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Environmental Stress
Abstract
The physical environment affects people in many ways, how they feel, what they think and how they act. When the demands of the physical environment outweigh an individual’s ability to deal with those demands, stress occurs. Environmental stress refers to a negative subjective psychological response to an environmental stimulus. It is important to note that an environmental stimulus that is stressful for one person in a particular situation may not be stressful for another or for the same person in a different situation. As such, environmental stress is an interaction between an individual and an external stimulus.
This chapter gives an overview of theories and research on environmental stress in environmental psychology. After providing a definition of environmental stress, the chapter discusses the conditions under which stress may occur and then goes on to describe in more detail different environmental stressors that have been examined in the literature.
Environmental stress has been studied in many different indoor, outdoor and virtual settings, including work and residential environments. It has been studied in the laboratory as well as in the field and has been an important area of research for many decades, which continues to this day.
... Stress has been called the "health epidemic of the 21st century" by the world health organization (1). Stress is caused when requirements of a position are more than individual's ability to cope with them (2). Some people think that children's world is full of games and free of any pressure and tension. ...
... These factors may be individual or environmental. Environmental stress can be defined as the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral re-sponses to an environmental stimulus or stressor (2). Four types of environmental stressors including cataclysmic events, stressful life events, daily hassles, and ambient stressors are distinguished by Evans and Cohen (1987). ...
... Major ambient environmental stressors are light (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), color (15,16), noise (17)(18)(19)(20)(21), and temperature (22,23). The main social environmental stressors are physical privacy (8,24), personal space (20,(25)(26)(27), crowding (20,28,29), territoriality (2), and other factors like green space (30,31). ...
Background: Indoor environment, in which we are located, influences our psychological responses, like stress. Thermal comfort
is one of the most important factors determining the quality of indoor environment, obtained by calculating predicted mean vote
(PMV) and predicted percentage of dissatisfaction (PPD) in a steady-state approach. Several studies revealed that hot or cold temperature
(°C) could increase stress. However, other climatic thermal comfort factors like relative humidity (%) and air velocity (m/s)
have not been well researched in this regard.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate effects of undesirable thermal comfort on stress by measuring
salivary alpha-amylase levels (sAA) in female high school students.
Methods: The present study was conducted in a semi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test and control group. The sample
size was 390 female high school students, who were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling, during years 2016 and 2017, in
Shiraz, Iran. Students were divided to intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, thermal comfort was interfered
by changing temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity for two hours. Saliva was collected by Cocorometer’s strip and sAA
was measured by a hand-held device, Cocorometer (Nipro Co, Osaka, Japan). The pre-test and post-test were compared with each
other. Thermal comfort in classrooms was measured by a steady-state model, PMV/PPD index, and data was analyzed by Analysis of
Covariance (ANCOVA).
Results: Interfering in temperatures and humidity at an average of 4.8°C and 36% for two hours in the intervention group caused
thermal comfort to be in an unfavorable range (PMV > +0.5) and dissatisfaction was more than desirable (PPD > 10%). In the intervention
group, when the intervention took place at the temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, and the synchronous effect of
these three variables (TRHAV), the mean sAA was 43.57, 42.74, 44.23, and 45.93 (KU/L) in the pre-test and 55.91, 52.35, 44.89 and 61.99
(KU/L) in the post-test. Also, in the control group, the mean sAA was 44.73, 47.03, 43.38, and 44.36 (KU/L) in pre-test and 44.04, 47.19,
43.83, and 43.77 (KU/L) in the post-test. The sAA was significantly increased in the intervention group when thermal comfort and its
climatic variables, including temperature (P < 0.001) and relative humidity (P < 0.001), was undesirable. No Significant increase
was observed in air velocity (P = 0.659). In the control group, the mean sAA did not change significantly in pre-test and post-test.
Conclusions: Undesirable thermal comfort increased stress in female high school students. Stress was affected by temperature,
relative humidity and the synchronous effect of temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity yet not air velocity, individually
... Background sounds usually refer to ambient sounds that are not the primary focus of occupants' attention but are still perceptible in an environment. Most background sounds are undesirable and could significantly impact people's comfort, health, and performance [1,2]. As one of the everyday environmental stressors in modern society, background sounds have three primary sources: ventilation systems, occupants' activities, and noise from outside [1,3,4]. ...
... Most background sounds are undesirable and could significantly impact people's comfort, health, and performance [1,2]. As one of the everyday environmental stressors in modern society, background sounds have three primary sources: ventilation systems, occupants' activities, and noise from outside [1,3,4]. No matter where they come from, all these sounds could cause negative effects on subjects' performance [5,6]. ...
This study investigated the impacts of students’ mood states and background sound levels on students’ sound perceptions and academic performance in four library rooms. The background sound level was measured for five days. Meanwhile, around 300 students were invited to participate in a survey of questions about their acoustic perceptions and mood states and a concentration test. Pearson correlation, one-way ANOVA, and two-way ANOVA were applied to establish the relationships between the LAeq, students’ mood states, acoustic perceptions, and concentration levels on both the individual level and the room level and to identify the interaction effect between the background sound levels and mood states on students’ acoustic perception and concentration. The results indicated that LAeq in learning spaces significantly impacted students’ acoustic satisfaction, but only at the room level. In contrast, mood states mainly influenced students’ sound perception and concentration at the individual level. Furthermore, this study reports significant interaction effects between mood state and LAeq on students’ sound perceptions and reveals different impacts of mood states due to different sound levels. These results could help improve occupants’ acoustic perceptions and performance in learning spaces in the future.
... An optimal level of stress is necessary to create adaptation to negative influences through hormesis, which involves a positive response to a low dose of stress [4,6]. However, disruption of normal physiological function occurs when all stimuli outweigh the ability to cope with the effects of stress [4,5,7]. Stress can be caused by various factors including environmental factors (light, noise, irritating colors, uncomfortable temperature, lack of access to food and water, crowding, negative social experiences) [7], in which case these factors are considered negative environmental stressors. ...
... However, disruption of normal physiological function occurs when all stimuli outweigh the ability to cope with the effects of stress [4,5,7]. Stress can be caused by various factors including environmental factors (light, noise, irritating colors, uncomfortable temperature, lack of access to food and water, crowding, negative social experiences) [7], in which case these factors are considered negative environmental stressors. Stress exhaustion can lead to various behavioral disorders, among others, for example, increased population density is a strong stressor that can induce a stressful physiological response in mammals [8], and even lead to aberrant behaviors such as cannibalism [9], increased aggression [10], addictions in humans [11]. ...
The development of animal models of mental disorders is an important task, since such models are useful for studying the neurobiological mechanisms of psychopathologies and for trial of new therapeutic drugs. One way to model pathologies of the nervous system is to impair fetal neurodevelopment through stress of the pregnant future mother, or prenatal stress. The use of variable frequency ultrasound in rodents is a promising method of imitating psychological stress, to which women in modern society are most often subjected. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of prenatal stress induced by exposure to variable frequency ultrasound (US PS) throughout the gestational period on the adult rat offspring, namely to identify features of behavioral alterations and neurochemical brain parameters that can be associated with certain mental disorders in humans, to determine the possibility of creating a new model of psychopathology. Our study included a study of some behavioral characteristics of male and female rats in the elevated plus maze, open field test, object recognition test, social interaction test, sucrose preference test, latent inhibition test, Morris water maze, forced swimming test, acoustic startle reflex and prepulse inhibition tests. We also determined the activity of the serotonergic, dopaminergic, and noradrenergic neurotransmitter systems in the hippocampus and frontal cortex by HPLC-ED. Concentration of norepinephrine, dopamine, DOPAC, serotonin, and HIAA, as well as DOPAC/dopamine and HIAA/serotonin ratios were determined. A correlation analysis of behavioral and neurochemical parameters in male and female rats was performed based on the data obtained. The results of the study showed that US PS altered the behavioral phenotype of the rat offspring. US PS increased the level of anxious behavior, impaired orientation-research behavior, increased grooming activity, decreased the desire for social contacts, shifted behavioral reactions from social interaction to interaction with inanimate objects, impaired latent inhibition, and decreased the startle reflex. US PS activated the serotonergic, dopaminergic, and noradrenergic neurotransmitter systems of the rat frontal cortex and hippocampus. A correlation between neurochemical and behavioral parameters was revealed. Our study showed that US PS leads to a certain dysfunction on behavioral and neurochemical levels in rats that is most closely associated with symptoms of schizophrenia or autism. We hypothesize that this could potentially be an indicator of face validity for a model of psychopathology based on neurodevelopmental impairment.
