Understanding Individuals Within Environments

1. Understanding Individuals Within Environments Chapter 5

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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) • Personality of the Environment

5. 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 • Discovery of rules that are minimally variable by context

6. One Boy’s Day: The Evolution of a Theory • Behavior setting as central concept • Behavior-environment synomorphy

7. When in church, we behave….

8. When at a sporting event, we behave…

9. Circuits • Circuits: mechanisms that guide adaptive behavior in settings, connect people to settings • 4 types of circuits • Program circuits • Goal circuits • Deviation-countering circuits • Vetoing circuits

10. Uses of Behavior Setting Analysis • Providing portraits of what aspects of communities are important locally • # churches • # schools • # athletic facilities • Diagnosing community needs • What is missing? • Needed programs/organizations

12. Staffing Theory # people Available behavior settings • Under-populated settings – Greater claims on people • Fewer people per setting • Over-populated settings – Less claim on people

13. 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

14. 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

15. Findings • Smaller schools: fewer students per behavior (i.e., more claim on students) • Student Council • Soccer Team • Choir • Band

16. 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

17. Larger Schools • Higher specialized skill development • More diversity of opportunities in classes & extracurricular activities • More ability to hide when you want to

18. Findings • Larger schools: more students per behavior (i.e., less claim on students) • Student Council • Soccer Team • Choir • Band

19. 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) • Personality of the Environment

20. Ecological Metaphor (James Kelly) • 4 principles from field biology • Adaptation • Cycling of resources • Interdependence • Succession

21. 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?

22. 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?” • Interpersonal • Academic

23. Where do these adaptive requirements occur at UML? • Social Settings • Classrooms • Organizations • Studying Abroad • Athletics • Social Norms • Peers • Faculty • Policies • Tuition • Requirements

24. 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?

25. 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

26. 4 Main Types of Resources • People • Settings • Events • Technology

27. 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)

29. 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?”

30. Ecological Metaphor: (4) Succession Principle • Focus on • History • Hopes • Trajectory • Provides an empathy for current issues even if you hate what you see

31. Southwick Hall Lowell Techology Institute 1903 Coburn Hall Lowell State College 1899

32. 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

33. 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?

34. 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) • Personality of the Environment

35. 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 • Quality • Authority Structure • Rules & regulations • Personal Development/Goal orientation • Reasons for being in the setting

37. Where Does Social Climate Come From? • School & context factors • Physical/architectural features • Organizational factors • Teacher characteristics • Aggregate students characteristics

38. A Model of Determinants of Classroom Climate Organizational Factors School and Classroom Context Physical and Architectural Features Aggregate Student Characteristics Classroom Climate Teacher Characteristics

39. 4 Ways of Defining Neighborhoods • Site (geographical location) • census tracts • Perception • of neighboring practices, of crime level, of housing • Social network • interpersonal connections • Culture • historical/cultural quest

40. 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) • Sense of community among residents • Good school

41. 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

42. Hypothesis • Ability of neighborhoods to maintain social control in the community related to level of violent behavior • 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

43. 343 Chicago Neighborhoods • Over 8,000 African-American, Latino, & White people interviewed • 3 Types of Neighborhoods • “Concentrated Disadvantage” • below poverty line • on public assistance • female-headed families • unemployed • Immigrant concentration (Latino/foreign born) • Residential stability

44. 3 Measures of Violence in Community • Perceived community violence • Personal victimization • Incidents of homicide

45. Results • Collective Efficacy – • Positively related to residential stability • Negatively related to concentrated disadvantage and immigrant/foreign-born

46. Results • Neighborhoods high on collective efficacy • Less perceived violence • Less personal victimization • Fewer homicides

47. Problem Assessment Assignment • UML Resources • Hawk Talk (http://www.uml.edu/admissions/hawktalk/) • Press Releases • http://www.uml.edu/Media/PressReleases/default.asp • UML Factbook • http://www.uml.edu/it/ir/factbooks.html • US News & World Report • http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings/