change dramatically…”
Gain frame increases perceived severity and attitudes to climate action
Distant frame increases perceived severity and attitudes to climate action
100
Why do we need to take into account peoples values when trying to encite framing effects?
Graham and abrahamse 2017 level of concern about climate impacts of meat consumption.
Self transcendence message vs self enhancing. Self enahancing message much more effect for people who have high self enhancing values. So we need to take into account the areas/ indiduvals values when we plan how to deliver a message to try to change behaviour, think of the values of the target group
101
example of affect heuristic in climate change
Affect predicts global warming risk perception more strongly than other variables (Leiserowitz, 2006)
Participants asked how positive/negative
they felt towards climate change (-5 to +5):
‘holistic’ affect. Participnts asked for image associations,
affect rating of these measured: image affect. What is the is the image that comes to mind when you think of climate change.
Affect strongest predictor of risk perceptions. How negative people feel about climate change predicts how much of a risk they see it is. Above lots of other things like gender/ political affiliation etc.
102
Slovic fishoff and lichtenstein 1980 psychometric paradigm of risk
90 hazards and 18 characteristics
across the characteristics they reduced into two basic dimensions of how people perceive risk
Dread: perceived lack of control, dread, catastrophic potential, fatal consequences, inequitable risk & benefits
Unknown: unobservable, unfamiliar, new, delayed harm
103
psychometric paradigm of risk and explanation of risk view
dread and unknown are underlying driver of how we judge risk to do with these two factors which may explain why our views differ from the formulaic calculations of risk. This has also been supported by fox-glassman and weber 2016 so it shows they are enduring throughout generations/ years.
104
approaches which we can contrast to try understand risk perception
- psychometric (dread and unknown)
- cognitive (heuristics)
- cultural theory (grid and group dimensions)
- cultural cognition
105
critique of psychometric approach
Conclusions dependent on hazards studied and questions asked
what does ‘dread’ and ‘unknown’ mean? too unscientfic and abstract
Not always a strong predictor: accounts for ~20% of variance (Sjöberg, 2000)
May be more than two factors or different types of factors, nothing to say they managed ro capture all the risks
time dependent- created at a time when nuclear war was salient- possibly not something as salient now
is unknown as relevant now since we are all very in the loop and have answers at our finger tips
106
individual differecnes in risk perception
expertise
gender and ethinicity
experience with the hazard- heightens avalbility but also desensitises
107
white male affect
white men perceive much less risk (more involved in creating managing and benefiting from technology in a way that other groups haven’t. Control over risk is a big feature of how much we view it is as risky, they have more control than other groups so perceive them to be less risky.
have access to more info than those of a lower status in society.
less availability of risk in their heads as less happens to them in their environment that is dangerous (e.g. car accident- higher risk for women as dummies are only male so cars are more dangerous for women.) more likely to live in nicer environments so may not see directly the effects of climate change or have to suffer. LIVED EXPERIENCE gives rise to these effects.
white males tend to perceive risks like infectious diseases as less dangerous than females or people of colour (Finucane, Slovic, Mertz, Flynn, & Satterfield, 2000).
108
White male differing world view
(kahan, 2007) showed that white males were more likely to hold hierarchical and individualist worldviews than women or people of colour. Similarly, black participants were disproportionately more likely to have egalitarian and communitarian worldviews.
109
identity protective cognition
adopt such views to protect their cultural identity- a white man is used to a position of power and wont want to drop this so to do so they adopt individualist values
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fear of climate change as a choice?
individuals choose what to fear (and how much to fear it) in order to support their way of life” Wildavsky and Dake (1990) e.g. people choose not to fear climate change because they love meat and private jets
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cultural theory
Group: the extent to which people see themselves as part of groups or not
Grid: the extent to which their interactions are rule-bound or not (the degree feel constrained) low grid means they prefer less constraint
low group high grid = fatalist
high group high grid = hierachist
low group low grid= individualist
low grid high group= egalitarian
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Individualist views on nature and implications for risk perception.
Nature is robust and benign/resilient – it will recover from external shocks.
It legeoitimises their chosen view of the world, you are free to act as you wish with as few resitctions which is what they want. Implies free-market economic solutions are appropriate for environmental protection. The individualist perspective on society comes first: view of nature and environmental risks is a consequence of this
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Egalitarian views on nature and implications for risk perception.
Nature is conceived in terms which almost the exact opposite to the individualist viewpoint: as fragile, intricately connected and in a delicate equilibrium.
Egalitarians tend to be very concerned about environmental problems and see people as responsible for causing and addressing them. According to cultural theory, egalitarians claim that nature is fragile so as “to justify equal sharing of what they see as the one finite Earth” (Steg and Sievers, 2000). Implies solutions grounded in social justice and based on radical changes in behaviour and society are required.
