Emotions and mood an environmental psychology perspective
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Lecture for Level 5 Individual Differences
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Emotions and mood an environmental psychology perspective
- 1. Emotions and Mood: An Environmental Psychology Perspective Jenna Condie | University of Salford | @jennacondie Image Creative Commons : Thoth, God of Knowledge 1 #salfordpsych
- 2. Do you know what the University of Salford’s research themes are? They are… 1. Energy 2. Media, Digital Technology and the Creative Economy 3. Built Environment 4. Health and Wellbeing 5. Memory, Text and Place 2 #salfordpsych
- 3. 3 Health and Well being Media, Digital Tech & the Creative Economy Built Environment Energy Memory, Text and Place #salfordpsych
- 4. Lecture Aim To think critically about emotions and mood from an environmental psychological perspective Today we are going to disagree with Albert Einstein! 4 that isn't me. The environment is everything Image Creative Commons : dnwallace #salfordpsych
- 5. Lecture overview: Problematise the ‘mainstream’ lit first: • Debunk concepts of emotion & mood • Theories of emotion • Personality and affect • The relationship between affect and environments Emotions and mood from an #enviropsych perspective second: • Stress and the city • Restorative effects of natural environments • Place attachment and identity 5 #salfordpsych
- 6. Basic Emotions Complex emotions Happiness, interest, surprise, disgust, sadness, distress, anger, fear… Pride, shyness, jealousy, guilt, shame, embarrassment, self- consciousness… Basic Moods Complex moods Happiness, interest, surprise, disgust, sadness, distress, anger, fear… Pride, shyness, jealousy, guilt, shame, embarrassment, self- consciousness… 6 From Slater and Bremner (2011) #salfordpsych
- 7. The difference between emotion and mood? Beedie et al., (2005) • Interviewed 106 participants • Identified 16 themes e.g. cause, duration, control, experience, consequenc es, intentionality • Revealed 60% agreement between academics (journal papers) and non-academics (interviews) 7 “The terms emotion and mood represent a conundrum for psychologists” (p. 847)
- 8. 8 Source: Beedie et al., (2005), p. 864 #salfordpsych
- 9. The Importance of Language “Because we are able to say that emotion and mood are different does not mean that they are… Emotion and mood may be different words for the same construct or different words for different constructs. Either way, it is incumbent on psychologists to attempt to clarify the exact nature of emotion and mood” (Beedie et al., 2005, p. 848) 9 #salfordpsych
- 10. 10 Essentialism “Because we are able to say that emotion and mood are different does not mean that they are… Emotion and mood may be different words for the same construct or different words for different constructs. Either way, it is incumbent on psychologists to attempt to clarify the exact nature of emotion and mood” (Beedie et al., 2005, p. 848) #salfordpsych Realism – reality is ‘out there’ waiting to be discovered
- 11. 11 Emotion and mood as socially constructed “Because we are able to say that emotion and mood are different does not mean that they are… Emotion and mood may be different words for the same construct or different words for different constructs. Either way, it is incumbent on psychologists to attempt to clarify the exact nature of emotion and mood” (Beedie et al., 2005, p. 848) #salfordpsych
- 12. Russell (2003, p. 145) 12 “In the psychology of human beings, with passions as well as reasons, with feelings as well as thoughts, it is the emotional side that remains the more mysterious. Psychology and humanity can progress without considering emotion —about as fast as someone running on one leg” #salfordpsych
- 13. Basic Emotions Theory (Tomkins, 1962) Eight basic fundamental and universal affects: 1. Interest-Excitement 2. Enjoyment-Joy 3. Surprise-Startle 4. Distress-Anguish 5. Disgust-Revulsion-Contempt 6. Anger-Rage 7. Shame-Humiliation 8. Fear-Terror stuartpilbrow 13
- 14. Differential Emotions Theory (Izard, 1993) • Built on Tomkin’s work • 12 basic emotions: – Interest, Enjoyment, Surprise, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Contempt, Fear, Guilt, Shame, Shyness, Hostility inward • Universal & innate • Evolved due to their adaptive value 14 #salfordpsych
- 15. Psychology has preferred affects and states Affects • Beedie et al., (2005) argue that psychologists have used the term affect to get round emotion/mood issue. States • Changing all the time in relation to what we experience (life events) (Cooper, 2005, Ch 12). • Unlike personality traits which are thought to be ___________? NB: Terms used interchangeably 15 #salfordpsych
- 16. A day in the life of a person Personality Traits Emotional State Wake up At Work Break Time Phone Call Bus Home TV Bed 16
