PSY2001 SEMESTER 2 - WEEK 6

Question 1

define environmental psych

Answer 1

discipline that studies interplay between individuals and built, or natural environments

Question 2

Boutellier (2008) studied effects of office layout for employee communication, what did they find

Answer 2

cell office v multi-space for frequency of ftf comm and average durations per event
more event/hour in MS but duration longer in cell, mean overall time spent w/o commun higher in MS>CO

overall, despite MS meaning more interactions, are shorter and less produc

Question 3

Seddigh (2014) studied effect of environments depending on tasks nature, what did they find

Answer 3

found for all types of office, distraction and cognitive stress increase apart from cellular offices

Question 4

define field theory

Answer 4

behaviour determined by interaction between person and their environment

Question 5

outline field theorys equation

Answer 5

B= F(P,E)
behaviour is function of person X environ

Question 6

how can topology be used within field theory?

Answer 6

use to map life space, with individual, current situation/beh, and goals wants to achieve

Question 7

define ‘environmental response inventory’

Answer 7

explaining difference inbetween individuals in response to different environments ie, noise, preferring urban/rural, self-sufficiency + needs to privacy

Question 8

applying environmental response inventory what was found regarding need for privacy and evaluations of differing location (Gifford, 1980)

Answer 8

found neg correlation between need for privacy and evaluations of a cafe (r = -0.22) and city hall (r = -0.17) ie, high need for privacy dislike these location

Question 9

what did Roskams (2019), to study impact of individual cahracteristics and environmental appraisal study

Answer 9

• characteristics of task (task complexity, interactivity)
• characteristics of person (extraversion + noise sensitivity)
• outcomes (acoustic comfort, disturbance by speech, perceived stress, work engagement etc)

Question 10

what did Roskams (2019), find regarding personal characteristic, environments

Answer 10

higher noise sensitivity rate acoustical quality of office more negatively, more disturbed by speech, greater difficulties in concentration, more stressed, lower productivity score

ie, conclude appropriate offices is dependent on individual factors, such as noise sensitivity

Question 11

name 4 components which can makes environment restorative

Answer 11

fascination, being away, coherence, compatibility

Question 12

on perceived restorativeness scale, explain component of fascination that make environment restorative

Answer 12

attention drawn to many interesting thing

Question 13

on perceived restorativeness scale, explain component of being away that make environment restorative

Answer 13

break away from daily routines

Question 14

on perceived restorativeness scale, explain component of coherence that make environment restorative

Answer 14

too much going on

Question 15

on perceived restorativeness scale, explain component of compatibility that make environment restorative

Answer 15

can do things you like doing

Question 16

what did Pals (2009) find in restorative environments

Answer 16

• aspects of zoo attractions make them restorative

diff features make environments differentially restorative on- fascination, novelty, coherence, escape, compatibility

Question 17

Jiang (2021) gave video of urban park, office, street with diff sounds, and finds what

Answer 17

no sounds meant urban street felt worse
nature sounds increased mood in park, lower mood in street
mechanical sound found park reduce moods most
traffic sound reduced mood of all

meaning acoustic environment has a biggest impact on mood, but can interact w/ visual display

Question 18

what effect do restorative enviorn have, explain Mayer (2009) allocation onto 2 bus into different areas of urban towns

Answer 18

• first bus went to urban downtown, 2nd bus went to nature reserve
• toward end of bus ride before went to location, asked ppt to reflect on loose end in life, then when are at location (10min walk, 5 min sit), studied their pos/neg affect schedule ie; I feel more prepared to tie up loose end than I did prior to study
  nature improved positive affect better, and better ability tying loose ends

Question 19

outline Soga & Gaston (2014) systematic review on does spending time in nature restorative environ lead to engage in more pro enviorn beh

Answer 19

direct experience w nature pos correlate w/ actions undertaken with intention of reducing environmental harms, promote protection of natural env

Question 20

outline evolutionary restorative origin

Answer 20

natural features offered resource opportunity/safety so promote survival, so develop biological readiness to display positive affective response toward them

Question 21

suggest issues of evolutionary theory of restorative environment

Answer 21

• many studies on restoration are on undergrads in Western country, hard to test evolutionary and universalist principle
• also, human species always inhabited vegetated environments, implying greenery has always been available to everybody so means unclear why there would have been selection pressure

Question 22

define stress recovery theory

Answer 22

features in natural environment immediately evoke positive affect without conscious recognition, lowering arousal + reducing stress

Question 23

what features are important on stress recovery theory

Answer 23

features include vegetation, symmetries, depth/spatiality cues, absence of threat

if scene draws enough interest then can mean more conscious cog processing, resulting in more conscious and deliberate restorative experience

Question 24

what did Kang & Shin (2020) for stress recovery theory study ie forest therapy

Answer 24

signif stress reduction in student

Question 25

whats forest therapy?

Answer 25

spending time in forest, stress identification, relaxation, showing inner feelings and remove neg emotion

Question 26

explain attention restoration theory

Answer 26

emphasises slower, cognitive mechanism, suggesting we only have limited capacity to direct attention to something that itself isn’t interesting environment fight over attention, resulting in directed attentional fatigue

Question 27

state what attention restoration theory predict counter directional attentional fatique when environment has:

Answer 27

provides fascinations sense of connectedness sense of being away from daily hassles compatible with inclinations

Question 28

outline Mayer (2009) neg eval into attention restoration theory

Answer 28

results show changes in how connected ppts felt to nature (not attentional capacity) mediated effect of exposure to natural vs urban environments on outcomes

Question 29

what does contact w/ nature help for emotion regulation

Answer 29

reappraisal (increasing attentional capacity) having positive effect on wellbeing, neg eff for ill-being less likely rumination, not more likely uses distraction higher attention capac

Question 30

define perceptual fluency account

Answer 30

integrated account of SRT and ART, with central assumption that natural environment processed more fluently than urban, leads to difference in its restorative potential - due to their fractal (self-similar) patterns, which mean that they contain more redundant info than urban scenes

Question 31

compare stress restoration theory + attention restoration theory

Answer 31

stress recovery theory is immediate, attention restoration theory take longer, however perceptual fluency account suggests that nature is easier for processing due to containing more fluent environmental aspect this doesn’t require as much attention

Question 32

how did fractal edge "randomness" indicate relaxed state (Hagerhall, 2015 )

Answer 32

used simple fractals or more complex ie, more edges, and varied fractal edges ‘randomness’ found more random fractals require less attention to process, consistent with idea of perceptual fluency = as indicate ‘relaxed state’ in viewer

Question 33

explain micro-restorative experiences

Answer 33

brief sens contact w/ nature, accumualte over time, improve wellbeing, provide buffer against neg impacts of stressor

Question 34

what are micro-restorative experience effect in instorative effect

Answer 34

evidence for exposure to nature has instorative effects in those not stressed or fatigued meaning it improves mood states and ability to reflect, increased subjective ‘vitality’ or energy levels