Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The analysis of social situations
- 3 The effect of the situation on behaviour
- 4 Drives and goals
- 5 Rules
- 6 Role-systems
- 7 Repertoire of elements
- 8 Sequences of interaction
- 9 Concepts and cognitive structures
- 10 Environmental setting
- 11 Language and speech
- 12 Stressful situations
- 13 Applications of situational analysis
- 14 Conclusions
- References
- Names index
- Subject index
10 - Environmental setting
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The analysis of social situations
- 3 The effect of the situation on behaviour
- 4 Drives and goals
- 5 Rules
- 6 Role-systems
- 7 Repertoire of elements
- 8 Sequences of interaction
- 9 Concepts and cognitive structures
- 10 Environmental setting
- 11 Language and speech
- 12 Stressful situations
- 13 Applications of situational analysis
- 14 Conclusions
- References
- Names index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction
The feature of situations that has been most thoroughly investigated is the physical environment. We suggest that the physical features of situations can be looked at in terms of four concepts.
Boundaries (the physical enclosures within which behaviour takes place).
Props (the furnishings, decorations and objects contained in that boundary).
Modifiers (the quality and quantity of conditioners in the boundary).
Spaces (the use and meaning attached to spaces between people and objects within the boundary).
The scientific analysis of the structure and function of the physical environment is a comparatively recent development for psychology. In 1966 Craik defined environmental psychology as ‘the psychological study of behaviour as it relates to the everyday physical environment’, and which addresses itself to three related questions:
What does the everyday physical environment do to people?
How do people comprehend their physical environment?
What do people do to the everyday physical environment?
The relationship between social and environmental psychology is close theoretically and methodologically, as social psychology's traditional focus on perception and behaviour has been broadened to include contextual orientation in which the transaction between people and their sociophysical settings is emphasised. Altman (1976) has suggested that both the two subdisciplines might benefit from looking at people × place units, as the new social unit of enquiry.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social Situations , pp. 267 - 292Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981