Psychology Chapter 8 Psychology And Life

Word 'environment' refers to all that is around us. Literally, it means everything that surrounds us including the physical, Social world and cultural environment. In general, it includes all the forces outside the human beings to which they respond in some way.

A psychologist named Stokols proposed three approaches to describe human-environment relationship:

(i) The Minimalist Perspective: This view assumes that physical environment has negligible influence on human behaviour. Both run parallel to each other.

(ii) The Instrumental Perspective: According to this approach, environment is simply provider. It is for the comfort of us. Human beings can use the environment as per their needs.

(iii) The Spiritual Perspective: It refers to the view of the environment as something to be respected and valued rather than exploited. Physical environment and human relationship are interdependent. The traditional Indian view about the environment supports spiritual perspective, worshipping Pipal, respect for rivers and mountains. Chipko Aandolan and movement by Bisnoi Community are examples of Indian perspective.

Word 'environment' refers to all that is around us. Literally, it means everything that surrounds us including the physical, Social world and cultural environment. In general, it includes all the forces outside the human beings to which they respond in some way.

A psychologist named Stokols proposed three approaches to describe human-environment relationship:

(i) The Minimalist Perspective: This view assumes that physical environment has negligible influence on human behaviour. Both run parallel to each other.

(ii) The Instrumental Perspective: According to this approach, environment is simply provider. It is for the comfort of us. Human beings can use the environment as per their needs.

(iii) The Spiritual Perspective: It refers to the view of the environment as something to be respected and valued rather than exploited. Physical environment and human relationship are interdependent. The traditional Indian view about the environment supports spiritual perspective, worshipping Pipal, respect for rivers and mountains. Chipko Aandolan and movement by Bisnoi Community are examples of Indian perspective.

Q 2. 'Human beings affect and are affected by the environment.' Explain this statement with the help of example.

Ans. Environment significantly influences various physical and psychological aspects of human behaviour. Some are as follows :

(a) Environmental Influence on Perception: According to researches, our perception is influenced by the environment in which we live. For example. Tribal societies of Africa living in Circular huts show less error in a geometric illusion (the Muller Lyer illusion) than people from cities, living in houses with angular walls.

(b) Environmental Influence on Emotions: For example, watching quietly flowing river, a smiling flowers or a tranquil mountain top provides joy and happiness.

• Natural disasters, landslides can provide deep depression and sorrow, lack of control over their lives.

• Such an influence is traumatic, changes people's lives forever, and can last for a long time after the actual event in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

(c) Ecological Influence on Occupation, Living style and Attitudes:

(i) The natural environment of a particular region determines the people living in that region will develop what type of societies—may be agricultural or may be industrial.

(ii) In turn, the occupation determines the life-style and attitudes of the residents of a particular geographical region.

Human behaviour particularly influencing on the environment in negative manner. Following are the environmental stressors which effect human beings, although many are created by human beings themselves.

1. Pollution:

(a) Air-pollution: Emission of toxic gases due to automobile and industrial emissions cause adverse effect on the health.

– Air-pollution reduces visibility and leads to eye irritation, headache, fatigue, occurrence of cancer of respiratory system.

(b) Noise or sound pollution: Any sound which an individual finds unpleasant in a particular situation is considered noise or sound-pollution. Noise (sound pollution) leads to adverse psychological effects. It may leads to high level of stress, narrowing of attention, decrease in concentration, etc.

(c) Water-pollution: Various problems related to digestive system and gastrointestinal issues occur due to water-pollution.

2. Noise

Any unpleasant, irritating or interfering sound is called as Noise.

– Noise is an environmental stressor which may affect adversely depending on—

(a) Predictability

(b) Controllability

(c) Intensity

3. Crowding and Density:

• Crowding is the subjective feeling of crampedness or being too close to each other. It has negative effects on task performance, personality, interpersonal relationship, general physical and mental health.

• Density is an objective geographical term which refers to number of persons living within the available space, or per square meter area.

4. Natural and Man-made Disasters:

Natural disasters are earthquake, volcanic eruption, windstorm, tornado, cyclone, famine etc.