- 17. Personality and Affect Image: Creative Commons Licence andrewrennie • Personality and affect interwoven • Traits are emotional (Kowalski & Westen, 2004) • Most personality theories pay tribute to affect • E.g. Trait theories and affect (aka temperament) – Neuroticism (affects of anxiety, hostility, depression) – Extroversion (affects of warmth, positive emotions) • Overemphasis on depression and anxiety (Pervin, 2003) • Neglect of everyday moods from personality research (e.g. shame, love, guilt, content). 17
- 18. The problem with personality theories • Essentialist – Thinking of ourselves as having a particular nature or ‘essence’ – This nature determines what we can do, how we can feel. • See emotion as internal, private experience, predetermined by personality/who you are. • What about emotion as based in the physical/external world? Adapted from Burr (2003, p. 30)18
- 19. Emotional Regulation 19 Need to understand people as in physical environments Not just an “inner homeostatic mechanism” but an “interaction with the social and physical environment” (Korpela, 2003, p. 331). Defined as the activity of coping with moods and emotional situations Image Creative Commons: DavidSpinks
- 20. Environments as mood-regulators People as sensitive to particular locations; entering or moving through a place can induce changes in mood (Kerr & Tacon, 1999; Staats et al., 1997). People seek out particular places to regulate mood (Korpela, 2003). 20Image Creative Commons : Nomad Within (Pete DeMarco) #salfordpsych
- 21. Stress and the city 21 • Simmel (1950) described urban residents as more reserved, indifferent and latently hostile than rural residents. • Environmental stressors e.g. crowding, noise, air pollution • Noise as most researched environmental stressor (Bell et al., 1996) #salfordpsych
- 22. Noise annoyance as an emotion Miedema (2007) argued that two emotions, anger and fear, influence noise annoyance 22 “Noise annoyance is a psychological concept which describes a relation between an acoustic situation and a person who is forced by noise to do things he/she does not want to do, who cognitively and emotionally evaluates this situation and feels partly helpless” Guski et al., (1999, p. 525). #salfordpsych
- 23. Natural vs built environments 23 • People prefer natural over built environments (van den Berg, 2007). • Pro-rural and anti-urban ideologies have existed since the 1800s (van den Berg, 2007). • Hartig et al., (2003) • Positive affect increased and anger decreased in participants walking in a nature reserve. • Opposite emerged for urban environment. • Concluded preventive benefits if urban populations have easy pedestrian and visual access to natural settings. • Natural settings for emotional well-being. #salfordpsych
- 24. Restorative Environments Ulrich et al., (1991) – natural as restorative • 120 subjects viewed a stressful movie, and then were exposed to videos of natural and urban settings. • Natural environments resulted in a shift towards positive emotional state. • Support for Ulrich’s psych-evolutionary theory (1983) – that we evolved in natural environments & are therefore designed for natural rather than urban settings? 24 infomatique #salfordpsych
- 25. Creating places that make us feel good HM Government (2011) The Natural Choice White Paper “Evidence suggests that a healthy natural environment is a cost-effective tool that can help local authorities to: • support economic and social regeneration, • improve public health, • improve educational outcomes, • reduce crime and antisocial behaviour, • help communities adapt to climate change; and • improve quality of life across an entire area.” 25 http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/natural/documents/newp-summary-la-110607.pdf #salfordpsych
- 26. Once upon a time, I lived there 26 #salfordpsych
- 27. The relationship between affect and environments “We know from our everyday experiences that we, across time, evolve bonds toward certain places, e.g. where we were born and brought up, where we live and work” (Knez, 2005, p. 207). Physical environments as ‘place’ Flickr: cc Pimlico Badger 27 #salfordpsych
- 28. Place attachment Definition: the emotional bonds between a person and their environments (Altman & Low, 1992) • Guiliani (2003) we should recognise that affective bonds or attachments to place have a central role in qualifying our existence, whether that is positive or negative. Image Creative Commons Licence Tim . Simpson 28 #salfordpsych
- 29. Happiness: a basic emotion Happy at Home Index (Rightmove, 2012) 29 #salfordpsych
- 31. My PhD research • How environmental conditions are negotiated within constructions of ‘place’ and ‘identity’ • People locate themselves in ‘place’ with an emotional connection a house that ‘felt right’ ‘fell in love with it’ ‘love it here’ 31 To counter the voices of ‘others’ who consider living alongside railways as ‘disruptive’ #salfordpsych
- 32. William James asked “what is emotion?” in 1884. We still do not know. Therefore, in your writing: Mood ‘is’…. Emotions ‘are’….. Mood has been related to emotion by *insert author here+ who argued that… Emotions have been considered as… 32
