Paul Simpson-Housley

Wilderness Rural and Urban Attitudes and Perceptions

Seventy-five urban and 75 rural residents participated in a study of attitudes toward and perceptions of wilderness. Results of an attitude questionnaire indicated that both rural and urban respondents expressed a positive attitude toward wilderness and a relatively high degree of environmental concern. However, the findings of a photo task demonstrated that the two populations responded to the questionnaire on the basis of a different understanding of what constitutes wilderness; that is, respondents from the two areas perceived the same environment in different ways.Seventy-five urban and 75 rural residents participated in a study of attitudes toward and perceptions of wilderness. Results of an attitude questionnaire indicated that both rural and urban respondents expressed a positive attitude toward wilderness and a relatively high degree of environmental concern. However, the findings of a photo task demonstrated that the two populations responded to the questionnaire on the basis of a different understanding of what constitutes wilderness; that is, respondents from the two areas perceived the same environment in different ways.

Factors in Perception of Earthquake Hazard

130 subjects participated in a study of the relationship between selected predictors and responses to potential earthquake hazard. The results of backstep regression analyses indicated (a) that amount of education was the best predictor from those selected of perceived probability of earthquake occurrence, (b) that estimation of potential damage was related to number of damage reduction measures, perceived reliability of official support systems, and expectation of earthquake, and (c) that trait-anxiety and expectation of earthquake accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in acknowledged anxiety in response to prediction of an earthquake.

Correlates of Responses to Two Potential Hazards

Abstract Eighty-six adults participated in the present study of the relationships among selected predictors and responses to potential earthquake and flood hazard. Results indicated (a) that length of residence was the best predictor of perceived probability of earthquake occurrence, whereas no predictors were identified for flood probability; (b) that estimation of potential earthquake damage was related to perceived reliability of official support systems, number of damage reduction measures, and trait anxiety, whereas flood damage estimation was associated with flood expectation, perceived reliability of agencies, severity of previously experienced damages, and education; and (c) that trait anxiety and availability of safety items in the home accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in acknowledged anxiety in response to an earthquake prediction, whereas damage expectation and previously experienced damage emerged as predictors of acknowledged anxiety in response to a flood prediction.

Relativizing the Relativizers: On the Postmodern Challenge to Human Geography

This paper reflects on the postmodern challenge to human geography. We add another voice to the conversation, namely Ludwig Wittgenstein. We discuss his philosophy in terms of its application to human geography.

Anxiety, locus of control and appraisal of air pollution.

100 residents of Santiago de Chile took part in a study of the relationship among locus of control, trait-anxiety, and perception of air pollution. Concern over the problem of atmospheric pollution and number of antipollution measures taken was related to trait-anxiety. Locus of control was associated with variation in awareness of pollution hazard.

TRAIT ANXIETY AND PERCEPTION OF A POTENTIAL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT DISASTER

This study explored how trait anxiety interacts with various demographic variables in influencing how potential nuclear power disaster is assessed by a random sample of 150 adults (77 women, 73 men) who live near a nuclear power plant. Expectation of a future nuclear power plant disaster was positively related to high trait-anxiety elevations in women who were childless.

The Development of Geographical Study in Canada, 1870–2000

Across northern North America aboriginal people had an astute knowledge of their land, and European explorers from the early 16th century to the end of the 19th depended on aboriginals to be guided over land and on water from the Atlantic seaboard, progressing in stages to the shores of the Pacific and Arctic oceans. Aboriginals even drew maps for Europeans. Fur traders especially built up an extensive knowledge of the land. In the 1840s, for example, David Thompson, distinguished surveyor and trader, wrote a description of the country from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, first published in 1916, that is now recognized as one of the finest regional geographies ever written on any part of North America (Thompson 1962). In the North reconnaissance explorations were undertaken by British naval men seeking the Northwest Passage, and they prepared valuable reports of natural features. Canada’s premier scientific organization of the 19th century, the Geological Survey of Canada, was founded in 1841. After Canadian Confederation in 1867 its field of operations covered all of northern North America except, of course, Alaska and Greenland (Zaslow 1975). Slowly, and in many different ways, a rudimentary but sound factual information base on Canada accumulated. An unconscious grace and intelligence infuses much of this early geographical writing; the geography emerges from the unforced flow of narratives describing new areas experienced through hard travelling and seen through fresh eyes.

PERCEPTION OF POTENTIAL NUCLEAR DISASTER: THE RELATION OF LIKELIHOOD AND CONSEQUENCE ESTIMATES OF RISK '

This study examined the correlations of ratings of expectation of a future disaster in a nuclear power plant and estimations of its consequences in a random sample of 150 adults who lived within two kilometers of a nuclear power plant. Analysis suggested a significant positive but low relation. This finding indicates that risk perception might be explored using constellations of beliefs and attitudes toward hazards without invoking personality characteristics like trait anxiety or demographic variables such as gender.

Ego-Identity Achievement and Perception of Risk in Intimacy in Survivors of Stranger and Acquaintance Rape

One hundred twenty-two women participated in a study of the relationship between acquaintance/stranger rape and the respective variables of ego-identity achievement (attainment of self-image during adolescence that integrates ones ideas of what one is and what one wants to be) and perception of risk in intimacy (perception of close interpersonal relationships as a risky proposition). Results showed that compared to women who had not been sexually assaulted, survivors of rape in general reported lower ego-identity achievement and greater perception of risk in intimacy. Focusing on acquaintance rape and stranger rape with age at the time of assault as possible moderator, it was found that lower ego-identity achievement was systematically related to acquaintance rape in women who had been raped during their adolescent years, but not in survivors of rape during adulthood. Perception of risk in intimacy was significantly higher among women who had been raped when adolescents compared to those who had been raped during adulthood, but only in relation to acquaintance rape.

FLOOD EXPERIENCE AND POSTTRAUMATIC TRAIT ANXIETY IN APPALACHIA

114 men and women participated in a study which focused on the long-term effect on trait anxiety resulting from a severe flood which occurred in 1972 in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia. Analysis indicates that residents of Buffalo Creek, who did experience the devastating flood, after all these years tend to report higher trait anxiety than do residents of Kopperston who had not been subjected to such a disaster.