Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5: Unit 5 Listening 1: Environmental Psychology p.119-125

(Supplementary Materials for Specific Textbooks--Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5)

Google drive HERE
90 Second Listening: docs, pub
Discussion Questions: docs, pub
Half a Crossword: HERE--made using Half a Crossword

What is the lesson number?

What is the module?

What is the name of the course?

Environmental psychology studies the interrelationship between what?

The word “environment” can refer to 2 types of things.  What are they?

What will the lecture be concentrating on today?

And within that concentration, what three things will the lecture focus on?

What 2 things are different for men and women?

Males often object to what kind of invasion?

Women often object to what kind of invasion?

What are males expected to do?  What are females expected to do?

If you’re female, when is it expected that you should affiliate with someone?  When is it not necessary that you affiliate with someone?

Professor: Welcome to Lesson 15, Module 1, of Environmental Psychology. This week I’ll be introducing you to the field of environmental psychology, which is an area that studies the interrelationship between human behavior and environments. Environment refers to the natural environment such as parks, natural resources, and outdoor settings and built environments, or those structures and spaces which are constructed rather than those that occur naturally. Today, we’ll be concentrating on characteristics of behavior and our connection to the space around us, focusing on gender, eye contact, and our need for privacy. 

We know that our need for space and our reactions to perceived invasion of our space are different for men and women. Males often object to face-to-face invasion. Sitting directly across from a male is often more offensive to them than sitting next to him. However, females often object to adjacent invasion. This has to do with competition versus affiliation goals. Males are expected to compete and women to affiliate. 

It’s not necessary to affiliate with someone who is sitting across from you, but if someone sits next to you, it’s often felt that you should engage in some affiliative behavior, if you’re a female.

Discussion Questions

1. Look back at Activity C on pages 121-122. How do the details that you marked as true fit your own actions or your observations of others?  Do you always choose to sit in the same chair in class, for example?

2. Has Dr. Craig convinced you that males and females have very different reactions to personal space? Why or why not?

3. In what ways do you think the rules for respecting personal space and personalizing territories vary in different countries and different cultures?

4. The professor says: “Males are expected to compete and women to affiliate.”  Do you think this is true?

5. What do you think about the jacket study?  What do you think would happen if this were done in Vietnam?  Would the result be the same?

6. It was said of male and female desks: “If you enter an office and you believe that a male is in that office, you will respect the desk and office space and seating arrangement. However, females’ offices tend to be invaded and manipulated; that is, people will move things on the desk, play with objects on the desk, take up their office space, choose a different seat, move the chairs, and so on. In short, the gender of the owner affects our reaction to his or her territory. “ 
   Think about the communal desks we have in this classroom.  Students often leave their possessions on the desks or on the chairs.  Is there any difference in the way people treat the property of female students and male students in this class?  Are people in this class more likely to move the possessions of female students?

7. It was said of Philadelphia: “in Philadelphia, you can maintain a sense of privacy by not making eye contact with others. It’s even considered polite, and when people do make eye contact, it’s often thought to be strange, weird, or cause for concern.”  What about Vietnam?  What is the culture regarding eye contact in Vietnam?

8. It was said of college students: “What we know about college students is that those who drop out are more likely to be students who had to live in dorms with roommates and use communal bathrooms and showers.”  What specifically about living with other people do you think could be stressful for college students?  Have you ever lived in a dorm or with roommates?  If yes, what were your experiences like?  If no, would you like to?