Perceived residential environment quality in middle- and low-extension italian cities

This paper presents two updated instruments measuring the inhabitants perceived quality of their neighbourhood in urban places. This sphere is part of the environmental domain, which is considered one of the four components in individuals overall quality of life (Group development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL, 1998). The instruments consist of 11 scales measuring perceived residential environment quality (PREQ) indicators and one scale measuring neighbourhood attachment (NA). PREQ scales are included in the four generative criteria as follows: three scales deal with spatial aspects (i.e. architectural-planning space, organisation and accessibility of space, green areas); one scale concerns human aspects (i.e. people and social relations); four scales relate to functional aspects (i.e. welfare, recreational, commercial and transportation services); three scales deal with contextual aspects (i.e. pace of life, environmental health, upkeep). The objectives are: a) to generalise the structure and number of both the PREQ and NA indexes (previously verified on various residential areas of a large city like Rome; see Landscape and Urban Planning 65 (2003) 41; Housing Surveys. Advances in Theory and Methods, Crad, Quebec, Canada (1997), 99) on medium- and low-extension cities; b) to improve the psychometric qualities (i.e. internal consistency coefficients) of the scales; c) to verify the capacity of PREQ and NA indexes to discriminate between cities. The instruments consist of a self-report questionnaire, which was administered to 1488 residents in different neighbourhoods of 11 Italian middle- and low-extension cities (from 50,000 to 400,000 inhabitants). Results confirm the factorial structure of the scales, which include 19 PREQ indexes and one NA index. The scales show an increased level of reliability with respect to previous studies.     

Phonological neighbourhood effects in French spoken-word recognition

According to activation-based models of spoken-word recognition, words with many and high-frequency phonological neighbours are processed more slowly than words with few and low-frequency phonological neighbours. Although considerable empirical support for inhibitory neighbourhood density effects has accumulated, especially in English, little or nothing is known about the effects of neighbourhood frequency and its interaction with neighbourhood density. In this study we examine both effects first separately and then simultaneously in French lexical decision experiments. As in English, we found that words in dense neighbourhoods are recognized more slowly than words in sparse neighbourhoods. Moreover, we showed that words with higher frequency neighbours are processed more slowly than words with no higher frequency neighbours, but only for words occurring in sparse neighbourhoods. Implications of these results for spoken-word recognition models are discussed.     

Re-identifying residential mixing: Emergent identity dynamics between incomers and existing residents in a mixed neighbourhood in Northern Ireland

Research on residential diversification has neglected its impact on neighbourhood identity and overlooked the very different identity-related experiences of new and existing residents. The present research examines how incoming and established group members relate to their changing neighbourhood in the increasingly desegregated city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Thematic analysis of interviews with 24 residents (12 Protestant long-term residents, 12 Catholic incomers) from an increasingly mixed neighbourhood identified asymmetrical concerns and experiences: Incomers reported undergoing an ‘identity transition’ between local communities, while long-term residents faced an ‘identity merger’ within their neighbourhood. Where their identity concerns diverged, emergent intergroup perceptions of the residents were negative and divisive; where they accorded, positive intergroup perceptions and a shared neighbourhood identity evolved. From this, we propose a Social Identity Model of Residential Diversification (SIMRD) to encourage future research into how different identity concerns shape emergent intergroup dynamics between long-term residents and incomers within diversifying neighbourhoods.     

Social Density,Interpersonal Relationships,and Residential Crowding Stress1

Research has suggested that tripled rooms may be characterized by a coalition of two roommate(s) and a third, left-out rommate (i.e., the isolate) who is more vulnerable to crowding and control-related problems. The present study sought (1) to confirm the existence of two person coalitions in tripled rooms and (2) to further explore the mediating effects of interpersonal relationships on crowding stress and related problems. Thirty intact groups of roommates from doubled rooms (n= 60) and 39 intact groups of roommates from tripled rooms (n= 117) completed a set of surveys concerned with residential experiences. Results suggested that crowding stress previously associated with tripled residential settings may be mediated by interpersonal relationships; tripled residents who had negative interpersonal relationships with their roommates reported being more bothered by crowding, at both the beginning and end of the semester, than doubled residents who expressed negativity towards their roommate. Satisfaction with privacy was also influenced not only by the number of people with whom a resident shared a room, but also by the nature of the resident's interpersonal relationships with his/her roommate(s). Data also suggest that control-related problems may be a direct outcome of poor interpersonal relationships among inhabitants. Results also indicated that only a small percentage of tripled rooms were characterized by reciprocal, two person coalitions.     

Can regenerated inner‐city areas remain sites of public‐place sociability? Psycho‐social processes predicting public sociability in a changing neighbourhood

The processes of urban regeneration of long‐disinvested inner‐city neighbourhoods today happening in many European cities sometimes dramatically transform residents' traditional uses of their public places. Focusing on a neighbourhood renowned for its traditional public place sociability – Mouraria, in Lisbon – this study explored the psychosocial processes that may shape the maintenance of that sociability in the face of increasing social diversification and small‐scale gentrification brought about by a mixed/bottom‐up regeneration plan. A questionnaire survey (n = 201) with two types of residents (“traditional residents” and “new gentrifiers”) indicated that: (a) both types report using Mouraria's public places for socializing, although traditional residents do so to a greater degree; (b) perceived cultural continuity of the neighbourhood is positively related to public place sociability for both groups; and (c) this relationship is mediated by both place identification and place knowledge; but (d) it is not moderated by type of resident. By implication, we argue that regenerated inner‐city neighbourhoods may remain as places of lively public sociability and companionship if residents are able to forge and/or retain a sense of identification with, and intimate knowledge of, the neighbourhood, and view it as maintaining continuity with the past.     

Social game theory: Preferences,perceptions, and choices

ABSTRACT

Building on classic game theory, psychologists have explored the effects of social preferences and expectations on strategic behaviour. Ordinary social perceivers are sensitive to additional contextual factors not addressed by game theory and its recent psychological extensions. We review the results of a research programme exploring how observers judge “players” (i.e., individuals making strategic decisions in social dilemmas) on the dimensions of competence and morality. We explore social perception in several well-known dilemmas, including the prisoner’s dilemma, the volunteer’s dilemma, and the trust dilemma. We also introduce a novel self-presentational dilemma. In research conducted over a decade and a half, we have found that judgements of competence are sensitive to both players’ choices and the dilemma’s (expected and actual) outcomes. In contrast, judgements of morality respond strongly to players’ behaviour and little else. We discuss how these social-perceptual patterns might affect expectations, preferences, and strategic choices.     

Increasing engagement in activity of residents in old people's homes by providing recreational materials

This project investigated whether the level of engagement in two special Homes for the elderly could be increased by providing a regular recreational session, where the residents had the opportunity to use various extra recreational materials and to interact with the organiser of the session. The residents' level of engagement during the sessions was consistently higher than under baseline conditions. This indicates that the low engagement of the residents is at least partly due to lack of opportunity to engage, rather than to the specific disabilities of the residents. The methodological approach used in this study is suggested as a useful, objective way of evaluating the effects of, and preferences for, various types of recreational activities that might be offered to elderly people in residential care.     

Adolescents' perceptions of school neighbourhood built environment for walking and cycling to school

Walking is a more common transport mode to school than cycling among adolescents in many countries worldwide. Adolescents' and their parents' have different perceptions of walking versus cycling to school. This study compared adolescents' perceptions of school neighbourhood built environment characteristics for walking versus cycling to school. Adolescents familiar with their school neighbourhoods (n=411; age: 15.0 ± 1.2 years; male: 31.3%) from six secondary schools in Dunedin, New Zealand completed an online survey about their travel to school and perceptions of their school neighbourhood environments for walking and cycling to school. Overall, 32.8% of adolescents walked to school, and only 1.2% cycled. More adolescents reported sufficient footpaths than cycle paths (77.9% vs 42.3%) in their school neighbourhoods. Compared to walking, adolescents reported that their school neighbourhood environments provided less support for cycling to school, including fewer crossings/signals for cyclists versus pedestrians (52.8% vs 69.3%), fewer street lights (cycling vs walking; 57.9% vs 70.3%) and fewer destinations within easy cycling versus walking distance from their school (65.5% vs 50.4%) (all p<0.05). Active transport users perceived lower traffic volume, higher traffic speed, and fewer hilly streets along the walking and cycling routes to school than motorised and mixed transport users (all p<0.05). Future active transport interventions in school neighbourhoods need to be tailored to address walking- and/or cycling-specific barriers, including built environment and traffic safety in a local context.     

