Understanding Individuals Within
Environments
Chapter 5
Activity?

Write down 2 classes you’ve taken that are very
different.

What skills did you need in order to be successful in
that class?

How did the different environments help you learn?
Not help you learn?
2
6 Models of Ecological Environment
(1) Behavior Setting Analysis (Roger Barker)
(2) Activity Settings (O’Donnel, et al.)
(3) Ecological Metaphor (James Kelly)
(4) Social Climate Perspective (Rudolph Moos)
(5) Social Regularities (Edward Seidman)
(6) Environmntal Psychology
3
3 Models of Ecological Environment
(1) Behavior Setting Analysis (Roger Barker)
–
Discrete places
(2) Ecological Metaphor (James Kelly)
–
Field Biology as Metaphor
(3) Social Climate Perspective (Rudolph Moos)
–
4
Personality of the Environment
Model 1: Behavior Setting Theory (Roger Barker)
•
Fundamental Question: “How do we understand
stream of behavior that characterizes our everyday
life?”
•
Eco-behavioral science independent of individuals
–
5
Discovery of rules that are minimally variable by context
One Boy’s Day: The Evolution of a Theory

Behavior setting as central concept

6
Behavior-environment synomorphy
When in church,
we behave….
7
When at a sporting
event, we behave…
8
Circuits

Circuits: mechanisms that guide adaptive behavior in
settings, connect people to settings

4 types of circuits
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Program circuits
Goal circuits
Deviation-countering circuits
Vetoing circuits
Uses of Behavior Setting Analysis

Providing portraits of what aspects of communities are
important locally
•
•
•

# churches
# schools
# athletic facilities
Diagnosing community needs
•
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What is missing?
 Needed programs/organizations
11
Staffing Theory
# people
Available behavior settings

Under-populated settings – Greater claims on people
 Fewer people per setting

Over-populated settings – Less claim on people
12
Size Matters: Big School/Small School
•
Study of 20 high schools in Kansas that differed in
student population (range: 150-1800 students)
•
Begins with behavior setting survey
–
–
–
Classes
Extracurricular activities
Sports
# of behavior settings
# of students
13
Smaller Schools

more involved in school activities

worked longer hours at school-related activities

worked at greater diversity of tasks
 became more generalists than specialists
14
Findings

Smaller schools: fewer students per behavior (i.e., more
claim on students)
•Student Council
•Soccer Team
•Choir
•Band
15
Smaller Schools

Felt less marginal to ongoing life of school

More a part of the school/investment in it

More roles of responsibility

Assessed value of others more in task-related than
socio-emotional characteristics

Lower standards for admission into behavior
settings
16
Larger Schools

Higher specialized skill development

More diversity of opportunities in classes &
extracurricular activities

More ability to hide when you want to
17
Findings

Larger schools: more students per behavior (i.e., less
claim on students)
•Student Council
•Soccer Team
•Choir
•Band
18
3 Models of Ecological Environment
(1) Behavior Setting Analysis (Roger Barker)
–
Discrete places
(2) Ecological Metaphor (James Kelly)
–
Field Biology as Metaphor
(3) Social Climate Perspective (Rudolph Moos)
–
19
Personality of the Environment
Ecological Metaphor (James Kelly)

4 principles from field biology
•
•
•
•
20
Adaptation
Cycling of resources
Interdependence
Succession
Ecological Metaphor: (1) Adaptation

Every community has both opportunities for
development & demands for survival



Expectations / Demands
 Formal vs. Informal
Opportunities
What are the adaptive requirements of UML as a
college environment?
21
Adaptation & Coping

The Adaptation Question: “How do I have to behave to
survive/thrive here?”



Behavior
Treat others
The Coping Question: “What skills, qualities, & coping
styles does the community support & tolerate, & what
does it not?”


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Interpersonal
Academic
Where do these adaptive requirements occur at UML?

Social Settings





Social Norms



Classrooms
Organizations
Studying Abroad
Athletics
Peers
Faculty
Policies


23
Tuition
Requirements
Ecological Metaphor: (2) Cycling of Resources
•
Focus: Search for positive aspects of community
•
How resources that nurture growth of development of
community are distributed, managed, & conserved
•
Question: “What resources are available in this community
for making it a better place?”
•
Think: What have been resources in your life generally? At
UML?
24
Types of Resources

Formal: Role responsibilities

Informal: Non-role related qualities of people within
setting, Not required
•
Manifest: On the surface, easy to recognize
•
Latent: Not expressed in the ongoing daily environment
25
4 Main Types of Resources
People
 Settings
 Events
 Technology

26
Ecological Model: (3) Interdependence

Parts of a community are related

Research Question: “How are people, agencies, &
institutions linked to each other in the
community?”

