Ferdinando Fornara

Indexes of perceived residential environment quality and neighbourhood attachment in urban environments: a confirmation study on the city of Rome

Abstract This paper presents two instruments measuring the quality of the relationship that inhabitants have with their urban neighbourhoods. These instruments consist of 11 scales measuring the perceived environmental qualities of urban neighbourhoods and one scale measuring neighbourhood attachment. The 11 scales are included in four generative criteria as follows: three scales concern spatial aspects (i.e. architectural-planning space, organization and accessibility of space, green space); one concerns human aspects (i.e. people and social relations); four concern functional aspects (i.e. welfare, recreational, commercial, transport services); three concern contextual aspects (i.e. pace of life, environmental health, upkeep). The study objectives were: (a) to compare the structure and number of both indexes of perceived environmental quality and the neighbourhood attachment index with respect to the findings of a study (see [J. Environ. Psychol. 19 (1999) 331]) that used a previous version of these instruments; (b) to improve the psychometric qualities (i.e. internal consistency coefficients) of the used tools. The instruments have the form of a self-reported questionnaire which was administered to 312 residents in seven neighbourhoods (differing in various features) of a great urban context like the city of Rome. A series of Principal Component Analyses (PCA) was performed on the data. Results confirm the factorial structure of the scales, which include 19 perceived quality indexes (150 items total) and one neighbourhood attachment index (eight items). The scales show an increased level of reliability with respect to earlier studies.

Robots in a domestic setting: a psychological approach

The study presented in this paper aims at improving the current understanding of human-robot interaction by adopting a psychological approach. The acceptability of robotic devices in home settings, especially by elderly people, does not depend only on the practical benefits they can provide, but on complex relationships between the cognitive, affective and emotional components of people’s images of robots. This study has investigated the main dimensions of these representations, by comparing the attitudes towards technology in general, and domestic robots in particular, held by people at different stages of the lifespan. The results confirm that age is a critical variable.

Cross-Validation of Abbreviated Perceived Residential Environment Quality (PREQ) and Neighborhood Attachment (NA) Indicators

This article presents the validation by confirmatory factor analysis of abbreviated versions of instruments focusing on the neighborhood residential level, perceived residential environment quality indicators (PREQIs), and neighborhood attachment (NA). A sample of 1,488 residents in various neighborhoods of 11 Italian middle- and low-population cities filled in a questionnaire including 12 scales (N = 158), 11 PREQ scales, and 1 NA scale. The sample was randomly split-half in a calibration sample and a validation sample. Results showed good fit indexes for factorial structures including overall 19 PREQIs and 1 NA indicators, each one composed of three or four items (N = 66). Despite the high reduction of items, the shortened PREQIs and NA yield good or at least acceptable internal consistency, and fulfill convergent and discriminant construct validity criteria. Hence, they are well suited for use in research designs focusing on multiple measures of environmental quality of residential places.

Elderly people at home: technological help in everyday activities

The aim of this paper is to understand to what extent elderly people are likely to accept a technological aid in performing everyday activities. In this perspective, the present research focused on elderly peoples strategies in performing everyday activities at home, in order to understand in what domestic domains technology can be considered an acceptable help. We administered a questionnaire focusing on preferred strategies in carrying out common domestic tasks, and on attitudes towards new technologies and home modification to a sample of 123 elderly people living in Rome. Results show that the adoption of a strategy, including the introduction of technological devices, is highly problem-specific, while personal factors are relevant only in particular situations. With increasing age, people are more inclined to give up, and higher educational levels correspond to more frequent technological solutions.

Distinguishing the sources of normative influence on proenvironmental behaviors The role of local norms in household waste recycling

The aim of this study was to assess whether different kinds of social norms make a distinct contribution and are differently associated to a place-related behavior, such as household waste recycling. The construct of “local norms” is introduced to identify the normative influence that derives from people sharing the same spatial-physical setting. This kind of influence is expected to hold particular relevance when dealing with individual behaviors that have spatially defined collective implications. Participants were 452 residents of various Italian cities, who filled in a questionnaire measuring intentions to recycle, attitudes towards recycling, perceived behavioral control, and 4 kinds of norms stemming from a 2 x 2 combination (i.e., injunctive vs. descriptive, and subjective vs. local norms). Structural equation modelling analyses confirmed the empirical distinction of the 4 kinds of norms, and showed their independent effects on recycling intentions. In particular, descriptive norms (both subjective and local) emerged as powerful predictors of the target proenvironmental behavior, both directly and indirectly through their influence on perceived behavioral control. The implications of the distinction among different kinds of social norms and their relationship with the other dimensions are discussed.

If I had a Robot at Home... Peoples’ Representation of Domestic Robots

The decrease in childbirth and the great increase in life expectancy represent typical demographic trends in industrialised countries. These tendencies make more concrete the issue regarding elderly people: the more they grow old, the more they are likely to need medical, social and personal care services. Nursing home care services are probably the most important example in terms of social costs, not only because they are extremely expensive from an economic point of view, but also because they determine a forced relocation of elderly people. To be compelled to live in a new place, completely depending on other people’s assistance, has unquestionably a deep psychological impact (Hormuth, 1990): probably more difficult to assess than the economic expenditures, but definitely not less significant. Elderly people undoubtedly prefer living independently in a familiar domestic and residential setting. Anyway, a new series of problems arises, due to the shortage of residential infrastructures and facilities and the lack of home service workers compared to the large number of people who need assistance. As for domestic settings, in addition, the psychological impact of a long term home care assistance is still far from well understood: assistance provided by other people can generate a stronger negative influence upon final users, in that they may perceive a loss of control in their living space, and they may look at home service caregivers as privacy intruders. This condition may represent a menace to self-esteem and to the integrity of personal identity.

