Juan Ignacio Aragones

Complutense University of Madrid | UCM · Department of Social Psychology

The polysemy of the term "nature" complicates the precise understanding of the image that individuals form of it. In this research we examine how people organize nature based on the degree of representativeness of its elements and to what extent this taxonomy is associated with individuals of different sociodemographic characteristics. For this pur...

Increased interest in the study of the relationships between human and nonhuman animals over the past few decades has often focused on what factors shape people’s attitudes and treatment towards nonhuman animals. Some scholars have focused on features of the nonhuman animals (cuteness, intelligence, and utility) and how those features predict human...

The purpose of this study was to examine how attitudes toward different nonhuman animal species (including emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, and harm avoidance) are shaped by the coevolutionary histories between the ancestors of contemporary humans and these different nonhuman animal species. We compared the explanatory power of alternative cat...

Recent wastewater analyses performed in care homes for the elderly showed high levels of water pollution resulting from pharmaceutical waste. The way people perceive the environmental risk of pharmaceuticals can contribute to reversing this problem, but the factors that influence risk perception remain relatively unknown. The aims of the study are...

People relate to nature physically, cognitively and emotionally, and this relationship fosters their well-being. There are several types of environments that vary according to their degree of naturalness, raising the question of whether they each exert different effects on people, connectedness and well-being. In order to study the extent to which...

Las personas interactúan con la Naturaleza tanto a nivel físico como cognitivo y emocional, y la investigación científica ha puesto de manifiesto la capacidad de la Naturaleza de procurar el bienestar de las personas. Con el objetivo de conocer si el contacto con la Naturaleza se relaciona con mayores niveles de conectividad con la Naturaleza como...

Several instruments have been developed to measure the human beings-nature relationship, one of which is the Love and Care for Nature Scale. Three studies were conducted with the aim of analyzing to what extent the construct of love and care for nature, responds to two empirically different dimensions, as well as conducting a psychometric study of...

This study aims to contribute to the risk management of pharmaceuticals in the environment, illustrating risk perceptions of lay people and experts from Southwestern Europe (Portugal, Spain, and France). The psychometric paradigm was applied to assess risk regarding four hazards: pharmaceuticals in the environment (i.e., broadly framed), pharmaceut...

This text presents some reflections from an environmental psychology perspective on how prolonged confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the general population and what the consequences might be for future research in the field.

In a context of progressive expansion of the Italian forest area, we present the results of a national survey exploring public perception of forests across different geographical scales in Italy. Perceptions of forests are assessed in relation to popular beliefs on relevant environmental issues such as countering climate change, protecting biodiver...

La psicología social tiene como objeto de estudio abordar precisamente este tipo de situaciones, en las que los hechos sociales y la psicología están estrechamente unidos. Por eso,hemos solicitado a diez especialistas de nuestro ámbito que realizaran una pequeña reflexión sobre lo que, desde su campo de investigación, nuestra disciplina podría apor...

En este monográfico se presentan 10 propuestas teóricas sobre la forma en que la Psicología Social puede —potencialmente— ayudar a afrontar la pandemia del COVID-19. En concreto, en estas propuestas se discute: a) cómo se podrían utilizar distintos modelos teóricos para entender mejor la pandemia, sus consecuencias y cómo afrontarlas; b) la importa...

En este monográfico se presentan 10 propuestas teóricas sobre la forma en que la Psicología Social puede —potencialmente— ayudar a afrontar la pandemia del COVID-19. En concreto, en estas propuestas se discute: a) cómo se podrían utilizar distintos modelos teóricos para entender mejor la pandemia, sus consecuencias y cómo afrontarlas; b) la importa...

Background: Most studies focused on measuring environmental attitudes consider a one-dimension measure of pro/anti-environmentalism, such as NEP scale. Nevertheless, more recent research has shown that it seems more adequate to use a multidimensional approach when assessing complex relations among people and the natural environment, particularly o...

The presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment is an emergent unknown environmental problem, linked to increased production and consumption of pharmaceuticals and, as such, understanding risk perception is fundamental. This study focuses on exploring causes (trust and knowledge) and effects (intention and proper individual disposal of pharmaceu...

The concept of nature frequently appears in the literature, and yet it has rarely been explained. One way of understanding it makes reference to the degree of human intervention, creating a classification on a continuum from totally natural to non-natural environments. In order to identify the empirical categories into which this continuum is organ...