- 33. Seminar: Sensory walking methods Do you know the range of environments that are five minutes walk away? Have you heard of the Meadows? 33 Artist’s impression of new student accommodation at Peel Park #salfordpsych
- 34. References (1 of 4) Altman, I., & Low, s. (1992) Place Attachment, New York: Plenum Beedie, C., Terry, P., & Lane, A. (2005) Distinctions between emotion and mood, Cognition & Emotion, 19, p. 847-878 [available with Athens password] Bell, P., et al., (1996) Environmental psychology. Orlando: Harcourt College Publishers. Burr, V. (2003) Social Constructionism, London: Routledge Cooper, C. (2010) Individual Differences and Personality, Third Edition, London: Hodder Education Guiliani, M. (2003) Theory of Attachment and Place Attachment. In M. Bonnes & T Bonaiuto (Ed.) Psychological Theories for Environmental Issues, Hants: Ashgate Publishing Guski, R., Felscher-suhr, U., & Schumer, R. (1999) The concept of noise annoyance : how international experts see it, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 223, 513-527 Hartig T., et al., (2003) Tracking restoration in natural and urban field settings, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23, p. 109–123 34
- 35. HM Government (2011) The Natural Choice - White Paper, Available at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/natural/whitepaper/ (date accessed: 25/04/2012) Izard, C., (1993) Four Systems Theory of Emotion Activation: Cognitive and non-cognitive processes, Psychological Review, 100, p. 68-90 Kerr, J., & Tacon, P. (1999) Psychological responses to different types of locations and activities Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19, p. 287–294 Knez, I. (2005). Attachment and identity as related to a place and its perceived climate. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 207–218. Korpela, K. (2003). Negative mood and adult place preference, Environment and Behavior, 35, p. 331–346. Miedema, H. M. E. (2007). Annoyance caused by environmental noise: elements for evidence-based noise policies, Journal of Social Issues, 63(1), p. 41–57. Pervin, L.A. (2003) The Science of Personality, Second Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press 35 References (2 of 4)
- 36. References (3 of 4) Rightmove (2012) Happy at Home Index, Available online at: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/files/2012/02/Rightmove-Happy-At- Home-Index.pdf (date accessed 23/04/2012) Russell, J. (2003) Core Affect and the Psychological Construction of Emotion, Psychological Review, 110(1), p. 145–172 Russell, J. A., & Snodgrass, J. (1987) Emotion and the environment. In D. Stokols & I. Altman (Eds.) Handbook of environmental psychology, New York: Wiley Simmel, G. (1950). The metropolis and mental life. In K. H. Wolff (Ed.), The Sociology of George Simmel. New York: Free Press. Staats, H., Gatersleben, B., & Hartig, T. (1997). Change in mood as a function of environmental design: Arousal and pleasure on a simulated forest hike. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 17, p. 283-300. Tomkins, S. (1962) Commentary. The ideology of research strategy. In S. Merrick & J. Ross (Ed.) Measurement in Personality and Cognition, New York: Wiley 36
- 37. References (4 of 4) Ulrich, R. (1983). Aesthetic and affective response to natural environment. In I. Altman & J. F. Wohlwill (Eds.) Human Behavior and Environment, New York: Plenum Press Ulrich, R., Simons, R., Losito, B., Fiorito, E., Miles, M. & Zelson, M. (1991) Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 11, 201-230. Van Den Berg, A. E., Hartig, T. & Staats, H. (2007) Preference for Nature in Urbanized Societies: Stress, Restoration, and the Pursuit of Sustainability. J of Social Issues, 63, 79-96. 37
- 38. Emotions and Mood: An environmental psychology perspective Jenna Condie University of Salford E: j.m.condie@salford.ac.uk T: @jennacondie Image Creative Commons : Thoth, God of Knowledge 38
Editor's Notes
- This lecture covers emotion and mood but aims to move emotional experience from within the person to outside the person – how does the physical world shape and influence the way we feel? To do so, we will focus on environmental psychology. Environmental psychology definition: an interdisciplinary field focused on the interplay between humans and their surroundings. It is an increasingly important sub-discipline of psychology due to the urgency of environmental change and concern for the environment and the places we inhabit. ‘The Environment’ – semi-independent field of study since the 1970s. So Environmental Psychology is on the political radar. People are the problem so psychology has the solutions? A related question is how we can tap into people’s emotional connections with the physical environment to promote pro-environmental behaviours in the quest for sustainability. The increasing focus on the environment can be seen in the university’s research themes. Do you know what they are?