Residential satisfaction and perceived urban quality

The quality of the urban environment, and of the residential environment in particular, is one of the main components of peoples overall quality of life. Global satisfaction with peoples own residential environment has both affective and cognitive components. On the one hand, people experience feelings with respect to their own houses/neighborhoods (ie, place attachment); on the other hand, they assess the degree of quality for each different feature of their own houses/neighborhoods (ie, residential quality). Knowing residential satisfaction, residential attachment, and residential quality with reference to the inhabitants of a specific place can help its design, management, and policy.

Planned behavior and “local” norms: An analysis of the space-based aspects of normative ecological behavior

Observing the behavior of other people is a fundamental source for the formation of social norms: in fact the behavior of others in the spatial context proximal to the individual might prime and activate voluntary choices. This idea is deeply rooted in various traditions of psychological theory and research, and can be traced back to the early beginning of experimental social psychology. For example, James (1890) proposed the so-called Principle of Ideomotor Action, postulating that simple thinking about a certain action might increase the individual’s tendency to perform it. About one century later, the principle of ideomotor action was assumed as a fundamental mechanism in social cognition research, to explain the priming effects in the automatic activation of social behavior (e.g., Bargh et al. 1996). According to Bargh et al. mental representations and consequent social-behavioral responses might be activated automatically by the mere presence of relevant features in the environment, including the perception of others enacting that behavior. The roots for such an assumption can be found in many domains of psychological research, relating to the concepts of imitation (Koffka 1935; Piaget 1946) and social learning (Bandura 1977), as well as to the process of aggressive behavior following exposure to media communication (e.g., Berkowitz 1984). We argue here that this kind of normative influence has specific spatial roots, which should emerge particularly in the case of those human behaviors having an impact on the quality of our physical environment, and thus having collective implications for the well being of individuals, groups and communities. In fact pro-environmental behaviors have a territorial basis, and are performed in specific places; therefore it is more likely that the ‘‘significant others’’ are represented by those social actors sharing that specific place with the individual (e.g., his/her neighbors). The recycling of household waste is included among these behaviors. The decision on whether separating the household rubbish or not could be influenced more by what our neighbors (compared with our relatives and close friends) do or think about it. Indeed, previous studies showed that descriptive local norms (i.e., individual perceptions of relevant other’s behaviors) are linked to intention to engage in domestic waste recycling (e.g., Carrus et al. 2008). The aim of this paper is to explore the role of social influence stemming from people with whom we share a spatial-physical milieu in everyday life, so as to highlight the role of spatial proximity in the construction of social norms. To this extent, an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen 1991) is used to predict ICSC 2009, 4th International Conference on Spatial Cognition, Rome, 14–18 September 2009.

The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of Built Environments

Description: In an era of globalization, where the progressive deterioration of local values is a dominating characteristic, identity is seen as a fundamental need that encompasses all aspects of human life. One of these identities relates to place and the physical environment. Place identity is concerned with a set of ideas about place and identity from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines. Mainly, it refers to the meaning and importance of places for their inhabitants and users. Readers of this e-book will gain an insight on the role of identity as a basis for the perception, experience, and appreciation of the form of built structures. This e-book explains knowledge in relation to place identity, focusing on peoples identity, and those factors that play a significant role in this process. Most of all, it enables to gain further insight about place identity with regard to global and local contexts, and across multifaceted and multicultural societies. The theme is approached from a number of disciplines that include environmental psychology, philosophy, urban sociology, geography, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture.

Perceived Residential Environment Quality Indicators and neighborhood attachment: A confirmation study on a Chinese sample in Chongqing.

This paper concerns peoples assessment of their neighborhood of residence in a Chinese urban context. The aim of the study was to verify the factorial structure and the reliability of two instruments originally developed and validated in Italy (the full versions of the Perceived Residential Environment Quality Indicators [PREQIs] and of the Neighborhood Attachment Scale [NAS]) in a different cultural and linguistic context. The instruments consist of 11 scales measuring the PREQIs and one scale measuring neighborhood attachment (NA). The PREQIs scales include items covering four macroevaluative domains of residential environment quality: architectural and urban planning aspects (three scales: Architectural and Town-planning Space, Organization of Accessibility and Roads, Green Areas), sociorelational aspects (one scale: People and Social Relations), functional aspects (four scales: Welfare Services, Recreational Services, Commercial Services, and Transport Services), and contextual aspects (three scales: Pace of Life, Environmental Health, Upkeep and Care). The PREQIs and NAS were included in a self-report questionnaire, which had been translated and back-translated from English to Chinese, and was then administered to 340 residents in six districts (differing along various features) of a highly urbanized context in China, the city of Chongqing. Results confirmed the factorial structure of the scales and demonstrated good internal consistency of the indicators, thus reaffirming the results of previous studies carried out in Western urban contexts. The indicators tapping the neighborhoods contextual aspects (i.e., pace of life, environmental health, and upkeep) emerged as most correlated to NA.