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Lecture 04 - Principles of Systems Theory, Physiological and Psychological Stress — Transcript

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0:10today we're going to start with a kind
0:11of an interesting demonstration that
0:13ties into the course material and I'd
0:15like to ask for some volunteers all
0:17right here's what's
0:19happening I'd like we're going to have
0:21uh two of you approach each other until
0:23you've reached a comfortable interaction
0:24distance and then you stop okay so we're
0:27going to start with uh what's your name
0:30Ken and David okay approach each other
0:33till you've reached the comfortable
0:34interaction
0:36distance
0:38interaction yeah of interaction okay now
0:41Hiroshi is going to
0:43measure well measure from the feet
0:45measure from the feet yeah toe to toe
0:47toe to toe okay Mark's going to record
0:50two feet what is it 24 yeah okay next
0:55pair we want um randoo and what's your
0:58name Eric Eric okay Armondo and Eric
1:00approach until you've reached a
1:02comfortable interaction
1:06distance okay to to
1:10to 19 in 19 inches thank you okay sign
1:15up Armand extra credit over there okay
1:18Kevin and what's your name na Navi Kevin
1:21and Navi approach till you reach your
1:23comfort interaction
1:26distance oh
1:35okay what what's the nose to nose to
1:41no about 13
1:44in okay um okay Aisha and what's your
1:48name Diana Diana Aisha and Diana
1:51approach each other till you've reach a
1:52comfortable interaction
1:56distance okay yeah
2:0244 44 okay you guys can sign up uh
2:06what's her name Anita Anita and Patricia
2:09Patricia Anita
2:15Patricia okay what's your comfortable
2:17interaction
2:21M 21 okay thank you and what's your name
2:27a a Andel Mel okay okay I and
2:34Mel
2:38is okay all right thank you so sign up
2:41for your okay okay now we got what's
2:45your name Al Ali
2:47and Jessica Ali and Jessica approach
2:50until you've reached the comfortable
2:51interaction
2:56distance 24 okay
3:01and Patrick
3:03and Les Leslie yeah so wait wait start
3:07back over there okay Patrick and Leslie
3:09okay
3:16go 33 okay
3:20okay all right Kevin yes and Kevin and
3:24Karen okay hosi stand back a little bit
3:26okay approach until you've reach the
3:27comfortable interaction business
3:31hi okay let's see what
3:37your 18 18 okay thank you all very much
3:41now this is a little realtime experiment
3:44Mark is going to tabulate the
3:46scores and uh we're going to do an
3:48average on each of those
3:51columns
3:52AUM okay so uh we got 25 for male
3:58female 22 for M female female and 18 so
4:04when you read the Argy and Dean study on
4:07interaction distances does this do these
4:11data uh are they consistent with that
4:14study are they not consistent what are
4:16you seeing
4:18there this is a pretty quick
4:21non-controlled experiment obviously we
4:23didn't really do all the nice
4:24statistical and randomized controls but
4:27uh what do you make of this the data
4:29here
4:30well one of the things that they found
4:31was that in fact the mixed pairs did uh
4:35stand further apart okay so the data
4:38sort of confirmed that they also found
4:40that the males to males tended to be a
4:42little further apart than the females to
4:45females so that's a little different in
4:47this in these data because you've got
4:48the closest distances here uh compared
4:51to the female female pairs or diets so
4:55this is just kind of a quick
4:57indication of some of the kinds of
5:00methods and and strategies that have
5:02been used to study personal space and
5:04interpersonal distance regulation now
5:06today building on these themes we have a
5:09special visitor who is one of the
5:11world's foremost environmental
5:13psychologists so Mark is going to play
5:16uh couldn't be here in person but U it's
5:18going to be here on tape
5:20so so how come you're not going over
5:22there for dinner Jerry we don't care
5:25much for the
5:26castanas we can't stand them
5:30really since when since always we've
5:33never liked them why well they're so
5:36loud they're always fighting it's
5:37uncomfortable you never noticed oh I
5:39noticed but they're from your age group
5:41I didn't think you could detect abnormal
5:42behavior among your own
5:44kind well we
5:48do
5:50yeah it's us oh come on
5:54up it's elain you don't have a problem
5:56with her do you we adore Elaine she
5:58wants to say hi she's with a new
5:59boyfriend what's he like he's nice bit
6:01of a close talker a what you'll
6:05see boy I really had no idea that you
6:07felt this way about the castanas they're
6:09exhausting it's like being in an
6:14asylum
6:16[Music]
6:19H um this is Aaron hello Aaron hello
6:23Aaron so how long are you folks in
6:26town three more days three more days and
6:29then we're all to Paris we're going with
6:31the select Charter group I love France I
6:35was just there last year in fact you
6:38know I still have an envelope full of
6:40French Franks I'll get them to you we
6:43can't take money oh no it's a gift from
6:47us oh that is so nice Aaron isn't he
6:52nice so listen has Jerry been showing
6:54you a good time no I
6:56haven't you know I have a friend who
6:59works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
7:03how'd you like a behind the scenes tour
7:05really you could do that easily it
7:08wouldn't be any trouble of course not
7:10when we go how about right now I'm ready
7:14are you sure yes okay let me get my coat
7:18what do you
7:19say well I don't think so Erin
7:22uh I have plans oh how about you
7:27Jerry I'm
7:30you sure get examine the artwork up
7:33close maybe I'll try and catch up with
7:35you I that all happen all right we're
7:39off okay by go okay byebye have a good
7:42time bye see everybody later okay bye
7:47okay now that's just the first part we
7:48got one more listen I'll I'll call you
7:50later okay bye well I should be going oh
7:55thanks again goodbye goodbye hey oh you
7:59you must be Kramer I've heard about
8:02[Laughter]
8:04[Applause]
8:06you you must be Aaron I've heard about
8:11you well see you later yeah bye
8:18okay so to recap where we've been for
8:22the last few lectures that we started
8:24out class one sort of laying out what is
8:27the substance of environmental
8:28psychology what kind of environments are
8:30we talking about social and physical
8:32virtual place-based Natural Built all of
8:35that comes into environmental psychology
8:38the second lecture we applied some
8:40principles of environmental psychology
8:42including its interdisciplinary aspect
8:45its ecological perspective to a
8:47particular Community problem the Obesity
8:49crisis and we showed how different
8:52aspects of the environment from the
8:54social networks that people are in to
8:56the physical arrangement of their
8:57neighborhoods can affect their prop it
8:59to gain weight and even to become obese
9:03and in keeping with the action research
9:05perspective of environmental psychology
9:07we can use those kind of findings to
9:09develop evidence-based strategies for
9:12more effective public policies or
9:14Community interventions to promote to
9:15promote Health now in the last lecture
9:18we laid out some of the basic principles
9:20of the ecological Paradigm and the
9:23reasons for that is as ecology developed
9:26from biology Through The Chicago School
9:28to social ecology as we know it now
9:31what's happened is it's provided an
9:33alternative to more simplistic
9:36reductionistic or deterministic theories
9:39that certain variables always have the
9:41same kind of invariant effects on people
9:42and we know that's not the case instead
9:44what happens is people are part of
9:46complex systems and how they respond to
9:49different situations depends on a lot of
9:51contextual factors so not only gender
9:55was varied in this particular
9:56demonstration we did up here some of you
9:58may have different personal dispositions
10:01to want to get up close to people and
10:03next week we're going to talk about
10:04personality and the whole notion of
10:06stimulation seeking some people are
10:08stimulation Seekers they like to jump
10:09out of airplanes go to wild parties so
10:12there are a lot of individual
10:13differences that come into play there
10:14are a lot of cultural norms and social
10:17norms that affect what happens in a
10:18particular environment so ecology has
10:21provided a more
10:22comprehensive contextually sensitive
10:25approach to understanding environment
10:27Behavior relations so that's why we go
10:29through through it and sort of lay the
10:31foundations or the framework for
10:32environmental psychology rooted in those
10:34ecological principles of systems
10:36analysis now today we're going to go
10:39into a little more detail about what we
10:41mean by systems open systems theory and
10:45then talk about what happens when
10:47systems go Ary they go out of syn uh
10:50people aren't uh fitted or congruent
10:53with their surroundings so they
10:54experience strain and when they