... Lingkungan yang nyaman dan bebas dari kebisingan mampu mengoptimalkan proses belajar mahasiswa. Sebagaimana dalil arousal theory, suara dapat mengoptimalkan kinerja individu, namun pada batas tertentu suara bisa juga mampu menjadi stressor buruk atau distress (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017;Iskandar, 2016). Sistem belajar-mengajar juga membantu mahasiswa dalam beradaptasi. ...
... Sedangkan 26,7% menyatakan bahwa kondisi psikologis saat ini lebih buruk daripada kondisi saat awal pandemi COVID-19. Evaluasi kondisi yang dominan lebih baik merupakan wujud keberhasilan mahasiswa dalam proses adaptasi dan adjustment (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). Hal ini tidak bisa dilepaskan dari karakteristik generasi muda yang memiliki kepercayaan diri dan optimisme yang tinggi (Alfaruqy, 2020), termasuk dalam pembelajaran daring. ...
Pandemi COVID-19 mempengaruhi berbagai sektor kehidupan, termasuk sektor pendidikan. Mahasiswa menjalani perubahan dari pembelajaran luring menjadi pembelajaran daring selama dua tahun terakhir. Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui dinamika psikologis, adaptasi, dan harapan pemuda generasi digital yang telah mengikuti pembelajaran daring (dalam jaringan) selama dua tahun. Penelitian didesain dengan pendekatan kualitatif eksploratif. Penelitian melibatkan 1114 orang generasi digital yang berstatus sebagai mahasiswa dan telah mengikuti pembelajaran daring selama dua tahun. Penggalian data memakai kuesioner open-ended. Analisis data menggunakan analisis konten dengan tiga tahap koding yaitu open coding, axial coding, dan selective coding. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa mahasiswa generasi digital telah merasa nyaman, senang, dan mampu beradaptasi dengan pembelajaran daring, meskipun kadang diliputi rasa bosan, lelah, demotivasi, dan sulit memahami materi. Mayoritas mahasiswa (73,3%) merasa bahwa kondisi psikologis saat ini lebih baik daripada kondisi saat awal pandemi. Hal tersebut terjadi karena kemampuan adaptasi generasi digital yang didukung oleh fasilitas yang memadai, dukungan sosial, regulasi diri, sistem pembelajaran, dan lingkungan yang kondusif. Mahasiswa dominan (61,94%) berharap penyelenggaraan pembelajaran tatap muka dibandingkan pembelajaran daring. Optimalisasi proses belajar, kebutuhan interaksi sosial dan akses fasilitas kampus, serta kejenuhan atas pembelajaran daring menjadi alasannya. Penelitian berimplikasi pada urgensi keterampilan adaptasi generasi digital dalam situasi perubahan yang begitu cepat dan tidak pasti. Kebijakan publik yang mendukung pembelajaran tatap muka perlu diperhatikan dengan baik ketika pandemi COVID-19 telah terkendali.
... This relates to social spacing aspects, such as crowding and privacy, which are closely related (Bell, Greene, Fisher, & Baum, 1996) because they both concern the interface between spatial layouts and people. As Gatersleben & Griffin (2017) reported, crowding and (lack of) privacy have been among the most often studied social-environmental stressors. ...
... Both the direct stress-reducing effect of satisfaction with the space at home and its pivotal role in mediating between crowding and stress take on a special meaning in a situation where people are obliged to stay at home. People who feel that their living space suffices, and meets their need for privacy, are less likely to experience a sense of helplessness, which is often closely related to psychological distress and a perceived lack of control over the situation (Evans & Stecker, 2004;Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). ...
Prolonged periods of restrictions on people's freedom of movement during the first massive wave of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that most people engaged in all their daily activities at home. This suggested the need for the spatial features of the home and its occupants' perception of them to be investigated in terms of people's wellbeing.
The present study was conducted on a large sample (N = 1354) drawn from different Italian regions. It examined the relationship between the “objective” and “subjective” dimensions of the home, measured in terms of objective home crowding and satisfaction with the space at home, in relation to perceived stress and the perceived risk of COVID-19 infection during the lockdown. The results showed that perceived stress is influenced by objective home crowding through the mediation of satisfaction with the space at home. These associations were more pronounced in younger generations. The negative association between satisfaction with the space at home and perceived stress was higher, the lower the perceived COVID-19 risk.
... Minimalism, defined as the deliberate simplicity of one's possessions and lifestyle, leads to greater fulfillment by instilling a sense of contentment with less (Derwanz & Strebinger, 2021). When people practice minimalism, they frequently prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on items and activities that offer true value to their lives (Gatersleben et al., 2017). This shift in perspective leads to higher levels of happiness because people feel more content with what they have rather than constantly searching for more. ...
The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of consumer minimalism on well-being among Generation Z. It also explores the mediating role of satisfaction and happiness for minimalism and well-being relationships. A theoretical framework was proposed to explain and empirically verify the impact of minimalism on well-being. The study has used a quantitative approach to analyze the proposed relationships. The proposed model was tested and verified using structural equation modelling using data collected from 452 online respondents. The analysis revealed that sparse aesthetics is the most important antecedent of minimalism. Further, the result confirms the mediating effect of satisfaction and happiness for minimalism and well-being. The findings of the study may help marketers to promote consumer well-being through minimalism. Marketers can reach and engage with a rising sector of consumers that value simplicity, quality, and sustainability in their purchasing decisions by promoting minimalism. Furthermore, marketers can position their products as solutions that enhance minimalist lifestyles, emphasising practical benefits and purpose-driven design.
... Safety and security in well-lit urban environments contribute to residents' feelings of comfort and well-being. Enhanced safety measures and reduced crime rates positively impact mental well-being (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). Moreover, cultural and recreational opportunities, such as access to events and entertainment options, enhance the overall quality of life in urban settings (Holt et al., 2019). ...
Fuzhou City, located in China's Fujian Province, exemplifies the demographic transformation underway. The city's elderly population is growing, with individuals aged 60 and above constituting 16.76% of its municipal population. This demographic shift, coupled with increasing urbanization, underscores the urgent need to enhance public spaces to serve the requirements of elderly individuals better. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the influence of elderly-friendly public space and stakeholder perspective on the quality of life in urban micro-districts of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. The quantitative method based on questionnaires is applied. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percent frequency, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation are introduced. Various inferential statistical methods are used to test the hypothesis, particularly the Independent Samples t-test, the One-way ANOVA, and the Multiple Linear Regression analysis. The results obtained from the study indicate that differences in Gender, Marital Status, Duration of Residence, Living Arrangement, Type of Housing, and Mobility Limitation generate differences in Quality of Life in urban micro-districts of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. Differences in Elderly Utilization Patterns generate differences in Quality of Life in urban micro-districts of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. Differences in Stakeholder Involvement in Public Space generate differences in Quality of Life in urban micro-districts of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. The results obtained from the Multiple Linear Regression Analyses show that there are significant positive impacts of all aspects of Public Space Characteristics (Accessibility, Safety Measures, and Types of Amenities) on Quality of Life in urban micro-districts of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province.
... Now, stress refers to an emergent relationship between the person and the environment (Lazarus and Cohen, 1977) involving environmental stimuli, their evaluation and the organism's response (Cohen et al., 1983(Cohen et al., , 2007(Cohen et al., , 2019Segerstrom and O'Connor, 2012). Likewise, environmental stress is defined as the physiological, cognitive, and emotional response that people may experience to various environmental situations, whether at the macrolevel (e.g., population density in a city) or in the immediate environment (e.g., housing conditions; Gatersleben and Griffin, 2017). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a global crisis with severe consequences for public health. There have been negative impacts on people’s quality of life and mental health due to various stressors arising in this context, such as physical, social, economic, and psychological challenges. Noteworthy among these are the indirect effects of health measures, especially social distancing and confinement, which have significantly altered people’s daily lives and social activities, producing high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress. This study proposes developing and validating a cross-sectional scale called the “Environmental Stressors Scale (ECSS-20)” to address the need to measure the impact of environmental stressors during confinement. The scale, which has been validated following ethical and methodological guidelines, consists of four dimensions: economic stressors (EE), social activities (SA), habitability (H), and exposure to virtual media (EMV). A pilot study (n = 113) and a main study (n = 314) were applied. The results showed that the instrument has a reliable and valid structure, with satisfactory internal consistency and factorial validity. Likewise, gender invariance tests supported its suitability for its applicability to women and men. Overall, the ECSS-20 is a valuable instrument for assessing the impact of confinement and improving the understanding of people’s subjective experiences in this situation. Future research could further develop its applicability in different contexts and populations to better understand its usefulness and psychometric properties.