This work reflects on the role of psychology in the face of a deteriorating environment, showing a symbiosis between two psychological disciplines, environmental psychology and social intervention psychology. The text highlights the alarming environmental situation in which planet Earth finds itself due to human behavior, and the implications this...

The Connectedness to Nature Scale has been used in many different countries and settings. However, no one has yet tested the equivalence of these measures. Equivalence of measures has been the subject of much research in recent years, due to the importance of measuring in the same way when comparing between different groups. The present work studie...

Anonymized data CNS. (XLSX)

Personalization of space is constructed through the cues that the owner leaves in the space. These cues, mostly objects, are also a basic part of the extended self. To check if there is a differentiate discourse consistent with the categories in which the objects belong, three studies are carried out. After obtaining a list of the most representati...

One of the main pursuits, yet most difficult, in monitoring studies is to identify the sources of environmental pollution. In this study, we have identified health-care facilities from south European countries as an important source of pharmaceuticals in the environment. We have estimated that compounds consumed in by the elderly and released from...

The personalization of space is constructed through the items that the resident distributes around the space they inhabit, and they can be considered part of the resident’s self. Three studies were conducted with the goal of establishing the categories into which the objects contained in bedrooms can be organized and to evaluate to what extent thes...

Approval of hierarchy and inequality in society indexed by social dominance orientation (SDO) extends to support for human dominance over the natural world. We tested this negative association between SDO and environmentalism and the validity of the new Short Social Dominance Orientation scale in two cross-cultural samples of students (N = 4,163, k...

The Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) is used as a measure of the subjective cognitive connection between individuals and nature. However, to date, it has not been analyzed at the item level to confirm its quality. In the present study, we conduct such an analysis based on Item Response Theory. We employed data from previous studies using the Spa...

The chapter begins by making a conceptual reflection of the relation between, terms such as wellbeing and the quality of life, based on a contextualization of the residential satisfaction. Thereafter, a revision is carried out on the pioneer research in residential satisfaction. Concretely, the chapter shows how these studies find out evaluation cr...

People leave ‘footprints’ in the environment in which they live and these become cues that reflect the occupants' identity. The aim of the present study was to determine the inferences about sociodemographic and personality traits made from the observation of primary spaces, and to identify the cues that facilitate such inferences. In Study 1, part...

This study applies the " psychometric paradigm " of risk perception to the heavy mineral spill in the Sonora River (Mexico). A total of 241 inhabitants of the polluted area with a mean age of 46.3 years participated in the study, completing an interview questionnaire at the onset of the disaster. The results allow us to establish a profile of the 1...

El tatuaje y su relación con características personales y sociales The tattoo and its relation with personal and social characteristics Resumen Tatuarse es una práctica cada vez más frecuente en sociedades occidentales. Este trabajo analiza la relación existente entre el tatuaje y distintas variables de carácter personal y social. La muestra for-ma...

p> This paper contrasts high and low-density residential and functional environments through an assessment of the pleasure and arousal said environments elicit. The relationships between these affective dimensions and a measure of emotional well-being and personality traits are also explored. Two hundred thirty-eight university students assessed th...

Personal and political action on climate change is traditionally thought to be motivated by people accepting its reality and importance. However, convincing the public that climate change is real faces powerful ideological obstacles 1–4 , and climate change is slipping in public importance in many countries 5,6. Here we investigate a diierent appro...

The home is the central place in a person’s life, in relation to which they develop strong bonds of attachment. The living room is the most public and representative space of the home. This article aims to ascertain the extent to which attachment to the home is related with control and place identity. It also studies the extent to which the represe...

Personal and political action on climate change is traditionally thought to be motivated by people accepting its reality and importance. However, convincing the public that climate change is real faces powerful ideological obstacles1–4, and climate change is slipping in public importance in many countries5,6. Here we investigate a di�erent approach...

Warmth and competence are universal dimensions of social perception that articulate the perception of other individuals and social groups. However, there are no scales that have systematically been used in psychosocial research. The purpose of this study is to construct two scales, one on warmth and another on competence, which could be used at the...

Connectedness with Nature (CNS) and Environmental Identity (EID) have been developed to explain the incorporation of natural environment into the self, however, there is not conclusive information about the role they can play as predictors of pro-environmental behaviours (PEB). Was analysed the responses of 306 undergraduate students who completed...

In the present article, a concise review is done about the academic and institutional circumstances and about some of the events that led to the formation of the Asociacion de Psicologia Ambiental (PSICAMB) and its first years. Alongside this, the article focuses on the papers that have been presented throughout the twelve conferences and biannual...