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Hierarchist views on nature and implications for risk perception.
For hierarchists, nature is controllable
Nature is a tolerant or robust system up to a point, but once limits are exceeded and transgressed the system will collapse.
Environmental risks are understood in terms of the views of those with authority or expertise: this view legitimises the hierarchists’ understanding of proper social relations. Implies expert oversight and statutory regulation is most appropriate for environmental protection.
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Fatalist views on nature and implications for risk perception.
the fatalist view of nature is that it is capricious and unmanageable: those subscribing to this solidarity “find neither rhyme nor reason in nature, and know that man is fickle and untrustworthy”.
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capstick and pidgeon 2014 application of cultural theory and climate change skepticism
capstick and pidgeon 2014 application of cultural theory and climate change skepticism
egalitarianism increases and skeptisim decreases
indivudalism increases so does skepticism
climate change skepticism is associated with interpretting weather as evidence against skepticism
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how does cultural theory help us with policy
if we know the general/ most popular world view in terms og group and grid then we know how to tailor adverts and interventions
e.g. hierachist means we need to put experts on the telly or individualist means we need to tell them the personal benefits of doing PEB
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limitations of cultural theory
Grid-group model is rigid; do people move between positions? Heterogeneity of social groups (i.e. blunt stereotypes)? Static, enduring vs vary over time and by context?
Hard to operationalise / measure
Difficulty obtaining factor structure; measures lack construct validity?
Criticised for weak correlations to risk perceptions; 6-7% average variance explained across 22 risks (Sjöberg, 2000)
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cultural cognition theory kahan
Cultural Cognition (CC) theory integrates cultural theory and psychometric paradigm, and attempts to account for individual differences. More psychological approach.
Risk perceptions are based on our (cultural) values or morals “Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact to values that define their cultural identities.”
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familiarity hypothesis and cultural cognition
familiairity hypothesis- support grows as awareness grows
experimental study aimed at determining how members of the public would react to balanced information about nanotechnology risks and benefits. no support for the familiarity hypothesis but evidence that public attitudes are likely to be shaped by psychological dynamics associated with cultural cognition. Information exposure had no discernable main effect on subjects’ perceptions of nanotechnology risks and benefits.
People instead acted in a way expected of them based off their worldview such as: information-exposed condition the likelihood that hierarchical individualists will perceive benefits as greater than risks grows by 25%
Also find that information dissemination broadended the polarisazation between hierachists and egalitarian world view holders
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biased assimilation and polarization
he tendency of persons to conform information to their predispositions and thus to become more, not less, divided when exposed to balanced information
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cultural cognition theory- holding onto connections in spite of climate risk?
Which is more ‘rational’: to hold a view about climate change that is connected to the science, but alienates you from your friends and colleagues; or to hold a similar view to people you know, even if factually mistaken?
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two subscales to measure cultural cognition
* 1. Hierarchy-egalitarianism (‘Hierarchy’) = attitudes to authority based on stratified social roles with fixed characteristics (e.g., gender, age), e.g.:‘We have gone too far in pushing equal rights in this country’, ‘Discrimination against minorities is still a very serious problem in our society’ (negatively coded)
* 2. Individualism-communitarianism (‘Individualism’) = attitudes to responsibility for wellbeing and to individual freedoms; e.g.:‘The government interferes far too much in our everyday lives’, ‘The government should do more to advance society’s goals, even if that means limiting the freedom and choices of individuals’ (negatively coded)
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example of individualism and risk perception- how to increase acceptance of limitations
Siegrist et al. (2021) found health risk perception the strongest predictor of ‘acceptance’ of measures to control covid.
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3 methods to asses peoples risk judgements- issues
Ask to rate or rank risks (heuristics)
How much money they would be willing to pay to mitigate the risk or how much they are willing to accept to tolerate the risk. (perception of money, wealth, family safety, mental health, fatalism)
Estimate subjective probability of an outcome (heuristics)
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anchoring and adjustment heuristic
people tart an estimate from a salient reference point then adjust this to arrive at the judgement. This adjustment is normally insufficient and estimates are biased towards the anchor. This doesn’t even have to be a related number which we start with it could just be we see a number near by and use it as an anchor unaware.
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unrealistic optimism
peoples tendency to believe they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely than to experience negative events than others.
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temporal discounting
things in the future are deemed less significant than immediate ones
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how much of an issue is temporal discounting in environmental risk perception
Bohm and Pfister 2005,
an oil spill is seen equally risky whether ti will happen ina month, year or ten years, this could be due to environmental risk tapping into morality.
