Environmental Psychology | OCR A-Level Psychology (H567)

Environmental Psychology

312 questions
30 subtopics
Component 03: Applied psychology
Component 03

Environmental Psychology is examined on component 03 of OCR Psychology, Applied psychology.

It is one of the four applied options, of which a student studies two. 312 recall questions across 30 subtopics.

Sample questions from Environmental Psychology

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Environmental stressors and the stress response

Which two body systems produce the stress response, and what does each release?

Show the answer
The sympathomedullary pathway releases adrenaline and noradrenaline from the adrenal medulla, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis releases cortisol from the adrenal cortex.
Black and Black (2007) aircraft noise, stress and hypertension: results, conclusions and evaluation

Why is response bias a particular problem in a survey about noise?

Show the answer
Residents most annoyed by aircraft noise are the most motivated to return the questionnaire, which may exaggerate the apparent link between noise and ill health.
Czeisler et al. (1982) rotating shift schedules: background, method and sleep findings

What schedule were the rotating workers on before the intervention?

Show the answer
They changed shift every week and the rotation ran backwards in a phase-advance direction, so each new shift began earlier than the last.
Conservation behaviours, attitudes and social norms

What is a descriptive norm, and how does it affect conservation?

Show the answer
A descriptive norm is a belief about what most people actually do, and learning that most neighbours recycle increases a person's own recycling.
Techniques to increase recycling and other conservation behaviour

Why should normative feedback also include an injunctive element such as a smiley face?

Show the answer
Without it, households already below average may increase their use towards the norm, and the sign of approval prevents this boomerang effect.
Drews and Doig (2014) configural vital sign display: background and procedure

Where did the clinical scenarios come from?

Show the answer
They were based on real intensive care patient data and included both stable patients and patients deteriorating with recognisable conditions.
Urban renewal, housing and wellbeing

Give one psychological cost of slum clearance for the original residents.

Show the answer
Established social networks are broken up when residents are dispersed, and people can grieve for the loss of their home and community.
Environmental design to improve health and wellbeing

An inner-city school with no outdoor space wants to improve pupil wellbeing. Suggest a design response.

Show the answer
Create a courtyard or roof garden and a green wall, maximise daylight and views of planting from classrooms, and provide a quiet room where pupils can take restorative breaks.