Connectedness with Nature (CNS) and Environmental Identity (EID) have been developed to explain the incorporation of natural environment into the self, however, there is not conclusive information about the role they can play as predictors of pro-environmental behaviours (PEB). Was analysed the responses of 306 undergraduate students who completed...

People leave their marks on the environment through the personalization of their spaces. In this regard, personalized space will allow people to make inferences regarding the occupant's personal and social characteristics. This research attempts to study the issue of impression formation based on the cues that people leave behind in their primary s...

RESUMEN. Las valoraciones del medio ambiente son también una representación cognitiva de sí mismo, que se ha estudiado a través de la Conectividad con la Naturaleza. Investigaciones vinculan dimensiones del self con la conservación y la preocupación ambientales, sin embargo, no hay estudios acerca del concepto de self subyacente al de Conectividad....

People's assessment about the environment is also a cognitive representation of themselves, studied through the Connectedness with Nature. Research has linked dimensions of Self to environmental conservation and concern; however, there are not studies inquiring about the concept of self underlying such connectedness. In this, both themes were compa...

Las excursiones e itinerarios a través de entornos naturales son frecuentes en la educación ambiental, pero existe poca evidencia empírica de investigaciones que aporten resultados que permitan comprender mejor los efectos de las experiencias de contacto directo con ambientes naturales, y menos aún acerca de su relación con la conectividad con la n...

150 words maximum) Research in the area of restorative effects has shown the positive effects of contact with nature on wellbeing. On the other hand, research in the area of exercise recognizes the physical and psychological benefits for individuals, and more recently, those related to outdoor practice, particularly in natural environments. This st...

This research aims to investigate whether individuals use categories of objects to classify cues inside a bedroom and to find relations between those clusters and occupants’ personality traits. Three studies were conducted. A list of the most significant belongings inside residents’ bedrooms was obtained from the pilot study. The second study (N =...

Different measures have been proposed to study the connection between self and nature, a concept known as Connectedness to Nature. One such measure is the IAT-Nature. It is an implicit association test between stimuli that has received many comments in the literature about its methodological conditions and its relationship with other explicit measu...

Different measures have been proposed to study the connection between self and nature, a concept known as Connectedness to Nature. One such measure is the IAT-Nature. It is an implicit association test between stimuli that has received many comments in the literature about its methodological conditions and its relationship with other explicit measu...

Albeit there is research about basic concepts involved in environmental education, enough evidence is lacking about the experiences of contact with natural environments, so common in this field, and even less about his relationship with Connectedness with Nature, Environmental Concerns and Pro-environmental Behavior. We report results of two studie...

This paper proposes a theoretically integrated structure made up of four dimensions pertaining to environmental concern: apathy, anthropocentrism, connectedness, and emotional affinity. These four dimensions are distributed along a gradient that reflects the inclusion of nature in the self. This proposal is empirically supported by a study conducte...

This paper proposes a theoretically integrated structure made up of four dimensions pertaining to environmental concern: apathy, anthropocentrism, connectedness, and emotional affinity. These four dimensions are distributed along a gradient that reflects the inclusion of nature in the self. This proposal is empirically supported by a study conducte...

The Environmental Identity (EID) Scale was proposed by Clayton to study the relationship between identity and nature. Although it is cited in several publications, it has rarely been subjected to psychometric analysis. The main aim of this study is to analyze the fulfilment of construct and convergent validity criteria for this scale. For this purp...

La Escala de Identidad Ambiental (EID) ha sido propuesta por Clayton para estudiar la relación entre identidad y naturaleza. A pesar de ser citada en varias publicaciones, pocas veces ha sido sometida a análisis psicométrico. El objetivo principal de este estudio ha sido analizar el cumplimiento de criterios de validez de constructo y convergente d...

Connectedness to Nature represents the relationship of the Self with the natural environment and has been made operative using different scales. One of the most systematically studied in the Anglo-Saxon context has been the Mayer and Frantz (2004) Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS). In an attempt to study the psychometric properties of this instru...

This study aims to discover whether observers with the same cultural background as the inhabitant of a bedroom perceive common characteristics among the inhabitants. The study was carried out with 107 females who were asked to assess the inhabitants of eight bedrooms. Several slides of each bedroom were shown to participants and they had to choose...

