SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL
pSYCHOLOGY
(FEM 3103)
1
What is your reaction?
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Heard your housemate was caught because
of drugs ?
A beautiful lady smile at you?
Heard your cousin met with an accident?
Your parents wants to marry you to
someone that you doesn’t like?
2
What is Psychology?
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Psychology is the science which seeks to
understand and predict human and animal
behavior.
Behavior  includes feelings, attitudes,
thoughts, and other mental process (internal
events which cannot be observed directly but
can be measured indirectly)
Social?
Society, socialization, community, interaction,
relationship etc.
Environment?
including physical & social environment
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What is Social Psychology?

According to Serge Moscovici,
 “Social Psychology act as a bridge between
other branches of knowledge”
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According to Gordon Allport:
 “Social psychology is a discipline that uses
scientific methods in an attempt to
understand and explain how thoughts,
feelings and the behavior of individuals are
influenced by the actual, imagining or
implied presence of others”
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A broad definition which covers a wide
range of phenomenon:
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How people form attitude?
How people attempt to persuade and are
persuaded by others?
How people form close relationship with
others?
Why people help or harm each other?
How people understand each other and
themselves?
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What ever definition one chooses, it is clear
that social psychology covers a lot of territory.
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A social psychologist may focus on:
 Social influences on the individual
 Social interaction between 2 or more
individual
 Group process
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If the focus is on social influence:
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Look into the social influences that
have an effect on individual and the
way in which they understand the
world
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If the focus is on social interaction:
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The focus is on the interaction between and
among individual.
 Aim:- to determine the unique characteristics
of social behavior when 2 or more people
are talking, working, bargaining, planning or
engaging in any activities that people do
together.
 Specific Areas:- Communication process,
social influence in attitude change,
bargaining & negotiating, interpersonal
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attraction.
If the focus is on Group Process:
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Focus into the unique properties of groups,
such as status, roles, group pressure and
norms, and communication pattern.
 ie. How people act in a group
How group affect their members
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Areas:- On a larger scale, social psychologist
study organization, social institutions, physical
environment in an attempt to determine
how people respond to these influences.
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Conclusion
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The major focus of social psychology is on:
people’s
individual psychological
process and their social interactions
with others.
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Social Psychology is scientific study of social
behavior. i.e.: How we perceived other people & social
situation
 How we respond to others, and they to us
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 How we are affected by social situation
What is Environmental Psychology?