– There are man-made disasters also; like Bhopal gas tragedy and nuclear bomb explosion in Japan, which not only caused extensive damage to property and physical environment but also had long-term effects on the lives of people.

– Man is largely responsible for regarding the quality of environment that surrounds us. Almost everything humans do has small but cumulative effects on the environment in which we live. e.g., driving a car, using a hair spray use of refrigerator, etc.

Noise is defined as an unwanted sound or sounds that create an effective response. Some may not be disturbed by even a loud-speaker sound, on the other hand, some might even find whistle, tinkling of wind as noise. Thus, any sound “which an individual finds unwanted is noise.'

Noise (sound pollution) leads to adverse psychological effects. How the noise affect the individual depends on:

(a) its intensity (loudness), loud sound is often unpleasant and irritating.

(b) predictability, we can adapt more easily to a regular, predictable sound such as chirping of birds in the morning.

(c) Perceived Control: The negative effects of noise are reduced when individuals perceive that they have control over it.

Effects of noise (sound-pollution) on task performance:

(i) When the task being performed is a simple mental task, such as addition of numbers, noise does not affect overall performance whether it is loud or soft.

(ii) If the task being performed is very interesting, then, too, the presence of noise does not affect performance.

(iii) When the noise comes at intervals and in an unpredictable way, it is experienced as more disturbing than the noise being continuously present.

(iv) Difficult task performance requires full concentration, then intense, unpredictable and uncontrollable noise reduces the level of task performance.

(v) When switching off the noise is within the control of the person, the numbers of errors in task performance decrease.

Crowding: It is psychological crampedness. It manifests following features:

(a) Feeling of discomfort because of too many people or things around us the experience of physical restriction and sometimes the lack of privacy.

(b) Crowding is the person's reaction to the presence of a large number of persons within a particular area or space.

Features of Crowding: Crowding has the following features :

– Crowding gives feeling of discomfort.

– It gives a feeling that individual privacy is being threatened.

– It gives feeling that individual's personal space is being invaded.

– It gives negative view of a space around the person.

– Crowding develops feelings of loss of control over social interaction.

Crowding is studied by various psychologists in India and abroad.

Crowding is not always experienced in high density setting nor all people experience its negative effects. For example, Mela has high density but still people enjoy it.

Effects of Crowding and High Density:

(a) Crowding and High density may lead to abnormal behaviour and aggression. e.g., an increase in population has sometimes been found to be accompanied by an increase in violent crime.

(b) Crowding leads to lowered performance on difficult tasks that involve cognitive processes and has adverse effects on memory and the emotional state.

(c) Children growing up in very crowded households show lower academic performance. They also show a weaker tendency to continue working on a task if they are unsuccessful at it, compared to children growing up in non-crowded households. They experience greater conflicts with parents and get less support from their family members.

(d) The nature of social interaction determines the degree to which an individual will react to crowding. For example, in parties, large number of persons may not cause stress rather it may lead to positive emotional reactions.

(e) Individuals differ in the degree to which they show negative effects of crowding and also in the nature of these reactions.

Two kinds of tolerance can be mentioned that may explain these individual differences:

(i) Crowding Tolerance (ii) Competition Tolerance

(i) Crowding Tolerance: It refers to the ability of a person to mentally deal with the high density or crowding environment. e.g., crowded residence.

• It is developed because people can use to manage people around them.

• It is modifying ones perception one holds regarding high density/crowded situations.

• Indians in general have more crowding tolerance.

(ii) Competition Tolerance: It is the ability to put up with a situation in which individuals would have to compete with many others for even basic resources including physical space.

Since there is a greater possibility of competition for resources in a crowded setting, the reaction to that setting would be influenced by the extent of tolerance for competition for resources.

(f) Cultural Characteristics: It may determine the extent to which a particular environment is judged to be subjectively more crowded or less crowded.

The concept of personal space refers to the personal physical distance that we maintain in our social interaction.

It is important for following reasons:

(i) It explains many of the negative effect of crowding as an environment stressor.