10:56experience strain they uh experience
10:58physical ological and psychological
11:00stress and this can happen in very
11:02demanding and very constraining
11:04environments so these are our fosi for
11:07today and to begin with in the next
11:09slide uh last week I talked about how
11:12people ideally like to optimize their
11:15relationships with their surroundings
11:17they like to work back on the
11:19environment and change it at time two
11:22and the environment then affects them
11:23and then they change it and modify the
11:25environment further time three so it's a
11:26give and take transactional or
11:29reciprocal relationship it's not just a
11:31one-way deal here you've got a very
11:34rigid environment where someone's living
11:36in poverty for example or they're in
11:38prison or some other extremely
11:39constraining environment and every time
11:42they try to modify that environment
11:43through their behavior they're blocked
11:45so this is a more passive adaptation
11:48situation but what you see when people
11:50are free to optimize their environments
11:52and and try to achieve this sense of fit
11:54with their surroundings this is a very
11:57cyclical kind of process it recurs over
11:59time and that's one of the key features
12:01of a system it has some continuity uh
12:04some cycles that can be observed over
12:06time so in the cats and con article
12:10assigned for this class they lay out
12:12these nine basic principles of systems
12:14theory and it's important that you
12:17understand uh what these mean and how
12:18they work together so what do we mean by
12:21input anybody have an example of input
12:24into a system or in systems terms what
12:27would be an input a throughput output
12:30yeah okay so a system takes in raw
12:33material we eat a meal and that's the
12:36input and then the throughput is our
12:37digestion and then the output is our
12:40energy we we're able to do work because
12:42we've ingested those calories or if
12:45we're in a team we take in information
12:48that's the input the team processes that
12:50information and through collaboration
12:52they come up with a new Theory a new
12:54insight and then they publish that that
12:56becomes their output so whether we're
12:58talking about social systems or
12:59biological systems these basic input
13:02throughput output Cycles are key uh
13:05these go on over time and you can see
13:07the
13:08recurrence uh what does negative entropy
13:11refer to in systems
13:14theory what do we mean by entropy and
13:16then negative
13:17entropy the notion of entropy the second
13:20law of Thermodynamics in physics is that
13:23all systems tend toward their least
13:26organized State they want to go to the
13:28most
13:29disorganized States so life tends toward
13:31death for example dissolution groups
13:34when they're formed often dissolve and
13:36morph into other organizational forms so
13:39negative entropy is the system's
13:41capacity to resist that and stay
13:44organized so a program like social
13:47ecology or a school of social ecology
13:49wants to stay put it wants to continue
13:51rather than be disbanded and changed
13:53around so that's a kind of negative
13:55entropy it's the effort of a system to
13:57sort of stay whole remain intact
13:59and we know that systems are always
14:01changing they don't always get to stay
14:03uh in a stable form but negative entropy
14:06is that resistance to this dissolution
14:09tendency in
14:10nature negative feedback en coding is
14:14when the system is having a hard time
14:17staying whole and staying
14:20organized it gives itself feedback that
14:22things are something's wrong so when you
14:24feel exhausted from studying too hard or
14:27not getting enough sleep you get certain
14:29signals you can't think as clearly uh
14:32you can't get your work done you're more
14:34irritable with your friends so systems
14:36have ways of giving us feedback that
14:39we're out of sync and we need to go back
14:40into equilibrium to find that balance or
14:43congruence with our
14:45surroundings Dynamic homeostasis means
14:48that systems are constantly trying to
14:51maintain that sense of equ equilibrium
14:54with their surroundings so when systems
14:56get knocked off a kilter and they lose
14:59that equilibrium there's an effort to
15:00try to regain
15:02it differentiation is the idea that
15:05systems often develop duplicate or
15:08redundant ways of achieving the same
15:10System state so I can eat uh different
15:14foods different sets of foods to arrive
15:16at the same number of calories for
15:18example they may not be all the same
15:20nutritional value but I can pretty much
15:22approximate the same number of calories
15:24by eating different combinations of
15:26foods and one of the things we learn in
15:29the interpersonal distance studies that
15:32we talk about today is that when you
15:34look at how people maintain a
15:35comfortable interaction distance or
15:37level of contact with other people there
15:39are different ways to do that so one way
15:43is physical proximity if you want to be
15:45closer to somebody you move in closer if
15:47you don't want to be close to that
15:48person you might move away but what
15:50happens when you can't move away you're
15:51stuck in an elevator you've got a
15:52stranger right on top of you so what do
15:55people do what's another way of
15:57achieving equilibrium when you're SP is
15:59too close for what you want with another
16:01person what's another way to kind of
16:03relieve some of that strain Kevin don't
16:06make eye contact with them so you avert
16:08eye contact you you don't gaze at them
16:11you look away so how many have you ever
16:13been walking down a street a sidewalk
16:16and you're approaching somebody and
16:17you're looking at them and then you get
16:19about 10 ft away and each of you starts
16:20looking away rather than saying oh how
16:22do you do so often times as our physical
16:25proximity increases there are other ways
16:28to to reduce that sense of closeness to
16:31get to a comfortable interaction level
16:34so that's what we mean by
16:35differentiation there are different ways
16:36to kind of get to the same end
16:39State and finally uh equal finality is
16:43the idea that we can use those those
16:45different uh mechanisms or strategies uh
16:49to arrive at the same end States and
16:52often systems as they remain and they
16:55survive over time they get more and more
16:57differentiated so as life as evolved on
17:00Earth it has become more and more
17:02differentiated the species have become
17:04more complex the cells and the organs
17:06have become more differentiated at a
17:08biological level so these are the basic
17:10characteristics of open systems and you
17:13can apply them to social systems uh
17:15biological systems cultural systems yeah
17:18I got a
17:19question what's your name j Jessica
17:22throughput throughput is taking the
17:25inputs that a system brings in and
17:28changing them internally in the system
17:30so digestion of food would be a kind of
17:32throughput or you go out on the internet
17:36and you're working on a term paper and
17:38you you gather all kinds of information
17:40from Google and all kinds of sources
17:42Google Scholar and different places and
17:44then the throughput is how you integrate
17:46and combine that as you develop your
17:48paper and you develop an outline for
17:50what you want to say so through
17:51throughput is that ability of a system
17:54to take the inputs and through the
17:58processing of the the information or the
17:59food or whatever the input is to come up
18:01with meaningful useful outputs or
18:05products so is everybody clear on these
18:08basic principles because what we're
18:09going to do today is illustrate how they
18:12play out at different levels of analysis
18:14we said that environmental psychology
18:16looks at people in micro environments
18:18where they're interacting with a few
18:19other people we look at what happens
18:22when we go to the neighborhood level or
18:24the the community societal level or even
18:26the global level and so we want to see
18:29how these these different principles
18:31apply to individuals trying to reach
18:33equilibrium with their environment to
18:35groups when they're interacting and they
18:37you have a small group that wants to
18:38kind of stay intact and stay effective
18:40as a team and finally for a whole
18:43population in the wi Edwards article uh
18:45assigned for today that's written by a
18:48population biologist who has observed a
18:51number of very interesting systems
18:53principles that work to keep equilibrium
18:56between a population size and the
18:59resources available in its habitat how
19:02does that happen and it's a very
19:04interesting paper because uh it led to a
19:08a transition from sort of darwinian
19:10checks on population size like disease
19:13and food supply and predation predators
19:15and things like that extreme
19:17temperatures to a more internal