The study of human behavior and well-being
in relation to the socio-physical environment
(Stokols & Altman, 1987)
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The branch of psychology concerned with
providing a systematic account of the
relationship between a person and the
environment. (Russell & Snodgrass, 1987)
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Environmental Psychology focused on:
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The study of the relationship between humans
and their physical environment.
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Traditionally, the emphasis in environmental
psychology has been on how human behavior,
feelings, and well-being are affected by the
physical environment (or environmental
variables).
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Earlier studies focused on how human-made
environment such as buildings & cities affected
behavior.
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But, in the recent years, the focus is on:
 how
humans are affected by natural
environments,
 effects of humans on the environment (e.g.,
studies of littering, motivation for family
planning, energy conservation, recycling, use
of mass transportation etc.)
 the reactions of people to human-made and
natural environmental hazards.
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Environmental psychology :
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Investigates people's interactions with the
environment - their perceptions, attitudes and
actions.
It investigates the psychological processes
which enable us to understand the meaning
that environmental situations have for people
acting individually or in groups, and how people
create and use places.
The environment can be the elements in the
city,neighborhood, home, office, factory, school,
hospital, streets,retail or any recreational
environment, and also sounds, weather, etc. 14
Conclusion:
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Environmental Psychology is the study of the
relationships or transaction between
individuals behavior and experience and their
physical setting (built and natural
environment).
It deals with the reciprocal relationship
between human and the built and natural
environment.
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ISSUES IN SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
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Issues in Social Psychology
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Prejudice, Discrimination and diversity
The Psychology of Gender
Cultural link
Social Influence
Interpersonal Relations
Self and social identity
Group behavior
Violence & conflict resolution
Prosocial Behavior
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Issues in Environmental Psychology
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Human response to built and natural settings
Environmental perception and cognition
Problems of cities, population density, inner city
decay, effects of apartment house living.
Driver stress, reduction of driver stress,
aggressive behavior on roadways
Driver vengeance
Vandalism
The impact of technological &natural hazards
Research ethics
Housing needs of different groups
Effect of pollutions on human behavior
Designing and planning issues, etc.
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THEORIES
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3 major theoretical perspectives on
human behavior:
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Psychoanalytic Theory
(Sigmund Freud)
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Behaviorism Theory
Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura)
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Gestalt Theory
Wolfgang, Koffka, Lewin)
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PSYCHOANALYTIC
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Freud proposed that behavior is motivated
from within by powerful internal drives and
impulses, such as sexuality and aggression.
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Adult behavior is shaped by unresolved
psychological conflict  can be traced to
childhood experiences in family.
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Pschoanalitic theorist seek to understand the
inner forces (conscious & unconscious)  that
energize and direct behavior.
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BEHAVIORISM
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Focused on observable behavior of human &
animals  proposed that current behavior is
the result of past learning.
Not really interested in subjective thoughts
and feelings  prefer studying what they could
directly observe& measure, i.e. overt behavior.
Behaviorist identified a series of principles to
explain the specific process through which
these learning occurs  through experiments.
Experiments were conducted on animals
(rats, dogs, pigeons)  believe the same
principles applied to human.
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Gestalt
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Focused on how individual perceived and
understand object, events and people.
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People do not perceive situations or
events as many discrete elements
(separately)  but rather as “dynamic
whole”.
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The legacy of these major theories help
to explain a variety of difficult problems.
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Psychoanalytic  can be seen in analysis of
motivation & emotion in social life  Behavior
is influence by personal motives & emotional
reaction we have to situations & people.
Behaviorism  how learning shape social
behavior e.g. How we learn to be
helpful/aggrasive  experience shape our
attitude & behavior.
Gestalt  how we perceived and understand
our social world (social cognition).
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CONTEMPORARY THEORIES IN SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
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Motivational
Learning
Cognitive
Decision Making
Social Exchange
Socio-cultural
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TIME
:
LOCATION :
2 a.m
A Grocery shop in Serdang
A police officer saw a high school dropout,
Ameng, coming out of the rear door of a shop,
with a bag full of money. The shop has long
been closed for the night. The officer shouted
at Ameng to stop & put his hands up. Ameng
turn, pulls out a pistol & shoot the officer,
wounding him in the leg. Ameng is later caught
& sent to jail. However, the statistics predicts
that Ameng stays in jail will not be productive
or happy, it will be costly for society, & the
chance that he will commit further crime is
fairly high.
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Motivational Theory
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Focus on individual’s own need/ motives.
Our needs influences our perception,
attitudes & behavior.
 Eg. To enhance our self esteem & satisfy a
need to feel good about ourselves  we
blame others for our failure
Situations & social relationship can create &
arouse needs and motivation.
Needs must be met  if unmet  create
dissatisfaction/loneliness.
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Motivation (Con’t…)
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Situations can creates or arouse needs, which
in turn lead people to engage in behavior to
reduce the needs.
Analyse Ameng’s case:
 Why Ameng steals? Motivated by money?
Hunger? Support family? Drugs?
 Why Ameng shoot the Officer?
A social psychologist will analyse & try to
identify in detail ways in which Ameng’s
social environ. Fostered the particular needs
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& motives that led to the stealing & shooting.
Learning Theory
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For many years, learning theory was the dominant
approach in Psychology.
According to A. Bandura (Social Learning theory), a
person current behavior is determined by prior
learning.
3 general learning mechanism by which learning
occurs:
 Association (classical conditioning)
 I. Pavlov
 Reinforcement
 B.F. Skinner
 Observation
 A.Bandura
.
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Learning Theory (Con’t….)
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Association (Classical conditioning)
 Stimulus
& Response
 Exp on a dog Dogs learn to salivate at the sound of a
bell because they were presented with food every time the
bell was rung.
 Later even without food, dog will salivate when he hears
the sound of bells ringing.
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Reinforcement (Operant Conditioning)
 Reward
& Punishment
 People learn to perform a particular behavior because it is
followed by something pleasurable and need-satisfying. Or
 People learn to avoid certain behavior if it is followed by
something unpleasant.
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Learning Theory (Con’t….)
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Observation (Observational learning)
 Observational learning can occur without any external
reinforcement.
 People learn social attitudes & behavior by observing the
attitude & behavior of other people (model)  an important
source of information.
 Imitation or modeling occurs when a person observe and
copy the behavior of a model.
 However, whether a person actually perform a behavior
observed depends on the consequences of the action.
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3 distinct features in Learning Theory:
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The cause of behavior are due to past learning
history of the individual.
The cause of behavior are mainly in the
external environment  not in the individual’s
subjective interpretation.
Learning approach usually aim to explain overt
behavior instead of psychological/subjective states.
Analyse Ameng’s case:

Why Ameng steals?
Learn from what he observed from T.V, parents,
siblings, etc.
 Reinforced? Reward?

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Why Ameng shoot the Officer?

Unpleasant past encounter with police/ authority?
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Cognitives Theories
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A person behavior depends on the way he/she perceives
the social situation.
People spontaneously organize their perceptions,
thoughts & beliefs about a situation in simple,
meaningful ways (grouping, categorizing)
The organization, perception & interpretation influence
how we behave in social situation.
Kurt Lewin applied gestalt ideas to social psychology:
 Emphasize
the importance of social environment as
perceived by the individual “psychological field”.
 Behavior is affected both by the individual’s characteristics
(ability, personality, genetic dispositions) & by the social
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environment he/she perceive.
Cognitives Theories (Con’t…)
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In Social Cognition, researchers (Psychologists): Study of how people process information.
 Focus on how we put together social information
about people, social situations & groups, to make
inferences about them.
 Examine the flow of information from the
environment to a person.
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2 principles in cognitive approach (i.e. towards our
central perception of physical objects & the social
world)
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We spontaneously group/ categorize the things we
perceived.
We focus attention particularly on the most prominent
stimuli
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3 types of social cognition research:
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Research on Social Perception
 Examine how people perceive & encode social
information
 Why we pay attention to some action that
people perform & ignore others.
Research on Social Inference
 Examine how people integrate/put information
together to arrive at a conclusion about the
social world.
Research on Social Memory
 Examine how individuals store & retrieve
information about people and social events.
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Diff. between Cognitive & Learning approach:Cognitive = Focus on current perception, i.e. Emphasize on the
importance of individuals perception/ interpretation of a situation.
 Learning = Focus on past experience, i.e. Emphasize on the
objective reality of the situation, as observed.
*************************
Analyse Ameng’s case using Cognitive approach:
 How did Ameng perceive his action in taking the money?
 When the policeman shout at him, how did Ameng interpret
the situation?
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It was Ameng’s interpretation of the situation that led
him to shoot the police officer.
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Decision-Making Theory
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Assume that people are motivated to obtain
reward & avoid cost.
People calculate the costs & benefits of
various action, and pick the best alternatives
The decision that people makes based on
logic & rational procedure.
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Other Theories Developed From Decision
Making Theory:
Incentive theory
 Views
decision making as a process of weighing
the pros (positive incentives) & cons (negative
incentives) of various possible alternatives  then
adopt the best.
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Expectancy-value theory
 Decisions
are based on the product or
combination of 2 factors:The value of each possible outcome/ alternatives
The probability or “expectancy” that each
outcome will actually result from the decision
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Social Exchange Theories
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Focus on the interaction behavior of 2/more
individuals.
Based on the work of both learning and
decision-making theory.
Core idea  as 2 people interact with each
other, they exchange benefits and costs.
The process of interactions creates reward or
benefits & costs for the people involved.
Analized interpersonal interaction on the
basis of the costs and benefits to each
person on possible ways they can interact.39
Socio-cultural perspectives
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How people’s diverse social and cultural
background influences their thoughts, feelings
and behavior.
Important aspect of culture: Social norms  rules & expectation about
how group members should behave.
 Social role  set of norms that apply to
people in a particular position.
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Contemporary Theories
In
Environmental
Psychology
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Theories In Environmental
Psychology
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The Arousal Theory
The Environmental Load Approach
The Adaptation Level Theory
The Behavior constraint Approach
The Environmental Stress Theory
The Ecological Theory
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What is Arousal?
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Arousal is a heightening of brain activity by the
arousal centre of the brain.
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Arousal is measured physiologically by
heightened autonomic activity, such as
increased heart rate, blood pressure,
respiration rate or adrenalin secretion, or
behaviorally by increased motor activities.
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The Arousal Theory

