Psych 372 Environmental Psychology (6 Env & Personality)

8/11/2019 Psych 372 Environmental Psychology (6 Env & Personality)

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Environment and Personality



Overview

• The ancient roots – Murray and Lewin

• A few models

• Locus of control• Introversion

• Noise, furniture, office environments

• More comprehensive survey instruments

• ERI• Application- where will people live? Who should make policy

decisions for us? How does an architect fit place to person?



Older ideas were not really rooted inenvironmental psychology

• Kurt Lewin

• Remember B=f(P, E)

• Well this is the P part

• Lewin talked about the “foreign hull” – that part of theenvironment that is outside of the life space

• Division between the life space and the foreign hull ispermeable.

• Much discussion in env psych can be characterized as a debate

about this permeability



Another older idea

• Henry Murray’s “personology”

• Pioneer of personality theory

• Talked about “press” – the power of the environment to

influence well-being• Alpha press – influence of objective external environment

• Beta press – perceived effects



Locus of control

• Locus of control -> are you the master of yourdomain?

• Locus of control measures have been found to

correlate with a vast number of things• For us, some important ones are:

• Environmental attitudes – internal locus of control makes pro-environmental attitudes more likely

• Health care – those with internal locus of control are more likely to

want to feel like collaborators in their care. Externals would ratherleave everything to the experts

• Education – in measures of scholastic achievement, open,unstructured environments favour internals. Structuredenvironments favour externals



Introversion-Extraversion

• This was an old measure of Eysenck

• Has received a great deal of scrutiny lately, especiallyin the context of the environment

• Note that Gifford’s claim that introverts “don’t enjoybeing with others” is a fallacy

• Introverts give energy to people rather than take itfrom them

• Introversion is not the same as shyness



Introversion-Extraversion and noise

• Numerous studies have shown increasedsensitivity and decreased tolerance for noisyenvironments in introverts

• Slight differences in resting pulse

• Introverts more disturbed in reading comprehensiontasks



Introversion-Extraversion andfurniture placement

• One well-cited study shows that professorshave office arrangements related to personality

• Extraverts sit on same side of desk as visitors

• Introverts place desk between selves and visitors

• Another study showed differences in livingroom furniture related to personality

• Extraverts had more seats, closer spacing, group

seating• Introverts favoured more spacing and individual

chairs rather than group seating



Environmental Response Inventory

• George McKechnie

• First really comprehensive inventory of personalityrelated to environmental preferences

• 184 items divided into 8 categories, but eventuallyshortened to 20 items per category



Pastoralism

• Opposition to land development, concern aboutpopulation growth, preservation of naturalspaces

• Sample items

• “Our national forests should be preserved in theirnatural state, with roads and buildings prohibited”

• “Birth control practices should be accepted byeveryone”



Urbanism

• Enjoyment of high density living, appreciationof varied stimulus patterns

• Examples:• “I would enjoy riding in a crowded subway”

• “I like the variety of stimulation one finds in the city”

• “Cities bring together interesting people”



Environmental Adaptation

• Opposition to government control over privateland use, preference for highly designedenvironments

• Examples

• “A person has a right to modify the environment tosuit their needs”

• “I like to go to shopping centres where everything isin one place”



Stimulus seeking

• Interest in travel and exploration of unusualplaces

• Examples• “I would enjoy travelling around the world on a sailing

ship”

• “I like to ride on roller coasters”

• “Alleys are interesting places to explore”



Environmental Trust

• General environmental openness,responsiveness and trust, security of home

• Examples• “I often have trouble finding my way around a new

area”

• “I’d be afraid to live in a place where there were nopeople nearby”

• “I shudder at the thought of finding a spider in mybed”



Antiquarianism

• Enjoyment of historical places, preference fortraditional design

• Examples• “modern buildings are seldom as attractive as older

ones”

• “I am quite sensitive to the “character” of a building”

• “I enjoy browsing in antique shops”



Need for Privacy

• Need for physical isolation, freedom fromdistraction

• Examples• “There are often time when I need complete silence”

• “I get annoyed when people drop by without warning”



Mechanical orientation

• Interest in mechanics, technology, thefunctional properties of objects

• Examples• “I enjoy tinkering with mechanical things”

• “I usually save spare nuts and bolts”



Communality

• A validity scale testing honesty in test-taking

• Examples

• “I like to visit historical places” • “As a child I was taught respect for all living things”



Uses of the ERI

• Migration

• It used to be that we only moved if we had to but nowthere is “free” migration. Some of us can move if we

want to.• Kegel-Flom showed that scores on the ERI were

significant predictors of where graduatingoptometrists would eventually practice



Kegel-Flom’s main finding



Uses of the ERI

• Architectural assessments

• McKechnie and others have said these all too oftenproceed clinically rather than actuarilly .

• Having an easy-to-administer scale might make iteasy for someone not versed in individualpsychoanalysis to make sense of a client’s needs



Uses of the ERI

• Policy formation for environmental decision-making

• It’s very possible that there is implicit value bias in

different professions• We’ve already seen a form of this in action in our comparison

of architects and laypersons

• Such biases could form important barriers to

interdisciplinary decision-making that’s inevitable inenvironmental decision-making



An example of possible implicit valuebiases



Summary

• Roots of personality and environment lie inearly history

• Only recently have there been scales directlydesigned to assess personality variablesrelated to the environment

• The most comprehensive is the ERI, which has

been shown to have predictive value

• Many more ideas in the textbook

Psych 372 Environmental Psychology (6 Env & Personality)

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