... This can change an individual's risk preferences and induce attitude misattribution. Stress can be acute or chronic (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). Acute and chronic stresses lead to different responses in decision-making (Starcke & Brand, 2012). ...
Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) is considered the most dangerous air-polluting particle, causing premature death and inducing severe mental and physical diseases worldwide. PM2.5 affects stock market returns directly via the fundamental channel and indirectly via the behavioral channel. This study examines the effects of Bangkok’s PM2.5 pollution on the return on the Market for Alternative Investment index portfolio using a multivariate mediation analysis. Attention, awareness, mood, sentiment, and stress, the mediating variables known to influence investors’ behavior, were considered jointly and explicitly in the model. This study is the first to introduce stress as a behavioral mediator. The roles and effects of the behavioral mediators were identified, measured, and compared. Using daily data from August 1, 2016, to November 30, 2023, this study found that the total, direct, and indirect effects were not significant. Stress was the only behavioral mediator that significantly and positively contributed to the indirect effects. This result remains unchanged for different estimation techniques, sample periods, representative stock returns, and PM2.5 occurrence times.
... For example, [32] describes an environmental stressor as "any intrinsic or extrinsic factor that challenges individuals and obliges them to adjust behaviour". [17] defines environmental stress as "the emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses to an environmental stimulus (or environmental stressor)". Thus "whether stress occurs is dependent on individual and contextual factors." ...
Exposure is a central concept of the health and behavioural sciences needed to study the influence of the environment on the health and behaviour of people within a spatial context. While an increasing number of studies measure different forms of exposure, including the influence of air quality, noise, and crime, the influence of land cover on physical activity, or of the urban environment on food intake, we lack a common conceptual model of environmental exposure that captures its main structure across all this variety. Against the background of such a model, it becomes possible not only to systematically compare different methodological approaches but also to better link and align the content of the vast amount of scientific publications on this topic in a systematic way. For example, an important methodical distinction is between studies that model exposure as an exclusive outcome of some activity versus ones where the environment acts as a direct independent cause (active vs. passive exposure). Here, we propose an information ontology design pattern that can be used to define exposure and to model its variants. It is built around causal relations between concepts including persons, activities, concentrations, exposures, environments and health risks. We formally define environmental stressors and variants of exposure using Description Logic (DL), which allows automatic inference from the RDF-encoded content of a paper. Furthermore, concepts can be linked with data models and modelling methods used in a study. To test the pattern, we translated competency questions into SPARQL queries and ran them over RDF-encoded content. Results show how study characteristics can be classified and summarized in a manner that reflects important methodical differences.
... Making changes to the home is seen as residents' behavioural control over home. Having or experiencing this behavioural control over the home by itself has been associated with higher psychological benefits in people (Gifford, 1997) and a lack of either type of control has shown negative effects on psychological and physiological health and wellbeing which may include discomfort, stress, reduced wellbeing and dissatisfaction (Baum & Hassan, 1999;Clark & Kearns, 2012;Vischer, 2007) Studies have also distinguished the actual or objective control one has over an environment from the perceived control where one believes they have control which may or not be true (Bell et al., 2001;Gatersleben & Griffin, 2016). A resident redoing kitchen top is an example of actual behavioural control exercised at home. ...
Flexibility in the design of our homes can greatly support our varied and changing needs and functions but its ability to support our psychological wellbeing at home has not been empirically examined or established. In exploring the same in this thesis, Flexibility was conceptualised as the architectural design of the home (Architectural Flexibility) but also residents’ behaviour of making changes to the home (Behavioural Flexibility) which was found to be lacking in the literature. Residents’ hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing were measured using two newly developed and validated scales. In an online mixed-method survey, Study 1 (N = 187) established a positive association between Flexibility of the home and residents’ Hedonic and Eudaimonic wellbeing. Qualitative data analyses provided
insights into features of the home and modifications made to home, which were used to measure Flexibility more objectively in studies 2 and 3. In an online survey (N = 212), Study 2 found that Behavioural Flexibility substantially mediated the relationship between Architectural Flexibility of the home and residents’ Hedonic and Eudaimonic wellbeing. In an online survey, Study 3 further confirmed the mediating effect of behaviour of making modifications to home on the relationship between Architectural Flexibility and Eudaimonic wellbeing using a nationally representative sample (N = 300). The study also found that the residents’ personal factors of capabilities and motivations substantially contribute to the model. An additional experimental part of Study 3 suggested that there may exist a causal
relationship between Architectural Flexibility of the home and residents’ wellbeing. Overall, findings from this thesis suggest that Architectural and Behavioural Flexibility of the home have varied but positive influence on residents’ Hedonic and Eudaimonic wellbeing at home. This relationship is substantially influenced by residents’ capabilities and motivations, and may need to be considered when designing homes or developing housing policies in the UK.
... conversation privacy had significantly lower work fatigue levels. This lockdown-specific result is unsurprising given the body of evidence regarding the health effects of unsuccessful spatial regulation of social interaction (e.g., work on crowding and privacy; see Evans and Cohen, 1987;Gatersleben and Griffin, 2017). Therefore, our study supports previous hints at privacy fit-exhaustion associations that used elements of the privacy concept (distractions or interruptions; Leroy et al., 2021) and complements emerging pandemic evidence of privacy's role in mental and physical health issues (e.g., sleeping problems and MSK pain, Wütschert et al., 2021Wütschert et al., , 2022. ...
Background
During national lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, previously office-based workers who transitioned to home-based teleworking faced additional demands (e.g., childcare, inadequate homeworking spaces) likely resulting in poor work privacy fit. Previous office research suggests poor work privacy fit is associated with lower wellbeing and higher work fatigue. Emerging evidence suggests a relationship between childcare duties during pandemic teleworking and work fatigue. In addition to psychosocial working conditions (job demand, job control, and job change management), which are acknowledged predictors of work fatigue, this poses a significant threat to occupational health during pandemic teleworking. However, the relative effects of aspects of the psychosocial environment (job demands and resources), the home office environment (including privacy fit), and the social environment (childcare) on work fatigue as well as their interactions are under-explored.
Objective
This study examined the relationships between the psychosocial, environmental, and social working conditions of teleworking during the first COVID-19 lockdown and work fatigue. Specifically, the study examined teleworkers’ physical work environment (e.g., if and how home office space is shared, crowding, and noise perceptions) as predictors of privacy fit and the relationship between privacy fit, childcare, psychosocial working conditions (job demand, job control, and job change management), and work fatigue. Work privacy fit was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between childcare and work fatigue.
Methods
An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with teleworkers (n = 300) during the first COVID-19 lockdown in April and May 2020; most participants were in Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Results
Path analysis was used to examine the hypothesized relationships. Privacy fit was lower for those reporting greater levels of noise in home-working spaces and those feeling crowded at home. Work fatigue was lower amongst those with greater privacy fit and higher amongst those with high levels of job demand. An indirect relationship was observed between childcare and work fatigue with privacy fit mediating this relationship.
Conclusion
The influence of privacy fit has so far been largely neglected in research on teleworking, especially during the pandemic. However, its contribution to workers’ wellbeing should be acknowledged in occupational health strategies.
... Environmental factors of stress can be defined as the behavioural, cognitive, and emotional responses to stress (Gatersleben, B., & Griffin, 2017). ...