Both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli will
heighten arousal.

Example of pleasant stimuli:
 A date with someone you adores
 Sniffing your favorite perfume

Examples of unpleasant stimuli:
 Huge fight /quarrel with your date
 Foul smell from the garbage bin
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The Arousal Theory
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The environmentcan influence human behavior,
i.e. stimulation from the environment triggered
our sensory organ  will increased arousal.
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Stimulation from the environment (crowd,
heat, noise, pollutions, etc.), will either improve
or deteriorate one's performance, depending
on their level of arousal.
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However, too much environmental stimulation
would have damaging effects on behavior &
emotions.
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When the arousal level moves,
several things occur, such as:
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People will try seeking information about their internal
states
People tend to seek other people opinion 
compare their action to those of others around them.
Leads people to perform is a certain way  e.g.
Yerkes-Dodson Law, where people normally will seek
an optimal level of performance.
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Environmental Load Approach
Useful when explaining reactions to unwanted
environmental stimuli.
 Involves attention & information processing process.
 What happen when a person is being confronted
with several stimulus at once (overload occur)?
 According to this theory  human being have limited
capacity to process incoming stimuli & can invest only
a limited effort in attending to inputs at any one time.
 So, when the amount of information from the
environment exceed the individual's capacity to
process all that is relevant  information overload
occurs  “tunnel vision” occurs (focused on more
relevant & important stimulus, and ignore less
47
relevant one)
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The Adaptation Level Theory
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Focus on the environmental mechanism that can
help us to satisfy our ‘desired needs’ and
privacy.
This theory assume that humans dislike crowds,
and at the same time they also dislike total
isolation.
The Adaptation Level Theory assumes that normal
human being usually prefer an optimal level of
stimulation  which is based on past experience.
And this experience contributes to their level of
adaptation.
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o
o
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Example:
o A person from rural moves to the city at first
could not stand the noise & busy city  but
after a while rural person will build up
tolerance against the noise and crowd.
This shift in optimal stimulation level is known as
adaptation i.e. a shift in our judgmental or
affective responses to a stimulus following
continued exposure to it.
Adaptation level differs from person to person,
due to their experiences and exposure to a
different level of stimulation.
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Behavior Constraint Approach (BHC)
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CONSTRAIN  something about the environment
that limit/ interfere with the things we wanted to
do.
According to this theory the constraint can be an
actual destruction from the environment or simply
our belief that the environment is putting a
constraint on us.
For example, if we perceive the environmental
events are constraining/restricting our behavior 
we will first feel uncomfortable
(negative/unpleasant feelings)  REACTANCE
occur, i.e. we will try to reassert our control over
the situation
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Therefore, anytime we feel that our freedom of
action is being constrained  psychological
reactance will lead us to try to regain that
freedom.
We seem to start to react  erecting physical or
psychological barriers against others.

However, if our efforts to reassert control is
unsuccessful to regain freedom of action  then
learned helplessness phenomenon develop

