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2020 Environmental Psychology Prelim 2 Study Questions Gary EvansFor each Environmental Psychology 1500 exam, several essay questions will be distributed ahead of time. A portion of those questions are included here. Others will follow. Typically, a total of 8-10 questions will be distributed. For the actual exam, you will be asked to write the answers to four of the exact same questions. No notes, outlines, or other materials can be used during the exam. You will not be able to choose which four questions to answer. The exam will be two hours in length. You will be required to answer the questions on your own during the exam. Study groups. You are encouraged to prepare your answers to these questions with others in small groups. If you need help finding a study group, you can log onto the website and sign up. Questions in bold need to be answered uniquely. The same example from two persons for the BOLD component of question will be considered a violation of Academic Integrity. It’s fine to discuss your example with someone else and give each other feedback. But on the exam, your answer needs to be unique for any bolded parts. At a minimum the design guideline for the exam needs to include: Succinct and clear behavioral or performance guideline Define the primary HER process your guideline reflectsDescribe in terms of that HER process, the rationale for the guidelineComment about a social identity (e.g., gender, age, culture/ethnicity, disability, etc.) that might be important to consider in terms of your guideline. (note: this is an example of person X environment interaction) or explain why you think the guideline is likely to apply similarly to most people. Another way to think about this, is are your guidelines universal (“one size fits all”)?Draw how to implement the guideline (drawing needs to make sense, it does not need to be beautiful).Note: the requirements for Design Guidelines for the exams are a subset of what is required for Assignment 1 on the Dormitory Guidelines.WE WILL PRINT A -E ABOVE ON THE EXAM. NO NEED TO MEMORIZE. 1. You take your 4 year old son to your pediatrician because you are concerned about the following symptoms: irritability and aggression, easily distracted. You have recently moved into your new home. You mention to the doctor that you live near a busy highway and wonder if lead might be causing these symptoms. The pediatrician declares that she can rule out lead exposure since lead has been banned in gasoline for over a two decades; your house is new so there is no lead in the paint; you have only lived in the new place for a short period of time. a. What would you say to your pediatrician in response to her arguments? Explain your reasoning for these responses. b. What additional behavioral measure, given what we know about lead’s behavioral impacts, would you ask your pediatrician to assess to investigate further if your son has been exposed to lead? c. Provide six reasons why it would be difficult to prove a causal effect of lead on your son’s symptoms. Explain why each reason makes it difficult to establish a causal link. 2. a. Describe at least three different things this graph suggests or implies about lead exposure and IQ. b. Describe one potential policy implication about safe levels of exposure to lead and human well-being from this graph. c. As a scientist working for Exxon Mobile, an American, multinational oil and gas corporation, you argue that based upon these data, the US is over regulating lead exposure by setting the standard of safe levels to 10 ?g/dl of blood. Based upon the data in this graph, what is the principal reason for your position? What is a good counter argument to the Exxon expert witness? d. The Exxon scientist also argues that the scientific evidence for lead causing these IQ deficits is weak. Provide three arguments she would make to back up her claim. e. Design an ideal experiment, with human beings, in order to enhance the scientific quality of the evidence. Explain how your experiment would counter each of the Exxon scientist's arguments in part d. re: weakness in the scientific quality of the evidence she is using to make her case. You can ignore ethical problems in your study proposal. 3. a. This photo shows part of the experimental setting of an experiment Calhoun conducted on animal behavior and crowding. What is the relation between this experiment, by Calhoun, and Malthus’ theory of carrying capacity? Explain whether the results support or contradict Malthus’ theory and explain why. b. Describe two different examples of human data covered in class or readings that show similar behavioral responses to crowding as uncovered in the Calhoun experiment. c. Using what you know about crowding from human studies, describe two additional measures you would add to Calhoun’s experiment. For each measure: i. Explain what you would expect to find with the measure. ii. Draw upon prior research/theory to substantiate your arguments. 4. a. Describe two auditory effects of noise and two nonauditory effects of noise on outcomes other than reading. Why is the auditory-nonauditory distinction important from i. scientific perspective; ii. a policy perspective? b. Numerous studies show that noise levels are associated with deficits in reading acquisition. Draw a graph showing the general pattern of airport noise exposure and children's reading scores. Briefly explain what your graph shows. Describe 3 potential weaknesses in the evidence for most of the research on airport noise and reading.i pact c. Describe data from the NYC elevated train school study and tell me two aspects of this study that provide better evidence for the link between noise and reading compared to most of the airport noise reading studies. Why do these two features of the study provide stronger evidence in comparison to most noise and reading studies? d. Design a study to examine possible task performance effects of noise on children’s memory. Make sure you use what we know about the conditions in which noise has adverse effects on adult task performance. In other words, build into the design of your study the kinds of measure(s) that would be critical to demonstrating noise effects on adult task performance. e. Generate some hypothetical data using a table or graph of what you would expect to find in your noise and child memory study. Explain what the results indicate and why it supports the impact of noise on children's memory data. Use a table/graph to generate hypothetical data and remember to accurately label your table/graph.5. a. Provide two reasons for the importance of the distinction between coping or adapting and the costs of coping/adaptation? As part of your answer, bring in Dubos’ theory of the paradox of adaptability. b. For noise, crowding, and air pollution describe evidence from the course that indicates a cost of coping with each one of these environmental stressors. Be sure to explain what individuals are doing to cope with each of the environmental stressors and why it appears to have a cost. c. Take one of your descriptions in part b. and show it supports the perspective of Darwinian medicine. Make sure you explain what Darwinian medicine is and how your example is consistent with it. dc. For one of pieces of evidence you explain in part b. of a cost of coping, develop a design guideline to help mitigate the cost. Remember to consult the requirements for a design guideline on examinations. Caution: mitigate the costs of coping, not the stressor impacts themselves. 