(ii) It tells us about social relations. For examples, two people sitting or standing close tighter are seen to be friends.

(iii) It gives us idea about how physical space can be modified in order to reduce stress or discomfort in real life situations.

Everyone has desire of personal space. Males generally have a larger personal space than females. Degree of personal space differ from culture to culture.

Personal space can vary between people, between situations and settings and between cultures. Edward Hall, an anthropologist, mentioned four kinds of interpersonal physical distance—intimate distance, personal distance, social distance and public distance.

Natural disaster is an environmental hazard. It is known as disaster because —

• it is mostly unpredictable.

• it causes enormous loss of life and property.

In general, the intensity of reaction is affected by the following:

(i) The severity of the disaster, and the loss incurred both in terms of property and life.

(ii) The individual's general coping ability.

(iii) Other stressful experiences before the disaster. For e.g., people, who have experienced stress before, may find it more difficult to deal with another difficult and stressful situation. But, there are ways to be prepared to minimize their decussating consequence in the form of:

1. Warning: when cyclones or high tides are predicted, fishermen are asked not to venture into the sea.

2. Safety Measure: Unfortunately, in the case of some natural disasters such as earthquakes, even if prediction is possible, the events came too suddenly for people to be mentally prepared. Therefore tips are given beforehand about to do when there is an earthquake.

3. Treatment of Psychological Disorder: This includes self-help approach as well as professional treatment. According to some experts who deal with PTSD, one of the key attitude to be developed in the survivors is that of 'self-efficacy' i.e. that the belief that 'I can do it' or 'I came out of this phase successfully'.

(a) Immediate Reaction: The immediate reaction after a disaster is commonly manifest in the form of disorientation. People take some time to understand the full meaning of what the disaster has done to them. They may deny to themselves that something terrible has happened.

(b) Physical Reaction:

There is bodily exhaustion even without physical activity such as—

• Sleep disturbances.

• Change in eating pattern.

• Increased heart-beat and blood-pressure.

(c) Emotional Reaction:

• Fear

• Grief

• Irritability

• Anger (why should this happen to me)

• Helplessness

• Hopelessness

• Depression

• Numbness (absolute lack of emotion)

• Guilt feelings for having survived while someone else died

• Lack of interest in routine jobs

(d) Cognitive Reaction:

• Worry • Difficulty in concentration

• Reduced span of attention • Confusion

• Loss of memory • Nightmare of the event

(e) Social Reactions:

• Withdrawal from others

• Getting into conflict with others

• Having frequent arguments with even

• Feeling rejected or left out

Very often in the midst of severe emotional reaction to stress, some survivors may develop positive outlook on life with empathy.

Pro-environmental behaviour is the friendly and caring attitude of people who help to prevent environmental degradation and conserve natural resources.

For instance, change in life-style and attitude of the people like conserving energy resources, planting trees, reduction in noise (sound-pollution) and air-pollution.

Some Strategies to Protect Environment are:

(i) Reducing air-pollution by keeping vehicle in good condition or changing to nonfuel driven vehicle, stopping the practice of smoking.

(ii) Reducing noise (sound pollution) by ensuring that noise levels are low. e.g., discouraging needless honking on the road, or making rule regarding noisy music at certain hours.

(iii) Planting trees and ensuring their care.

(iv) Reducing the non-biodegradable packing of consumer goods.

(v) Laws related to construction (especially in urban areas) that violate optimal environment design.

(vi) Saying 'no' to plastic use in any form, thus reducing toxic wastes that pollute water, air and the soil.

Poverty is the economic deprivation, associated with low income, hunger, low caste and status.

• Illiteracy, poor housing, over-crowding, lack of public amenities, mal-and under-nutrition, and increased susceptibility to diseases are main features.

• Poverty is an actual shortage of resources so it is objectively defined term.

• Deprivation is subjectively defined. It is more a question of perceiving or thinking that one has got less than what one should have got.

• Poverty is not a necessary condition for experiencing deprivation but a poor person may experience deprivation.

• Social disadvantage is a condition because of which some sections of society are not allowed the same privileges as the east society e.g. caste system.

