Ghozlane Fleury-Bahi

Processes of Place Identification and Residential Satisfaction

What are the connections between an individuals satisfaction with his or her neighborhood and the processes of identifying with the location? A path model was tested in which the length of residence promotes the identification processes, which are in turn likely to influence the degree of satisfaction with the residential environment. The components of residential satisfaction were also isolated to show that all the components of satisfaction are not equally affected by identification. A survey was taken with a sampling of 257 participants all residing in an urban environment in three major French cities. A scale of residential satisfaction and a scale of place identification were used. The tested model shows a good fit with the data. Furthermore, the results show that an individuals sense of identification with his or her neighborhood interacts primarily with the social aspects of satisfaction.

Appropriation and Interpersonal Relationships From Dwelling to City Through the Neighborhood

Based on the results of three field research studies in Paris, this article outlines the way in which the individual constructs a cognitive and behavioral relationship with the environment at three different levels: housing, the residential neighborhood, and the city as a whole. Identity and environmental identification generating social cohesion and satisfaction is, according to the City-Identity-Sustainability model, an important condition for ecological behavior to occur. The appropriation or nonappropriation of a particular environmental context is analyzed in light of the differentiation of the relation to the dwelling, the immediate neighborhood, and the city and described in terms of modalities of interpersonal relationships, affective investment, satisfaction, and self-expression through residential history and place identity. The characteristics of modern urban life (mobility, transitional situations, and the denaturalization of the urban context) contribute to alter the individual’s relations to dwelling as well as to the immediate and enlarged urban context.

Place-Identity in a School Setting: Effects of the Place Image

Studies on place identity show positive relationships between the evaluation of a place and mechanisms involved in place identification. However, individuals also identify with places of low social prestige (places that bear a negative social image). Few authors investigate the nature of place identity processes in this case. The goal of this study is to highlight the specific connections between the three components of place identification, place attachment, place dependence, and group identity, which depend on the social evaluation of the environmental context (negative vs. positive image). The author uses self-administered questionnaires to interview 542 high-school students, to collect data on the basis of these three dimensions of their high school place identity, and their evaluation of their high school’s image. Results show positive relationships between the students’ evaluation of his or her high-school’s image and his or her place identity. However, findings show that some students reported strong place identification even though they had rated their high school as having low social prestige (negative image). Findings also show that such place identification occurred through strong attachment ties, which were a strong influence.

Environmental risk: perception and target with local versus global evaluation

This research addressed environmental risk perception depending on the target evaluated and on the category of hazard (technological and chemical hazards, climate change, loss of biodiversity). Correlations between environmental risk assessment and pro-environmental behavioural intentions were also tested. In a sample of 113 French adults, 15 different environmental risks were evaluated for four different risk targets (oneself, the inhabitants of the town, the inhabitants of the country, and humanity). As expected, environmental hazards were perceived as a greater risk for larger areas. Moreover, risks difficult to conceptualise, which contain both high uncertainty and long-term consequences (climate change, loss of biodiversity) are perceived as less risk to oneself and to the inhabitants of the town and the country of residence than more concrete and immediate risks (technological and chemical). Only the technological and chemical hazards significantly predict pro-environmental behavioural intentions.

Factorial Structure of the New Ecological Paradigm Scale in Two French Samples.

The principal objective of this research is to test the factorial structure of the New Ecological Paradigm scale on a population of men and women residing in France. The tested model is a second-order factorial model. This factorial structure is evaluated on two separate samples to test the stability of the solution (a first sample of 253 participants, diversified in terms of age and socioprofessional category, and a second sample of 266 students). The results confirm the existence of a second-order factorial structure in which environmental beliefs, measured based on 13 items taken from the New Ecological Paradigm scale, would constitute a homogeneous system of beliefs supported in five distinct dimensions.

Handbook of environmental psychology and quality of life research

This Handbook presents a broad overview of the current research carried out in environmental psychology which puts into perspective quality of life and relationships with living spaces, and shows how this original analytical framework can be used to understand different environmental and societal issues. Adopting an original approach, this Handbook focuses on the links with other specialties in psychology, especially social and health psychology, together with other disciplines such as geography, architecture, sociology, anthropology, urbanism and engineering.

Perceived health and quality of life: the effect of exposure to atmospheric pollution

Interest in understanding how atmospheric pollution affects well-being and quality of life has increased during the last ten years. The existing literature examines the role of psychological and psychosocial factors in understanding the effect of risk perception and annoyance due to air pollution on perceived health and quality of life. However, less attention has been paid to the combined effect of subjective ecological vulnerability and socioeconomic insecurity on quality of life. Drawing on the transactional models of environmental satisfaction and stress, we investigate how health risk perception, perceived annoyance due to air pollution and socioeconomic insecurity could be associated with perceived health and perceived quality of life in two French cities, selected on the basis of their high objective air pollution, and in a reference one with a low level of air pollution. The survey was conducted among a stratified random sample of 1500 participants (500/city). The results highlight the importance of the subjective perception of annoyance and of health risk perception due to air pollution in the combined effects of socioeconomic and ecological factors of vulnerability for the polluted cities.

Place evaluation and self‐esteem at school: the mediated effect of place identification

Like neighbourhoods, companies or housing, schools are considered a location for which the student must develop feelings of attachment and identification. The purpose of this research is to test a path model in which the evaluation of the image of the scholastic institution plays a role in the process of sociospatial identification in the school place; this identification is itself involved in the development and maintenance of positive academic self‐esteem. Two hundred and seventy‐eight students registered at secondary schools participated in the research by responding to a questionnaire composed of a series of scales. The results show a good fit between the model and the data, since the students’ self‐esteem proved to be partially explained by the quality of their identification with their institution. The status of the level of sociospatial identification as a mediator variable was also confirmed.

“Connectedness to Nature Scale”: Validity and Reliability in the French Context

Connectedness to nature represents the relationship of the self with the natural environment and has been operationalized using different scales. One of the most systematically studied in the Anglo-Saxon context is the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS). In an attempt to study the psychometric properties of this instrument in a French-speaking context, three studies (Study 1 n = 204, Study 2 n = 153, and Study 3 n = 322) were carried out in France to provide evidence of the internal consistency of the CNS, as well as its convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Moreover, as anticipated, positive correlations between the CNS and the environmental identity and environmental concerns scales were observed. Based on factorial analyses of maximum likelihood and reliability, an improvement in the psychometric properties was identified by eliminating three items. Through confirmatory factor analysis, the factorial structure and the psychometric properties of the CNS French version were confirmed, as well as their significate regression prediction on eudaimonic wellbeing.

Individuals’ perceptions of areas exposed to coastal flooding in four French coastal municipalities: the contribution of sketch mapping

BackgroundThis study analyzes individuals’ perceptions of areas exposed to coastal flooding at a local level using sketch mapping methodology. In this way, 318 individuals were surveyed in four coastal municipalities in France (Barneville-Carteret, Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer, Châtelaillon-Plage and Sainte-Anne). We assessed the disagreement between expert estimates and individuals’ perceptions of areas exposed to coastal flooding using sketch mapping indicators. We also determined the relationships between individuals’ living environments and the way they perceived the spatial extent of coastal flooding.ResultsRespondents were likely to under-assess the exposure of areas that are actually exposed according to expert hazard maps. Perceived distance to coastal flooding areas appeared to be a predominant factor in assessing individuals’ perceptions.ConclusionsLocal preventive actions could take into account the individuals’ tendency to under-estimate the areas exposed to coastal flooding. Individual perception of the spatial extent of coastal flooding appeared to be more influenced by the perceived distance of the home to exposed areas than the objective distance. It is a result that raises the question about the individuals’ understanding of hazard maps and regulatory maps. This may necessitate the improvement of the appropriation of these documents by the inhabitants by involving them more closely in the application and decision process that directly concerns.