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protected or sacred values
thinking that entities like the environment or human/ animal life are not be traded off for anything else especially economic value.
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deontological principles
inherent rightness or wrongness of an act, morally mandated despite consequence. Tanner et al, deontological values were associated with protection values e.g. vaccinating and they were immune to framing effects.
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consequentialist principles
what is right or wrong is judged off the magnitude and likelihood of outcomes, maximise benefit and minimise harm.
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is risk perception the same when asked about themselves,family, strnagers?
- People do not make the same estimate when they rate the risk to themselves, to their family, or to people in general- Sjoberg 1994
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morality in risk perception
morality is a very much discounted factor in risk perception
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other individual factors to consider in risk perception
- specific phobias (water, certain animals, loud noises)
- disorders (people who need certain foods or medicines will fear running out so might be more down to do behaviours to mitigate the effects of climate change to keep access)
- gender in terms of apocolyptic type situations (women may fear losing independence/ being used as pawns if wars break out over resources as is done in many other parts of the world)
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why should we limit global warming to 1.5 compared to 2 degrees?
“…limiting global warming to 1.5oC, compared with 2oC, could reduce the number of people both exposed to climate-related risks and susceptible to poverty by up to several hundred million by 2050
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how can psychology help global warming
- predict reactions and efficacy of interventions so that we dont waste money implementing them
- behaviour change
- how to help people understand the risk
- how to engage people
- help wioth consumerism
- eco anxiety reduction
- barriers for change- habits, norms, peer perception
-
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what do image association studies to learn how people feel about climate change
Lorenzoni 2006 found most common images were things like ice melting, disasters, the weather (most prominent in uk). This begs the question what images are not here, why are people not thinking of the future and urgerncy and health.not many people pictured it as something happening now
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what questions is researfch regarding climate change trying to answer about public perception
- - Do people believe that climate change is real?
- Do they accept that it is human-caused?
- Do they think the impacts will be bad?
- Are they worried about it?
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poortinga 2018 disequilibrium researfch
poortinga 2018 found that over 90% of brits tink climate change is at least partly caused by climate change but only 66% thoguht the impact would be bad
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ming lee et al 2015 education
found that data from 2008 showed educational attainment as one of the biggest predictors of climate change awareness
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Barriers to climate change? who categorised these?
Gifford 2011
- limited cogniton
-ideologies
other people
- investments
- discredence
- percieved risk
- limted behaviour
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examples of each barrier for change
- limited cogniton (ancient brain and immediate needs, environmental numbness, PBC)
-ideologies (capitalism, system justifcation, suprahuman powers, techno salvation)
other people (percieved inequity)
- investments (sunk costs)
- discredence (mistrust)
- percieved risk (waste of time, effort, money)
- limted behaviour (tokenism)
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what ois the rebound effect
mitigating actions are diminished by subsequent actions as a result of the change- For example, persons who buy a fuel-efficient vehicle may drive further than when they owned a less-efficient vehicle.
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construal level theory (why people might not try to combat climate change)
Construal level theory says that psychological distance affects how abstract and there fore how much we care/ worry about certain issues.
- Social distance
- Uncertainty distance (whether you think it is definitely the case)
- Geographic distance
- Temporal distance
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research example of psychological distance and climate change
spence 2012
But psychological distance inversely predicts concern (highly significant) and action (preparedness to reduce energy use)
but must consider issue with this study that most people already believe we are feeling the effects of climate change so we actually measuring the right thing
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In case of climate change, ‘availability’ may be low so how can things like temperature infleucne perceptions? issue with study
Zaval et al. (2014)
demonstrate using objective temperature measures, perceived temperature variation, and heat/cold primes, that temperature affects attitudes. If you think today is warmer than average you are more likely to think that over the past yar it has been warmer than average and then you’re concern and belief about climate change is more likely to be larger.
Demand characteristics, may be obvious what the study was about if you know anything about climate change.