- Energy - info below from: http://www.salford.ac.uk/energy/researchThe issue of energy is complex and encompasses technological, economic and social issues. Whether it’s looking at fuel poverty, housing retrofit or power generation: the 50 academics working at the Energy Hub are linking up to produce new solutions. The research projects in this section reflect these connections.Energy researcher specialisms:Built Environment,Civil Engineering,Construction,Health and Wellbeing,Housing,Materials,Physics, Policy,Psychology,Sociology,Supply Chain Management,Technology, Urban Regeneration,Water and WasteMedia, Digital Tech & the Creative EconomyWe live in technological environments. Upcoming course on coursera called Techcity might be of interest: https://www.coursera.org/course/techcityThe environment is the remit of media psychology too e.g. climate change communication, energy use behaviours via social media – http://hub.salford.ac.uk/mediapsychologyuk/Built EnvironmentEnvironmental psychology and understanding the relations between people and physical environments of central importance here. Lots of focus on urban environments as psychological stress – noise, air pollution, crowding, social isolation. Info from: http://www.salford.ac.uk/built-environment/about-us“….areas such as sustainability, energy, urban and regional futures, construction management, lean construction, Building Information Management and strategic IT, disaster resilience, procurement, quantity and building surveying and architecture, among others”. Health and Well-beingMemory text and place
- Psychology can be applied across everywhere. Lends itself to interdisciplinary research. You can make a contribution to any team or any organisation with your psychological knowledge. Common thing students say about lecture content: “When am I ever going to need this stuff?” Not really about the content, its about your ability to think critically about the content. Psychology is about thinking critically…and this is what we are going to do today in relation to emotions and mood.
- Critical thinking: This is what its all about, your ability to critically think about the material in front of you. This lecture aims to highlight how this can be done. Relevant to all assignments – at the moment, developmental psychology essays, particularly important for level 6 for your dissertations & to get a 2:1 or a 1:1
- These tables are to emphasise the impossibilities of determining the difference between emotions and mood. What emotions or moods are missing? How do these emotions and mood reflect our culture? E.g. as ‘grief’ isn’t there, could this reflect our avoidance of talking about death and loss? When I did research using a questionnaire to find out how annoyed people were by railway vibration they would say ‘I’m not annoyed, I’m irritated’. Because of this complexity, psychologists have preferred to work with the following….
- ConundrumNoun: A confusing and difficult problem or question.A question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer; a riddle.
- 60% agreement looks a little bit different when you get deeper into the paper. ‘Cause’ looks to be the most important theme to distinguish emotions and mood for non-academics. Emotions have a specific cause whereas moods are general background states (important given psychology’s focus on states – see slide 14Duration most important within the academic literature – distinguished in terms of emotion experienced for an instant, a mood can last for ages. Discussion: How is this helping us understand emotions and mood? Is it again missing the point about what it feels like to be a person? Should they have interviewed academics rather than used journal papers? Is it appropriate to compare ‘experts’ and ‘non-experts’?
- AlthoughBeedie et al., (2005) stressed the importance of language and how emotions and moods are socially constructed phenomena, they appeared unconvinced of this. They quantified their qualitative data. This is also why they are unconvinced….
- If the authors moved towards a relativist ontology, they would be then trying to explore how emotions and mood have become understood differently. How and why do they overlap and how are drawn upon simultaneously and differently by people who are trying to make sense of themselves and their worlds. Also, no one knowledge is privileged over another so a social constructionist approach would probably move away from two groups of academics and non-academics. Trying to do this also ignores the complexities and intricacies of people’s lived experiences.