19:19regulatory notion that populations have
19:23these mechanisms such as territorial
19:25behavior and dominance hierarchies that
19:28regulate their size so that they don't
19:31overstretch and over consume the food
19:33resources in their habitat so we're
19:35going to talk about wi Edwards a little
19:36bit later so let's go through these
19:39examples uh Stanley mgm's article is
19:41very interesting it's a paper about how
19:44people living in a large city like New
19:46York have to adapt and cope with all
19:50that stimulation the thousands of people
19:52that they run into each day and what are
19:55the some of the ways that
19:57individuals develop coping strategies to
20:00maintain equilibrium to not get
20:02overwhelmed by all that Urban
20:04stimulation to keep their negative
20:06entropy or their organization so that's
20:08an example at the individual level of
20:10analysis we're also going to talk about
20:12Argy and Dean study which is very much
20:14like what the demonstration we did today
20:16eye contact distance and affiliation or
20:19intimacy level and this is an analysis
20:21of systems principles at the group level
20:24as is the Bales and wicker articles uh
20:28Bales talks about the pendulum model of
20:31and dual leadership models of groups and
20:33we'll we'll say what that is but those
20:35are ways of keeping homeostasis in
20:38groups and it shows the differentiation
20:40in groups that we were talking about
20:42Alan wicker is a student of Roger Barker
20:45who uh came up with the idea of behavior
20:47settings and we'll talk about Behavior
20:49setting as a kind of ecobehavioral
20:51unit and how it is that these Behavior
20:54settings maintain their uh longevity
20:58they they instead of dissolving they're
20:59able to remain viable and maintain their
21:02equilibrium with their environments and
21:04finally the wi Edwards paper I was just
21:06describing self-regulating systems in
21:08animal population so we're going to look
21:10at systems principles from the
21:11individual the group to the population
21:13level okay stimulation overload this is
21:17the focus of mgr's paper on what it
21:20means to live in a big city overload is
21:23a situation where our inputs we're
21:26getting inputs too quickly and too
21:27numerously
21:29to process them effectively too many too
21:32quickly this can happen to an air
21:33traffic controller who's trying to
21:35manage several flights coming in at the
21:37same time and in fact this is one of the
21:39highest burnout
21:40occupations uh that we know of the
21:42people in those roles uh often get sick
21:46earlier they often have to retire
21:47earlier because there's so much pressure
21:49on them sort of keeping people alive in
21:51these airplanes avoiding air crashes
21:54that they often get overloaded and that
21:55takes a toll on their health by the same
21:58token you can work in a very noisy
22:00distracting environment where there's
22:01not enough separation between yourself
22:03and other people and you experience a
22:06similar kind of overload and sometimes
22:08people will put on earphones they'll
22:10tune out the acoustical stimulation
22:12although in this situation there's still
22:13all that visual commotion as you look
22:16across the cubicles and you see what's
22:18going on in the whole office so you
22:19can't really isolate yourself very well
22:21there to maintain equilibrium so these
22:23are all sort of examples of where
22:24overload can set in and be a problem
22:28and this is uh examples of urban density
22:33and uh you know this is rush hour on the
22:35405 freeway here in Orange County
22:37Shanghai uh Times Square New York but
22:41often our stimulation is place-based it
22:43comes from crowding it comes from noise
22:45it comes from being jostled on subways
22:47when you're packed together with uh a
22:50lot of people in Japan uh when you get
22:53on the Subways there there are often
22:56people that push people in to to cram in
22:58as many people as possible so that the
23:00trains run more efficiently and it's an
23:02example where our personal space is
23:04completely violated so people have to
23:07cope with that while they're on the
23:08train in other ways
23:11psychologically so how do the urban
23:13dwellers in milgrim study cope with
23:17overload and what are some examples can
23:19you give me some examples of how these
23:21things happen in cities where urbanites
23:25become a little more impersonal they
23:27become more l a fair about trying to
23:30help other people out who get into
23:31trouble in the city if they're a
23:32stranger what would be an example of
23:34allocating less time for each input or
23:37disregarding low priority
23:40inputs how many of you lived in New York
23:42City or some big
23:45Metropolis okay Amber I Liv in Angeles a
23:49bit
23:52okay not really knowing anybody so I
23:55never really met my neighbors it was
23:56just you know focused on other things
23:59okay so often in in large cities people
24:01get kind of insular it's a little bit
24:04harder to go out and meet everybody like
24:07you would in a very small town where the
24:09norm supports being friendly and doing
24:11that but in a big city if you tried to
24:13do that every time you bumped into
24:14someone on the sidewalk you'd run out of
24:16energy you'd go into entropy so in a
24:18large city what the urbanite tries to do
24:21is screen out low priority input so when
24:23you walk down the the sidewalk in Time
24:25Square you avert eye contact you don't
24:28look at anybody in the eye that's one of
24:30the first rules in New York City you
24:31sort of avert you know avoid eye contact
24:34if you can or if you're walking over a
24:36body in the street you don't stop and
24:37say hey can I help you out what's
24:39happened to this homeless person or you
24:41know can I help this person because
24:43often those kinds of responsibilities
24:45are shifted to the Social Service Agency
24:48or some other institution in the
24:51city when people ask for information we
24:54don't go out of our way so much we tend
24:56to keep it you know very quick and
24:58succinct if we have to interact with
25:01strangers we uh don't list our telephone
25:05numbers we use of course now you know
25:07most people have answering uh devices if
25:10they have a landline or if if they're
25:11using cell phone they can see who's
25:13calling and they have a lot more Choice
25:14over who they're going to U answer the
25:16call for filtering out strong
25:19involvements you you tend not to get
25:20involved with the vast proportion of
25:23people that you meet and rather you keep
25:24your social networks to very small
25:27Circles of confidants and close friends
25:30and creating institutions to handle the
25:32load bus drivers in New York City will
25:35not make change if you don't have the
25:36right change when you get on the bus
25:38they won't you know break a dollar and
25:40uh make change so you have to get on
25:42that bus with the right change whereas
25:44in a small town they'll go out of their
25:46way to accommodate you so these are some
25:48of the urban coping strategies that
25:50enable an individual living in a high
25:52stimulation overloading environment to
25:55keep a sense of equilibrium by not
25:57getting overextended
25:59now you put that person in a small town
26:01they're going to look they're not going
26:02to look so good they're going to seem
26:03impersonal they're going to seem a
26:05little bit mean Gruff and yet if you put
26:08the rural person in a large city they're
26:11going to get exhausted because they're
26:13going on the basis of their Norms that
26:15they want to try to you know be friendly
26:16to as many people as they can and they
26:18can't keep up because there's just so
26:19many inputs coming at them because of
26:21the
26:23overload now I mentioned in that
26:26situation of people getting into a
26:29Subway that personal space or the
26:31ability to optimize and maintain
26:34comfortable interaction distance just
26:36goes away completely because you're
26:38you're crunched together with a lot of
26:39strangers so people tend to in those
26:42situations regard each other as
26:43non-persons they look away they don't
26:46interact they don't converse um and they
26:49find ways to compensate for the fact
26:52that their personal space is being
26:54violated now this definition that Robert
26:57summer proposed
26:59is the idea that we we all have these
27:02invisible boundaries around our bodies
27:04this personal space bubble into which
27:07Intruders may not come now in point of
27:09fact Intruders can come into our
27:10personal space but it makes us
27:12uncomfortable so typically we're going
27:13to want to pull back we're going to want
27:15to retreat or we're going to want to
27:16look away to compensate for that strain
27:20of having violated personal
27:22space and this is shown uh pretty
27:25directly in the Argon and Dean model of
27:28intimacy they have this equilibrium
27:30model of intimacy