Resumen En la investigación de la percepción del riesgo, el paradigma psicométrico se ha venido aplicando, habitual-mente, para analizar la percepción de un gran número de riesgos, utilizándose, en este caso, para conocer cómo se percibe un solo riesgo: la gripe A (H1N1). En este estudio empírico se analiza la percepción que una muestra de estudian...

Today, people are highly mobile and identify themselves with various places. Mobility affects the decisions that a person makes about his or her final resting place and how his or her remains will be disposed. A semistructured, face-to-face interview is conducted with residents of Paris and Madrid. Data analyses consist of content analysis and corr...

There is a rich body of psychological research that has examined the motivational bases of pro-environmental behavior. In essence, why is it that individuals engage in behaviors that are beneficial to the natural environment? One commonly-used approach for understanding pro-environmental behavior is to treat it as a specific form of prosocial behav...

Contenido: Aspectos conceptuales y metodológicos. Cognición ambiental. Emoción y ambiente. Factores físicos medioambientales. Espacio Personal y ecología del grupo pequeño. Privacidad y territorialidad. Hacinamiento. Ambientes residenciales. Laborales. Escolares. Institucionales. El medio urbano. Actitudes y creencias hacia el medio ambiente. Probl...

En esta investigación se examina la relación entre la conducta individual de las personas y su percepción social sobre la conducta de los españoles en materia medioambiental dentro del marco teórico de los sesgos cognitivos de falso consenso y falsa unicidad. Se hizo uso de una encuesta realizada por el CIS (2005; estudio n.º 2590) sobre una muestr...

This paper examines the relationship between individual behaviour and social perception regarding Spaniards' behaviour on environmental issues in the theoretical context of the cognitive biases of false consensus and false uniqueness. A survey carried out by the CIS (2005, study no. 2590) on 2,490 citizens from a representative sample of the Spanis...

Los espacios físicos en los que las personas desarrollan parte de la vida diaria se adaptan a los gustos y preferencias y los convierten en reflejo de su propia identidad. La personalización del espacio es considerado un mecanismo facilitador de estas adaptaciones y del reflejo de la identidad personal en los lugares. Este trabajo dirige la atenció...

International Journal of psychology, 43(3/4), p. 292.

The social perception of risk is considered a multidimensional task, yet little attention has been paid to the cognitive components that organize sources of risk, despite their having been discovered in various research studies. This study attempts to concretely analyze the cultural dimension involved in those processes. In the first phase, we trie...

This article examines the impact of visual images and perspective taking on concern for environmental problems. Participants in the experiment were 193 university students. Results replicated earlier results showing that perspective taking, combined with images of animals harmed by nature, caused an increase in biospheric environmental concerns. In...

This study focuses on the cognitive components of general environmental attitudes. Taking as a starting point the scale of Thompson and Barton (1994) to identify ecocentric and anthropocentric motives in environmental conservation, the beliefs that guide attitudes in the person-environment relationship are analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis was...

Resumen Los estudios sobre preocupación ambiental asumen como supuesto que las personas perciben problemas ambientales, y tratan de conocer las variables intermedias que modulan el comportamiento proambiental, sin atender a las diferentes evaluaciones que se hacen sobre una gama tan variada de problemas de esta índole. En la presente investigación...

La presente investigación analiza las creencias que orientan la relación individuo-medio ambiente, hipotetizando que éstas se organizan en una estructura tripartita, según que el énfasis se ponga en el propio sujeto (egoísmo), en los seres humanos (socioaltruismo) o en la biosfera (biosferismo). Esta estructura se contrasta con otros enfoques bidim...

The structure of beliefs about environmental concern. In this study beliefs about the relationship between the individual and his/her natural environment are analysed and it is hypothesised that these beliefs are organised in a three-dimensional structure. according to the emphasis placed within the relationship on: self (egoism), human beings in g...

Vídeo realizado con motivo del VIII Congreso de Psicología ambiental organizado por la Facultad de Humanidades de Toledo de la Universidad de Castilla la Mancha. En él se muestra la trayectoria de los distintos congresos sobre psicología ambiental organizados en España desde 1980 hasta 2004. Descargable desde: http://www.ucm.es/eprints/5078/01/psiA...

Desde las teorías culturales se sostiene que las fuentes de riesgo se perciben dependiendo del sistema de creencias y valores de cada cultura. De acuerdo con esta idea en este trabajo se utiliza una metodología de carácter psicométrico para llevar a cabo tres estudios sobre percepción del riesgo en donde se hacen dos comparaciones entre una muestra...

Research in the area of restorative effects has shown the positive effects of contact with nature on wellbeing.