Effects of Poverty and Deprivation:

(i) Low aspirations and low achievements, low motivation, and high need for dependence is the major effect of poverty and deprivation. They believe that events in their lives are controlled by factor outside them, rather within them.

(ii) With respect to social behaviour, the poor and deprived sections exhibit on attitude of resentment towards the rest of society.

(iii) With regard to personality:

• The poor and deprived low self-esteem, high anxiety, introversion, and live only in the immediate present rather than being future-oriented.

• The poor and deprived live with a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, feelings of injustice and experience a loss of identity.

(iv) Researches have proved that prolonged deprivation significantly impair the cognitive functioning of the individual.

(v) With regard to mental health, there is an unquestionable relationship between mental disorder and poverty or deprivation.

(vi) The poor are more likely to suffer from specific mental illness compared to the rich, possibly due to constant worries about basic necessities, feeling of insecurity or inability to get medical faculties especially for mental illness.

• Aggression: According to psychologists, aggression refers to any behaviour by a person that is intended to cause harm to another person or persons to take revenge. For example, aggression It can be demonstrated in actual action or through the use of harsh words or criticism or even hostile feelings against others.

• Violence: Forceful destructive behaviour towards another person or persons to attain some material gain is violence.

Instrumental Aggression:

The act of aggression is meant to obtain a certain goal or get others, possessions forcefully. For example, A bully slaps a new student in school so that he can snatch the new comer's chocolate. In violence, individual may or may not have the intention to harm others in terms of revenge. It is forceful destructive behaviour. e.g., hitting a person just to loot his money.

Hostile Aggression:

An expression of anger towards the target, with the intention of harming him/her even if the aggressor does not wish to obtain anything from the victim. For example, A criminal may beat up a person in the community for mentioning his name to the police. Aggression can be reduced by creating the appropriate attitude towards the general problem of growing aggression.

(a) Parenting:

• Parents and teacher should be specially careful not to encourage aggression in any form. The use of punishment to bring about discipline also needs to be changed.

(b) Modelling:

• Opportunities to observe and imitate the behaviour of aggressive models should be reduced drastically.

Portraying aggression as heroic behaviour should be particularly avoided because this may set the stage for learning through observation.

(c) Implementing social justice and equality in society:

• It will help in reducing frustration levels and thereby curb aggressive tendencies at least to some extent.

(d) Inculcating positive attitude towards peace at the level of community or society. The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, gave the world a new view to peace that was not simply the absence of aggression. This was non-violence. It should be taught to the younger generation.

Television is one of the useful products of technological progress. It has both positive and negative effects. It has effects on cognitive processes and social behaviour.

1. T.V. provides large amount of information in an attractive form and in visual mode, for which it became a powerful medium of instructions.

2. Excellent programmes emphasise positive interpersonal attitudes and provide useful factual information, teaching children how to design and construct certain objects.

3. T.V. watching may have an adverse effect on children's ability to concentrate on one target. Their creativity and ability to understand each other through social interaction is also significantly impaired.

4. Reduction in habit of reading and writing skills and also their outdoor activities such as playing is also reduced.

5. Watching violence on T.V. has been linked to greater aggressiveness in the viewers. As children are not mature enough to think of consequences, they simply imitate.

• Some studies pointed out that merely watching violence on the television does not make children more aggressive. Other factors need to be present.

• Other research findings show that watching violence may actually reduce the natural aggressive tendency of the viewers: what is 'bottled up' gets an outlet, thus cleans the system. This process is called catharsis.

6. Due to T.V. watching, consumerist attitude has developed. Numerous products are advertised and it is very natural for the viewer to get carried away.

A branch of psychology, called Environmental Psychology, deals with various psychological issues pertaining to the human–environment interaction in a very broad sense of the term. For example, many environmental problems such as sound/ noise, air, water, and soil pollution and unsatisfactory ways of garbage disposal have damaging effects on physical health and environmental psychology is to deal with the above problems.