Learned helplessness can often leads to
depression.
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The Environmental Stress Theory
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This theory view that many element (stressors) in
the environment, e.g. noise, crowding, pollutions,
weather, job pressures, marital discord, natural
disasters, places, occupations, etc. can threaten
the well-being of a person.
This elements are seen as impinging (through
the senses) on the human  causing a stress
response to occur when environmental features
exceed some optimal level.
The organism then respond in such a way as
to alleviate the stress.
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The Ecological Theory
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Based on Roger Barker’s idea on organismenvironment fit.
It is said that environments are design, or grow
to accommodate certain behavior 
interdependent between the environmental
features and the behaviors that occurs.
 For example, a school yard, a hospital, an
office, might be considered a behavioral setting
 which can be evaluated based on their
suitability towards a certain behavior/ functions.
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RESEARCH
METHODS
54
Why is Social & Environmental
Psychology a Science?
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“A science is a body of knowledge based upon
objective observation and systematic testing.
Thus, in social& environmental psychology,
researcher used a scientific methods to obtain
information about social behavior.
A scientific method process involved:
 Systematic
observation
 The development of theories that attempt to explain
data;
 The application of theory to test predictions, and
 Revision of these theories when research
55
suggest our prediction is inaccurate
How Does Social & Environmental
Psychologist Gather Information?
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3 main approach in data collection:
 Observational method
 Correlational method
 Experimental method
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Observational Method:
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Describing Social behavior:
 Researcher observe people & record their behavior.
Researchers able to observe social behavior directly
in natural setting.
Did not change or influence behavior observed.
Observed behavior (data) are recorded
 Audio
 Video
 Manually recorded
Forms of observational methods:
 Ethnography
 Participant observation
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 Archival analysis
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Ethnography
 Researcher tried to understand subjects (human
behavior) by observing it from the inside, but
without imposing or having a preconceived idea
about subject.
Participant observation
 Researchers joint & participate in a particular
group understudied/respondents.
 Incognito
Archival Research
A systematic collation of information that has been
collected for some other purpose by a researcher.
 Examples : Study of biographies; Public registers of
births, deaths, marriages; Hospital records; Crime
58
statistics; News paper clips; Other data bases

Limitation of Observational Method
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Some behavior are difficult to observe
Too confined (depending on the interest of the
researcher):

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To a particular group
To a particular setting
To a particular activity
Data observed/recorded may not reflect
actual situation  researcher bias.
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CORRELATIONAL METHOD

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To predict and understand the relationship
between variables that the researcher want to
study.
People behavior and attitude can be
measured in a variety of ways.
 Correlational coefficient
A statistic that assess how well you can
predict one variables from another.
Relationship between two variables.
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Survey
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Correlational method is often used in
surveys.
Survey is a procedure for collecting
information by asking members of some
population a set of standard questions, and
recording the responses.
Survey is a systematic way of asking
people how they think, feel and behave on
certain issues.
Examples:
 predict
election, household survey, public opinion
 information on various social problems
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 self report – attitude, behavior, belief, values, etc.
2 basic survey techniques

Interview
 Guideline
questions
 Structured questions
 Face
to face interview
 Telephone interview

Questionnaires
 Structured
set of questions
 Open
ended
 Close ended
 Self
administered/ Face-to-face
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Limitation of correlational method
It only give information about the relationship
between variables.
 Correlation does not prove causation
 Not able to capture feelings and behavior
correctly.

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Experimental Method
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To determine the causal relationship between
variable, experimental methods can be used.
The most common used research design by
Social or Environmental Psychologist.
Allow the study of social variables under more
controlled and standardized situations.
3 types of experimental method:
Laboratory experiment
 Field experiment
 Natural experiment

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Types of Experimental Methods

Laboratory Experiment
Researcher randomly assign subjects to 2 or more
group (experimental & control group)
 Manipulate a treatment variable to experimental
group, then  Measure the effect


Field Experiment
Involve hypothesis testing conducted in real-life
settings.
 Researcher combine the control & standardization
procedure of the lab setting with experiments out
in the real world.
 Subject are unaware that they are participating in
an experiment.

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Types of Experimental Methods (Con’t)

Natural Experiment
Unplanned , post hoc experiment which occur
outside the lab.
 Researcher compare groups after independent
variables is manipulated by nature or by
researcher.


Limitation of Experimental Method
Difficult to generalize findings to real-life setting.
 Not all variables can be manipulated.

66
Summary
Method
Focus
Question Answered
Observational

Description

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Correlational

Prediction

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Experimental

Causality

What is the nature of the
phenomena
From knowing X, can we
predict Y?

Does X cause Y?
67