Eye‐tracking Social Preferences

We hypothesize that if people are motivated by a particular social preference, then choosing in accordance with this preference will lead to an identifiable pattern of eye movements. We track eye movements while subjects make choices in simple three‐person distribution experiments. We characterize each choice in terms of three different types of social preferences: efficiency, maxi‐min, and envy. For the characterization, we use either the choice data or the eye movement data. The evidence indicates that distributional choices are broadly consistent with the choice rule implied by eye movements. In other words, what subjects appear to be interested in when you look at their choices corresponds to what they appear to be interested in when you look at their eye movements. This correspondence lends credibility to the behavioral relevance of social preferences models. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why don't they stay at home? Prejudices against ethnic minorities in Italy

This study was conducted in Bologna, Italy, to analyse attitudes concerning ethnic minorities and emotions experienced in intergroup relations. Stereotypes of North African immigrants were investigated as a function of 'geographical' proximity with black people (living in the neighbourhood of black immigrants versus living in districts without immigrants) and origin (natives of Bologna versus residents who moved from Southern Italy to Bologna). It was predicted that the most positive stereotypes would be found among natives of Bologna living in the same neighbourhoods as North Africans, while the most negative prejudices would occur among the South Italians who do not live in the same districts as black people. Results indicate that neighbourhood has a central importance but effects of respondents' origins are more mixed.     

Distinguishing between self-control and perceived control over the environment to understand disadvantaged neighbourhood health and lifestyle outcomes

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to test whether and how self-control and perceived control play a role in health outcomes and lifestyle differences between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Design: Cross-sectional survey data including demographics was collected from 3758 participants. Main outcome measures: With the survey, self-control, perceived control, health status and lifestyle variables were assessed.

Results: Participants in disadvantaged neighbourhoods reported poorer general health, as well as unhealthier lifestyles compared to participants in non-disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Self-control was likewise positively associated with health and lifestyle variables. However, self-control did not differ between participants from different neighbourhoods. Perceived control over the environment mediated between type of neighbourhood and health, with participants from a disadvantaged neighbourhood reporting a lower sense of perceived control, which in turn was associated with poorer self-reported general health and less healthy lifestyle choices.

Conclusion: This reveals that perceived control over one’s life and the environment is more important than self-control when explaining health differences between neighbourhoods.     

Cognate effects in sentence context depend on word class,L2 proficiency,and task

Length effects in the lexical decision latencies of children might indicate that children rely on sublexical processing and essentially approach the task as a naming task. We examined this possibility by means of the effects of neighbourhood size and articulatory suppression on lexical decision performance. Sixty-six beginning and 62 advanced readers performed a lexical decision task in a standard, articulatory suppression, or tapping condition. We found length effects on words and nonwords in the children's lexical decisions. However, the effects of neighbourhood size were similar to those reported for adult lexical decisions, rather than the effects previously found in children's naming. In addition, no effect was found of articulatory suppression. Both findings suggest that, despite clear length effects, children do not adopt a naming task approach but, like adults, base lexical decisions mainly on a lexical search. These results pose a challenge for several computational models of reading.     

