Urs Fuhrer

Restorative Experience and Self-Regulation in Favorite Places

The authors report further evidence bearing on the relations among restorative experiences, self-regulation, and place attachment. University students (n = 101) described their favorite places and experiences in them, and 98 other students described unpleasant places. Natural settings were overrepresented among favorite places and underrepresented among the unpleasant places. In open-ended accounts, frequent mention of being relaxed, being away from everyday life, forgetting worries, and reflecting on personal matters indicated a link between favorite places and restorative experience. Restoration was particularly typical of natural favorite places. Structured evaluations of being away, fascination, coherence, and compatibility indicated they were experienced to a high degree in the favorite places, although fascination to a lesser degree than compatibility. The favorite and unpleasant places differed substantially in all four restorative qualities but especially in being away and compatibility. Self-referencing appears to be more characteristic of favorite place experiences than engaging or interesting environmental properties.

Ecological Behavior's Dependency on Different Forms of Knowledge

Cet article presente trois raisons pour lesquelles l’influence de la connaissance sur le comportement ecologique est systematiquement sous-estime. Tout d’abord, ce n’est pas la simple masse de connaissances disponibles que determine le comportement: differentes formes de connaissances doivent converger pour favoriser le comportement ecologique. Ensuite, l’impact de la connaissance n’est pas detecte parce que certaines procedures statistiques ne controlent pas les erreurs de mesure ni ne revelent avec precision les influences interferentes. Enfin, les facteurs psychologiques tels que la connaissance ont apparemment une influence limitee sur le comportement ecologique en presence de fortes pressions relevant de la situation. Mais quand une evaluation du comportement ecologique fait systematiquement appel aux contraintes des situations (application d’un test), on peut s’apercevoir que la connaissance a un impact significatif sur le comportement ecologique. The present paper argues for three reasons why knowledges influence on ecological behavior is underestimated systematically. First, it is not the mere amount of knowledge available that determines behavior. Different forms of knowledge must work together in a convergent manner if they are to foster ecological behavior. Second, knowledges effect remains undetected also, because some statistical procedures neither correct for measurement error attenuation nor uncover mediated influences accurately. Third, psychological factors such as knowledge apparently have a limited influence on ecological behavior when strong situational constraints are effective. When an ecological behavior measure makes—as a performance test—systematic use of situational influences though, knowledge can be revealed as affecting ecological behavior significantly.

Effects of Classroom Seating Arrangements on Children's question-asking

This study investigated the relationship between classroom seating arrangements and the question-asking of fourth-graders. Data were collected during 53 lessons spread over 8 weeks. Children were assigned to sit in a semicircle and then in a row-and-column seating arrangement for 2 weeks each. This rotation was repeated. Both childrens questions and the teachers verbal reactions were recorded using an observational system based on Kearsleys question taxonomy. The results showed that children asked more questions in the semicircle than in the row-and-column arrangement, and that the pattern of question characteristics was stable over time. The findings also revealed that, within the row-and-column arrangement, there was an action-zone in which children asked more questions per lesson. The results are interpreted in terms of Steinzors postulation that social interaction is encouraged when individuals are able to establish face-to-face contact.

Dwelling: Speaking of an unnoticed universal language

Abstract The term ‘dwelling’ is commonly understood to mean activities occurring in the home environment; however, this paper introduces dwelling as a form of speaking. This speaking serves as a means of achieving social influence and self-representation. The dwelling environment, according to the thesis of this paper, carries socio-emotional meaning, or metaphorically speaking, the residential environment communicates to people through the language of social emotions. To use this and any language properly, one must understand the meaning of the basic elements of the language. Any traces left by people while dwelling are the basic elements of dwelling. Dwelling understood in this manner no longer needs to take place at home, but can occur everywhere. Hence, the proposed dwelling approach can be seen in a person-residential environment as well as in a more general person-environment transaction frame. In dwelling, as in any other person-environment transaction, the material environment is emotionally effective and becomes emotionally significant through manipulation. The emotional qualities of material objects and physical environments can be advantageous, for instance, teddy-bears for toddlers in the absence of their mothers. However, these emotional qualities might be a source of increasing social isolation among people as well.

From Social Representations to Environmental Concern: The Influence of Face-to-Face Versus Mediated Communication

A social psychological perspective is adopted in examining the influence of socially shared representations (SR) of environmental issues on individuals’ environmental concern (EC). We also consider the influence of the mode of interaction with a source of SR (face-to-face vs. mediated) on the SR-EC relationship. A questionnaire was used to obtain scores for the three components of both SR and EC (environmentally relevant knowledge, values, and intentions), and information about the two social systems with the most influence on personal decision-making. As a guide for responding, the questionnaire presented a scenario in which implementation of a CO2-tax was proposed. The questionnaire was administered to 1371 people distributed between two transportation associations within three Swiss language areas. As sampling strata, transportation association and language area represented different levels of social systems that might influence SR. The social systems which the subjects ranked as most important were categorized with regard to social interaction mode. The results demonstrate that the three SR components are significant predictors of their counterpart EC components. With regard to the impact of social interaction mode on the SR-EC relationship, the results show that face-to-face interaction has a more powerful impact on the formation of values and intentions, whereas mediated interaction is more influential for the knowledge component of EC. Finally, the findings indicate that the transportation association factor is a strong predictor of individuals’ EC, whereas language area only marginally conributes to EC when the measured SR factors are partialed out.

Where Qualitative Research Meets Demography: Interdisciplinary Explorations of Conceptions of Fatherhood in an Extremely Low Fertility Context

Recent calls to include psychological theories of decisionmaking and intention-formation in research on family formation coincide with calls for improving research on male fertility and fatherhood. In this article we address these notions and present findings from in-depth interviews with 30-year-old childless men from Eastern Germany on their desire to become parents. The context for this research is the societal situation of contemporary Eastern Germany, where birth rates have faced a historical low - the lowest in more than 10 years. Our innovative analytical paradigm draws on the contemporary social cognitive theory of intention-formation. The focus lies on the examination of male attitudes, values, motives, interests, goals, action beliefs and self-concepts, and their connection with men’s intentions for parenthood. We compare our results with explanations given by the Theory of Symbolic Self-Completion and the Theory of Reasoned Action. We argue for the need to bring together psychological and sociological theorizing in this field.