NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
ERIC Number: ED211393
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1981-Aug-25
Pages: 35
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Personality and Sociodemographic Variables as Sources of Variation in Environmental Perception.
Feimer, Nickolaus R.
This research paper examines the relationship between individual differences in environmental perception, and variables which may be important in predicting, if not explaining those variations. The analyses reported were based upon an environmental perception research study previously conducted at the University of California at Berkeley during the years 1972-1974. The subjects of the study were 575 males and 573 females living in the San Francisco Bay area. This sample was drawn from three distinct subpopulations to ensure a range of socioeconomic strata, varying degrees of familiarity with the research site, and varying expertise in environmentally and non-environmentally related occupations. Subjects were presented with the environmental setting--a typical suburban locale in California--through four types of media: direct auto tour; auto tour color film; scale model color film; or scale model black and white videotape. The subjects then completed a battery of environmental assessment and evaluation procedures, and a battery of inventories assessing attitudinal, personality, and sociodemographic background characteristics. Analyses of this research indicated quite clearly that both personality and sociodemographic variables contribute meaningfully to the prediction of individual variations in environmental perception. Moreover, both sets of predictors contribute meaningfully to prediction even when the effects of the other respective set is statistically removed. Research is still needed across a wide range of environmental contexts and concerted efforts must be directed toward the development of valid measurement methods which may be administered in a brief time period, are easily scored, and readily integrated into the design process. (Author/RM)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association (Los Angeles, CA, August 25, 1981). Study was part of author's doctoral dissertation, University of California, 1979.