Ecology is the study of the relationships between living beings and their environment. In psychology, the focus is on the interdependence between the environment and people. Whatever has been created by human beings within the natural environment is the built environment. The part of nature which remains untouched by human hand is the natural environment.

Natural Environment: That part of nature which remains untouched by human hand is the natural environment. e.g., plants, air, river, animals, etc. Built Environment: On the other hand, whatever has been created by human beings within the natural environment is the built environment. e.g., – cities, houses, bridges, malls, dam, roads, railways, tracks, etc

Density: Density is the actual number of people living in per square feet area.

Density is a physical situation, reflecting the number of persons within the available space.

Crowding: Crowding is the subjective feeling of being too close to each other. It is subjective crampedness.

Crowding is a psychological state, a subjective and experiential process.

Personal space refers to the comfortable physical distance that we maintain in our social interaction. Studies indicate on the average, for strangers our physical space is roughly two feet around us. If a stranger comes closer, we feel uncomfortable and move away to maintain space. Males generally have a larger personal space than females. Also personal space differ in different cultures.

The concept of 'Antyodaya' or the 'rise of the last person in society' i.e., the poorest or the most disadvantaged, has helped to a large section of the poor to get uplifted to a better economic conditions than they have experienced earlier. In Antyodaya programmes, there is provision for health facilities, nutrition, education and training for employment—all the areas in which the poor need help.

(i) People differ greatly in terms of behavioural risk factors such as smoking or tobacco use, alcohol and drug abuse, and unsafe sexual behaviour, diet and physical exercise.

(ii) A new discipline called 'Behavioural Medicine' has emerged which seeks to alleviate stress due to disease through modification in behaviour by changing outlook and life-styles.

Culture of poverty is a belief of poor people that they were poor, they are poor and they will be poor. Nothing can be done. This belief develops from the environment in which they live and positively reinforced by neighbours and relatives.

The built environment usually involves the concept of 'environment design'. The idea of 'design' contains some psychological features, such as.

• The creativity of the human mind as expressed in the work of architects, town planners and civil engineers.

• The sense of human control over the natural environment as shown in the building of dams to regulate the natural flow of rivers.

• The influence on the kind of social interaction that takes place in the designed environment. This feature is reflected, for instant, in the distance between houses in a colony, the location of rooms within a home or in the arrangement of work desks and seats in an official setting for formal or informal gathering.

In social situations, human beings like to maintain a certain physical distance from the person with whom they are interacting. This is called interpersonal physical distance.

There are four types of interpersonal physical distance.

(a) Intimate Distance (up to 18 inches): The distance we maintain when we are talking privately to someone, or interacting with a very close friend or relative.

(b) Personal Distance (18 inches -4 feet): The distance we maintain when we are interacting one-to-one with a close friend, relative or even with someone not very close to us in a work setting or other social situation.

(c) Social Distance (4 to 10 feet)

(d) Public distance (10feet to infinity): The distance we maintain when the interaction is formal and not close

The distance we maintain in a formal setting, where there is a large number of persons. e.g., the distance of an audience from a public speaker or a teacher in a classroom.

No doubt discrimination is both cause and a consequence of poverty. Discrimination is often linked to prejudice. It refers to the behaviours that makes a distinction between the rich and the poor, favouring the rich and the advantaged over the poor and the disadvantaged.

This distinction can be seen in matters of social interaction, education and employment. Thus, even if the poor or disadvantaged have the capability, they are kept away from the opportunities that are enjoyed by the rest of society. The children of the poor do not get a chance to study in good schools or get good health facilities and employment.

Social disadvantage and discrimination prevent the poor from improving their socioeconomic condition through their own efforts and this makes the poor even more poor.

In short, poverty and discrimination are related in such a way that the discrimination becomes both a cause and a consequence of poverty.

Environmental pollution is in the form of air, water and soil pollutions.

The various affects are:

(a) It affects our Nervous system of the presence of toxic substance

(b) Its influence can be seen in the emotional reactions which create:

– Discomfort – Decreased work efficiency

– Lowered interest in the job – Increase in anxiety level

(c) Presence of dust-particles may give feeling of suffocation and respiratory disorders, attention problems.