27:32or close contact with other people where
27:35they say that intimacy or contact with
27:37others is a function of these
27:40differentiated uh kinds of processes eye
27:42contact spatial or physical proximity
27:46the intimacy of what whatever people are
27:48talking about in that interaction the
27:50amount of smiling that goes on and these
27:53things can be interchanged they're sort
27:55of fungible you can get to the same
27:58level of psychological contact or
28:00intimacy by by changing around What
28:03mechanisms you use in a particular
28:06situation so they went ahead and they
28:09did this first study in the
28:11laboratory where they had individuals
28:15approach either a photograph of another
28:18person a real person who had their eyes
28:21shut during the time that the person was
28:24approaching them and they were working
28:25for the experimenter so they were told
28:26to keep your eyes shut while this person
28:27approach approaches you or someone with
28:30their eyes open and what you can see is
28:33that for adults and also for children
28:36there's this tendency to stand further
28:39away when you're going up to a real
28:42person who has their eyes open as soon
28:44as someone closes their eyes that shuts
28:46down a certain amount of stimulation and
28:49so you can approach them more closely
28:51and that's what we mean by equilibrium
28:53there the the lack of eye contact is
28:56compensating for the close distance so
28:59people can move in more closely so
29:00that's what happens here and then in a
29:02photo they move in uh here um more
29:06closely and subjects stand 11 in closer
29:09to the photograph than to the person and
29:116 in closer to a person whose eyes are
29:13shut than to a person whose eyes are
29:14open so this was their first experiment
29:18anybody recall before we put up the next
29:20slide what they did in the second
29:22experiment they sort of built on these
29:25findings anybody recall the experimental
29:28Paradigm or design in that second
29:32study so when we put up the next slide
29:35um it said he how Kow okay Kow so what
29:39Kow said is that uh they had the
29:42experimenters back here behind a one-way
29:44mirror and they could observe whether
29:47this subject was looking at the
29:49Confederate the Confederate is somebody
29:51who's hired another student hired by the
29:53experimenters to just continually look
29:55at the subject so this person here
29:57whether it's a male or female is
29:59continually looking straight at the eyes
30:02of this other person but what the
30:03experimenters are observing is whether
30:05that other person is looking away from
30:06the Confederate working for the
30:08experimenters or uh right at them and
30:11they measured how many seconds in a
30:133-minute uh interaction or conversation
30:17were spent looking directly into the
30:19eyes of the
30:21Confederate very interesting results um
30:25what they found is that as we said the
30:29male subjects and female Confederates
30:31and the female subjects and male
30:33Confederates on the whole looked at each
30:35other less time these are the number of
30:38seconds so in 3 minutes you can
30:40go uh 80 Seconds and so this goes up to
30:43140 seconds but you can see that at the
30:47twoot distance when they move those
30:49chairs only 2 feet
30:51apart okay less than 60 seconds looking
30:55at each other for these groups here the
30:57mixed gen groups up here you had a
31:00little bit more eye contact but if you
31:02compare what happens when they move
31:04those seats back further so here the
31:06Confederate and the subject are sitting
31:086 feet away here they're sitting 10 ft
31:10away you can see this trend where as you
31:14open up the amount of space people then
31:16look at each other more or they look at
31:18that Confederate more they're they're
31:19able to have more ey contact stimulation
31:22because they've got more room to work
31:23with so that's what we mean by the
31:26equilibrium model of inter personal
31:28intimacy or contact that the space is
31:33compensating and allowing more eye
31:35contact when you have more space to work
31:37with and up here you've got the female
31:40and female subjects looking at each
31:42other the most the female subjects in
31:44the female Confederates which didn't
31:45match our data in the classroom but of
31:47course our data you know were not very
31:49experimentally controlled although we
31:51did sort of confirm this finding here
31:54with the mixed gender pair yeah that's a
31:56good question did peripher Al site
31:59matter did they try to measure that uh
32:01they had a pretty simplistic measure of
32:04estimating whether the subject's eyes
32:06were locked on the confederate's eyes
32:08and they didn't try to get into the
32:10nuances of whether someone's looking a
32:11little sideways or not so but yeah
32:14sometimes you can use peripheral vision
32:16to to see what's going on if you're not
32:18looking at them directly but the basic
32:19message here is that there is this kind
32:22of relationship where length of glances
32:25or eye contact increases at greater
32:27distances much less contact among mixed
32:29sex Pairs and that's of course stranger
32:31pairs you know if people are going
32:33together and they're friends U you know
32:35that that finding doesn't hold up and at
32:38the twoot distance um eye contact never
32:42completely fell to zero but there were
32:44signs of tension so people were sort of
32:45squirming in their seats a little bit
32:47more and they were moving around you
32:49could their body language their
32:50nonverbals were showing a little bit
32:52more tension so this is equilibrium at
32:55the small group level where you've got a
32:57few few people interacting with each
32:58other two people in the same situation
33:00so there you have this equilibrium
33:02principle here we have another
33:05illustration of equilibrium principles
33:07in group dynamics Theory Robert Bales uh
33:11was a famous group dynamics researcher
33:13at Harvard University and he used to
33:14bring in experimental groups to the
33:17laboratory he would uh invite people to
33:19meet for 10 weeks or so and get to know
33:22each other and keep coming to the same
33:23room each week to discuss different
33:25kinds of issues and the group would get
33:27to know each other
33:28and what he observed is that most groups
33:30swing back and forth between a task
33:33focus on solving some challenge that the
33:36environment poses like a team has to you
33:39know find a solution to a particular
33:41problem versus what he called a social
33:43emotional Focus or orientation and that
33:46means maintaining cohesion with fellow
33:48team members and often what happens is
33:50when teams work really hard on trying to
33:53get a task done and you've got a leader
33:56delegating work out to other people and
33:58you got a status hierarchy uh people get
34:01kind of annoyed they get tired they get
34:04resentful sometimes so you need
34:05sometimes to switch over to more of a
34:07socio emotional orientation and you've
34:09seen this a lot in sports teams where
34:12you'll have a baseball team or football
34:14team basketball team working really hard
34:16to win the World Series or the Super
34:18Bowl whatever and then when they finally
34:21get to that goal uh all the tensions
34:24start coming out people want to become
34:26free agents and and go some to some
34:28other team for a higher salary or they
34:30start badm mouthing some of the fellow
34:31players because they don't have to keep
34:33working on that that task goal anymore
34:36so at that point the team has to shore
34:37up its cohesion and you have when when
34:41Bales talks about the Dual Leadership
34:42Model what happens in a lot of these
34:44groups is that a task leader emerges who
34:47is really good at exhorting people to
34:49work hard get the job done They Don't
34:51Care About delegating Authority they
34:53don't mind status hierarchies and then
34:55you have another person who plays off of
34:56that task leader who is more of a socio
34:59emotional leader they crack jokes
35:01they're more laidback they sort of take
35:03the edge off and these two types of
35:05leaders work in tandem in many group
35:07situations so that's what uh Bales
35:09discovered through his research that
35:11there's a kind of equilibrium process
35:14that happens in small groups which are
35:16systems and in order for those groups to
35:18maintain negative entropy and stay whole
35:21they have to manage these task
35:23requirements with their socio emotional
35:26or internal cohesion requirements if
35:27they ignore this completely they're
35:29going to dissolve they're going to break
35:30up so you have to have this kind of he
35:33calls it the pendulum model you have
35:34these different emphases swinging back
35:36and forth over time and that's what we
35:38mean by systems being cyclical you can
35:40see these patterns of interaction as
35:42they cycle over time so that's another