Residential concentration and participation in local politics: The case of immigrants of the FSU in Israel

Studies on immigrants’ residential concentration have reported mixed findings. Some have argued that immigrants’ residential concentration is a necessary step in the process of their social integration because there the newcomers find housing and employment opportunities as well as social support. As they learn the language and improve their socioeconomic status, they move to neighbourhoods where they share space with the native population. Others have argued that the ethnic neighbourhood delays the process of social integration in the new society because it nurtures informal ethnic social networks that provide incomplete information and retard the process of language acquisition. Less is known on the relationship between immigrants’ residential concentration and their participation in local politics. The study reported here investigated the effect of residential concentration on participation in the local election and on the likelihood of voting for an ethnic party. Data for the study were collected in 1999 through a survey of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who had settled in one northern city in Israel after 1989. The results show that a relatively high percentage of new immigrants (60%) had participated in the local elections. The likelihood of participating in the local elections is positively related to acculturation variables. The longer the residence of the immigrant in the country, and the more positive the immigrant attitudes to the country the more likely it is that they will participate in the local election. Regarding the vote for a Russian party the findings show that, as expected, the effect of spatial concentration is positively related to the likelihood of voting for a Russian party. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Influence of environmental perception of the neighbourhood on place attachment: The impact of the physical care of the neighbourhood

Abstract

The present study examines the influence of perception of neighbourhood crowding, noise, danger, and physical care on neighbourhood attachment. To this end, a total of496 Spanish students from Barcelona and La Laguna participate in this study. In order to control for the variable time of residence, only natives of the neighbourhood were selected as participants, completing an anonymous self-reporting questionnaire. A Path Analysis was applied using perception of environmental factors of the neighbourhood as predictive variables and neighbourhood attachment as criteria variable. The results show that the perceptions of physical care and of danger in the neighbourhood are the variables that directly influence attachment. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of intervention for enhancing care behaviours in the neighbourhood.     

Macrosocial determinants of social integration: Social class and area effect

Theory and research on social support have paid little attention to the existence of important macrosocial variables determining level and content of social relationships. This study examines variations in social integration as a function of social class and residential area characteristics. Results for 234 subjects living in high and low risk neighbourhoods indicated that differences between higher and lower social class groups follow different patterns in different residential areas. Also, same social class position appeared to have different significance as a function of residential area characteristics. The levels of three social integration measures—community integration and satisfaction, community association and participation, and contribution in community organizations—were significantly higher for lower class in low risk neighbourhoods than in high risk ones. However, significant differences were found in only one measure for higher social class groups, with higher levels of community association and participation in high risk neighbourhoods than in low risk ones. The discussion examines a ‘social impoverishment’ hypothesis for high risk environments, and proposes possible protective factors for higher status residents. Relations between formal and informal sources of support, and implications for social intervention strategies are also considered.     

Let your preference be your guide? Preferences and choices are more tightly linked for North Americans than for Indians

Using experimental paradigms from economics and social psychology, the authors examined the cross-cultural applicability of 3 widely held assumptions about preference and choice: People (a) recruit or construct preferences to make choices; (b) choose according to their preferences; and (c) are motivated to express their preferences in their choices. In 6 studies, they compared how middle-class North American and Indian participants choose among consumer products. Participants in both contexts construct nonrandom preferences at similar speeds. Those in Indian contexts, however, are slower to make choices, less likely to choose according to their personal preferences, and less motivated to express their preferences in their choices. The authors infer that the strong link between preferences and choices observed among North Americans is not a universal feature of human nature. Instead, this link reflects the disjoint model of agency, which prescribes that people should choose freely on the basis of their preferences. In contrast, Indian contexts reflect and promote a conjoint model of agency, according to which agency is responsive to the desires and expectations of important others and may require restraining one's preferences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Would you rather teleport or spend some time commuting? Investigating individuals’ teleportation preferences

