It is widely known that the environment and settings surrounding a person can have great impacts on a person’s behavior. Factors including lighting, noise, and temperature are all variables of an environment. Relevant to this idea, I’ve often wondered why I could never focus or study at my house unless it is completely silent, the entire house is tidy and clean, candles are lit, and I’m wearing cozy clothes. Why am I like this I ask myself? Though this may sound so weird to some people, I’m sure there are others out there who are like this. People who cannot focus in their home (or anywhere else) unless it is their perfect environment. Everything needs to be very “Zen”, if I may say, in order for me to fully focus. In our text this week there was a very interesting yet also kind of odd example of how people’s environment can greatly affect their behaviors.
“The Built Environment” in chapter 13 of our text (Schneider, Gruman, Coults, 2012) the example provided is about an apartment complex that was built in Missouri in 1954. The apartment design was considered to have highly adequate vandal-resistant features and had a very open, simplistic and individual layout in which no space had been wasted. The apartment complex design was called the “Pruitt-Igoe” design and it permitted 12,000 residents to reside here. This new design had been created with the hopes of decreasing vandalism and crime, and also improving the deteriorating inner-city housing.
Something the project constructors of the new complex did to create a spacious feel was invest in elevators which only stopped on every third floor so most tenants had to walk up at least 1 to 2 floors in order to reach their apartment. The buildings were 11 stories high and this elevator design caused much more traffic in the stairwells. Something the project constructors clearly didn’t consider was that more people and traffic in stairwells can become a negative environment for people. Shortly after the opening of the apartment complex, problems began, all because the construction designs failed to understand the impacts of environment on human behavior. A very common problem in the building was known as “stairwell crime”. After only a mere 18 years the building had to be demolished because of how bad the environment had become once again.
Although the Pruitt-Igoe design example is a rather extreme example of environment on behavior, it does still send a message. The physical layouts and designs of buildings and spaces have many different variables within them that can have unimaginable impacts on how its residents behave. For me if I were living in that apartment in Missouri in the 1950’s, I’d be scared out of my mind to even open my door. That particular environment would have that effect on me.
Another funny example of environment I was just reminded of that happened in my life was the time I was staying at this really ritzy hotel in New York City. The one night I had been craving a tray of New York style pizza, I just needed to have it. I placed my order and waited for delivery. About 20 minutes later my room phone rings and the delivery guy is downstairs. I ask the front desk if they can send him up and tell me no he is not permitted to because the elevator uses your room key in order to function. I say oh ok no problem and I head down to the lobby. Mind you I’m having myself a relaxing night while in NYC, I’m wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, my hair is in a messy bun, and I have no make-up on, I’m really just lounging tonight. When I reached the lobby, I cannot even fully describe to you how bad I felt. It was about 7:30 pm and all of the hotels tenants were in the lobby dressed to the 9! Literally these people around me looked like they may have been millionaires. Women were in ball gowns, men were wearing tuxedos, and their children were dressed in their own best attire as well. It wasn’t one of those moment where I was just feeling self-conscious and thought everyone was looking at me. Every one really was looking at me. I had made eye contact with about 15 different people as I walked toward my pizza delivery guy. I felt as if I was truly putting a damper on everyone’s night. The strangers had looked at me as if their environments had just been negatively affected by my appearance and activity. In turn, this environment that I was presently in had a very negative impact on me as well! My cheeks became very flushed, my heart was going a million miles an hour, and I was so embarrassed. I gave the guy the money, and quickly took my pizza back up to the 7th floor where for the rest of the night I felt very sensitive about my image, and I inadvertently stress ate my entire tray of pizza. A person’s environment is key to their moods and behaviors. Also design flaws such as requiring hotel room cards in order to operate elevators can influence human moods and behaviors such as the example of when I had to retrieve my pizza and I became the laughing stock of a ritzy upscale hotel.
References
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Tags: environment blog, human behavior, psych424
I enjoyed reading your post. I understand how you feel about having your environment set up so that you can study. I get distracted very easily and need to have my workspace clear before I start studying. As for the incident in New York, I have also been in situations similar to that. It is an awful feeling to have everyone staring at you and judging you. This is called the spotlight effect.
As I read the post, I found part of it so intriguing. I was stuck thinking about how similar I am when it comes to studying. My environment plays an important role when it comes to my feelings. I cannot concentrate if my surroundings are messy or chaotic. As you mentioned the Pruitt-Igoe design example, I thought about when I was house shopping. My mood would change with every different place that I saw, possibly because of the setting and the environmental effect.
After reading your post, I came across a study titled “The impact of work environment on mood disorders and suicide,” which investigated the occupational factors that contribute to mood disorders and suicide. Some of the results indicated “correlations between a high level of occupational stress and a wide range of mental health problems.” This provides some evidence of your premise and reveals so much about some of the mood changes that myself and people close to me experience on a daily basis.
Woo, J.-M., & Postolache, T. T. (2008). The impact of work environment on mood disorders and suicide: Evidence and implications. International Journal on Disability and Human Development : IJDHD, 7(2), 185–200.
One’s direct environment is essential for several reasons. Sometimes, I forget how a healthy and comfortable setting contributes to higher productivity. The building that I work in was without heat for several months, making it very difficult to focus on anything but being cold. This building is very old and very warn, some have suggested that it be condemned, though the building has value to those in the neighborhood who need it and use it.
This entry also caused me to contemplate how valuable it is to design buildings in a way that is effective in the long term. For your first example, I thought of how wasteful it was to demolish a building after 18 years. Thought and care must be invested in every aspect that may have influence the environment. It is essential that we are using materials and designs that have the least negative impact. It is not sustainable to build something for it to be broken down in 20 years. This also plays a role in social design, which is discussed in Applied Social Psychology, when buildings are not constructed to be sustainable, they negatively impact those who live in the neighborhood (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2013). Environmentally conscious designs that contribute positively to the community are essential in contributing to sustainable social change.
Reference
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.