Developmental psychology.pdf

554 Psychology and Society
Architectural Design At times you may find that you have difficulty with interpersonal
space. A stranger pats you on the back. You enter someone's personal zone,
and he or she retreats. This problem is of special interest to environmental psychologists
responsible for the construction of living and working spaces, such as offices, classrooms,
dormitories, hotels, restaurants, and so forth. A difference in design, even when the
space remains constant, can make a significant difference in human comfort and
functioning.
Psychologists at a state university conducted a series of studies on space shared
by college students. These students had been randomly assigned to double rooms on a
dormitory corridor or to suites in a dormitory living unit. The students on each corridor
shared a bathroom and large lounge with 34 others; those in the suite shared a bathroom
and small lounge with four to six people. The total space per person and number
of students per floor were approximately equal in both instances, yet the attitudes toward
the living arrangements were quite different. The students on the corridor considered
themselves crowded. They were frequently in contact with people that they
wished to avoid. They felt less in control of their social lives and were less likely to
participate in social activities.
The students in the suites regarded their living arrangement as a friendlier
place, and they performed better when confronted with tasks that required cooperative
effort. They sat closer to the experimenter's accomplice while waiting for the research
to begin, gazed at the accomplice more often, and expressed more satisfaction with the
interaction. It was hypothesized that this difference between the two groups was a
function of a feeling of crowdedness, for density was essentially the same. This feeling
apparently arose among the corridor students through more frequent invasions of social
and even personal space (Baum & Valins, 1977).
Progress is being made in this respect, as a comparison between the newer and
older dormitories, classrooms, libraries, and athletic facilities readily indicates. We spend
a great deal of our lives in buildings, and environmental psychologists assume that the
layout makes a difference. But they are also concerned with broader urban problems,
such as easing rush-hour traffic, keeping ethnic villages intact in urban renewal, and
placing litter cans where people will use them. In the future we can expect environmental
psychologists to encourage the ecological perspective, redesigning the environment
to prompt walking rather than riding, the use of natural rather than artificial
light, and greater reliance on solar and other forms of natural energy.
PSYCHOLOGY AND MASS MEDIA
Psychology is sometimes said to be like pure oxygen, mixing with everything. It is
found not only in health, law, and ecology but also in such combinations as mathematical
psychology, psycholinguistics, psychology and religion, psychopharmacology,
the psychology of art, and so forth. A very important field with which psychology interacts
today is public communications, which serves to unite all societies in certain
ways, for better or worse.
Communication is the fabric of society, and numerous psychological principles
are involved. Our aim here is to understand the techniques of persuasion commonly
used in the mass media and to note the content of some of the messages.
Techniques of Persuasion
By mass media we mean such communication devices as newspapers, magazines, radio,
television, and motion pictures, which are designed to reach a large audience. These
media, in many respects, set or reflect the aims and standards of the public. Massmedia
campaigns to persuade people to buckle seat belts, vote for John Smith, drink