The 30 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Environmental stressors and the stress response	Recall questions on environmental stressors, acute and chronic stressors, the sympathomedullary and HPA systems, the fight-or-flight response, Selye's general adaptation syndrome, long-term health effects, and why unpredictable and uncontrollable noise is more stressful.	9
Crowding, heat and pollution and their impact on biological responses	Recall questions on density and crowding, crowding, heat and air pollution as stressors, adaptation, individual differences in stress, nature and nurture, reductionism, and blood pressure as a measure of environmental stress.	9
Black and Black (2007) aircraft noise, stress and hypertension: background and method	Recall questions on the aim of Black and Black's 2007 study of aircraft noise, its method, design and sample, how noise exposure was defined, the matched comparison area, the survey, the measure of hypertension, and the finding on noise stress.	8
Black and Black (2007) aircraft noise, stress and hypertension: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Black and Black's findings on hypertension and other health complaints, their conclusion, and the evaluation of method, causation, self-reported health outcomes, response bias, social sensitivity and generalisability.	10
Strategies for managing environmental stress	Recall questions on strategies for managing environmental stress, including sound insulation, night flight curfews, noise abatement, perceived control, stress inoculation training, access to nature and biofeedback, applying them to schools, hospitals and offices, and individual differences.	16
Types of biological rhythm and how they are controlled	Recall questions on circadian, infradian and ultradian rhythms, endogenous pacemakers and the suprachiasmatic nucleus, exogenous zeitgebers, living without time cues, entrainment, and other circadian body functions.	9
Impact of disrupting biological rhythms on behaviour	Recall questions on desynchronisation, jet lag and the direction of travel, rotating shift work and its health consequences, accidents in the early morning, phase delay and phase advance, seasonal affective disorder, and free will and determinism.	9
Czeisler et al. (1982) rotating shift schedules: background, method and sleep findings	Recall questions on the aim of Czeisler et al.'s 1982 study of rotating shift schedules, the circadian principles applied, the workers, the previous schedule, method, intervention groups, data collection, and findings on sleep and preferred rotation direction.	9
Czeisler et al. (1982) rotating shift schedules: outcomes, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Czeisler et al.'s findings on schedule satisfaction, turnover and output, their conclusion, and the evaluation of strengths, sample, self-report reliability, alternative explanations and applying 21-day rotations elsewhere.	9
Strategies for reducing the effects of jet lag and shift work	Recall questions on strategies for reducing the effects of jet lag and shift work, including forward rotation, bright light, melatonin, strategic napping, caffeine, protecting daytime sleep, preparing for time zone changes, advising workers and travellers, and individual differences.	16
Conservation behaviours, attitudes and social norms	Recall questions on conservation behaviour, reducing consumption versus recycling, the attitude-behaviour gap, the theory of planned behaviour, convenience, perceived behavioural control, descriptive and injunctive norms, and financial incentives.	9
Feedback, prompts, framing and other factors that influence conservation	Recall questions on the risks of financial incentives, perceived consumer effectiveness, cognitive dissonance, feedback, prompts, demographic and situational factors, message framing, source credibility, and criticisms of purely cognitive explanations of recycling.	9
Lord (1994) message and source strategies for recycling: background and method	Recall questions on the aim, method and design of Lord's 1994 study of message and source strategies for recycling, its participants, positive and negative message frames, the three message sources, the control group, and self-reported and observed recycling measures.	8
Lord (1994) message and source strategies for recycling: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Lord's findings on negatively framed messages, message source and advertising, his conclusion, and the evaluation of strengths, sample, the observational recycling measure, ethics and the lack of follow-up.	10
Techniques to increase recycling and other conservation behaviour	Recall questions on techniques to increase recycling and conservation, including prompts, public commitment, foot-in-the-door, normative and injunctive feedback, convenience, deposit-return schemes, message source, goal setting, applying them to scenarios, and evaluating them.	16
Cognitive overload and display design	Recall questions on ergonomics and human factors, cognitive overload and its consequences, working memory and display design, intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load, single-sensor-single-indicator displays, configural displays and emergent features.	8
Vigilance, alarms and the impact of observation in the workplace	Recall questions on stimulus-response compatibility, the vigilance decrement, alarm fatigue, signal detection errors, the Hawthorne effect, social facilitation, evaluation apprehension, electronic performance monitoring, and how poor design causes accidents.	10
Drews and Doig (2014) configural vital sign display: background and procedure	Recall questions on the aim, method and design of Drews and Doig's 2014 study of a configural vital sign display, the intensive care nurses sampled, the independent and dependent variables, the clinical scenarios, and controls for nurse differences and scenario order.	8
Drews and Doig (2014) configural vital sign display: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Drews and Doig's findings on speed and accuracy, why the configural display helped, their conclusion, links to cognitive overload, and the evaluation of strengths, setting, underestimated benefit, sample and patient outcomes.	10
Workplace design based on ergonomic research	Recall questions on workplace design based on ergonomic research, including configural displays in intensive care, display principles, alarm design, workstations, checklists, colour coding, error-tolerant design, lighting, staff consultation, applying design to scenarios, and evaluating redesigns.	16
Impact of the built environment and defensible space	Recall questions on the built environment, architectural determinism and its criticism, Newman's defensible space, natural surveillance, territoriality, and the problems of high-rise blocks and high-rise living for families.	8
Urban renewal, housing and wellbeing	Recall questions on urban overload, housing quality and mental health, urban renewal, slum clearance, consulting residents, gentrification, features that improve wellbeing, sick building syndrome, and why built environment research is hard to establish and socially sensitive.	10
Ulrich (1984) view through a window and recovery from surgery: background and method	Recall questions on the aim, method and design of Ulrich's 1984 study of views from a hospital window, the surgical patients sampled, admission months, matching of pairs, the tree and brick wall views, the data source, and the measures recorded.	8
Ulrich (1984) view through a window and recovery from surgery: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Ulrich's findings on length of stay, painkillers and nurses' notes, his conclusion, links to the built environment and wellbeing, and the evaluation of strengths, sample, causation, nurses' notes and alternative explanations.	10
Environmental design to improve health and wellbeing	Recall questions on environmental design to improve health and wellbeing, including evidence-based and biophilic design, therapeutic gardens, supportive design, ward noise, lighting, dementia-friendly design, urban green space, defensible space, applying design to scenarios, and evaluating changes.	16
Personal space and proxemics	Recall questions on personal space and its functions, Hall's four proxemic zones, factors affecting personal space, contact cultures, compensatory behaviour and consequences when personal space is invaded, and equilibrium theory.	9
Territory and personal space in the workplace	Recall questions on territory, Altman's three types of territory, territorial markers and personalisation in the workplace, the drawbacks of open-plan offices and hot-desking, territory and status, seating at meetings, and why open plan remains popular.	9
Wells (2000) office personalisation: background, method and gender differences	Recall questions on the aim and method of Wells's 2000 study of office personalisation, the employees sampled, the survey response rate, photographs of workspaces, how common personalisation was, and gender differences in its amount and type.	8
Wells (2000) office personalisation: wellbeing, company policies and evaluation	Recall questions on men's and women's reasons for personalising, the link between personalisation and wellbeing, company policies and views, Wells's conclusion, and the evaluation of strengths, causation, sample and social sensitivity.	10
Office design strategies based on territory and personal space	Recall questions on office design strategies based on territory and personal space, including personalisation policies, support for hot-deskers, partitions, desk layout, acoustics, activity-based working, employee control, meeting rooms, applying them to scenarios, and evaluating them.	16

Environmental Psychology is 312 of the 3,537 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.