The “teleportation test” is a unique question—used in some travel behavior research since the 2000s—to examine individuals’ perceptions towards travel time and affinities for travel. It gives people a hypothetical choice between teleporting or spending some time traveling. All studies (using different methods, including focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires) have consistently reported high teleportation preferences (about 70%). Yet, few correlates of teleportation preferences (especially sociodemographic and perceptual characteristics) have been investigated. Using data from an online questionnaire of 648 commuters in Portland, Oregon, this study investigated factors affecting individuals’ teleportation preferences. While generally representative of the area’s commuters, the sample did have higher shares of high-income workers and people using active modes or transit. Overall, 62% of respondents preferred to teleport than to spend some time commuting. Results from binary logit models identified actual commute duration, typical mode of travel, and “ideal” travel time (but no demographic attributes) as major predictors of preferences to teleport. As expected, people with longer commute durations had a greater desire to teleport, whereas bicyclists and pedestrians more often preferred to commute. People with longer ideal travel times had a greater affinity to commute and were less keen to teleport. Analysis of follow-up questions exploring reasons for respondents’ answers suggested that most “teleporters” were motivated by saving time to do other things, while most “commuters” found parts of their commutes to be enjoyable or productive. Findings from this study are consistent with related studies in implying that a teleportation preference does not necessarily represent zero ideal travel time or viewing travel time as wasted. Finally, this study discusses several travel behavior policy implications of the teleportation test, along with limitations and areas for future research.     

Methodological individualism in experimental games: not so easily dismissed

Orthodox game theory and social preference models cannot explain why people cooperate in many experimental games or how they manage to coordinate their choices. The theory of evidential decision making provides a solution, based on the idea that people tend to project their own choices onto others, whatever these choices might be. Evidential decision making preserves methodological individualism, and it works without recourse to social preferences. Rejecting methodological individualism, team reasoning is a thinly disguised resurgence of the group mind fallacy, and the experiments reported by Colman et al. [Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Rose, J. (this issue). Collective rationality in interactive decisions: Evidence for team reasoning. Acta Psychologica, doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.08.003.] do not offer evidence that uniquely supports team reasoning.     

People with intellectual disability as neighbours: Towards understanding the mundane aspects of social integration

Although people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are increasingly expected to relocate from traditional institutional care to ‘regular’ neighbourhood housing facilities and socially integrate in these neighbourhoods, little is known about how they are perceived and appreciated as neighbours. This paper reports on interviews carried out with 30 neighbours without ID who were neighbours of small‐scale care facilities for people with ID. Interviews addressed the neighbours' everyday experiences of neighbouring in general, and neighbouring people with ID in particular. Neighbouring, for these informants, called for a fine balance between friendliness without over‐involvement. While they were generally positive about their interactions with their neighbours with ID, it emerged that the formal nature of the care facility and the interaction style of some of the neighbours with ID often contravened informants' assumptions about neighbouring. Informants expressed concern about a possible lack of appropriate distance, reciprocity and accountability among their neighbours with ID. The nature of the care facility, with paid staff, often group activities, formal means of achieving the everyday small tasks which neighbours sometimes do for each other, and a high turnover of residents, all undermined the possibility of a typical neighbourly relationship. In conclusion, we suggest that integration of people with ID into everyday neighbouring relationships raises complex challenges for care organizations that need to find a balance between supporting the needs of people with ID they care for, adequate support and mediation for other neighbours when necessary, and all the while avoid becoming overly involved in neighbouring as a formal partner. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Keeping Out Extremists: Refugees,Would-Be Immigrants,and Ideological Exclusion

Many people want to live in liberal democracies because they are liberal and democratic. Yet it would be mistaken, indeed naïve, to assume that this applies to all would-be residents. Just as some inhabitants of liberal democracies oppose one or more fundamental liberal-democratic values and principles (e.g. the rule of law, freedoms of conscience and speech, rights to private property and to political participation), so there are foreign would-be residents who do so, who might include individuals with e.g. Jihadist, Neo-Nazi, and radical anarchist views. Proceeding on the assumption that there exists no unconditional moral right to immigrate, this article asks whether it is ever morally permissible for liberal democracies to deny residence to nonnationals based on evidence that they personally hold extremist views. I argue that this is sometimes the case. Specifically, my contention is that even if we adopt a cosmopolitan perspective on which states are not allowed to prioritise the interests of their own citizens and residents over those of foreign nonresidents, there are two conditions under which such exclusions are justified even when refugees are being refused admission (although, as I suggest, states might be morally required in such cases to admit other refugees instead).