The novel coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has taken the world by storm and has forced dramatic alterations to daily living and generating a considerable degree of worry, fear, and concern among university students. The pandemic has disrupted the education of over one billion students in 129 countries around the world. As universities around the world have shifted to emergency remote teaching (ERT) via online platforms, this has further caused anxiety amongst the students. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence and associated factor of stress among Engineering students at Bells university in Nigeria during the pandemic. Four hundred engineering students were randomly selected from Bells university during the movement control order. A cross-sectional online survey, using Cohen's perceived stress scale questionnaire was distributed among the students to measure perception of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. The questionnaire comprised of sociodemographic characteristics and stress-related variables. It was found that of the 400 respondents, 13.8%, 74.8%, and 11.5% experienced a low, moderate, and high level of stress respectively. Female gender (p= 0.008), Igbo ethnicity (p= 001) and smoking (p= 001) were significantly associated with higher levels of stress. Age group, regular exercise, and average daily sleeping hours were not associated with stress levels. Negative changes were reported in family income status (44.3%), internet connection status (54.3%), and satisfaction with online classes (55.0%). Negative changes to family income, internet status, and online classes were not associated with higher stress levels. It was then concluded that there is a significant association between gender, ethnicity , smoking and stress among Bells university students during MCO.
... Stress is a term that refers to an environmental stimulus that affects people and can cause them to have physical and psychological responses. 1 Teaching is a physically and mentally demanding profession, as the teacher expends a great deal of energy on a daily basis in the classroom, in addition to his or her personal and household responsibilities, all of which contribute to a constant source of stress. 2 According to previous research, teaching is one of the most stressful careers, and educators have a greater rate of physical and mental symptoms than other occupations. 3 Teachers experience occupational stress as a result of their job responsibilities, which include preparing lessons, organizing activities, developing curriculums, managing extracurricular activities, monitoring classrooms, providing information, maintaining discipline, covering for teacher shortages and absences, keeping records, administering timetables, analyzing and assessing students' performance, and motivating students through words and actions. ...
Teaching has been classified as a career with a high level of stress. New developments, such as the increased use of technology and the diversification of teaching roles, may exacerbate the already high levels of stress being experienced by educators. The purpose of this research is to ascertain the incidence of mental distress in the form of depression, anxiety, and stress among faculty members of private medical colleges in Karachi, Pakistan A total of 136 educators from private sector medical colleges in Karachi were selected to participate in the research. To assess psychological distress caused by depression, anxiety, and stress, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) were used.Teachers exhibited a significant incidence of depression symptoms (78.6 percent), anxiety symptoms (87.6 percent), and stress symptoms (64 percent). While 23.5 percent, 46.2 percent, and 36.7 percent of respondents, respectively, experienced severe to extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress.Depression, anxiety, as well as stress have all been prevalent among university instructors. Proper measures need to be made to enhance teachers' mental stability, hence assuring high-quality education.
... Indirectly, stress caused by the environment can inhibit social interactions or change them from positive to negative experiences. Environmental stressors, such as noise and crowding, are known to reduce helping behaviour and increase aggression and withdrawal from social interaction (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017), while the absence of those stressors increases the chances that people want to spend time in that particular environment. According to the behaviour constraint model, people will especially suffer from stress if they experience or expect the environment to hinder the desired social activities or the desired level of privacy, and they cannot change the situation. ...
... Indirectly, stress caused by the environment can inhibit social interactions or change them from positive to negative experiences. Environmental stressors, such as noise and crowding, are known to reduce helping behaviour and increase aggression and withdrawal from social interaction (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017), while the absence of those stressors increases the chances that people want to spend time in that particular environment. According to the behaviour constraint model, people will especially suffer from stress if they experience or expect the environment to hinder the desired social activities or the desired level of privacy, and they cannot change the situation. ...
... Within the cross-cultural environment of the airport, the passengers' individual cultural differences can have a large impact on their perception of the passenger experience (Pantouvakis & Renzi, 2016) Therefore it is important to separate the situational and environmental influences on stress from individual cultural specificities. Existing research examining the experience of stress concludes that certain settings and environments are prone to triggering particular emotions such as stress (Scherer, 1986;Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). Thus, understanding the antecedent situation of stress can help reveal situation-specific characteristics that influence the emotional state. ...
... De qualquer modo, essas crianças manifestam a construção de competências diante deste lugar que lhes impõe constante diligência e habilidades de enfrentamento das pressões que se apresentam em cada variação de espaço e tempo. Embora alguns estímulos ambientais sejam capazes de causar estresse em algumas pessoas e em outras não (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017), a compreensão e apropriação do espaço vivido desde a infância possibilita a criação de competências sobre essas pressões em função de suas características pessoais (Muchow, 2015). ...
O foco desse estudo é contribuir para a compreensão da relação criança-ambiente, a partir do cotidiano vivido em uma comunidade da várzea no interior do Amazonas, que se distingue pela sazonalidade da cheia e vazante dos rios. Participaram do estudo 54 crianças, sendo 18 meninas e 36 meninos, com média de idade de 10 anos (dp: 2,5). A partir da análise de conteúdo dos dados obtidos em entrevista semiestruturada emergiram três categorias perceptivas do cotidiano: a categoria nomeada “singular”, manifestada em 40,7% das crianças, percebe o cotidiano permeado por atividades e vivências positivas. Na categoria “habitual”, o cotidiano é descrito como um lugar como qualquer outro para se viver, foi constatada por 37% das crianças. Na categoria “de diligência”, identificada em 22,2% das falas, ressalta-se vivências marcadas pelas demandas próprias de um ambiente de várzea. As diferentes percepções do cotidiano estão correlacionadas com a escolaridade e faixa etária.
... In particular, we note the moderating role of employment stress was stronger at a low level than at a high level. This result might be explained by environmental stress theory, in that environmental stimuli can motivate people's self-protective response (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017;Lazarus, 1966). Employment stress can spark graduates' proactivity to seek ways to promote their career appeal in the challenging labor market and, in consequence, can alleviate the negatively restraining role of employment stress on the impact of proactive personality on career decision-making self-efficacy. ...
We investigated the moderating role of employment stress in the relationship between proactive personality and career decision-making self-efficacy among recent Chinese graduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main results are as follows: (a) proactive personality positively predicted career decision-making self-efficacy, (b) employment stress was negatively related to proactive personality and career decision-making self-efficacy, and (c) employment stress significantly and negatively moderated the effect of proactive personality on career decision-making self-efficacy, meaning that the moderating effect was stronger at a lower level of employment stress. The results indicate that students graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic are more prone to suffering from complex career decision-making processes exacerbated by a challenging and changing labor market. Our findings suggest that graduates should secure flexible employment options and that officials, staff, and managers in governments, universities, and industries should work together to enhance graduates’ career decision-making self-efficacy and assist them in achieving their early career aspirations by alleviating internal and external employment pressure.
... Therefore, it is often discussed in the realm of cognitive psychology, and its development is strictly based on mental strategies for overcoming unfamiliar and unpleasant situations (Slovic, Peters, L. One of the consequences of risk perception is the perception of vulnerability that leads to feelings of incapacitation in facing danger, loss of control, inability to prevent the outcomes or to protect oneself, and feeling incapable of controlling one's fate, in turn causing a long-standing fear of uncontrollable consequences and reduced levels of motivation (Navarro, 2017;Lacey, 1979). Such rather subjective assessment of one's ability to control the stressors emerges as lack of cognitive control (that is, risk perception) or lack of decision-making control (perception of the power of choice) in the environment (Bechtel & Churchman 2003;Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). As a result, the perception of risk and vulnerability leads to the helplessness of the subjects, itself resulting in a decrease in the level of communityoriented participation and involvement in determining fate and place making. ...