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donner and mcdaniels 2013 find temoerature anomalies in the pasr 3-12 months predict level of concern but what is the issue with this effect
egan and mullin 2012 find that the effect of weather anomolies decays rapidly
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demski 2016 flooding research
having experienced flooding predicts climate concern
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one massive caution abotu climate change research and peoples views on such (myers 2012)
Need to be careful of asking people have they experiencing the effects of climate change because your views on climate change will affect this, if you believe ti then you will likely say yes as you recognize what is connected to climate change but if yo don’t you may be more likely to attribute the same issues to other factors.
myers 2012
Do climate impacts lead people to become more certain of the reality of climate change, or Does prior belief shape people’s perceptions of impacts through motivated reasoning? Found that both processes (experience leading to belief and belief leading to ‘experience’) occurred:
* experiential learning occurs primarily among people who are less engaged in the issue (the majority of people)
* motivated reasoning occurs primarily among people who are already highly engaged in the issue
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wynes and nicholas 2017 most effective actions fro reducing CO2 contribution
recycling= moderate impact
buy green energy and avoiding one transatlantic flight = high
les babies is the highest
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more research which supports the notion that interventions singularly will have minimal action- issue with dissemination
Nisa 2019 found that even when intervemtions worked a bit the changes didnt last
Need to be careful how this information gets out as it might be misinterpretted as them being pointless and everyone should stop bothering
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critique of indivudual interventions
Heglar argues that this takes away from the fact that we need to change our systems and polices, also need to stop focusing on small impact behaviours and stop emphasing this in the media
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why must we consider peoples roles (list some different roles)
Individuals can also affect both the supply and demand of GHG producing goods and services through their other roles (e.g., as citizens and as members of organizations). Have to cisder their roles as infleucnrs and creating social norms
- organisations
- investors
- voters
- consumers
- public persona/ well known
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why could plant based diets make such a change
Green et al. (2015) argue that up to 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from Western diets are reasonably achievable through individual action, primarily by substituting meat and dairy with plant-based foods.
global anthropogenic GHG emissions by approximately 15% of total GHG emissions if everyone were to become vegan.
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why is renting and home ownership a barrier for change ?
Renting is so normal these days; For example, renters who pay utility bills have limited control over the insulation or heating equipment in their homes.
Low-income homeowners often live in energy-inefficient housing and have limited financial resources for energy-efficiency improvements
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how are high status people able to induce change other than by pumping money into investments and systems
-infleuncing others by setting a role model and precedent
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5 sectors which display the bigger picture of infleucne and climate change action
personal and private
social network
organisational
public
cultural
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how are private and personal actions not always as simple as this?
- solar panels set an example
- telling friends what you are doing
- running for office or for MP becuase of your private views
- if lots of people buyt plant based food then industry will notice and out more money in this
- tailored avertising
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surveys about climate anxiety
Hickman et al 2021- Global survey of young people (16-25yrs) . they found High levels of worry across countries. Almost half (45%) report feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life. Strong feelings of betrayal.
Whitmarsh et al 2022- Survey of UK population Use of climate change anxiety scale. High levels of concern. High prevalence of ‘mild’ anxiety. Low levels of ‘moderate’ or ‘severe’ climate anxiety
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how coule we treat eco anxiety?
its a reasonable response to a crisis so its not clincally treated
but
we can fostr inner resilience by self care and acting in line with our values
encourage social connection and social support
connect clients with nature
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how can we use cognitive dissonance to help the climate
Need to consider how we could enact cognitive disaonance by making people pledge to change their behaviour; people don’t like acting out of align with what they say they will do/ peoples ideals of them. People like to be consistent
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best ways to intervene (when and how)
- Economic interventions like charging people for using older cars not only stop people using those cars which are bad but also disrupt their habitual/ automatic behaviours, this disruption will force people to change their ways and embed more PEB into generations who have not had those automatic behaviours set in place yet, e.g. kids who are only just learning to drive will not have the habit of driving into a shopping centre they will bus
- Best to try to change behaviour in times of life disruption or during structural events like covid or moving house. Have to consider not only what intervention but when we try to implement it (e.g. could do the PEB education when the children go to a new school)
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what is environmental stress
Environmental Stressors: external environmental conditions that puts pressure/strain on human response capabilities
– Physical environmental conditions (noise, (air)pollution, radiation)
– Social environmental conditions (crowding; deprivation; lack of social status)
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general adpatation syndrome
Hans Selye (1956): General Adaptation Syndrome- GAS
1. Alarm
2. Resistance (trying to cope/ adapt top demds)
3. Exhaustion (having no resources left)
Very difficult to asccess when one stage goes into the next one
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fast vs slow acting stressor models
fast acting - adreno medullary response
1. stressor
2. hypothalamus
3. sympathetic nervous system
4. adrenal medulla
5. catecholamines (adrenaline)
slow acting- adreno cortical response
1. stressor
2. hypothalamus
3. pituitary gland
4. adrenal cortex
5. glucocorticoids (cortisol)
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models of stress
- fast vs slow
- cognitive appraisal
-learned helplessness
- allostatic load theory
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cogntive appraisal model
lazarus and folkman 1984
potential stressor ---> primary appraisal (is it threatening) -->secondary appraisal (can i copw with it) ---> response
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learned helplessness theory
seligman 1975
people may learn to be helpless by experiencing repeated instances of lack of control
long term exposure to stressor leads to ineffective coping and depression?
