Dimensions of Human Behavior: Person and Environment

1. Dimensions of Human Behavior: Person and Environment Chapter 7 The Physical Environment

2. KEY POINTS ADDRESSED • Identifying the Physical Environment • Theories to Explain the Relationship between the Physical Environment and Human Behavior • Stimulation • Control • Behavior Settings • The Natural Environment • Good for Body, Mind, and Spirit • An Inconvenient Truth • Why Do We Care • The Built Environment • For Large Groups • In Daily Living • Special Circumstances • Considering the Possibilities Chapter 7: Physical Environment

3. Identifying the Physical Environment What is the physical environment? What is the transactional approach to understanding the relationship between the physical environment and human behavior? What aspects of the physical environment are related to human behavior? Chapter 7: Physical Environment

4. The Physical Environment – • Consists of the natural environment and the built environment • Serves as source of sensory information (explained by stimulation theories) • Constrains or limits some behaviors (explained by control theories) • Encourages / prescribes some behaviors (explained by behavior setting theories) Chapter 7: Physical Environment

5. Theories that Explain the Relationship between the Physical Environment and Human Behavior Stimulation Theories • The physical environment is a source of sensory information essential for human well-being • Patterns of stimulation influence thinking, emotions, social interaction, and health. • Important concepts • stimulus overload • restricted environmental stimulation Chapter 7: Physical Environment

6. Theories that Explain the Relationship between the Physical Environment and Human Behavior (cont) Control Theories • Humans desire control over their physical environment. • Some person/environment configurations provide more control over the physical environment than others. • Important concepts: • privacy • personal space (boundary-regulating mechanisms) • territoriality (boundary-regulating mechanisms) • crowding Chapter 7: Physical Environment

7. Theories that Explain the Relationship between the Physical Environment and Human Behavior, (cont) Behavior Settings Theories • Consistent, uniform patterns of behavior occur in particular settings. • Behaviors of different persons in the same setting are more similar than the behaviors of the same person in different settings. • Important concepts: • behavior settings • programs • staffing Chapter 7: Physical Environment

8. Comparing and Contrasting the Theories of Physical Environment • How do the various human behavior theoretical perspectives help us better understand the theories of the relationship between the physical environment and the human environment Chapter 7: Physical Environment

9. The Natural Environment: Good for Body, Mind, and Spirit • Water – the preferred landscape element • Trees – increase positive, creative, cooperative feelings • Sunlight – curvilinear relationship with feelings of relaxation Chapter 7: Physical Environment

10. The Natural Environment:“An Inconvenient Truth”? Growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, and fuel >>> humans change ecosystems to meet demand >>sizable, mostly irreversible loss of diversity of life > exacerbated poverty for some groups of people • Many costs of the changes will be deferred to future generations. • The degradation of world ecosystems expected to grow significantly worse in the first half of the 21st century. • Reversing the degradation of ecosystems will require major changes in policies across the globe. Chapter 7: Physical Environment

11. The Natural Environment:Why Do We Care? • The spiritual model: viewsnature as sacred in its own right and threatened by human activity. • The ecological model: views humans as interconnected with nature, and looks to science and technology to find ways for humans to live in balance with nature. Chapter 7: Physical Environment

12. The Built Environment: The Result of Human Effort How stimulation theory, control theory, and behavior setting theory help us design optimal settings for large groups of people, such as: • Therapeutic institutions like mental hospitals and residential treatment facilities • Schools and universities • Correctional institutions • Institutions for persons with mental etardation • Large hospitals • College dormitories Chapter 7: Physical Environment

13. The Built Environment: The Result of Human Effort How would stimulation theory, control theory, and behavior setting theory help us design optimal settings for daily living in: • Planned residential communities • New urban villages • Low income housing projects • Urban and suburban condominiums Chapter 7: Physical Environment

14. The Built Environment: The Result of Human Effort How would stimulation theory, control theory, and behavior setting theory help us design optimal settings for special circumstances, such as: • Crime prevention • Substance addictions • Homeless populations • Persons with physical disabilities Chapter 7: Physical Environment

15. Physical Environment Needs of Particular Populations: Children and Elderly Adults: • Personal identity • Sense of competence • Intellectual, social, and motor development • Security and trust • A balance of social interaction and privacy Chapter 7: Physical Environment

16. Consider: • Why the authors of the text suggest that conflict theory applies to accessible environments for persons with disabilities • How the concepts of place attachment and place identity can be incorporated into social work interventions • What role, if any, the physical environment, both natural and built, played in the Virginia Tech shootings of April 2007 Chapter 7: Physical Environment