The sudden occurrence of an earthquake exposes the survivors with some inconsistencies in the post-disaster world, hence severely undermining the perceptual-cognitive structures and the assessment of the desired living environment. As such, the current study has sought to evaluate the views and attitudes of the earthquake-affected communities of Bam and Fahraj regarding the significance of different dimensions of housing and the reconstructed environment and compare them with control group, with similar social, cultural, economic, and environmental features. The authors employed a mixed method approach, and data were collected through interviews, ethnography, survey through questionnaires and hand sketches. The research participants were from Bam and Fahraj, while the Bazaar neighborhood of Kerman as the control group. Simple random sampling was used for the control group, while purposive sampling was used for target group. Based on the findings, the individual-interpersonal dimensions of housing and the reconstructed environment were deemed more important than the collective function of these units from the perspective of earthquake-affected communities. Furthermore, risk perception increased the importance of home safety and strength, while experiences of homelessness, living in emergency and temporary shelters, and reconstruction programs and policies lead people to cognitions in response to self-confident, self-concept protection, improving others perception of self (i.e., social dignity), and expression the distinction between self and others (i.e., personalization). Parameters such as taste-based housing design, privacy and territoriality, meanings, desired housing facade, and gratefulness towards housing have gained further significance. In contrast, in the perception of the surrounded world and the collective functioning of the residential environment, cognitive schemas were exposed to contradictions, leading to an imbalance between cognition of pre-earthquake and post-earthquake schemas, pointing to parameters such as neighborhood units, semi-public residential areas, landscapes, and maintenance were deemed less significant compared with the control group. In conclusion, in addition to the recovery of the individual-interpersonal scale, the improvement of the worldview is also of utmost importance in the housing and living environment reconstruction with the aim of collective recovery.
... Stress can be acute (e.g., being in traffic congestion) or chronic (e.g., driving in rushhour traffic daily) (Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). Acute and chronic stresses lead to different responses in decision making (Starcke & Brand, 2012). ...
Stress influences decision making. Stressed investors may trade in concert and drive stock market returns in a certain direction. This study examines the effect of Bangkok traffic-induced stress on Thai stock market returns. The average Longdo traffic index during morning rush hours proxies for the level of stress. Because Bangkok traffic affects only local investors, this study measures the return by the return on the Market for Alternative Investment (mai) index. Local investors have an average of 96.96% share of the mai stocks’ trading volume. The daily sample began on January 4, 2012, and ended on April 2, 2020. A test based on the artificial Hausman regression indicates that error-in-variable and omitted-variable problems are present in the estimation. Therefore, this study chooses the generalized method of moments (GMM) regression—an instrumental variable (IV) regression, together with Racicot and Théoret’s (2010) two-step IVs over the traditional ordinary least squares regression. The IVs are informative and valid, with informativeness and validity R2 values of 0.9888 and 0.0000, respectively. The slope coefficient of stock returns on the traffic index is negative and significant. Traffic-induced stress can drive stock market returns. The net selling by local institutional investors explains the significant traffic-induced stress effect in the stock market.
... With mostly carpeted floors and varied furniture arrangements, spaces at Country High were usually less densely occupied and noticeably quieter than spaces at Prairie High. Interiors characterized by high social density (Cash, Bradshaw & Leaf, 2015;Maxwell, 2003) and noise levels (Boman & Enmarker, 2004) have been found to generate environmental stress (Ahrentzen, Jue, Skorpanich, & Evans, 1984;Evans & Cohen, 1987;Gatersleben & Griffin, 2017). Students at Country High identified their favorite places by choosing the most comfortable furniture arrangements available in collaboration areas at locations most convenient to their peer groups. ...
This comparative case study examines non-classroom spaces within two rural, midwestern high schools in the U.S., relying on a critical pedagogy of place perspective (Gruenewald, 2008). Participant descriptions focus on the interplay between school building characteristics and local authority structures. The juxtaposition of two demographically similar populations led by administrators of similar mindset, in different physical settings, highlights the influence of school building types in supporting or undermining place-based authority processes. The authors argue that purposeful alignment of social, physical, and organizational aspects can foster positive school climates. They recommend involving vulnerable
... Finally, environmental stress and context have been shown to have profound effects on mental health and psychological well-being (Downey and van Willigen, 2005;Gong et al., 2016;Gatersleben and Griffin, 2017;van den Bosch and Meyer-Lindenberg, 2019). For example residential proximity to industrial activity (Downey and van Willigen, 2005) and other physical stimuli and stressors (van den Bosch and Meyer-Lindenberg, 2019) can negatively affect mental health, such as increasing risk of depression (van den Bosch and Meyer-Lindenberg, 2019). ...
Psychological well-being is an important indicator of well-being and has been found to be associated with a multitude of positive life outcomes. Using data collected from 1,871 Chinese college students from September 23 to October 5, 2020, this study examined students' psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigated how resilience and pandemic-related environmental stress may affect psychological well-being. Results showed that resilience had strong positive effects on psychological well-being during the pandemic. Meanwhile, environmental stress had a moderate effect and marginally reduced psychological well-being. The magnitudes of the estimates suggested that increasing resilience can effectively buffer the negative effect of environmental stress on psychological well-being.
... In environmental psychology environmental stress is defined as a negative subjective psychological response to an environmental stimulus [88]. Environmental stress occurs when the demands of the ambient environment overwhelm an individual's capacity to deal with those demands. ...
... Most environmental sounds may therefore remain unnoticed and hence would not contribute to the cognitive appraisal of the sonic environment [76]. Subliminal environmental sound might still contribute to the overall affect, emotion, and stress but would not trigger conscious changes in pleasantness rating [82]. ...
... Most environmental sounds may therefore remain unnoticed and hence would not contribute to the cognitive appraisal of the sonic environment [8]. Subliminal environmental sound might still contribute to the overall affect, emotion, and stress but would not trigger conscious changes in pleasantness rating [9]. ...
The sonic environment of the urban public space is often experienced while walking through it. Nevertheless, city dwellers are usually not actively listening to the environment when traversing the city. Therefore, sound events that are salient, i.e. stand out of the sonic environment, are the ones that trigger attention and contribute highly to the perception of the soundscape. In a previously reported audiovisual perception experiment, the pleasantness of a recorded urban sound walk was continuously evaluated by a group of participants. To detect salient events in the soundscape, a biologically-inspired computational model for auditory sensory saliency based on spectrotemporal modulations is proposed. Using the data from a sound walk, the present study validates the hypothesis that salient events detected by the model contribute to changes in soundscape rating and are therefore important when evaluating the urban soundscape. Finally, when using the data from an additional experiment without a strong visual component, the importance of auditory sensory saliency as a predictor for change in pleasantness assessment is found to be even more pronounced.
... Research is all the time uncovering new links between the conditions of the natural environment and human outcomes, suggesting that we underestimate its importance in our lives (Sandifer, Sutton-Grier, and Ward 2015). We are becoming increasingly aware of the many benefits nature has to offer (Zhang et al. 2014; Guéguen and Stefan 2016;Zelenski, Dopko, and Capaldi 2015;Staats 2012;Kardan et al. 2015), for example, but also of the harm poor environmental conditions can cause us (Gatersleben and Griffin 2017;Stansfeld et al. 2005;Hygge, Boman, and Enmarker 2003). How to stem the damage we are causing to our environment is also unclear. ...
As issues of environmental degradation intensify, the interdependency between humans and the natural environment is coming more and more into focus. In particular, questions about the importance of environmental quality for human wellbeing and about how to mitigate the serious negative impacts humans are having on the environment are of ever-increasing significance. The current work addresses these issues in four empirical papers, split into two separate parts. The first section focuses on the first question, exploring the links between air quality and individual wellbeing. Paper 1 presents a spatially detailed analysis of the relationship between air pollution and a range of measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB), providing a rich picture of how the air pollution individuals are exposed to relates to how they feel. Paper 2 uses mediation analysis to investigate the behavioural production process which converts air pollution into ill-being, providing insights into the role of physical activity and visits to the outdoors play as mediators. The second part of this thesis addresses the second question. Paper 3 investigates the relationship between proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) and a range of SWB measures, shedding light on the wellbeing consequences of PEB for the individual undertaking it and providing insights into strategies to encourage it. Paper 4 tests two interventions which target electricity consumption in a hall of residence in London, providing evidence of an effective approach to reduce individuals’ environmental impact. Taken together, the results of the papers present evidence of psychological and environmental win-wins which can arise from living in and helping to create a better natural environment.
