Environmental psychology: interpersonal environment and effects

of urban living & green space on wellbeing

Alan Porter
October 2021

Lecture plan
 Environmental psychology – brief intro
 Interpersonal environment
 personal space and proxemics
 territory
 crowding
 People in different surroundings
 effects of urban living
 psychological effects of city life – health and wellbeing
 restorative effects of nature

Reading
 For overview of Environmental Psychology
 Myers & Twenge (2016) Chapter 16
 Bell, P.A., Green, T.A., Fisher, J.D., & Baum, A. (2001). Environmental Psychology, 5th ed. Belmont, CA:
Thomson/Wadsworth. pp 40-50, Chs 8-10.
 Gifford, R. (2014). Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice, 5th ed, Optimal Books. Chs 5, 6, 8.
 Clayton, S. & Myers, G (2009). Conservation Psychology. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Ch 5, Theoretical
foundations for the human response to nature.
 Koger, S.M. & Winter, D.D.N. (2010). The Psychology of Environmental Problems, 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ:
LEA. Ch 8, Health and the psychology of environmental stress
 Steg, L., van den Berg, A. E., & de Groot, J. I. M. (2013). Environmental Psychology: An Introduction. (BPS
Textbooks in Psychology). Chichester, U. K.: Wiley-Blackwell.

‘What has the environment got to do with psychology?’

 Mental processes
 Beliefs, values and attitudes about environment
 psychological wellbeing in different surroundings
 Behaviour
 behaviour in different surroundings
 pro- and ‘anti’-environmental behaviour
 anthropogenic causes of environmental crisis
 behaviour change
 The environmental crisis
 human attitudes and behaviours are crucial
Anthropogenic and the Anthropocene
 Anthropogenic
 Originating in human activity
 Anthropocene
 Period where human activities are such that they these have activities have such a widespread effect that they
constitute a distinctive geological period (like the Jurassic Period)
 Term is contested
Environmental psychology
 Definitions, Bell et al (2001)
 Environmental psychology
 “the study of the inter-relationship between behaviour and experience and the built and natural environment”
 Environment
 “one’s surroundings …
frequently … refer[s] to a specific part …
social environment … physical environment … natural (nonhuman) environment … built environment”

Environmental psychology – Our focus

 Definitions, Bell et al (2001)
 environmental psychology
 “the study of the inter-relationship between behaviour and experience and the built and natural environment”
 environment
 “one’s surroundings …
frequently … refer[s] to a specific part …
social environment … physical environment … natural (nonhuman) environment … built environment”

 The immediate space around us

 personal space

Personal space
 Katz (1937)
 Sommer (1969) “an area with invisible boundaries, surrounding a person’s body into which intruders may not
come”
 we attribute negative
characteristics to those
who interact with us
at distance we feel
uncomfortable with –
too near or too far
Personal space
 Gifford (2014)
 it varies with different circumstances – so gradient, not boundary
 proxemics: the study of
interpersonal distances
 Hall (1966)
Factors affecting personal space
 Caution – much research in USA – generalizable?

 angle of orientation of the people

 e.g. sideways or facing
 eye contact
 physical setting
 light level, indoors or outdoors, room size, situation (e.g in queues)

Factors affecting personal space:

personal characteristics
 relationship of the two people
 from close family through to strangers
 age
 small children have smaller
personal space;
 gradual increase to adulthood
 Tannis & Dabbs (1975)
Factors affecting personal space:
personal characteristics continued
 gender, in adults
 distance for pairs increases across:
 male-female; female-female; male-male
 e.g. Bell et al (1988)
 BUT results are variable – may reflect
 gender socialisation rather than innate differences
 e.g. Balogun (1991); Atsuko (2003)
 ethnicity and age shown to influence gender results
 Severy et al (1979)

Factors affecting personal space: individual differences

 people with the same personal characteristics can nonetheless differ in personal space
 for example: degree of extraversion, anxiety, interdependent versus independent
Factors affecting personal space: culture
 personal spaces varies between cultures
 not necessarily to do with ethnicity, and not clear cut
 important – contribution to negative cultural stereotypes
 people from cultures with different personal space may come to feel antagonistic
 one may feel the other is too pushy, the other may feel the first is unfriendly
 training can help, e.g. Beaulieu (2004)
 “The study of intercultural differences in personal space attempts to identify factors that could be helpful in
guiding people from different cultures to live and work together”

Personal space – measurement issues

 most common measurement method –
stop-distance technique measure in lab
 participant asked to walk towards another person until they begin to feel uncomfortable
 the other person can be from all the range of human variability, and of relationship with the participant
 reliable
 produces similar measurements in the same type of situation on different occasions
 valid?
 participant aware of their “task”
Personal space – measurement issues
 method to prevent participant awareness
 Gifford and Sacilotto (1993)
 when participant arrived for study, researcher said “come over here and we’ll get started”
 when participant stopped, distance measured
 measurements from observations in natural situations?
 many uncontrolled variables
 relationship unknown
 measurement difficult
 may be unethical
 nonetheless, some useful information from such studies
Territory and territoriality
 Territory - usually a fixed physical space
 Territoriality – pattern of behaviour and attitudes related to an “owned” territory
 occupation
 defence
 marking
 personalisation
Systems of territories
 Altman (1975)
 primary, secondary, public
 objects and ideas
 Lyman & Scott (1967)
 two additional types
 interactional territories
 body territory
 prior residence effect on interactions between individuals
 natural or sport outcomes
 e.g. home field advantage, Cornuneya & Carron (1992)
Crowding / density
 John B. Calhoun
 Animal Studies (rats and mice)
 Population Density and Social Pathology Scientific American (1962)
 Rat utopia
 Unlimited food, bedding, shelter, low exposure to disease, no predators
 Little space.
 Result
 population boom followed by extinction.
 “The behavioral sink”

