Environmental Psychology 4 -Spatial planning and design

Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)

Lecture 4: Spatial planning and design

Environmental perception

Compared to traditional perception research:

  • Perceiver is in the scene
  • Perceiver is purposive, has a plan
  • Stimuli are complex (Berleyne’s three classes of stimulus properties):
  1. Psychophysical: intensity of stimulation, brightness of colors, volume of sound
  2. Ecological: indicative of positive or negative environmental conditions for people
  3. Collative stimulus properties

Collative stimulus properties

Properties based on comparisons between elements in the stimulus field:
  • Order=e.g.:symmetry
  • Complexity
  • Diversity =organized complexity
Properties based on comparisons between succession of stimuli:
  • Newness
  • Surprisingness

Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S.,1989. The experience of nature. A psychological perspective

                                 BASIC NEEDS

                  Understanding      Exploration
---------------------------------------------

Immediate  Coherence             Diversity

Inferred,       Legibility                 Mystery
Predicted

Coherence: A coherent scene is orderly: it hangs together
Diversity: The number of different elements in a scene: its richness
Legibility: A well-structured space with distinctive elements, so that it is easy both to find one’s way within the scene and to find one’s way back to the starting point
Mystery: The promise of further information if one could walk deeper into the scene

Territoriality 

Pattern of behavior and attitudes based on perceived, attempted or actual control of a definable physical space, involving occupation, defense, personalization, and marking
 
Types of terriroriality:
  • Primary (home, or spaces within home (e.g. bedroom)
  • Secondary (office, lobby, stairway, elevator)
  • Public (park, sidewalk, beach, parking place)
Effects of terriroriality/ownership
  • Infringement (invasion, violation, contamination) and defense (preventative reaction)
  • Warding off crime (defensible space), creating social order, improve maintenance (e.g. ‘adoption’ of neighbourhood park, playground, highway)

 Applications in design and management for public territory

Neighbourhoods: increased ownership --> improved safety, reduced noise and air pollution, made surveillance easier
Hospitals: increased personalization --> increased wellbeing, faster recovery
 

Kaplan, R. & Austin, M. E., 2004. Out in the country: sprawl and the quest for nature nearby

  • People like to live near nature
  • On an aggregate level this causes urban sprawl and the destruction of nature
  • So for people moved to live “out in the country”, what were the main reasons?

Research questions:

  • Which kind of nature is specifically liked?
  • How important is nature for community satisfaction?
  • Is there a way to solve the dilemma, make solutions more environmentally sustainable

Conclusion of research:

  • Forest is most important satisfier of “living out in the country”
  • Having a forest nearby is more satisfying than having a big house
    • Having smaller houses and leaving more room for forests is better
  • Based on perceived ownership:
    • Communally owned forests may be the way to preserve forests

Devlin, A. S., Andrade, C. C., & Carvalho, D., 2016. Qualities of inpatient hospital rooms: Patients’ perspectives

Ulrich’s theory of supportive design in healthcare

  • Design can promote well-being when three essential needs are addressed:

    • Sense of control over surroundings (e.g., single rooms, adjustable bed, control over TV)
    • Access to social support (e.g., bedside phone, privacy, seating for visitors, or overnight accommodations)
    • Access to positive distractions (e.g., natural view, plants, music, TV)

Evans, G. W., Lepore, S. J., & Schroeder, A.,1996. The role of interior design elements in human responses to crowding.

  • High density leads to psychological distress
  • High density leads to social withdrawal
  • High density in home disturbs supportive relationships
  • Few studies on interior design and crowding
  • Floor-plan likely to influence social interaction patterns within home

Space syntax:architectural theory on elements and relationships in design

Depth: the number of spaces one must pass through to go from one place to the next
 
Conclusion of study: 
  • Distress due to high density can be prevented by increased architectural depth
  • Ease of controlling social interaction reduces social withdrawal
  • Paradox: people have better, more supportive  relationships when environment facilitates being alone

Evans, G. W., & Kim, P., 2007. Childhood poverty and health. Cumulative risk exposure and stress dysregulation

Childhood poverty leads to increased morbidity, decreased life span
 
Multiple risks:
  • Housing quality

    • Substandard housing
  • Physical context
    • Noise 
    • Inside density (people/room ratio)
  • Social context
    • Family turmoil
    • Child’s separation from parents
    • Exposure to violence

Findings in study:

  • Cortisol level higher by longer poverty duration; not mediated by multiple risk (possibly due to delay in effect)
  • Longer poverty period related to less adequate stress regulation as shown by blood pressure changes during Math task; mediated by multiple risk
  •  Children are more at risk to stressors when they are younger

Conclusion: 

  • “Elevated cumulative risk exposure during early childhood compromises the ability of the body to handle environmental demands efficiently”
  • Stress dysregulation potentially explains association between childhood social class (NOT adult social class) and morbidity/mortality

Staats, H., & Groot, P. (2019). Seat choice in a crowded cafe: Effects of eye contact, distance, and anchoring.

Where people want to sit in a café relates to the spatial position of other nearby people
Intimacy and privacy levels may determine seat choice

Keeping distance: two factors:

  • Intimacy

    • Approach and avoidance tendencies in an interpersonal setting

      • Hypothesis 1a: minimal eye-contact
      • Hypothesis 1b: maximal distance
  • Privacy
    • Control over social input
      •     Hypothesis 1c: maximal privacy

Secondary measures:

  • Emotional response to available seats

    • Two components: “pleasure” and “arousal”
  • Social cognitions
    • Three components: “sad-lonely”, “voluntary contact”, and “obliged contact”

Results of study: What seating preference did participants indicate?

  • Participants indicated preference for a low eye-contact seat (Scenario 1) and for a seat that was ‘anchored’ to a wall and thus more private (Scenario 3). Unexpectedly, the size of the table (Scenario 2) did not influence seating preference.

Conclusion:

  • Most of the lone café visitors will prefer a less intimate, more private kind of seat, in accordance with theory
  • However, a minority of people actually prefers a more intimate, less private kind of seat, which they find both pleasurable and arousing
 

Image

Access: 
Public

Image

Image

 

 

Contributions: posts

Help other WorldSupporters with additions, improvements and tips

Add new contribution

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

Image

Spotlight: topics

Image

Check how to use summaries on WorldSupporter.org

Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams

How and why use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?

  • For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
  • For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
  • For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
  • For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
  • For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.

Using and finding summaries, notes and practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter

There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.

  1. Use the summaries home pages for your study or field of study
  2. Use the check and search pages for summaries and study aids by field of study, subject or faculty
  3. Use and follow your (study) organization
    • by using your own student organization as a starting point, and continuing to follow it, easily discover which study materials are relevant to you
    • this option is only available through partner organizations
  4. Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
  5. Use the menu above each page to go to the main theme pages for summaries
    • Theme pages can be found for international studies as well as Dutch studies

Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?

Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance

Main summaries home pages:

Main study fields:

Main study fields NL:

Follow the author: Ilona
Work for WorldSupporter

Image

JoHo can really use your help!  Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world

Working for JoHo as a student in Leyden

Parttime werken voor JoHo

Statistics
2337