This study investigates the relationship between perceived and actual pollution and mental health, emphasizing how exposure illusion and exposure neglect may contribute to mental health. The research draws on a representative sample of 16,607 Chinese residents, examining the associations between perceived and actual pollution and mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and stress. The study utilizes a generalized linear mixed model, incorporating various pollution conditions, gender, age, education, and urbanization as fixed effects, while the provinces are treated as random effects. The results indicate that even in the absence of high levels of actual pollution, the mere perception of pollution is associated with increased levels of depression (β = 0.51, OR = 1.66, p<.001), anxiety (β = 0.43, OR = 1.54, p<.001), and stress (β=0.30, OR = 1.35, p<.001) among residents. When residents' perception of pollution aligns with actual pollution levels, the negative effects on mental health appear to be more pronounced (depression: β = 0.90, OR = 2.46, p<.001; anxiety: β = 0.96, OR = 2.60, p<.001; stress: β = 0.56, OR = 1.76, p<.001). These findings demonstrate that perceived pollution may play a primary role in its association with mental health compared to actual pollution. It is important to emphasize that this study is cross-sectional, and thus it cannot establish causal conclusions regarding perceived pollution leading to mental health issues. Furthermore, only air pollution was used as an indicator of actual pollution, which may limit the generalizability of our findings.
This study explores the impact of Historic urban environments in shaping the emotional experience of Duhok City residents, focusing on interdisciplinary insights from urban design, planning, and environmental psychology as urban development has shown a significant impact on residents’ mental state, with recent research linking city living to an increased rate of mood and anxiety disorders. This study builds on previous findings and research gaps in a localized context. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs considers psychological well-being as a crucial aspect of the human journey to self-connection and transcendence, based on that the research explored how historic settings influence residents’ sense of belonging, identity, and self-connection. Preliminary results suggest that Historic Environments contribute to reduced negative emotions, and enhanced satisfaction levels, by fostering a strong emotional attachment, sense of place, and community identity. This research underlines the importance of preserving and integrating historical elements in urban design and planning to promote mental well-being and enrich residents’ emotional experiences.
Background
During the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home (SAH) orders were instituted to limit geographic movement of the population and decrease the spread of the virus. Parents made decisions about how to keep themselves and their children safe which may have led to differing compliance with SAH orders and affected parenting.
Objective
We assessed characteristics of those more likely to spend time outside the home and how time spent outside the home was related to parental use of discipline behaviors.
Method
We conducted a 14-day Ecological Momentary Assessment (gEMA) during April–May 2020 in a convenience sample 245 parents with children 2–12 years old in Ohio. Participants completed the EMA three times a day on stress and parenting behaviors. Geotracking during the 14 days was used to calculate time spent away from home. Data were analyzed using multilevel models.
Results
The more social distancing in a neighborhood, the less time a parent spent outside the home. Parents who spent more time away from home had lower odds of using punitive and non-punitive parenting on that day. At-the-moment stress was related to higher odds of using punitive and non-punitive parenting.
Conclusions
The response to COVID no longer includes SAH orders; yet this work allowed us to begin to disentangle types of environmental stress and in what ecological systems this stress may affect parenting. Factors in the microsystem, including stress due to daily hassles, were more likely to be related to immediate parenting behaviors than stressors in the exosystem or macrosystem.
The main purpose of this text is to show how complex and long the disciplination or disciplinary practice of an anthropologist conducting his fieldwork in non-European areas can be. In the first part, the text is very much retrospective. I focus on my long formative period, during which my ideas about becoming a full-time ethnologist were born in a kind of unconscious vacuum. I revisit my first field entry among the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people of northwestern Mexico and attempt to bring the reader up to speed on my determined efforts to reach out to native communities and my chaotic actions during this first field experience in a non-European setting as a then third-year ethnology student. This will be followed by a reflection on my next two field researches among the Tarahumara in 1996 and 2001, the first of which resulted in an M. A. thesis and the second in a dissertation. In this section, I try to show a certain shift in the approach to fieldwork, which was no longer mere chaos, but led to a more systematic organization of fieldwork findings and their elaboration into a more extensive qualifying thesis and several technical studies. While in the first part I go back into the deep past in order to show the complexities that a budding ethnologist can or must deal with if he wants to penetrate a completely different environment from his own, in the second part I discuss some of the methods of field research that I have not been familiar with in the past, or have used unconsciously or without better understanding of them. These I find useful in current and forthcoming return research among the Tarahumara. They resonate strongly in contemporary anthropology, and are constantly being refined. In this section I will also outline, with respect to methodological horizons, my current planned research project focusing on the human relationship to biodiversity in the context of environmental and climate change, which is increasingly impacting (not only) Tarahumara communities.
Purpose
Based on the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness (EA) and entrepreneurial intention (EI) through the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and the moderating role of entrepreneurial climate (EC) in the “triple disruptions” of pandemic, Industry 4.0, and innovative technology.
Design/Approach/Methods
This study collected data from 717 Chinese university students and adopted a moderated mediation model to verify the proposed construct. All data were acquired online via Wenjuanxing software and analyzed with SPSS and SmartPLS.
Findings
Results show that (1) EA, ESE, and EC are significant predictors of EI; (2) ESE partially mediates the relationship between EA and EI; and (3) EC moderates the relationship between ESE and EI.
Originality/Value
The originality of this study lies in its use of an inner- and outer-moderator framework to examine student entrepreneurial intentions. The results of this study demonstrate that EA, ESE, and EC are crucial determinants of EI among Chinese university students. These findings of this study have empirical implications for governments, universities, and individuals insofar as they can be used to enhance students’ ability to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities, foster ESE, create ECs, and facilitate EI by offering multiple entrepreneurship-related resources.
The growing demand for electricity, combined with increasing concerns about global warming, has accelerated the search for environmentally friendly power generation technologies. In recent times, hydrokinetic turbines (HKTs) have gained significance in renewable energy generation due to their affordability, reliability, ease of installation, and notably, minimal environmental impact. However, guidelines for evaluating the environmental consequences of these projects are sparse. This study seeks to establish general guidelines for performing an environmental impact assessment for HKT applications in developing nations, focusing on the Colombian scenario. It emphasizes the potential environmental repercussions linked to the construction, operation, and decommissioning of HKT, encompassing both physical and social aspects. This includes considerations like air and water quality, changes to terrestrial habitats, human health, greenhouse gas emissions, other pollutants, impacts on local community land use, and visual disruptions. Moreover, the study offers contingency strategies to address challenges that may arise during the technology’s implementation. Consequently, it underscores the necessity of considering environmental impacts across various stages of energy projects.
Cyberbiosecurity (CBS) is essential to humanity due to dangers arising from digitalization of information, processes, and materials of various branches of biology. Humans are threatened by intensifying potential for malicious destruction, misuse, and exploitation of our biological data and information. As society seeks to identify and mitigate CBS risks, we must also work to ensure the absence of avoidable or rectifiable disparities among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically/psychographically, or geographically. In this chapter, we identified behaviorally, currently recognized risks at the demographically/psychographically, or interface of the life sciences and the digital world that lead to a failure “to protect opportunity or capability of people to function as free and equal citizens.” We then identify and explore the more imperceptible uses of technology relative to the life sciences that negatively impact freedom and equity for humans. We considered these technologies against the backdrop of such social justice principles as inequality of outcomes, inequality of process, and inequality of autonomy.KeywordsSocial justiceEconomic justiceCBSCyberbiosecurityEquityInequality of autonomyInequality of outcomesInequality of processAllostatic loadA-LoadPhysiological freedomVigilance fatigueBiohackingBioengineering biochemistryHCIHCD
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing in areas where decisions and consequences have high-stakes such as larger scale software, critical infrastructure, and real-time systems. This transition in recent years has been accompanied by the growth of research in AI assurance in fields such as ethical, explainable, and trustworthy AI. In this work, we survey the literature to find the state of AI assurance for cyberbiosecurity systems as they exist now, particularly for water and agricultural supply systems; future directions are also presented. We focus on papers at the intersection of cyberbiosecurity, AI assurance, and water/agricultural supply systems, discuss how assurance techniques improve these systems, and provide pointers for future research into the application of AI for the cyberbiosecurity field. Current cyberbiosecurity solutions do not focus much on AI, but existing AI solutions for water supply and cyber or Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) exist and can be applied to benefit cyberbiosecurity. The inclusion of AI assurances help alleviate issues of applying AI to high-stakes human-centered infrastructure.CCS ConceptsComputing methodologies → Artificial intelligenceSecurity and privacyGeneral and reference → Cross-computing tools and techniquesComputer systems organization → Embedded and Cyber-physical systemsKeywordsCyberbiosecurityAI assuranceWater supply systems
Objetivo: explorar la percepción de los estudiantes universitarios sobre la escasez y la conservación del agua en Tamaulipas, México. Metodología: diseño mixto con enfoque exploratorio. Se aplicó un cuestionario a 457 individuos en las zonas norte, centro y sur del estado. Resultados: se demuestra que hay mucha preocupación por la escasez del agua, que esta carencia afecta la cotidianeidad de los estudiantes y de sus familias, que hay un sentido de responsabilidad compartido respecto al problema, pero que no realizan acciones para resolverlo. La conciencia ambiental es baja entre los estudiantes y su modelo mental se relaciona con los niveles socioespaciales y con regiones hidrológicas específicas. Valor: se dan a conocer las actitudes, los valores y las acciones de los ciudadanos sobre la escasez y la conservación del agua. Limitaciones: los resultados son específicos de Tamaulipas, aunque es posible aplicar los métodos a otras regiones. Conclusiones: la percepción sobre la escasez del agua se relaciona con el microentorno, de donde surgen conductas adaptativas. Los modelos mentales de los estudiantes se forman a partir de las experiencias directas en el contexto local, por lo que es necesario reforzar la conexión de la escasez del agua con las causas globales.