35:44example of systems principles at the
35:46small group
35:49level yet another example of how systems
35:52operate in groups would be Behavior
35:54settings and we've already talked a
35:56little bit about what a Behavior setting
35:58is uh being a place with a group of
36:01people that typically is in that place
36:04at certain regular times and they're
36:06during certain things so in this
36:07classroom we're here Tuesdays Thursdays
36:105: to 6:20 and we have a certain
36:12behavioral program that goes hand inand
36:14with this physical millu so the physical
36:16millu and the social or behavioral
36:19program are part of a
36:22system and those are a couple of books
36:24that Roger Barker uh worked on at the
36:27Midwest Field Station in Oskaloosa
36:29Kansas and I actually have a prized copy
36:32here of one of his books uh which he
36:35gave me uh one boy's day and I'll tell
36:38you a little bit about that that book as
36:39we go through the slides but a behavior
36:41setting is people in a specific
36:43environment performing certain
36:45activities at designated times that's
36:46the basic definition or components of a
36:50behavior setting now you can say okay
36:52that's obvious so what good is that okay
36:54so let's find out what this Behavior
36:57setting
36:58Theory uh is good for now first of all
37:01just some local Behavior settings so you
37:03can watch a night game at cicerone field
37:06this happens to be uh UCI versus USC a
37:09few years ago uh this is a dormatory
37:12Bria dorm uh where you've got uh some
37:15events that go on in a regular basis in
37:17those dorms evening discussion sessions
37:20other things you've got the Student
37:21Center where there are a lot of
37:23individual Behavior settings so you've
37:25got the anill pub where uh that's open
37:28certain hours bands play people come
37:30they socialize you've got this classroom
37:33here sslh 100 you've got this basketball
37:37game at Bren Center and then interesting
37:39you interestingly you've got the uh
37:41basketball courts in Main Beach lagona
37:44lagona beach and this is a behavior
37:47setting in that uh a lot of the same
37:49people show up at regular times to
37:51participate in those basketball games
37:54but if you go a little bit further out
37:56on the beach here where you bring a
37:58blanket and you just lay down your
38:00blanket and you hang out at the beach
38:02that's not so much an organized Behavior
38:05setting because the people that are
38:06lying next to you on the next blanket
38:08aren't really interacting with you in a
38:10structured way so that's a more of an
38:13aggregate setting but it's not an
38:14organized system like a behavior setting
38:16but this uh basketball court here or the
38:19volleyball courts at Main Beach are
38:21Behavior settings because they have a
38:23regular program that's attached to that
38:25particular place
38:27so this is the book I was telling you
38:29about that Barker and Wright uh
38:32published and what they did this whole
38:35book of 300 pages is about one kid's
38:3924-hour day where they followed him
38:41around into each Behavior setting he
38:43went with his parents or his friends and
38:46they tracked what he did there and you
38:47could say wow that's kind of boring why
38:49would you follow one kid and write a
38:51book about that and one of the things
38:53that Barker and his colleagues were
38:55trying to show there is that the the
38:57child's Behavior changed as a function
38:59of the settings that he went into even
39:01more so than his own personality so
39:03rather than trying to explain the
39:05child's behavioral tendencies in terms
39:07of personal dispositions what these
39:10authors were trying to emphasize is that
39:12depending on the the strains or the
39:14demands of a given setting that had more
39:16influence on the behavior than the
39:19individual differences so this was a
39:21kind of a first step in the development
39:23of behavior setting
39:25Theory but what Barker then began to do
39:27is to apply this notion of behavior
39:30settings being a system and he started
39:33with a study of high schools in Kansas a
39:36small town in Kansas and these were the
39:38different sizes of the high schools
39:40number of students enrolled at each High
39:41School this is a pretty small school
39:43with 35 students here you've got capital
39:45city with
39:472287 and what you find when you count up
39:51the number of behavior settings that the
39:52kids can go into outside of their
39:54classes so we're talking about sports
39:56teams
39:57cheerleading orchestra band things like
40:00that um as you get larger schools of
40:03course they offer more Behavior settings
40:05but what you also see is that the ratio
40:09of students to those settings starts to
40:12change in in this small school you've
40:14got one student uh per setting whereas
40:18over here in the larger School you've
40:19got eight students showing up for the
40:21same activity so what's happening here
40:24is as you get to really large schools
40:26you've got more onlookers who are
40:28peripheral to the activities whereas in
40:29a small school it puts a lot of
40:32pressures on you to participate so
40:34you've got to be on the football team
40:36you've got to be on the newspaper maybe
40:38they pull you in to be on the band maybe
40:40they rope you into to be on the
40:41basketball team because for that school
40:44that small high school to stay viable
40:46and to avoid entropy it has to press
40:49into service everybody that's in that
40:51school so you see this in uh the these
40:56tabulations
40:58of students participation in
40:59extracurricular activities in the small
41:02schools and in the large schools and
41:04here the number of settings or
41:05activities that the students enter uh is
41:09not all that different between the small
41:10and large school but you start to see
41:13greater diversity of activities here
41:15among the the students in the small
41:17school and what you really see in terms
41:19of the differences are in terms of where
41:22they have responsible roles like where
41:24they're president of a club or their
41:25leader of the team and in the small
41:28schools the the students have much more
41:31opportunity to take on leadership roles
41:33and responsible positions than if
41:35they're going to a large school now this
41:37starts to have pretty important
41:39developmental psychological implications
41:41because if you're going to a small
41:42school and you're talking about whether
41:45students develop a kind of extroverted
41:47or leadership potential uh that's much
41:52more likely to happen in this situation
41:54here than in this large school where
41:55students tend to be more onl Lookers and
41:58peripheral so for the school as a system
42:00to maintain its viability and its
42:03negative entropy it has to press its
42:06students its members into more different
42:07kinds of roles and you could say well
42:10that causes stress in all those students
42:11because they're forced to do that on the
42:12other hand maybe it helps them develop
42:15uh these capacities and these skills
42:17that they might not have developed if
42:18they were a small fish in a big pond
42:20rather than you know a small pond and
42:24here uh Barker's student Alan wicker
42:27extended This research by going into
42:29churches large and small
42:31churches and he found that uh when you
42:34look at the number of behavior settings
42:36entered by congregants in small churches
42:39versus large churches there's more here
42:42uh more diversity of settings and then
42:45again where you look at the number of
42:47settings whether it's the Women's Club
42:49or the men's club or the choir uh where
42:51people have responsible leadership roles
42:54much more so in the small Church than in
42:56the large church and then if you look at
42:58Sunday worship service attendance more
43:01so more frequent than the small Church
43:04than the large church so what we're
43:05seeing is an understaffed or what Barker
43:07called an underman setting puts more
43:10pressure on people to maintain that
43:12system to keep it in equilibrium with
43:14this environment because if the people
43:15didn't show up and do that the church
43:17would fold and then even the amount that
43:19they contribute to charity over a 52- we
43:22period significantly higher for the
43:24small Church uh small church members and
43:26for the large church members so pretty
43:28interesting data as to what happens in
43:31these Behavior systems that are are
43:33settings that are underst staffed and
43:36are pushing people into more Diversified
43:40roles so Alan wicker uh developed this
43:43diagram of different degrees of Manning
43:47and now we we refer to it as
43:49Staffing uh we're not just talking about
43:51men we're talking about men and women in
43:53these settings so what he reasoned is
43:56that all settings have a kind of
43:58adequately Mann Zone where you've got
44:01enough people to fill out a pretty good