Spelman did the dog experiment where the dogs are chocked and you train them how to escape the noise and you also train them to not be able to escape. When they are trained they cant escape if you give them a chance to escape they do not try. This was thought to be what can happen in depression etc.
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allostatic load theory
McEwen 1998
A dynamic view of stress as a continuous effort by the body to achieve allostasis or stability through change. There is not one ideal state of bodily functioning, every time we are confronted with a stressor the body the stress systems try to find a new equilibrium that allows the individual to function in the changed situation.
Continuously undergoing this allostasis can lead to cumulative wear and tear on the body.
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definition of coping with stress
the process of managing environmental demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person” (Folkman & Lazarus, 1984)
(perceived) resources to cope with stressful event
ANY effort to attenuate, remove or minimize the negative effects of environmental demands
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two focuses of stress coping
Problem-focused versus Emotion-focused coping (e.g., Folkman & Lazarus, 1980)
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what is noise
Noise… unpleasant, aversive or unwanted sound
physical component = sound must be percieved by the ear and brain
psychological component = appraised as unwanted and unpleasant
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why is noise such a negative factor? research
* one of most important factors contributing to residential (dis)satisfaction (when there is no noise it has no effect oj satisfaction
no noise does not mean more satisfaction but noise does mean dissatisfaction which means it’s a very negative factor)
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what makes noise annoying
Annoyance: feeling of displeasure associated with noise (Lindvall et al. 1973)
* a construct reflecting an unpleasant mental state characterised by irritation and distraction from activities and conscious thinking
* a measure of adverse psychological effects of noise
only applies to sensory stressors you cannot find imperceptible stressors such as radiation annoying
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how do we know environmental stressors such as radiation qnd pollution are not causing a stress response due to annoyance?
you cannot get annoyed by radiation as it is imperceptible therefore the stress response wich happenes is not due to annoyance
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what comes firts annoyance or arousal at a noise?
does annoyance come before the stress response
Cognitive Appraisal Model (Lazarus & Folkman 1984)
* noise exposure <-->appraisal (i.e., annoyance) stress response (arousal)
Arousal Theory (e.g., Evans, 1984)
* noise exposure arousal annoyance
* annoyance = interpretation of arousal
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decibels grow ....
decibels grow exponentially
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general factors as to why noise is annoying
sound factors - period bursts/ a-periodic bursts, loud, uncontrollable
unpredictability- attention allocation (less cogntive space as we dont know when the noise will happen so it is more shocking and the brain is waiting in anticipation
appraisal factors- unnecessary/ preventable, noise makers seem unconcerned about peoples welfare
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personal factors which contrubute to how annoying noise is+ research into increases in sensitivity
noise sensitivity: how easily annoyed by sounds
noise sensitive people are people who “attend to noises more, discriminate between noises more, and tend to find noises more threatening and out of their control” as compared to those who are not sensitive to noise, Stansfeld 1992
Weinstein 1978- noise sensitivity in dorms (can see that those who are less sensitive to noise remain the same but people who are more sensitive seem to get more so.
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how can we measure noise sensitivity- examples
adapted weinsteins noise sensitivity scale
- i find it hard to relax in a place which is noisy
- i get used to noises without much difficulty
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discuss noise habituation
habituation to low-intensity, non-threatening sounds- background traffic
no habituation to high-intensity unpredictable sounds- aircraft. This is due to automatic ‘vegetative (automatic physiological response)’ response (cf. fight or flight)
High-intensity sounds: blood vessels keep constricting even if people think they have adapted to noise (Jansen, 1973)
noise sensitive people get more so
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Passchier-Vermeer and Passchier 2000 noise exposure diagram
noise exposure (consider environment and lifestyle)
processing by the organism (appraisal, vegetative response, charcteristics of the organism (sensitivity, coping style)
disturbance of sleep, concentration <-> annoyance -> somatic and psychosomatic responses like hormones-> cardiovascular and psychaitric disorders
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primary, secondary , tertiary effects of noise
primary (short term) = psycholigcal stress, physiological stress
secondary (short term but transient) = sleep disturbance, concetration, mood, social behaviour
tertiary (long term) = disease and disorder
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example of loud and infrequent noise
aircrafts
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blood pressure and noise reseafch- issues
Workers in noisier factories (>85dB) have higher blood pressure than in quieter ones (Milković-Kraus 1990)
BUT factory workers are often not super highly paid so must consider how their diet and stress levels from other stressor may contribute to blood pressure
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different types of sleep distabance to nocturnal noise
Conscious sleep disturbance
shortened sleep
delay falling asleep and early awakening
nocturnal awakenings
Unconscious sleep disturbance
disruption/increased stage changes
Direct and Indirect effects
noise disturbance (waking up)
autonomic ‘vegetative’ response (e.g. heart rate) [even without awakening!]
