1. Social Psychology and the Environment
Applied Module 2
Social Psychology and the Environment
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

2. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Chapter Outline
I. The Environment as a Source of Stress
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

3. The Environment as a Source of Stress
A major source of stress is the environment in which we live.
Noise and crowding are two stressors in our environment.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

4. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Noise as a Source of Stress
Whether people will find loud noise psychologically stressful depends on how much control they feel they have over it.
If they have sufficient control to stop the noise (even if they don’t exercise this control) they do not suffer the typical stress effects (see Glass & Singer, 1972; Fig. SPA2.1).
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

5. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Noise as a Source of Stress
If negative, uncontrollable events continue despite one’s best efforts to overcome them, learned helplessness sets in.
One consequence of learned helplessness is reduced effort and increased difficulty learning new material.
Unfortunately, in modern, urban life, loud noises are often long-lasting and not controllable, two factors that make it highly stressful.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

6. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding as a Source of Stress
Studies show that as crowding increases in prisons, for example, disciplinary problems, suicides, and overall death rates also increase.
Studies at universities find that students living in crowded dorms are more withdrawn socially and are more likely to show signs of learned helplessness than those in less crowded dorms.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

7. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding as a Source of Stress
Studies of elderly show similar effects of crowding.
Morgan and Stewart (1998) found that elderly people suffering from dementia who were moved to a new special care unit where conditions were less crowded (eg, private rooms compared to the old units with 2-4 beds per room)
showed beneficial effects such as decreases in disruptive behaviour (eg, resisting care) compared to controls who remained in the old units.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

8. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding as a Source of Stress
What is it about crowding that is so aversive?
To answer this question, we must first recognize that the presence of many others is not always unpleasant.
This lead researchers to make a distinction between density and crowding.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

9. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding as a Source of Stress
Density is the number of people who occupy a given space.
Crowding is the subjective feeling of unpleasantness due to the presence of other people.
When will density turn into crowding?
It depends on how much control people feel they have over the crowded situation.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

10. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding and Perceived Control
Studies show that the effect of crowding on performance is similar to that of noise—when perceived control is low, crowding affects our ability to perform (see Sherrod, 1974 high school study; Fig. SPA2.2).
Thus, it is important for people to feel they can control how crowded and noisy their environments are.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

11. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding and Expectations
A second factor that affects the perception of crowding is expectations.
If the number of people present exceeds that expected then the situation is perceived as crowded (see Columbia Icefields example).
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

12. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding and Attribution
A third factor that determines when density becomes crowding is the attributions that people make for the arousal that derives from the mere presence of others.
If people attribute their arousal to the presence of other people, they will interpret it as a sign that the setting is too crowded, and feel uncomfortable, cramped, and irritated.
If they attribute their arousal to another source, they will not feel crowded.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

13. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Crowding and Sensory Overload
Lastly, crowding will be aversive if it leads to sensory overload.
Sensory overload is the situation in which we receive more stimulation from the environment than we can pay attention to, or process.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

14. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Toxic Environments as a Source of Stress
Toxic environments produce stress.
Sydney Tar Ponds, NS, is Canada’s worst toxic waste site, resulting from nearly a century of emissions and waste products from Sydney’s Synco steel plant.
Researchers at the University College of Cape Breton recently interviewed junior high-school students attending the school near the Tar Ponds (O’Leary & Covell, 2002).
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

15. The Environment as a Source of Stress
Toxic Environments as a Source of Stress
They found that these adolescents reported worrying about environmental issues and about their own health and that of their families__more so than students attending a school 40 km away.
And, that those who worried most about health also showed the highest level of depression.
Overall depression levels were higher among both groups of adolescents than the national average.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

16. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Chapter Outline
II. Using Social Psychology to Change Environmentally Damaging Behaviour
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

17. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
Many environmental problems, such as water conservation, energy conservation, and litter reduction, etc., are classic social dilemmas.
A social dilemma is a conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone.
A variant of this is called the commons social dilemma.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

18. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
A commons dilemma is a situation in which everyone takes from a common pool of goods that which will replenish itself if used in moderation, but which will disappear if overused, e.g., limited resources such as water and energy.
Individuals benefit by using as much as they need, but, if everyone does so, shortages often result, i.e., if too many people act in their own self-interest then everyone suffers.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

19. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
How can we resolve social dilemmas, convincing people to act for the greater good of everyone, rather than purely out of self-interest?
Social psychologists have had some success in getting people to act in a more environmentally friendly way by using proven techniques to change attitudes and behaviours.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

20. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
i) Use of small group discussion and normative pressures, for example, in the case of convincing people to donate to charity (see Orbell et al, 1988;Table SPA2.1), or to recycle products in Toronto (Scott, 1999).
ii) Use of the hypocrisy technique to convince students to conserve water by taking shorter showers (Dickerson et al, 1992), and to purchase condoms (Aronson and students), and to convince people to recycle materials such as bottles, cans, and newspapers (Fried & Aronson, 1995).
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

21. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
iii) Use of comparative feedback to motivate people to conserve electricity (see Siero et al, 1996; Fig. SPA2.3).
iv) Use of descriptive norms to reduce littering (Cialdini et al, 1990; Fig. SPA2.4); this works in a wide variety of situations.
Descriptive norms are people’s perceptions of how other people are actually behaving in a given situation, regardless of what behaviours are socially sanctioned.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

22. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
v) This is as opposed to the use of injunctive norms, which have been found to reduce littering as well, although not as effectively as descriptive norms.
Injunctive norms are socially sanctioned behaviours—i.e., people’s perceptions of what behaviours are approved of by others.
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

23. Using Social Psychology to Change Behaviours
Resolving Social Dilemmas
vi) Use of mass media campaign to convince people that recycling materials (eg, glass, paper, aluminum, etc.) to reduce the amount of garbage taken to landfills is desirable (Cheung et al, 1999).
vii) Removing barriers to recycling by instituting curbside recycling, and allowing residents to mix materials instead of having to sort them all have been found to increase people’s recycling behaviour.
The End
© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.