44:03basketball team some people are going to
44:05be on the bench but at least you can
44:07keep it running in a small school maybe
44:09you have only two bench players in a
44:10large high school maybe you have three
44:11different teams the A and C team but
44:14when you get into the Underman or
44:16understaff Zone um that's where you're
44:19going below the maintenance minimum and
44:22this the team might not be able to go on
44:24it might fold up uh when you get to the
44:27Overman Zone and this is richly Mann but
44:29as soon as you get overmanned other
44:31kinds of
44:32strains uh start to beset that system
44:34where people don't feel like they're
44:36getting enough chances to participate
44:38they feel alienated they feel left out
44:40so settings try to stay ideally in this
44:43adequately manned Zone and that's what
44:45he means by degrees of Manning and
44:47that's what we mean by Behavior settings
44:50as a system that are trying to maintain
44:52equilibrium with their environments by
44:53staying in this sort of sweet spot here
44:56where you've got just the right number
44:57of applicants for the roles in the
44:59setting if we had 450 students in this
45:03classroom right now it would be an under
45:05it would be an overstaffed classroom
45:07from the point of view of the students
45:08because people would be in all of these
45:10aisles uh it'd be much more crowded feel
45:13a lot of you wouldn't have seats between
45:15you so it would be a kind of more
45:17tighter feeling and participation rates
45:21might go down or participation
45:22opportunities might go down because we
45:23would be overstaffed relative to the
45:26size of the room so these equilibrium
45:28points in Behavior settings become
45:29pretty
45:31important these are some Behavior
45:33settings that uh have had a big impact
45:35on me and one of the things we we think
45:37about is that each of us experience
45:41certain key settings in our lives which
45:43leave an imprint on us an impact on us
45:46next week we'll talk about the notion of
45:47place identity how much of our personal
45:50identity is tied up in our experience
45:52with our hometown or where we went to
45:54college uh for me I went to college at
45:56the University of Chicago which was
45:58quite a contrast from where I grew up in
46:00Miami Florida uh I then went to graduate
46:03school at the University of North
46:04Carolina for four years so this was four
46:06years this was four years and then I've
46:08been in Social ecology uh for pretty
46:11pretty much my career uh after grad
46:13school and interestingly when I came to
46:16social ecology it was an understaffed
46:18setting it was a tiny experimental
46:20program there was no uh place for it in
46:22the academic plan of UC Irvine and some
46:25young upstarts decided we're going to
46:27create a program in Social ecology and
46:29later a school of social ecology there
46:31were none of these buildings se1 se2
46:34social Behavioral Science Gateway that
46:36was all sort of the a figment of our
46:38imagination that this could happen here
46:41so part of being in an understaff
46:42setting for me as an assistant professor
46:45is I got pressed into a lot of roles
46:47that I normally wouldn't have had to do
46:48if I had gone to a regular fully staff
46:50department for example I was chairing a
46:52merits and promotion uh Personnel
46:55committee as an untenured professor
46:57in my third or fourth year at UCI which
46:59is unheard of it's very risky thing to
47:00do because you know some of those
47:02sometimes those committees make
47:03decisions that people don't like so we
47:06had to do those things to keep the
47:08program going to keep it
47:10maintained and as the school grew and we
47:13went from a little slice of the seventh
47:15floor of engineering Tower to these
47:18three buildings we have today we became
47:20more differentiated so systems that
47:22stick around like this academic program
47:25and school is a system that be became
47:27progressively more differentiated that's
47:29what we mean by differentiation in
47:31systems if if organisms are going to
47:34evolve to higher forms or if
47:36organizations are going to stay and
47:38become larger and stay viable they have
47:40to evolve and they become more
47:42decentralized they become more uh
47:45differentiated so we are quite a bit
47:47more decentralized now being spread
47:49among three buildings than when we were
47:51in one small space so each of you should
47:54think about what are the key Behavior
47:55settings that have affected Ed your
47:57identity and how have they affected you
47:59did you go to a small school a large
48:01school what were the pressures on you to
48:02participate how has that affected your
48:05your personal
48:08dispositions now one of the things
48:09that's happening today is we have
48:11virtual Behavior settings or sites on
48:13the interet internet where people go to
48:17uh hang out with other people in a chat
48:18room or Second Life
48:21Community um there are many settings
48:23that are built around people's common
48:25interests in a particular health problem
48:27or hobby so these are now virtual
48:29Behavior settings this is something that
48:31Barker could never have envisioned when
48:32he was writing his books back in the 50s
48:3540s and
48:3650s uh but these virtual places develop
48:40a kind of sense of place through their
48:42sustained interaction that people have
48:45in those portals or in those those
48:47internet sites and the next slide here
48:50uh Mark Colmes for his Senior Honor
48:52ceases at UCI did a study of second life
48:55so this is Mark's Avatar here uh when he
48:58was participating in Second Life sort of
49:00observing what was going on in that
49:02community and uh he'll tell us about
49:04that actually a little bit later in the
49:05course when we talk about environmental
49:07psychology of the internet so this last
49:10example of systems principles applied to
49:13the population level of analysis we've
49:14talked about small groups we've talked
49:16about individuals but what about whole
49:18populations and there's been a lot of
49:20research on how animals come into
49:23equilib animal species living in
49:25particular habitat
49:27achieve equilibrium with their
49:29surroundings and wi Edwards was one of
49:32the first to discover through obser
49:34observational research this concept of
49:37territoriality which results in his
49:39terms in a parceling out of the habitat
49:42into a mosaic of breeding and feeding
49:45Lots so
49:47territoriality uh enables animals in a
49:49species to lay claim to a particular
49:51parcel of land whether it's a nest in a
49:54tree or a particular uh cave or whatever
49:57it is and it's basically associated with
50:01biological functions of uh food
50:04provision and mating and we're going to
50:07talk about how in human populations and
50:10this will come uh in the next couple
50:11weeks how human territoriality has
50:13become much more differentiated where we
50:16talk about our cars as being our
50:18territory and it's not associated uh
50:21necessarily with biological functions
50:22but as status and we talk about
50:24copyrights and patents as of territorial
50:27behaviors but for animals which is what
50:30when Edwards was studying he found that
50:33territorial processes help maintain the
50:35balance between population density and
50:37local Resources with the within the
50:40limits imposed by the carrying capacity
50:42of the habitat so the what is the
50:43carrying capacity of the habitat anybody
50:45recall what that is yeah so the carrying
50:49capacity for a given species in a given
50:51habitat is how much food resource there
50:54is and once that gets overextended or
50:57over consumed the animals can't live
50:59there anymore they're going to starve
51:00they're going to have to migrate they're
51:01going to have to do something so that's
51:04the caring capacity the ceiling density
51:06on the other hand is a level of
51:08population density at which negative
51:10feedback signals start to go to members
51:12of that population that they're too
51:13crowded they need to spread out and
51:16we're going to talk about how that works
51:17as a kind of equilibrium maintaining
51:20system so the sealing capacity gets
51:22reached before the carrying capacity
51:24hopefully because if you exceed the
51:26caring capacity the animal community is
51:29done they die off they starve they have
51:31to move somewhere else so the ceiling
51:33density is the point at which they start
51:35to realize through different kinds of
51:37signals that they have overextended
51:39they're overextending their resources in
51:40that
51:41area
51:43and wi Edwards uh really extended some
51:47early thinking of the uh evolutionary
51:50biologist
51:52Darwin by going Beyond these traditional
51:56checks on population size before wi
51:58Edwards theory of territoriality the
52:00main checks on population size were
52:02assumed to be the presence of predators