This systematic literature review synthesizes the major physical and socio-physical determinants on space choice behaviors in open (i.e., non-defined uses) versus enclosed (i.e., specific uses defined) spaces. The purpose is to better understand the trade-offs between open and enclosed spaces and how opposing and complimentary design elements influence behavior and occupancy choices. Using the lens of space choice behaviors, we hypothesize that similar design challenges exists at both scales, and that analogous insights can be applied to both urban planning and building design. We analyze the focus areas, research drivers, locations, and methods applied in the reviewed studies, and find overlapping similarities within research at both scales, particularly in the methods applied. The drivers for research into buildings tend to be more about optimizing space allocation, whereas lifestyles and well-being are more common in urban studies. We synthesize the content of the literature and find that challenges of successful public and common spaces in cities and buildings are similar in terms of trade-offs, barriers, and impacts on user activities. The implementation of diverse open spaces create more flexibility and adaptability to changing trends, attract different interest groups, and ultimately provide more synergistic benefits to the use of buildings and cities.
Noise, or unwanted sound, exposure has been shown to have a wide range of negative physical and psychological effects. Although situational context, sound characteristics, and individual expectation affect the experience of noise and its related outcomes, the personality trait of noise sensitivity also plays a critical role in assessing noise impacts. As the most widely used 21-item Noise Sensitivity Scale measure of sensitivity is often too long to administer in time-sensitive field settings, the authors conducted five studies to create and validate a shortened, field friendly version of the original, longer measure of noise sensitivity. The resulting five-item measure of noise sensitivity was shown to be internally consistent, temporally stable, highly correlated with the original measure, and predictive of noise-related outcomes such as attitudes toward specific noise, acceptability ratings of noise events, and motivations for visiting quiet locations. The applied value of the scale and implications for facilitating future research are discussed.
This article summarizes some of the negative psychological effects of imprisonment. It examines the psychological stressors?dehumanization, deprivation, and danger?to which prisoners are exposed, and the process of prisonization by which they attempt to accommodate to their conditions of confinement. It also discusses the effects of two opposite prison extremes, overcrowding and solitary confinement, as well as the kind of vulnerabilities that many prisoners bring to prison that make the experience a form of retraumatization for them. The article ends with a set of brief, programmatic but psychologically informed proposals for change.
Game location has a powerful influence on performance outcomes in sport. We reviewed recent research on three conceptual models that outline (a) the various game-location factors that can alter athletes' psychological states, (b) the natural protective response to territorial incursion in humans, and (c) the increased probability of involuntary attentional shifts in the presence of a supportive audience. Investigators recently have accumulated support for each of these models and linked variations in game location to psychological, hormonal, and behavioral states of athletes, coaches, and officials. We considered how an integrative approach might benefit the study of the home-advantage phenomenon and described an assortment of research questions to support the development of an integrative framework. By studying how audience support contributes to physiological reactivity, attention, stress responses, and decision making (among athletes and officials), researchers can achieve a better understanding of the processes through which a home environment can benefit (and occasionally harm) athletes and teams.
Natural sounds contribute to high-quality experiences for visitors to protected areas. This study investigated the effects of three common sources of recreational motorized noise on laboratory participants’ evaluations of landscape scenes. Seventy-five study participants completed landscape assessments along eight aesthetic and experiential dimensions while listening to audio clips of natural sounds, propeller planes, motorcycles, and snowmobiles. The change from the natural sound baseline for each motorized source of noise was calculated. Results indicated that all motorized sources of noise had detrimental impacts on evaluations of landscape quality compared with natural sounds. Motorcycle noise was demonstrated to have the largest negative impact on landscape assessments. In addition to confirming that noise from motorized recreation has significant impacts on the experiences of potential park visitors, this simulation suggests that the specific source of the noise is an important factor in determining observer evaluations of the quality of the natural environment.
Phonological working memory is known be (a) inversely related to the duration of the items to be learned (word-length effect), and (b) impaired by the presence of irrelevant speech-like sounds (irrelevant-speech effect). As it is discussed controversially whether these memory disruptions are subject to attentional control, both effects were studied in sighted participants and in a sample of early blind individuals who are expected to be superior in selectively attending to auditory stimuli. Results show that, while performance depended on word length in both groups, irrelevant speech interfered with recall only in the sighted group, but not in blind participants. This suggests that blind listeners may be able to effectively prevent irrelevant sound from being encoded in the phonological store, presumably due to superior auditory processing. The occurrence of a word-length effect, however, implies that blind and sighted listeners are utilizing the same phonological rehearsal mechanism in order to maintain information in the phonological store.
When living together in a household with a socially assistive robot, it can happen that the robot disturbs its owner by offering a service. One might argue that a social robot should act according to the social norms people expect of each other, but still then disturbances of daily routines are a challenging endeavor to address. We conducted a preliminary user study in which we explored four different disturbing behaviors the socially assistive robot HOBBIT showed, while the user was focusing on a different primary task. We used the BEHAVE measurement set to evaluate the attitudinal and behavioral responses of the users, which disturbance distracted the user the most from his/her primary task and how the disturbance affected the overall attitudinal response towards the robot. Interestingly, our results showed that the disturbing behavior did not heavily negatively impact the assessment of the robot and that not all types of disturbance did distract the users with the same intensity.
The present paper provides an overview of research concerning both acute and chronic effects of exposure to noise on children's cognitive performance. Experimental studies addressing the impact of acute exposure showed negative effects on speech perception and listening comprehension. These effects are more pronounced in children as compared to adults. Children with language or attention disorders and second-language learners are still more impaired than age-matched controls. Noise-induced disruption was also found for non-auditory tasks, i.e., serial recall of visually presented lists and reading. The impact of chronic exposure to noise was examined in quasi-experimental studies. Indoor noise and reverberation in classroom settings were found to be associated with poorer performance of the children in verbal tasks. Regarding chronic exposure to aircraft noise, studies consistently found that high exposure is associated with lower reading performance. Even though the reported effects are usually small in magnitude, and confounding variables were not always sufficiently controlled, policy makers responsible for noise abatement should be aware of the potential impact of environmental noise on children's development.
The most commonly used space in architectural education is the studio, which functions both as a learning centre and as a complex social organization. The behavioural elements in the design studio are analysed with respect to the social processes of environmental psychology; namely privacy, personal space, territoriality and crowding. A case study was conducted to evaluate the differences between the desired and actual conditions of a design studio in the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at Bilkent University. The expectations and preferences of the interior architecture students pertaining to the design studio were analysed by considering the sex differences in patterns of privacy preferences and the results of this study are expected to be used as input for a new design studio. Results showed that there was no difference between preferences of solitude, reserve, anonymity, and isolation among sexes. Although there was a significant difference among sexes where females preferred intimacy with family and males preferred intimacy with friends.
48 male and 48 female undergraduates were given an opportunity to aid a confederate both before and after exposure to ambient temperatures of either 73°F (23°C) or 95°F (35°C), and noise levels of 55 dB(A), 95 dB(A) without perceived control, or 95 dB(A) with perceived control. Although heat produced discomfort and led to negative evaluations of the environment and although noise generally increased arousal, neither heat nor noise influenced any measures of helping behavior. Results are discussed in terms of feelings of perceived control imparted by the informed consent procedures and in terms of internal versus external attributions of responsibility for negative feelings.