The mouse Utopia of John Calhoun. Do not watch if you have a phobia or rodents or get upset watching mice biting each other.

https://youtu.be/0Z760XNy4VM?t=81

Crowding / density
 Stokols (1972)
 density: number of people in given space
 crowding: subjective judgment that too many people are present
 can lead to psychological stress
 Living conditions – the more people in a given area, the greater the likelihood of
 ill health; mental health problems; alcohol use
 impact on children’s growth, development, behaviour
 some, but not all, anti-social behaviours
Crowded living conditions - methodological issues
 Very difficult to conduct controlled studies –
 occasional real-life random allocation (e.g. students in halls of residence, patients in hospital rooms)
 Most studies are correlational
 Many other variables may affect health and wellbeing
 high density districts may have more pollution from industry, busy roads, etc
 social support may be protective
 but high indoor density can reduce social support - individuals may quarrel more or seek privacy
 high density housing or high density area?
 individual differences in crowding preferences
Cities tend to be crowded:
psychological effects of city life
 to be considered
 theoretical perspectives on urban living effects
 the effects
 stress and related issues
 mechanisms for coping with stress
 biophilia
  restorative effects of nature
 attention restoration theory
 stress reduction focus

Urban living effects - theoretical perspectives

 perceptual overload / over-stimulation of cities
 number of stimuli eg number of people, cars, buildings
 over-staffing – induces feelings of competition, exclusion
 environmental stress
 particular negative stimuli eg noise, crowding
 constraints on behaviour
 eg due to traffic, crowds, fear of crime
 adaptation
 various types of environment to select from
 urban dwellers adapt, to some degree at least
when personal space is completely invaded …
urban population growth
 “The urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and
continues to grow”
Psychological effects of urban living
 stress more common
 helping behaviour reduces
 bystander-(non)intervention
 less likely to interact with strangers
 bus-stop conversations, people who ask for directions
 ‘familiar stranger’
 crime, and/or fear of crime, increases
 homelessness
 impact on the homeless and others

The stress response

 normal physiological and psychological response to stress
 if stressful situation is maintained
 stress response maintained, which causes physical damage and adverse psychological effects
 NOTE people vary in what they find stressful
 Fisher et al. (1984)
 pointed out that ‘physiological and psychological stress reactions are interrelated, and do not occur alone’

Stress-associated health and wellbeing risks

 physical
 vulnerability to infection; possible increase in conditions such as
 cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, alcohol and substance abuse
 psychological
 annoyance, anger, rage
 anxiety, apprehension, fear
 depression, sadness, grief
 PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
Mechanisms for coping with stress
• emotion-focused, palliative
• problem-focused, direct action
 emotion-focused versus problem-focused
 short-term
 both coping mechanisms can reduce stress
 long term
 emotion-focused
 stressor remains, could produce long term damage
  problem-focused
 allows feeling of control, doing something to remove stressor - and may actually remove it

Biophilia: the human inclination to affiliate with life

 Kellert & Wilon, 1993, proposed that biophilia is innate, part of our species’ evolutionary heritage, and
associated with human competitive advantage and genetic fitness
 linked with possibilities for achieving individual meaning and personal fulfilment
 the self-interested basis for a human ethic of care and conservation of nature
 critique
 not easy to test; takes no account of cultural evolutionary processes
 extent to which individuals are drawn to nature is variable
 one determinant – childhood experience

Restorative effects of nature

 exposure to natural environments has various positive effects
 proposed mechanisms
 attention restoration theory
 the Kaplans
 stress reduction
 Ulrich and her colleagues

Restorative effects of nature:

attention restoration theory
 Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Kaplan 1995, 2001
 directed attention required for many tasks
 mechanism, under intentional control
 directed attention fatigue
 while studying or working
 impaired mental competence
 restoration required
 sleep helps
 also, nature

Restorative effects of nature in stress reduction, continued

 exposure to nature
 green exercise
 three week wilderness vacations (Hartig et al., 1991)
 better performance on cognitive task than after non-wilderness vacations or no vacation
 various types of green exercise (Barton & Pretty, 2010)
 difference in self esteem and mood (mental health)

Restorative effects of nature – methodological issues

 often not controlled studies, but correlational research
 e.g. studies of children with ADHD
 Kuo & Taylor (2004) USA parents rated effects on symptoms
 green outdoor v. built outdoor & indoor settings
 reduction of symptoms greater for green outdoor than for other settings
 limitations: not random sample; not random allocation to conditions; parents’ reports
 Taylor&Kuo (2009) walk in park, downtown, neighbourhood; random order of conditions; concentration
measure
 concentration better after park than after downtown or neighbourhood