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why should we be less worried about air rather than car traffic noise
most people never get exposed to air craft noise but road is much hgiher exposure so policy/ interventions should be more aimed at helping the majority of peple
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there are links between traffic noise and cardiovasular disease, what are alternative explanations ?
- expsoure to trafic means exposure to pollution
- Must also consider that if you live in areas of high trsffic noise pollution you are more likely to be getting stuck in traffic every day which is stressful or having early starts and therefore less sleep.
- You may also live in crowded areas or worry about the traffic or the safety of your children which may make you more stressed.
- You may also live in more low income areas as these are normally urban areas and so less green spaces and have more finfical stress- lots of confounding factors
- individual sensitivity (but assume that if we have the choice then people who hate noise wouldnt live in high congestion areas)
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examples that traffic noise is definately a contrubuting factor to cardiovascular disease
van kempen 2018- air traffic associated with ischemic heart disease
Sorensen 2012 – So conclusion that pollution may explains some of the effects of cardiovascular disease but not perfectly, noise is still a contributing factor
tetreault 2013- rviews 5 studies and made adjustments for air pollution but ths didnt affect the rsults of the studies
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stress and infectious diease
Stress is an immune suppressant
Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (Cohen et al, 1991)
five respiratory viruses (rhino, syncytial, or corona virus), infection linked to degree of psychological stress
niemann 2006 seems increased odds ratios for bronchitis and respiratory symtpoms for people who rate traffci noise as severely annoying
lack of evidence
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stress and infectious diease
Stress is an immune suppressant
Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (Cohen et al, 1991)
five respiratory viruses (rhino, syncytial, or corona virus), infection linked to degree of psychological stress
niemann 2006 sees slightly increased odds ratios for bronchitis and respiratory symtpoms for people who rate traffci noise as severely annoying
lack of evidence
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cmplex realtionship between transport noise and asthma
niemann 2006 BUT...
Eze et al, 2018- big sample
Noise annoyance may influence occurrence of respiratory symptom, but effects of noise exposure disappear after adjustment for air pollution
Noise not associated with asthma in adjusted models - BUT transportation noise can exacerbate asthma symptoms in adult asthmatics
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noise and psychsomatic complaints
noise associated with psychosomatic complaints like headaches, nausea, irritability, anxiety, and poor mood (Bing-Shuang et al 1997)
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airport and psychiatric disordr
positive association between aircraft noise and psychiatric admissions (Kryter, 1990)
close to airport more ‘generalised anxiety disorder’ diagnosis (Hardoy et al 2003): [no noise measurement taken, this is a problematic assumption need to actually measure. ]
no noise - mental health association before or after opening 5th Schiphol runway (Van Kamp et al 2007)
hegewald 2020 metanalysis – Aircraft noise: 12% increase risk of depression
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issues with airport and psychaitric disorder researfch in genenal
some studies assume noise when actually ..
People who live near airports might make sure they have really insulated homes ans triple glazing to reduce noise/ air plugs s may actually experience even less noise than those who don’t.
people vary so much about the time they are spending at home- Working from home/ working at office/ Retired vs working vs busy
socio economic status (homes near airports are cheaper)
airport noise wil also mean traffic noise as airport areas have a lot of road traffic
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short term/ long term effects of aircraft noise on children
short term: affect performance at school (cognitive, motivational, and behavioural effects/interruptions).
long term: interfere with learning and development problem solving, reading comprehension, memory
direct and indirect interference with leaerning
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why mght stress be more detrimental for children than adults?
children haven’t learnt how to adapt to noise yet/ deal with stress so may be more detrimental
developing so being perpetually stressed will lead to over sensitive HPA axis
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cohen 1980 comparison of noisy to quiet schools
4 noisy vs 3 quiet in LA and matched for oppucpation and educational level of parents
Children in noisy schools:
– higher blood pressures
– more likely to make errors on cognitive tasks
– more easily distracted
– lose interest in insoluble puzzle much more quickly (measure of motivation)
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evans 1995 muncih airport proximity in children
Neighbourhoods matched in socio-economic status
Children in noisy neighbourhood had:
– higher levels of nor/adrenaline
– poorer reading ability and memory
– give up earlier an insoluble puzzle (motivation)
– more annoyance and poorer psychological QoL
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the studies by evans and cohen had little power, what is a study which had big power for children and aircraft noise?
stansfeld 2005- uk netherlands and spain
– aircraft noise contour data
– traffic noise modelling- have to control for this as they get exposed to this as well.