- If you read the article you will see that they used a qualitative method in order to explore how people differentiated between emotions and mood. Epistemologically the research approach is positivist because they are on a ‘quest’ to determine the ‘exact nature’ of emotions and mood. A social constructionist approach would acknowledge that there are multiple realities and therefore there is no point in trying to determine the ‘exact nature’ of the difference between emotions and mood because its impossible. Everything we know is interpreted, we interpret the world and make sense of it through language. Emotions and mood would be considered as socially produced phenomena, not as some ‘essence’ residing within the person waiting to be uncovered by psychologists.
- Which ever way you look at it, emotional experience is important. Here’s some of the ‘mainstream theories’….
- One of the basic notions underpinning emotions theories is that a small number of emotions privilege others – these are often known as basic, primary or fundemental. Tomkin’s argued that the 8 emotions on the slide were universal. The idea that there are a small number of emotions perpetuates within emotions theories. Out of these emotions, all other emotions are argued to emerge. For further reading see: Ortony & Turner (1990) What’s basic about basic emotions available at: http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~ortony/Andrew_Ortony_files/Basic_Emotions.pdf They argue that our understandings of the person will not progress if we stick within basic emotions theory.
- Increased to 12. Still leaves the question as to how these emotions play out in practice? Are emotions completely distinct from one another. What about the limitations of our language for describing emotional experience? What about culture? Do you remember watching the video of Emerson in Developmental Psychology? Do you think his response to mum’s sneezes were innate? Has anyone taught him that?
- Answer: Stable
- Made up picture to demonstrate the differences between emotional states and personality traits and the gap between them.
- Slater and Bremner (2011) argued emotions have been somewhat neglected by psychology – why do you think that is? Because we are more complex than personality traits perhaps? Because we have focused on measuring and knowing affect rather than understanding it?
- Can start to learn more about emotions if we consider them in ‘real world’. Korpela emphasised how emotion involves interaction with the social and physical environment. The picture could be an example of someone controlling their emotions (headphones on listening to music) in the attempts to regulate how they feel in the physical environment. By acknowledging the physical environment, we can learn more about how emotions interact with the outside world. We do not live in a bubble.
- How the physical environment can impact upon emotional experience. Are there any places you link to go that make you feel good? Notice the picture is a natural environment – so what about our emotional experiences when in urban settings? More than half of the worlds population live in urban settings (United Nations, 2008).
- When psychologists started to turn their attention towards the impacts of urbanisation on people, it was because of the widespread concern that urban settings were having a profound psychological negative impact on people. One of the main environmental stressors, particularly for developed nations is noise.
- Is noise annoyance an emotion? Or do our environmental management policies provide the necessary condition for us to feel annoyed? Are we supposed to find noise disturbing?Miedema (2007) noise exerts its primary influence through four routes: sound masking, attention, arousal and affective/emotional
- These are the government’s aims. More than thephysicalities of the environment! Physical environments are ‘places’ that we imbue with meaning. Although the physical environment may set bounds as to what we can say about it, we construct places in social interaction with others e.g. Where are you from is often asked after what is your name.
- I used to live here – Les Arcs 2000, French Alps. It was really peaceful, mountain air, skiing, whiteness of the snow, bright. But it was a place I imbued with meaning, it is symbolic to me, I feel attached to it and it also became part of my identity.
- The physical environment as the social environment – we imbue places with meanings (Stedman, 2003)The concept of ‘place’ has been used to acknowledge that people imbue the physical environment and environmental conditions with meaning through personal, social and cultural processes (Low & Altman, 1992). Gieryn (2000) stated that “places are doubly constructed” in that “most are built or in some way physically carved out” and also “interpreted, narrated, perceived, felt, understood, and imagined (Soja 1996)” (p. 465).
- Where are you from? Do you feel an emotional bond with your place?
- Note: This is research from RightMove (property website) which whilst it may have been carried out by excellent researchers, what is their motive to fund this research and create this knowledge? Media coverage???
- More than emotion, this is about place identity!
- Approaches that consider language as action orientated – what people say about emotions and feelings says something about who there are – their identities.
- On the seminar, we are going to learn a new method – walking method. How do people feel in different environments? How are these environments imbued with meaning? Is ‘place’ a better concept for incorporating the person?