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This study originated as an investigation into what people mean by Sustainable Development. It attempted to discover the dimensions underlying the concept and to find out how these are modified by political beliefs or by ways of relating to nature. To achieve this aim, a content analysis was carried out to analyse 132 definitions of Sustainable Dev...

Esta investigación surge con un afán prospectivo sobre lo que las personas entienden por Desarrollo Sostenible con el objetivo de conocer cuáles son las dimensiones que subyacen al concepto y ver en qué medida éstas son moduladas tanto por la ideología política como por la forma de relacionarse con la Naturaleza. Para ello se hace un análisis de co...

Numerous and complex are the processes related on the gradual damage of the environment which commit the biosphere degradation, welfare of population, natural resources depletion¿ Numerous are also the voices proclaiming the underlying social devices and demanding new ways of perceiving, thinking, acting and transforming society. From Environmental...

El concepto de Desarrollo Sostenible ha sido manejado en el discurso político, económico y social de forma recurrente y en numerosas ocasiones de manera retórica, llegando a estar alejado en muchos momentos de la definición que se establece en el Informe Brundtland en 1987. El posible abuso de este término ha vaciado de contenido su significado, ll...

Cryptic protective mechanisms and the conspicuousness required to communicate result in a conflict of opposing selection. In the Red-necked Nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis) a nocturnal bird, the use of a restricted signaling strategy provides an appropriate balance between these two selection forces. Conspicuous white wing and tall bands may have...

Red-necked nightjars Caprimulgus ruficollis rely its antipredator behaviour mainly on crypsis. However, under high predation risk, they can also perform a more active antipredator behaviour like defensive displays. Defensive strategies in adults and chicks of this species consist of an initial passive stage and a second, optional active stage, whic...

In this paper we present a theoretical and methodological approach to the study of residential satisfaction, and seek to give a general view of the relationships established between a person and his/her residential environment. The work is structured in two sections. The first offers a general overview of the state of the art in residential satisfa...

El articulo ofrece una revisión de la literatura psicológica relacionada con la investigación en los desastres, poniendo en evidencia la falta de un marco integrador de los diferentes hallazgos, pudiéndose hablar de una multiplicidad temática. Entre los campos que se abordan se hace una referencia a las experiencias traumáticas del desastre, destac...

Este artículo trata de dar una panorámica general de los hallazgos sobre las conductas manifestadas durante el incendio en un edificio, prestando una especial atención a la conducta de huida, evacuación y al papel de las alarmas asociado a estas conductas. Asímismo, se describe un modelo general del comportamiento en los incendios indicándose, a pa...

We studied the antipredator behaviour of a population of pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis), one of the commonest neotropical nightjars, at Parque Nacional de Yasuní (Ecuador) as a mechanism of parental investment. We located two nests and ten diurnal resting-spots during incubation, which were revisited ten and 29 times respectively (mean = 5 visit...

El libro a comentar recoge las ponencias y comunicaciones presentadas al seminario que sobre Psicología Ambiental se celebró en Orellana (Badajoz) en el mes de septiembre de 1992, con el fin de discutir en profundidad los aspectos teóricos, metodológicos y aplicados que en este momento constituyen los elementos de análisis y discusión de la discipl...

En este trabajo se propone el estudio de la vida en las ciudades como campo de trabajo de la Psicología Social y Ambiental. La ciudad es tanto una estructura espacial como social, que incide sobre el comportamiento individual y social. Se sistematiza los modelos y aportaciones más relevantes para el estudio psicológico del hecho urbano. Igualmente,...

Esta investigación recoge los resultados más relevantes sobre la satisfacción residencial de 298 amas de casa que viven en chabolas o infravivienda en el Principado de Asturias. Los resultados muestran como la percepción del ambiente residencial es más favorable que los datos objetivos que se derivan del hábitat de las entrevistadas. En el estudio...

En esta investigación se estudia la validez de una versión castellana de la escala «Environmental Concern Scale» (ECS) llevada a cabo con 716 estudiantes. Las puntuaciones obtenidas por los sujetos proambientalistas y no proambientalistas resultan significativamente diferentes. Asímismo, se estudian las relaciones entre las actitudes hacia la preoc...

Planners' and architects' knowledge of the needs of users as well as their perceptions of the residential environment, has been commented on in many studies dealing with residential satisfaction. In this study--based on primary research in an area of council housing in Madrid--the main goal is the study of objective and subjective factors, on both...