– on-site measurements
– ‘average’ measurements (to confirm traffic models)
– ‘acute’ measurement during testing
– socio-economic controls (school meals; first language)
reading comprehension and memory (word recognition) affected by aircraft noise, but not traffic noise
Higher exposure- higher the effects and this is confirmed in a study by klatte et al 2017
SES is still more significant than air craft.
Higher exposure- higher the effects and this is confirmed in a study by klatte et al 2017
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specific research into decibel increases and detrimental effects
Meta analysis (Clark et al 2021), nearly 4000 children, road and air trafic nosie
1dB increase: -0.008 (95%CI -0.014, -0.002) decrease in reading comprehension
1dB increase: 4% (95%CI 1%-6%) increase odd ratio of obtaining below average score
No impacts on ‘total difficulties score’ or emotional/conduct problems
But 1dB increase: 0.017 (95%CI 0.007,. 0.028) 1%-6%) increase in hyperactivity
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WHO reccomendations for noise
WHO estimate that about 45 000 disability-adjusted lifeyears are lost every year in high-income western European countries for children aged 7–19 years because of environmental noise exposure
– Postulated mechanisms for noise eff ects on children’s cognition include communication diffi culties, impaired attention, increased arousal, learned helplessness, frustration, noise annoyance, and consequences of sleep disturbance on performance.
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WHO reccomendations for noise
WHO estimate that about 45 000 disability-adjusted lifeyears are lost every year in high-income western European countries for children aged 7–19 years because of environmental noise exposure
– Postulated mechanisms for noise eff ects on children’s cognition include communication diffi culties, impaired attention, increased arousal, learned helplessness, frustration, noise annoyance, and consequences of sleep disturbance on performance.
background noise pressure should not exceed 35 decibels during teaching
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noise in hospitals
patient recovery worse maybe?
An extensive meta-analysis of hospital sound levels indicated that hospital noise has increased by about LAeq 10 dB since the 1960s.73 Noise levels in hospitals are now typically more than LAeq 15–20 dB higher than those recommended by WHO. Hospital noise could therefore be an increasing threat to patient rehabilitation and staff performance.
irregular noises and crowding
Evidence of negative effects of noise on hospital staff is increasing, particularly for nurses, with noise-induced stress linked to burnout, diminished wellbeing, and reduced work performance.
Substantial proportions of staff report annoyance, irritation, fatigue, and tension headaches, which they assign to the noisy workplace environment.
Noise also affects speech intelligibility and could therefore lead to misunderstandings that result in medical errors.
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is all noise the same level of annoying
no, evening and nighttime noise is considered more annoying this is why we use the day night level for assessing noise (Ld)
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hearing impairments in babies?
High-frequency hearing impairment in babies of mothers exposed to high levels of occupational noise during pregnancy is also considered to be a consequence of a mother's stress induced by exposure to noise during pregnancy
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bioloigcal evidence that noise causes a stress response, how can this be avoided?
Some smaller studies in industrial settings showed the effects of wearing personal hearing protection on urinary excretion of catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine) and cortisol. On the days hearing protectors were worn, urinary catecholamine (like adrenaline) levels were statistically significantly lower than on days protectors were not worn.
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three theories of environmental perception
lens model- brunswick 1959
theory of affordances gibson 1977
perception of affordances, the design of everyday things , Norman 1988
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three theories of environmental aesthetics
formal aesthetic model berlyne 1974
environmental preferences morel kaplan 1987
habitat theory orians 1980, appleton 1975
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three theories of restorative environments
psychophysiological stress recovery theory Ulrich 1984
Attention restoration thwory Kaplan 1995
Perceptual fluency account joye 2007
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what is environmental percpetion
how we make sense of the world we interact with
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lens model brunswick 1959
Things like making interferences of whether places are safe based on cues of the environment. Infinite number of cues and we have to select the correct cues to make the right assessment of the environment and whether what thr actual assessment is vs our own assessment, how right we are.
