The Environmental Dispositions of Environmental Decision-Makers

• DOI: 10.1177/000271627038900111
• Date: 01 May 1970
• Published date: 01 May 1970
• Author: Kenneth H. Craik
• Subject Matter: Articles

87

The

Environmental

Dispositions

of

Environmental

Decision-Makers

By

KENNETH

H.

CRAIK

Kenneth

H.

Craik,

Ph.D.,

Berkeley,

California,

is

Assistant

Professor

of

Psychology,

and

Assistant

Research

Psychologist

at

the

Institute

of

Personality

Assessment

and

Research,

University

of

California,

Berkeley.

During

1970-1971,

he

will

be

Senior

Postdoctoral

Fellow

in

Environmental

Psychology

and

Visiting

Lecturer

in

Geography

and

Psychology

at

Clark

University.

He

is

an

advisory

editor

for

Environment

and

Behavior

and

a

director

of

the

Association

for

the

Study

of

Man-Environment

Relations

(ASMER).

He

is

the

author

of

chapters

in

edited

volumes

and

a

contributor

to

various

scientific

and

professional

journals.

ABSTRACT:

A

new

interdisciplinary

field

of

research

has

recently

emerged

which

studies

how

persons

comprehend

the

everyday

physical

environment,

how

they

use

it,

how

they

shape

it

and

how

they

are

shaped

by

it.

In

seeking

an

objective

understanding

of

the

behavioral

aspects

of

the

total

personal-societal-environmental

system,

professional

environ-

mental

decision-makers,

such

as

architects,

urban

planners

and

natural-resources

managers,

are

strategic

choices

for

psy-

chological

study.

Within

this

context

of

environmental

design

and

management,

research

is

being

directed

toward

clarifying

the

implicit

assumptions

about

environmental

behavior

held

by

decision-makers,

overcoming

social

and

administrative

distances

from

clients,

and

conducting

systematic

follow-up

evaluations

of

the

behavioral

consequences

of

planning

and

design

decisions.

However,

subtle

and

precise

study

of

man-environment

relations

will

require

the

development

of

psychological

techniques

providing

a

comprehensive

and

dif-

ferentiated

description

of

any

person’s

orientation

to

the

everyday

physical

environment.

Methods

for

measuring

indi-

vidual

differences

in

environmental

dispositions

are

reviewed

and

their

potential

usefulness

for

advancing

knowledge

of

the

interplay

between

human

behavior

and

the

physical

envi-

ronment

is

illustrated.