Psych Prelim Question 6

Explain two ways in which privacy may help explain potential problems with high rise housing design.

In high rises, there are more problems for the residents with regulating social interactions. There are more people living in high rises and they often have to interact with one another. It can be difficult for a resident to find a balance between the amount of social interaction they'd like and the amount that they get on a daily basis. People in high rises can often also feel isolated because the buildings are so large and it is difficult to have meaningful interactions with others when there is such a high density of people in one place. People can feel like just another body in a large, impersonal mass.

Describe one physical and one mental health consequence of poor housing quality.

Physical: asthma , mold related illnesses , flu , allergies Mental: Depression , anxiety , suicidal thoughts

What is another HER process other than privacy relevant to high rise housing and well being? Define that HER process and then describe how it might relate to either: i. better child development or ii. successful aging later in life

i) Another HER process relevant to high-rise housing and well-being is Environmental Stimulation. Environmental stimulation refers to the level of engagement, novelty, and sensory experiences an environment provides to its occupants. It can be characterized by the variety of sensory inputs individuals receive from their surroundings, such as visuals. Environmental stimulation can significantly impact child development in high-rise housing: Cognitive Development: High-rise buildings with well-designed common areas, creative play spaces, and interactive features offer opportunities for cognitive stimulation in children. These spaces can encourage exploration, problem-solving, creativity, and social interaction.

Provide a second example where the researchers in any of the studies on housing quality and health tried to cope with the confounding problem. The second example can be related to the same human impact you describe in 6b or a different one. Describe what the researchers did to try and cope with confounding and the logic of why/how it reduces confounding.

A way researchers tried to cope with the confounding problem is by conducting a truly random experiment; randomly put people in one (poor housing) and randomly put people in another (acceptable housing quality). They could also use populations of ONLY the same socioeconomic class in the study. Random assignment reduces confounding by ensuring that the distribution of both known and unknown confounders is balanced between the two groups (poor housing and acceptable housing quality). By randomizing participants, researchers are less likely to have systematic/physical differences in confounding factors between the groups. By using a population of the same socioeconomic class the homogeneity helps control for one of the most common confounding factors in housing quality studies—socioeconomic status itself.

Describe the principle of confounding and then use it to critique evidence from class for either a physical or mental health effect of poor housing quality.

The principle of confounding refers to a situation in which the association between an independent variable (exposure or risk factor) and a dependent variable (outcome or health effect) is distorted or influenced by the presence of a third variable, known as a confounder. Confounding can be used to critique evidence that poor housing conditions cause respiratory issues as some people have hereditary or acquired predispositions to physical health issues resulting in these respiratory issues. This would be called a confounding variable.

Using your analysis of privacy and high rise housing, explain how you would change the design of the i) High rise building ii) Individual apartment in that same building to enhance the residential experience of privacy. Incorporating lecture or readings, why do you think each of your two re-designs (overall building, individual apartment) might help?

i) Privacy within high rise: give more options for entrances so there are less interactions i.e. another elevator or stairwell // organize the building into different sections or groups to limit the amount of people within an area ii) Privacy within an individual apartment: give options for screens + barriers to break up open spaces // a closeable door to every room // soundproofing // window treatments The re-design allows for the residents to control how much interaction they receive by giving them more options. Depending on the person they can chose a very public route + very open floor plan or they chose a more private route + have more barriers/screens within their space