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lens model brunswick 1959
Things like making interferences of whether places are safe based on cues of the environment. Infinite number of cues and we have to select the correct cues to make the right assessment of the environment and whether what thr actual assessment is vs our own assessment, how right we are.
probabilistic: cues from environment only ‘imperfectly’ useful
Achievement, the degree of accurate perception of environment = Ecological Validity (degree to which cues correctly reflect the state of the environment and ‘cue-state’ associations are imperfect: probabilistic) + Cue Utilization (degree to which appropriate cues are used and probabilistic weights given to (the use of) each cue)
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affordance theory gibson 1979
Perception is more direct and less interpretative. Moment we are born we learn and interact with the environment, rather than having cues and combining them we learn what certain types of environments are and what we can do with them.
transactionist
people perceive objects in terms of the opportunities for action they offer
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perception of affordances norman 1988
adds a perceptual element to gibsons affordance theory
A design communicates the action you can form with the object. Often when people make mistakes they blame themselves as being clumsy or whatever but he argues it is then a failure of design. Not as much whether an object has an affordance or not but whether the objects affordance is communicated or not, its affordance may be hidden.
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example of perception of affordances theory in action
Application to recycling- but designing bins a certain way communicates what you can do with them. Thin opening of a recycling bins suggests paper, round suggests bottles. Therefore this theory can be used to influence increases in PEB. Duffy 2009- 35% increase in objects recycled when bins are designed this way
Another example of this is hostile architecture- benches designed for sitting not sleeping.
Another example is using affordance theory to design space on how you want people to use the space. E.g. face food places give hard uncomfy seats to demonstrate they want you to be quick. Affordance to relax and stay a while.
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what are the two devlopmental needs which can be reflected in environment choice
Clark and uzzell 2002- what spaces are being used for what
need for social interaction without adult intervention and need for retreat).
Neighbourhood, School, and City Centre used for Social Interaction
Retreat and Home Environment used for Security and ‘Friend-Retreat’.
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biophilia hypothesis- wilson 1984
people have ‘innate’ affinity with other ‘living things’
makes evolutionary sense as we need it for resources to survive- survivability
Good evidence that nature/green space is salutogenic
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what speculative propositions has biophilia theory lead to
Parks & gardens resemble environment and tree shapes of African savanna- people like trees they can climb in and with medium canopy density (to survey environment and to hide in), open but secluded: just as environments they evolved in (Heerwagen & Orians, 1993), water sources
want water, shelter, and openess
paintings often feature these aspects when they are landscape too
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formal aesthetic model berlyne 1974
abstract psychological characteristics that determine preferences for stimuli/environments, these give us arousal but ideally we only want moderate levels of arousal of collative properties, these give us maximum hedonistic value
aspects of stimuli/environments that cause perceiver to pay attention
novelty (newness of the scene to the perceiver)
surprisingness (are expectations confirmed?)
incongruity (elements fit together or something is out of place)
complexity (variety of elements)
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kaplan and kaplan environmental preferences theory 1987
combines evolutionary and cognitive perspectives
Based on a research programme that started with studying collative properties of ‘real’ environments
Four ‘Cognitive Affordances’ or Collative Properties: Coherence, Complexity, Legibility (predict scene content), Mystery. The affordances afford two separate needs; to make sense of it and know it AND be entertained/ have engagement with the environment.
very limited consensus and evidence on how to judge these things
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psychophysiloigcal stress recovery theory ulrich 1984
Exposure to greenery -->less stress (blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate)…within minutes of exposure, even if we are only watching pictures of it.
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experimental evidence for psychophysioligical stress recovery theory ulrich (film type relaxation)
ulrich 1991- stress induction phase via prevention of workplace accidents video then told them to relax (3 film conditions to relax to, urban with traffic, urban a mall, natural with water and trees)
Blood pressure, skin conductivity, and muscle tension recorded and found that nature videos mae or lower measurements for all measures
ISSUE- no baseline stress recorded
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ulrich psychophsioloigcal stress reocvery theory effects of green space on surgery recovery
Recovery records of gall-bladder surgery patients with different bedside views
– room facing brick wall
– room facing garden
recovery from surgery quicker when facing garden
ISSUE recovery from surgery quicker when facing garden may not actually be the greenery themselves the fact there will be distrations in the garden to take away from the pain. Also when you see the outside world you feel conncted to the outside world.
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research that combats the issue of ulrichs hospital study
park and mattson 2009
Patients randomdly assigned t the ame room but on with fkowed and plants in and one without this. Only thing that is different is the plants. The ones with plants wer more likely to use weaker painkillers and there was differences in psychological trajectory as well.
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attention restoration theory kaplan 1995
Different types of attention; directed (specific object of focus and purposeful) and undirected (this may help you recover from direct attention)
Involuntary undirected attention allows recovery
Nature is inherently restorative;
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attnetion restoration theorys properties of an attnetion resoring environment
Properties of an attention restoring environment
* Being Away: being in a different setting
* Fascination: an effortless way involuntary attention
* Extent: sufficient things going on to sustain attention
* Compatibility: the environment should fit with a person’s inclinations and purposes