52:04that attack animals of a given species U
52:07the amount of food available in a a
52:09given environment
52:12um physical factors such as climate you
52:14know climate extremes where you get you
52:16know we're going through global climate
52:18change so that affects certain species
52:20much who are much more sensitive to
52:22climate change than others and mortality
52:24from disease so these are all reasons
52:26that
52:27animal communities can uh get sick they
52:30can die off they are external to the
52:33population or the community
52:35itself and what's some of the research
52:39on crowded animal communities found is
52:42that when you put rats or some other
52:44species in a defined area you give them
52:47all the food they want you maintain
52:49optimal temperature for that species you
52:51get rid of predators and you control for
52:54disease
52:56what happens is they still reach a
52:58density point where you start seeing
53:01these problems where infants are dying
53:03off uh prematurely or you have
53:07hyperaggression incidents where animals
53:10in that Community are fighting with each
53:12other and sometimes injuring each other
53:14you have other animals sort of cowering
53:15in the corner so John Calhoun referred
53:18to this as the behavioral snc where sort
53:21of the worst stuff starts to happen when
53:23you exceed that ceiling density and even
53:26though Darwin's checks on population are
53:29all controlled for they have plenty of
53:30food good temperature no predators no
53:32disease to speak of they're still
53:35experiencing these internal strains and
53:37stress which brings down the size of the
53:39population so rather than breeding
53:41indefinitely they start to die off
53:43certain animals get hit harder by these
53:47stresses
53:48and what when Edwards reasoned is that
53:52contrary to Darwin's external checks on
53:54population size animal populations have
53:57these internal regulatory mechanisms
54:00that keep their Community their their
54:03numbers in check or in Balance
54:05equilibrium with the resources in their
54:08environment so the whole notion of
54:10ritualized displays of aggression and
54:12this is a kind of negative feedback
54:14system or signal within an animal system
54:18where you reach a that ceiling density
54:20animals get uptight because they're
54:22bumping into each other more often and
54:24they start to get more aggressive
54:25especially the dominant animals and
54:28there's this uh dominance hierarchy that
54:30most species show where there's a
54:33differentiation between the dominant
54:35animals who can lay claim and hold
54:37territory and the subordinate animals
54:40that aren't able to hold territory they
54:42have to migrate or be more vulnerable to
54:45Predators because Predators can attack
54:47them more easily if they're not in a
54:48home base or territory so territoriality
54:51you know spreading out maintaining
54:53comfortable interaction zones uh
54:55claiming
54:57home bases nests other kinds of
55:00territory uh that's an important aspect
55:03important internal check on population
55:05size in wi Edward's model and finally
55:08for those unfortunate animals that don't
55:10get to have territory uh they often have
55:13to migrate somewhere else or you know
55:15face the possibility of Extinction if
55:17they stay in that same area because
55:19they're more vulnerable than the the
55:20dominant animals so these are some of
55:22the internal regulatory uh systems or
55:25processes that that keep that animal
55:27community in balance or synchrony with
55:30its surroundings we we talked about
55:32person environment fit and environmental
55:33psychology and this is what we would
55:35call U animal population environment fit
55:38in terms of the their size relative to
55:41the resources provided in the
55:43environment question yes question that's
55:46a good point Sean's making that the
55:49migratory process which happens for the
55:52less dominant animals also has an
55:54evolutionary advantage in keeping the
55:55gene of that species around if they can
55:59find an appropriate place to migrate to
56:01if they're on an island and they can't
56:03fly to another Island they may be in
56:04trouble but yes that can have those
56:07positive evolutionary consequences like
56:09you're
56:10saying now when systems go we've talked
56:13about you know the individuals living in
56:15cities in milgrim study we've talked
56:17about Behavior settings where uh the
56:20setting has to have enough members to
56:22keep it going and the members in those
56:23settings especially understaff settings
56:25get pressed into doing more more
56:27leadership roles we talked about the Ben
56:29the pendulum model of group dynamics in
56:31bal's studies shifting from the task
56:34orientation to the internal cohesion or
56:36socio emotional orientation now when
56:39systems aren't able to do this
56:41effectively the members of those
56:43communities whether they're animal
56:45populations or human groups become
56:47stressed and so I want to just walk
56:49through a few basic principles of stress
56:51Theory this uh person here Hans celier
56:54is regarded as the the sort of
56:57discoverer of stress the idea of stress
57:00and basically he was a medical student
57:03at McGill University and he started to
57:05notice even though medical students are
57:07trained to look for differences between
57:09diseases he started to see a lot of
57:11commonality or common symptoms across
57:13different diseases like people who were
57:16fighting off cancer or going through
57:19tuberculosis or experiencing a gunshot
57:22wound showed a lot of the same stress
57:24symptoms across those different kinds of
57:27challenges to their bodies so he began
57:29to focus on this generalized stress
57:31response that was common to all
57:33illnesses or many different kinds of
57:34illnesses and we know today that stress
57:37responses are in fact a common precursor
57:40of heart disease cancer diabetes for
57:42example inflammation processes in the
57:44body which are related to stress
57:47experience is a common ideologic factor
57:49across all those different diseases so
57:52cier was clearly on to something when he
57:54began to come up with this idea of
57:57stress physiological stress as he
57:59defined it is the situation where you
58:02have too many demands exceeding the
58:04body's capacity to cope with those
58:06demands so all of these Notions of
58:08stimulation overload in milgram's
58:09article or in cel's uh physiological
58:13studies of stress it always involves an
58:15imbalance between demands and ability to
58:18cope with
58:19them and he also noticed that when
58:22people go into these stress responses
58:24there's a kind of temporal phase set of
58:27phases that they go through initially
58:29they can rise to the occasion and fight
58:32off whatever challenge they're dealing
58:33with and this is a stage of resistance
58:36but if they're chronically exposed to
58:38that strain and they can't get away and
58:41take a vacation or get some resfit from
58:43poor living conditions U they give into
58:46the stage of exhaustion and that's where
58:48disease and potentially death premature
58:51death can set in so the stress response
58:54is phasic over time
58:56and it also has certain common symptoms
59:00physical symptoms or
59:02manifestations people undergoing stress
59:04typically have enlarged adrenal glands
59:06they're pumping out a lot of adrenaline
59:08for that fight or flight reaction to
59:11environmental challenges they tend to
59:13develop gastrointestinal ulcers and we
59:16know this from people that have
59:17experienced stress and have gone through
59:19autopsies and uh you know they've been
59:21examined for these different symptoms
59:23also the immune system and one part of
59:25that is the thymus gland begins to
59:27shrink and become less capable so these
59:29are common physiological manifestations
59:33of this General Adaptation Syndrome this
59:35General stress syndrome that that celier
59:38discovered we also said last uh in the
59:41last lecture that psychological stress
59:44is more about perception people's
59:47perceptions of environmental demands and
59:48their perception of ability to cope with
59:50them so when you're approaching someone
59:53in close quarters some of you may be
59:56very extroverted you like to meet a lot
59:58of people or you're a stimulation Seeker
1:00:00that's not a a challenge for you at all
1:00:02you enjoy it whereas other people would
1:00:03prefer to kind of hang back and not meet
1:00:06so many people or maintain more you know
1:00:08larger personal space so depending on
1:00:11your needs and what the environment is
1:00:13you know dealing at you uh this is going
1:00:16to determine whether you feel a
1:00:18psychological stress response or not so
1:00:20this is an important extension of of uh
1:00:22cel's physiological stress Theory by
1:00:24Richard Lazarus at Berkeley
1:00:26who came up with the notion of
1:00:27psychological
