Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Laurence A. Clement / The City of Manhattan, Kansas (“the City”) is planning a landscape improvement project for a 0.3-mile portion of one of its non-vehicular rights-of-way (“the Trail”). The focus of the City’s project is to resolve safety issues that have arisen due to a lack of nighttime lighting. While the City’s plan is to implement lighting, this plan would not comprehensively address the Trail users’ and stakeholders’ needs. This study asks, “What design alternatives can be generated to address lighting, safety, and other user and stakeholder concerns for the Trail?” This study employs a literature review, a site inventory and analysis, and a pair of surveys to facilitate the synthesis of a series of design alternatives. The literature review analyzes urban design theory and environmental psychology research to develop a series of design considerations. The site inventory and analysis documents the Trail’s existing conditions through photography, drafting, inventory, observation, and dérive. User and stakeholder surveys were also conducted to gauge existing usage patterns and perceptions of the Trail. From the findings of these methods, a series of environmental designs were developed which respond to users’ experience and stakeholders’ needs as they use and consider the Trail. These designs range on a spectrum of intervention from “minimal” to “high.” It was determined that there are two key regions of the Trail which need immediate attention: an area of thick overgrowth (“the Tunnel”) and an area of ponding and erosion (“the Low Water Crossing”). Additional design considerations were also revealed and addressed by the design alternatives. These designs where then presented to a group of stakeholders who determined that rather than implementing one intervention level, a phasing strategy to implement all intervention levels would be of particular interest. This study also reveals the potential need for a future study about the Trail which would allow stakeholders to analyze the effects of specific, constructed design interventions.

Mindscape, the subject of this dissertation, is a centre for creative and holistic development in Sunnyside, which will demonstrate how built environments communicate with users through their perception and sensory exploration. The topic covers various fields. The context of the study will be discussed initially, followed by the brief itself. Thereafter, the findings resulting from research conducted in the fields of developmental and environmental psychology ill be provided. Architectural theory will then be investigated. The study will conclude with the interpretation of these findings into a new architectural form, supported by design studies and analytical tools. / Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / Unrestricted

Using the action-based model of dissonance (Harmon-Jones, Amodio, & Harmon-Jones, 2009) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008) as theoretical frameworks, this thesis sought to explain the motivational processes underlying the environmental belief-action gap. The thesis examined why and how people resolve inconsistencies between their favourable attitudes toward environmental protection and their environmentally harmful behaviour. I hypothesized that accounting for individual differences in autonomous and controlled distal motives for effective and unconflicted action would clarify why attitude-behaviour inconsistencies are uncomfortable and explain how people compensate for them. I carried out 3 sets of studies to test the proposed hierarchical action-based model of inconsistency compensation in the environmental domain (HABICE). The objective of the first set of 3 studies was to test hypotheses about the role of individual differences in global and contextual motivation on dissonance arousal, in response to native attitude-behaviour inconsistencies encountered across and within important life domains. The second set of 3 studies tested hypotheses about the role of individual differences in contextual motivation toward the environment on the use and choice of strategies to compensate for a recent native inconsistency in the environmental domain. Finally, the goal of the final study was to test hypotheses about the moderating effect of social factors that direct attention to public (ego-invested) versus private (authentic) aspects of the self during the perception of inconsistencies on motivation and intentions to revise pro-global warming mitigation attitudes. The results of the 7 studies (total N = 2,209) supported the main predictions of the HABICE. The cumulative evidence supported the existence of two motivational orientations operating during inconsistency compensation processes. The autonomous motivational orientation, which embodies action tendencies to facilitate organismic integration via authentic regulation, motivated people to compensate for attitude-behaviour inconsistencies to restore the integrity of authentic self-structures. As a result, autonomous motivation toward the environment led people to reduce dissonance and to compensate for perceived inconsistencies by bringing their behaviour in line with self-relevant attitudes. The controlled motivational orientation, which embodies action tendencies to facilitate instrumental outcomes via contingent regulation, motivated people to compensate for attitude-behaviour inconsistencies to protect ego-invested self-structures by avoiding the aversive consequences of their counter-environmental actions. When inconsistencies aroused dissonance, controlled motivation predicted the use of overt behavioural strategies, for example enacting a compensatory pro-environmental action, to reduce dissonance. However, when inconsistencies did not arouse dissonance or there were barriers to behaviour change, controlled motivation predicted the use of cognitive strategies, for example revising or distorting pro-environmental attitudes, to minimize the inconsistency. Consequently, autonomous compensation processes predicted relatively infrequent attitude-behaviour inconsistencies in the environmental domain while controlled compensation processes predicted relatively frequent inconsistencies. The results imply that controlled motivation toward the environment may be driving the environmental belief-action gap, but that finding ways to promote autonomous motivation toward the environment in the general population has the potential to alleviate the gap.

Environmental degradation and biodiversity loss are worldwide problems caused by human activities, which can often be classified as a resource dilemma. This thesis examines one of the more studied interventions in social dilemmas for increasing cooperative behaviour, namely sanctioning systems, in conjunction with one of the least studied factors in this area, i.e., intraindividual motivation and goals. Across three studies, and using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, this thesis examines the relationships between motivation, goals, sanctioning systems and proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) in a resource dilemma (RD). The resource dilemma used in this thesis was a virtual, iterated, 2-person partnered design where each participant was required to make decisions about recreational fishing harvests in a small, private lake with an inferred partner. The ‘partner’ was not real, but was simulated by the program in order to maximize experimental control. Study 1 used mediational analysis to demonstrate that quality of motivation will affect goal content, and goal content will predict proenvironmental behaviour in an RD. Study 2 introduced a centralized sanctioning system to the RD, and found that this type of sanctioning system increased PEB in the RD when added, and decreased PEB when removed, concomitantly affecting the quality of participant motivation. Study 3 introduced a decentralized sanction system to the RD concomitant with pre-written communication for/against the inferred partner. Results demonstrated that self-determined motivation positively predicted the use of positive feedback messages, and negatively predicted the use of monetary sanctions. The results of this thesis expand upon SDT, and point to the potential importance of thorough examinations into the relationship between motivation and cooperation in RDs, and the importance of intraindividual factors in RD research. Moreover, it highlights the potential benefits and drawbacks of relying on sanctioning systems to increase PEBs in RDs.

It has previously been suggested that a person's behavior in a place is mediated by his or her plans, and by his or her emotional response to the place; but the possible interactive effects of these influences have not been explored. Not only may a particular mood be the goal of a plan, but the process of planning may also produce changes in the planner's mood. It is here argued that a person's emotional response to a place is influenced by the extent of the alterations the place requires be made in his or her plans. It has been generally assumed that a person's liking of a place is decreased if it does not fit his or her plan, but the experiments reported here indicate that some incongruity may actually increase liking of a place if the person is able to modify the plans. Three experiments examined the effects of planning on two dimensions of mood--pleasure and arousal--and for liking of places. In experiment one, subjects who had just completed planning a route for completing a list of errands reported higher arousal than subjects who had judged the time required to complete the same errands. In experiment two, subjects who executed their own plan reported higher pleasure than subjects who executed a plan they had been given. In experiment three, subjects who had to alter their plans to accommodate the unexpected features of a place reported higher arousal and pleasure, and increased liking of the place over subjects who did not have to re-plan. These results suggest that the process of planning has measureable effects on mood and that these effects influence place-liking. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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The ultimate goal of this research paper was to gain a more acute perspective into the relationship between the physical environment and human behavior, so that architectural design may begin to promote and affect environmentally friendly behavior in its users. The three main fields of psychology that were the focus of this paper were social psychology, environmental psychology, and cognitive psychology, all of which were essential to understanding the unique relationship one has with their built environment. The definitive goal of the sustainability movement, or what I at least think it should be, is the creation of an environmentally friendly society. The widespread use of sustainable architectural design practices has been a great step forward, but if this movement is to be successful, I feel we must focus equally on the relationship between people and their physical environments. Ultimately, the sustainability movement depends less on the architectural environments that we create, and more on the cooperation of the people who occupy those environments.

Decarbonizing the global economy is essential to reducing the effects of climate change, however doing so jeopardizes many communities economically dependent on fossil fuel extraction. A small but growing body of literature has begun to examine how individuals who live in fossil fuel-dependent (FFD) communities perceive decarbonization and renewable energy transitions, with the goal of understanding if and how these frequently oppositional communities can be included in broad scale energy transitions without creating new economic sacrifice zones. The present study expands environmental psychology’s contribution to this field of research by exploring the possible inclusion of a novel to FFD community literature: the metallurgical coal mining communities of British Columbia’s Elk Valley. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Elk Valley community members. Findings indicate that Elk Valley coal communities are distinct from other FFD communities described in current literature by being receptive to renewable energy transitions and disputing metallurgical coal’s status as a fossil fuel. Nonetheless, many psychological constructs similar to described FFD communities are present in the Elk Valley as well, including coal’s central status in legitimizing and resistance identity formation, perceived outgroup threats by environmentalists, and an inability to imagine a post-mining future. This paper concludes with recommendations on how British Columbia should address its mining dependent communities as it pursues decarbonization in light of these findings. / Graduate

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