Some 10 years ago Edward T. Hall, a cultural anthropologist, wrote The Hidden Dimension (Hall, 1966),2 a book that focused on how different cultures used space and the physical environment. This book appeared during a period when social and behavioral scientists and environmental-design professionals were joining forces to study the relationship between human behavior and the environment (see Altman, 1973, 1976; Craik, 1973; and Proshansky, Ittelson, & Rivlin, 1976; for a description of the development of this field and for examples of representative research).
Conducted 2 field studies on the relationship of weather variables to helping behavior. In Study 1 (540 adult Ss), which was executed in the spring and summer and subsequently replicated in the winter, the amount of sunshine reaching the earth was found to be a strong predictor of an S's willingness to assist an interviewer. Smaller relationships were also found between helping and temperature, humidity, wind velocity, and lunar phase. Exp II was conducted indoors with 130 dining parties to control for comfort factors. Sunshine, lunar phase, and S's age and sex were found to predict the generosity of the tip left for a restaurant waitress. Sunshine and temperature were also significantly related to the 6 waitresses' self-reports of mood. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Levels and descriptors of violence among European street gangs are summarized from studies reported primarily under the aegis of the Eurogang Program initiated in 1997 and continuing still. European gang violence is placed in the context of its American counterpart, of European non-gang youth violence, and of the definitional and structural components of the Eurogang Program. European gangs in over a dozen countries reveal a wide pattern of violent behaviour and levels of violence that are far greater than among non-gang youth, but largely less serious than in the USA. Some of these latter differences may be attributable to the recentness of the European gang development, the lower levels of firearms availability, and lower levels of gang territoriality in Europe.
This paper examines how ambient noise, an important environmental variable, can affect creativity. Results from five experiments demonstrate that a moderate (70 dB) versus low (50 dB) level of ambient noise enhances performance on creative tasks and increases the buying likelihood of innovative products. A high level of noise (85 dB), on the other hand, hurts creativity. Process measures reveal that a moderate (vs. low) level of noise increases processing difficulty, inducing a higher construal level and thus promoting abstract processing, which subsequently leads to higher creativity. A high level of noise, however, reduces the extent of information processing and thus impairs creativity.
Although most research shows that temporary occupants of public territories are likely to flee if the area is intruded on, other research suggests that temporary occupants will defend the area if a specific task must be performed there. In this study we observed callers at public telephones to determine whether they would flee or persist after an intrusion. Further, we tested whether distraction-caused interference with task performance rather than territoriality could explain the results. Three correlational studies suggested that callers spent more time at the phone if they were intruded on. An experiment indicated that people stayed longer at the phone after an intrusion primarily because someone was waiting to use the phone rather than solely because of the presence of an intruder. Overall, the results of five studies suggested that 1) counter to normative prescriptions, callers defend their telephones against intruders and 2) although distraction affects length of calls, there is an independent effect for territoriality.
Urban living environments are known to influence human well-being and health; however, little is known about the multidimensionality of different environmental burdens. The aim of this study is to examine the relations between multiple burdens and self-rated health of city residents in Berlin. A spatial analysis was conducted to determine neighborhood street blocks with high versus low levels of three environmental burdens (traffic noise, air pollution, lack of public green space) as study sites for a cross-sectional household questionnaire. Burden level served as a dichotomous predictor to compare residents' self-reports of neighborhood satisfaction, life satisfaction, health behavior, and psychological and physical health symptoms. Residents from high-burden blocks appraised the environmental conditions more stressful, reported poorer health behavior and were less satisfied with their neighborhood than residents from low-burden blocks. However, they did not differ in regard to more general health symptoms. Three other burdens (behavior-related noise, litter and dirt in public space, lack of urban vegetation), which could not be varied objectively, were assessed by their perceived intensity. Regression analyses of the relations between the perceived levels of all six burdens and outcomes in the total sample revealed the following: Neighborhood satisfaction could be predicted from multiple stressors and resources that co-occur independently, while more general health symptoms were related only to perceived air pollution. The results have implications for both urban planning and public health.
The effect of sex on the reaction to personal space intrusion was examined in the setting of a university library. One male or one female experimenter invaded the personal space of 18 male and 18 female subjects, in one of the following conditions: (I) seated across from the subject (II) seated next to the subject and (III) seated next to the subject reading the subject's book. Latency of response was timed. Responses were defined as certain compensatory reactions, such as blocking, flight, leaning or verbal responses. It was found that there was a significant decrease in the latency of response as the immediacy of the intruder increased. It was also shown that same-sex subject and experimenter interaction lead to shorter latency of response.
This study renews the classical concept of subliminal perception (Peirce & Jastrow, 1884) by investigating the impact of subliminal flicker from fluorescent lighting on affect and cognitive performance. It was predicted that low compared to high frequency lighting (latter compared to former emits non-flickering light) would evoke larger changes in affective states and also impair cognitive performance. Subjects reported high rather than low frequency lighting to be more pleasant, which, in turn, enhanced their problem solving performance. This suggests that sensory processing can take place outside of conscious awareness resulting in conscious emotional consequences; indicating a role of affect in subliminal/implicit perception, and that positive affect may facilitate cognitive task performance.
Reaction to the "immediacy" of an intruder was examined in the setting of a university library. Individuals seated alone at a study table were selected as targets for intrusion by one of the two female experimenters who alternated between the roles of intruder and rater. Approaches to the subject, in terms of decreasing immediacy, involved the following seated positions: (I) adjacent to the subject, (II) across from the subject, (III) two seats adjacent to the subject, and (IV) three seats adjacent to the subject. Hypothesized compensatory reactions to increased immediacy were found in leaning and blocking responses, while differences opposite those predicted were found in frequency of cross glancing. Although few subjects left during the ten minute period of intrusion, there was evidence showing that, among those who left, the shortest latencies were in the condition of greatest immediacy.
To develop an understanding of the stability of mental health during imprisonment through review of existing research evidence relating physical prison environment to mental state changes in prisoners.
A systematic literature search was conducted looking at changes in mental state and how this related to various aspects of imprisonment and the prison environment.
Fifteen longitudinal studies were found, and from these, three broad themes were delineated: being imprisoned and aspects of the prison regime; stage of imprisonment and duration of sentence; and social density. Reception into prison results in higher levels of psychiatric symptoms that seem to improve over time; otherwise, duration of imprisonment appears to have no significant impact on mental health. Regardless of social density, larger prisons are associated with poorer mental state, as are extremes of social density.
There are large gaps in the literature relating prison environments to changes in mental state; in particular, high-quality longitudinal studies are needed. Existing research suggests that although entry to prison may be associated with deterioration in mental state, it tends to improve with time. Furthermore, overcrowding, ever more likely as prison populations rise, is likely to place a particular burden on mental health services.
This article uses national data on prisons in the United States to examine the effects of deprivation, overcrowding, and their interaction on the likelihood of prison suicide. Our central argument is that overcrowding is a pivotal feature of prison environments that conditions the effects of deprivation. Findings provide substantial support for this hypothesis. For example, at low levels of overcrowding, minimum-security facilities evidence a lower probability of prison suicide, but at high levels, they are as likely to experience a suicide as their medium- and maximum-security counterparts. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.!
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The function of sensory abilities in personal space research has been all but neglected. Elderly people experience a decline in sensory functioning as a result of the aging process or illness. Vision, hearing, and mobility were examined in relation to an elderly sample's perception of strength and aggression and established interpersonal distance. Results indicate that age, gender, and mobility play an important role in interpersonal distance. Methodological findings offer insights for future studies in personal space research.
The authors provide data on mental health sequelae of residential crowding among children, demonstrating significant associations between the number of persons per room and an index of psychological health. These relations are shown in two independent samples of urban and rural children living in poverty. The density–mental health link among the rural, low-income sample is qualified by a gender interaction indicating that boys are more vulnerable to negative outcomes. This interaction was not found among the smaller, inner-city sample. In both samples, children from higher density homes are less likely to persist in an achievement, problem-solving context. The authors did not find support for their hypothesis that learned helplessness would at least partially account for the relation between residential crowding and mental health among children.