1:00:29stress now some interesting things about
1:00:32stressors for one thing they have after
1:00:34effects on us we can be exposed to them
1:00:37and get through them okay but then when
1:00:39the stressor goes away we show some of
1:00:41the negative responses so you know
1:00:43sometimes people work really hard during
1:00:45the quarter they go home on break they
1:00:47get sick why should they get sick
1:00:48they're relaxing but these strains build
1:00:51up over time and they show up as After
1:00:53Effects they occur after exposure to the
1:00:55stressor
1:00:56and we found this in our study of
1:00:58children uh going to school into the
1:01:00flight path in Los Angeles third and
1:01:03fourth graders and we gave them a number
1:01:05of different kinds of tests we brought
1:01:07them into sound insulated trailers where
1:01:09it was a quiet environment so any
1:01:12behavioral U problems they were showing
1:01:15were after effects of the exposure to
1:01:17noise because we were comparing noisy
1:01:19school kids with quiet school kids going
1:01:21to school outside the noise Zone and for
1:01:23example in this uh proof reading task
1:01:26where we ask these third and fourth
1:01:27grade students to read a passage
1:01:30appropriate for the grade level and
1:01:32cross out every e the letter e anytime
1:01:34they came across a letter e you see this
1:01:37wide Divergence especially for kids that
1:01:39have been in the schools for four or
1:01:41more years uh between the quiet and the
1:01:44noisy schools where the noisy school
1:01:46kids are much less able to do that
1:01:48proofreading task effectively and these
1:01:51are some of the uh elementary schools we
1:01:53studied uh we we published this book
1:01:56later on uh Behavior Health and
1:01:57environmental stress on that research
1:01:59and some of that research has actually
1:02:01been cited in efforts to prevent
1:02:03airports being located near residential
1:02:06areas such as the Orange County airport
1:02:08versus the the Great Park that we now
1:02:12have you see after effects to stress in
1:02:15a lot of different professional
1:02:17situations so we know that this book
1:02:19that was published about medical errors
1:02:21in surgery and in treatment of people in
1:02:23hospitals uh there's a lot of errors
1:02:26that happen in by physicians nurses air
1:02:29traffic control is because they're
1:02:30overloaded they're trying to process too
1:02:32much information and that's what we mean
1:02:34by those negative consequences of
1:02:36overload they they strain your
1:02:39attentional capacity to the point where
1:02:40you're not as effective monitoring your
1:02:42environment people get more irritable
1:02:45and aggressive when they're under strain
1:02:47uh they become less sensitive to social
1:02:49cues and less socially responsible they
1:02:51become more vulnerable to disease so
1:02:53this issue of stress and overload is
1:02:56really important and it has implications
1:02:58for all of us I think we can all relate
1:02:59to the idea of overload and stress by
1:03:02virtue of being in an academic setting
1:03:04where a lot of times we're trying to
1:03:05process a heck of a lot of information
1:03:07and it's hard to sort of keep it all in
1:03:10Balance stressors also have additive
1:03:13effects uh this study by Gary Evans at
1:03:15Cornell University Gary was one of the
1:03:17first professors here at in the program
1:03:18in Social ecology for many years uh and
1:03:21he's done a lot of research on stress
1:03:22and poverty and what he finds is that
1:03:25poverty is not just one monolithic
1:03:27experience for people it involves poor
1:03:30housing noisy and crowded schools
1:03:32neighborhood violence exposure and fear
1:03:35broken families low household
1:03:38income uh environmental racism issues
1:03:40where you have more exposure to
1:03:42pollutants and contaminants so all of
1:03:44these are multiple whammies on people
1:03:46that are living in poverty so stressors
1:03:48have multiple effects in many cases
1:03:51they're not just a single uh kind of
1:03:53phenomenon or single Factor but they
1:03:55involve many different challenges and
1:03:57strains on
1:04:00people one other point I want to make
1:04:02about systems is that I've been saying
1:04:04that most of our human environment
1:04:06systems strive for
1:04:09equilibrium mariyama published a very
1:04:12interesting paper that documented that
1:04:15many systems don't counter their
1:04:17deviations they don't go to equilibrium
1:04:18instead they're deviation amplifying
1:04:20they get more and more extreme you get
1:04:22these spirals these Vicious Cycles where
1:04:25pover gets more extreme or the digital
1:04:27divide gets more extreme so not all
1:04:29systems are able to go to equilibrium or
1:04:31are built that
1:04:33way deviation countering the system uh
1:04:38processes minimize departures from
1:04:40equilibrium so we're trying to maintain
1:04:42H homeost status in those kind of
1:04:43systems in deviation amplifying systems
1:04:47the processes operate to increase in
1:04:49maintain departures from equilibrium so
1:04:52let's look at a couple of examples of
1:04:53those types of systems here you've got a
1:04:55thermostat which is a physical system a
1:04:57mechanical system and we can set the
1:04:59temperature level at exactly where we
1:05:02want the air conditioner or the heater
1:05:03to kick in if we get to that sort of
1:05:05break point that ceiling temperature or
1:05:07whatever we or ceiling uh degrees that
1:05:11we want to not to exceed or to
1:05:13compensate for and this is a deviation
1:05:15countering system so if it gets too cold
1:05:18the heater goes on if it gets too warm
1:05:20the air conditioner goes on in human
1:05:22systems often we have deviation
1:05:25amplification a because human systems
1:05:27are a little more complex so in this
1:05:29case if the conductor uh criticizes the
1:05:32violinist while she's playing in a
1:05:34concert um she may respond to that
1:05:37criticism in positive way she may play
1:05:40better get back in tune practice harder
1:05:42when she gets home or she might get
1:05:44resentful that the guy came down on her
1:05:47during a concert and the next time she
1:05:50plays a little bit more carelessly for
1:05:52spite um so deviation amplification can
1:05:55happen when people uh criticize each
1:05:58other and you don't always get kind of a
1:06:00returned equilibrium where that person
1:06:02tries to maintain your expectations but
1:06:04rather you get a cycle of building
1:06:06hostility or
1:06:07resentment so that is symbolized by this
1:06:10kind of situation here where you have
1:06:12that
1:06:12criticism um because the person's
1:06:15playing poorly and then you know they in
1:06:18turn play worse than next time around uh
1:06:21now if the person really respects the
1:06:23conductor and wants to please that
1:06:25person
1:06:26then this would be a positive sign that
1:06:28is they would be trying to bring their
1:06:30behavior back into line with their
1:06:32expectations to reach some kind of
1:06:34equilibrium so often in human systems we
1:06:36have these deviation amplifying
1:06:38processes a coach can criticize a player
1:06:40that player may you know try just that
1:06:43much harder next time and do better in
1:06:45the next game or you know maybe they
1:06:47don't like the fact that they were
1:06:48humiliated in front of the rest of the
1:06:49team they play worse the next
1:06:52time the digital divide is a good
1:06:54example of how you have this deviation
1:06:57amplification between the information
1:06:59rich and the information poor so that's
1:07:01a deviation amplifying process so it's
1:07:03an important distinction in systems
1:07:05theory now just to recap this is where
1:07:08we've been in the last uh lectures we we
1:07:11talked about the origins the
1:07:12interdisciplinary scope the action
1:07:13research orientation of environmental
1:07:15psych we laid out the ecological
1:07:17Paradigm and systems theory as a basis
1:07:19for understanding people environment
1:07:21relations as alternative to
1:07:23deterministic explanations and then
1:07:25today we looked at what happens when you
1:07:27have a lack of congruence or fit you
1:07:29have these stress reactions and we
1:07:30looked at systems principles across
1:07:32several levels now the last slide here
1:07:35um I just want to call your attention
1:07:37this is what we're going to be doing the
1:07:38next few weeks we're going to go through
1:07:40these substantive areas of environmental
1:07:42psychology research and these are very
1:07:44interesting areas uh environmental
1:07:46cognition cognitive mapping personality
1:07:49uh human spatial behavior and these are
1:07:52all these all operate in like a system
1:07:54we're not they're not mut exclusive when
1:07:56we go into an environment sometimes
1:07:58we're interpreting it simultaneously to
1:08:00evaluating it and behaving in it

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