6. a. What are three mechanisms for coping with urban overload? b. Define each and describe the evidence for each one. b. Explain Dubos’ theory about the paradox of human adaptability c. Describe the relation between Milgram’s theory of coping with urban life and Dubos’ paradox of adaptability. d. Develop some hypothetical data using a table or a graph to show the responsiveness of a person to an acute experience of some aspect of urban overload. Do this for a rural newcomer to the city and a longterm city resident. Include in your data the rural newcomer and longterm city resident responses to some form of acute urban overload exposure at 1, 6, and 12 months from when the rural person first moved to the city. e. Explain your answer in terms of Milgram’s overall theory about the experience of living in cities and specifically in terms of one of his mechanisms for coping with sensory overload. 7. a. What is the difference in the meaning of these two phrases:“The eye is like a camera.”“Environmental perception is a constructive process.” b. When queried which is farther west, San Diego, California or Reno, Nevada most people get it wrong and say San Diego. What is the explanation for this typical mistake? Be specific about what characteristics of these cities and their location explains the error. Explain how this explanation supports the claim of environmental perception as a constructive process.c. What Gestalt principle/law is depicted by the above image? Explain this principle/law. Why is this an example of environmental perception as a constructive process? Draw by hand your own original example of this same principle illustrated above. Do not use the internet or any other source to do this. That would not be original. Take a photo of your drawing, upload it to Canvas and insert it into the answer box. d. Take one of the culture and experience studies and generate some hypothetical data in a graph or a table indicating: i. Evidence in favor of the assertion that environmental perception is a constructive process. Explain why your evidence supports that environmental perception is a constructive process. ii. Evidence for a person X environment interaction. Remember: in order to show a person X environment interaction you need to have at least two different environmental conditions and two different person factors. Use a graph or a table to show the interaction. Explain why your evidence illustrates a person x environment interaction.8.a) Describe three different methodologies to assess cognitive maps. 5b) Name and define each of Lynch elements of cognitive maps. Describe how each one applies to the map below.5c) Kate is in a class where she has to draw a map of her city, Cityville, from memory. She has lived in Cityville for her entire life. Molly is in her class and must do the same assignment, but she is a newcomer that moved to Cityville two weeks ago. Kate’s parents allowed her to move around the city independently as she grew up whereas Molly’s parents were more restrictive, limiting her home range to just the vicinity of her family home. Draw one cognitive map for Kate and another for Molly and explain your drawings. Use the given map of Cityville to guide your drawings.Cityville: The bolded lines are the city’s main roads. The city is separated from neighboring lands by Rapid River. A large and prominent bridge spans the river to allow people to cross into/out of the city.5d) As an urban designer and planner, describe changes you would make in 3 different types of elements to enhance the legibility of the city. For each one, also describe whether it would affect Kate and Molly in the same way or not. Explain why. 9. a. Define and describe how each feature listed below relates to a successful public space. Be specific about the design/planning of the feature in its relationship to good public space. Note that in some cases the feature might interfere with good public space. Visual prospectSeatingSoft edgesNatural elementsWeatherFoodvii. Street trafficviii. External densityix. Noisex. Dirty zoningb. Take five of these features and apply to the redesign of Ho Plaza to enhance its utility as a social space (area in between Campus Store and Willard Strait Student Union)Note: if you are new to Cornell and working remotely this semester, Google Ho Plaza, Cornell University to get a better sense of what it currently looks like. c. Explain why one of these changes would likely illustrate environmental determinism and one cognitive appraisal. 10.a. Suburbs both in North America and Western Europe have been the major design and planning alternative to urban living. Yet many people now prefer urban living or rural life/small towns to suburban lifestyles. Provide five examples, one each for income/ethnic or racial inequality, environmental quality, commuting, mental health, and obesity, respectively, of what characteristics of suburbia led to a problem(s) with each outcome. b. The growth of obesity is being heralded as the major, emerging pandemic of the 21st century. Many people think of obesity as a problem of bad personal decisions. Yet increasingly, evidence suggests that the environment may play as big a role in the etiology of obesity as personal choice. Drawing upon research from class or reading about environmental determinants of obesity, present four different types of evidence to back up the argument that the environment plays a key role in obesity. c. Develop a hypothetical research study to test whether personal will power vs. environmental opportunities/constraints explain obesity. In order to do this, you will need to generate some variability or comparison between levels of will power as well some example of an environmental factor. d. Using this study you developed, show me what kind of data would support each side of the debate. Use a table or a graph and explain why one set of outcomes supports the personal will power explanation of obesity. Then do the same to show data in support of an environmental explanation. e. Then give your own opinion about what you think would actually be found and tell me why. 11. a. Describe the basic underlying concept of New Urbanism and then explain how three different examples of design/planning elements implement the concept. b. Describe the basic underlying concept of Co-Housing and then explain how three different examples of design/planning elements implement the concept.c. Choose one of these two alternative city models – New Urbanism or Co-Housing and develop three critiques using three different HER processes. [You can use any HER process you have learned about in this class but remember to use a different HER process for each critique]. Explain in your answer how the HER process links to your critique. d. For one of your critiques, generate some hypothetical data showing a person x environment interaction with a specific design element. Use a table/graph to generate hypothetical data and remember to accurately label the table/graph. Explain why your data provide evidence for a person X environment interaction. In terms of the HER process you are using for this critique, explain why you would expect to see this person x environment interaction. ................
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