Setting off chains of events in individual lives
 If only I hadn’t……
 (you fill it in)
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28
Ecological Metaphor: (4) Succession

Communities change over time in response to
internal & external forces

Community Question: “How did that community
come to be the way it
currently is & what are its
hopes for the future?”
29
Ecological Metaphor: (4) Succession Principle
•
Focus on
–
–
–
•
30
History
Hopes
Trajectory
Provides an empathy for current issues even if
you hate what you see
Southwick Hall
Lowell Techology Institute
1903
Coburn Hall
Lowell State College
1899
31
Ecological Metaphor: (4) Succession

Goals & values of helping agent must be generally
consistent with setting

Other goals may be pursued, but conflict should be
expected.

Sustainability should be a goal
32
Ecological Model: Summary

Adaptation: What are the adaptive requirements?

Cycling of Resources: What are the available resources?

Interdependence: How are its different parts connected?

Succession: How did it come to be as it is and what are its
hopes for the future?
33
3 Models of Ecological Environment
(1) Behavior Setting Analysis (Roger Barker)
–
Discrete places
(2) Ecological Metaphor (James Kelly)
–
Field Biology as Metaphor
(3) Social Climate Perspective (Rudolph Moos)
–
34
Personality of the Environment
Model 3: Social Climate Approach (Rudolph Moos)

Focus: high impact environments

Question: Can environment be described in terms of
perceptions of people in it?

3 Environmental Domains
Relationships
1)

Authority Structure
2)

Rules & regulations
Personal Development/Goal orientation
3)

35
Quality
Reasons for being in the setting
36
Where Does Social Climate Come From?

School & context factors

Physical/architectural features

Organizational factors

Teacher characteristics

Aggregate students characteristics
37
A Model of Determinants of Classroom Climate
Organizational
Factors
School and
Classroom
Context
Physical and
Architectural
Features
Aggregate
Student
Characteristics
Teacher
Characteristics
38
Classroom
Climate
4 Ways of Defining Neighborhoods
Site (geographical location)
1.

Perception
2.

of neighboring practices, of crime level, of housing
Social network
3.

interpersonal connections
Culture
4.

39
census tracts
historical/cultural quest
Neighborhood Risk & Protective Processes

Risk processes correlated with problematic individual
outcomes (personal distress/behavior problems)




Low income neighborhoods
Risky physical environments
Exposure to violence
Protective processes are strengths or resources
correlated with positive outcomes (offset or buffer risk
processes)


40
Sense of community among residents
Good school
What Difference Does the Neighborhood Make?

Chicago neighborhoods & violent behaviors (Sampson,
Raudenbush, & Earls)

What affected the ability of communities to prevent violence?

Premise – social & organizational characteristics of
communities explain variation in crime rates
41
Hypothesis

Ability of neighborhoods to maintain social control in the
community related to level of violent behavior


42
Social Control
 Ability of a group to regulate its members, to realize collective
goals (group control)
Collective efficacy
 Social cohesion combined with a willingness to intervene for the
common good
 Reflected in
 Monitoring children’s play
 Intervening to prevent street corner society
 Confronting public nuisances
343 Chicago Neighborhoods

Over 8,000 African-American, Latino, & White people
interviewed

3 Types of Neighborhoods



43
“Concentrated Disadvantage”
 below poverty line
 on public assistance
 female-headed families
 unemployed
Immigrant concentration (Latino/foreign born)
Residential stability
3 Measures of Violence in Community

Perceived community violence

Personal victimization

Incidents of homicide
44
Results

Collective Efficacy –


45
Positively related to residential stability
Negatively related to concentrated disadvantage and
immigrant/foreign-born
Results

Neighborhoods high on collective efficacy



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Less perceived violence
Less personal victimization
Fewer homicides
Problem Assessment Assignment

UML Resources


Press Releases


http://www.uml.edu/Media/PressReleases/default.asp
UML Factbook


Hawk Talk (http://www.uml.edu/admissions/hawktalk/)
http://www.uml.edu/it/ir/factbooks.html
US News & World Report

47
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/bestcolleges/national-universities-rankings/