(d) People living in industrial area report greater tension and anxiety than those living in non-industrial area.

(e) Presence of sulphur dioxide in the air decreases the ability to concentrate on a task and lowering performance efficiency.

(f) Pollution caused by leaker of dangerous chemical substances can cause other kinds of harm. For example, Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 showed disturbances in memory, attention and alterness.

(g) Tobacco smoke pollution. For example, cigar, cigarette cause psychological effects even the passive smokers can show increase in aggression level of individuals.

(h) Polluting substances in water and soil are hazardous for physical health and psychological effects. For example, Fact can cause mental retardation by affecting brain development which can come from water, soil or negotiable grown in polluted soil.

(i) Non-biodegradable garbage or industrial waste such as tin, plastics affects in a negative manner. It should be burned by special techniques and smoke should not be allowed to escape into air.

(a) Poverty may be due to natural disasters as people suddenly lose all their possessions and have to face poverty.

(b) According to one group of psychologists, sociologists and economists, the poor themselves are responsible for their poverty. The causes are:

– Lack of ability and skills.

– Lack motivation to put in effort.

– Not able to make use of available opportunities.

– Negative approach towards life.

• According to them, it is the individual's belief system in which individual is brought up and that is the cause of poverty.

• The culture of poverty convinces the person that he was poor, is poor and will continue to remain poor and the belief is carried over from one generation to another.

(c) Other group of professionals believe that:

• Economic, social and political factors together account for poverty.

• Because of discrimination, certain sections of society are denied the opportunities needed for getting even the basic necessities of life.

• The economic system is made to grow in a disproportionate way through social and political exploitation.

(d) The geographic region in which one lives is said to be significant cause of poverty.

For example, desert region that have shortage of natural resources and harsh climate and up being poor.

The poverty-cycle explains why poverty tends to continue among the same sections of society. Poverty begets poverty.

Poor (Low income and lack of resources)

Go through low health and nutrition Lack of education Lack of skills Leading to

• Low employment opportunities • Low income condition

• Low health • Low nutrition status

• Lowered motivational level, hope, sense of control

The resulting lowered motivational level only makes the situation worse and cycles starts and continues again.

(a) Breaking the poverty-cycle providing financial relief, medical and other facilities to the poor in such a way that they should not develop habit of dependence.

(b) Creating the context for making the poor take responsibility instead of blame for their poverty. This will give them the sense of hope, control and identity.

(c) Providing educational and employment opportunities following the principles of social justice. Encouraging them to earn livelihood by legal means.

(i) It will help poor to discover their own abilities and skills:

(ii) Enabling them to come up to the level of other sections of society.

(iii) It will help in reducing crime and violence by reducing frustration.

(d) Measures for Improved Mental Health: Focus should be on improving their selfesteem, self-efficacy and motivational levels.

(e) Steps for empowering the poor: Poor's should be made more powerful. Capable of living independently and with dignity without depending on the help given by the government or other groups.

(f) Implication of Antyodaya programmes (the rise of the last person) which provide provisions for health facilities, nutrition, education and training for employment in all the areas in which the poor need help.

(g) Poor are encouraged to start their own small scale businesses. Initial capital for these ventures is provided through small loans or micro-credited facilities.

(h) Making the poor more sensitive to their rights to equality and justice, and ensuring for them adequate nutrition, health and facilities for education and employment.

1. Inborn Tendency: Aggressiveness is an inborn tendency among human beings. Biologically, this inborn tendency may be meant for self-defence/survival.

2. Physiological Mechanisms: Aggression could also be indirectly functions due to physiological mechanism, especially by the activation of certain parts of the brain that play a role in emotional experience.

A general physiological state of arousal, or feeling activated might often be expressed in the form of aggression.

3. Child-rearing: The way an individual is brought up often influences his aggressiveness. e.g., parents using physical punishment.

4. Frustration: It is an emotional state that arises when a person is prevented from reaching a goal, or attaining an object he wants.

Aggression is an expression and consequence of frustration. People in frustrated situations show more aggression than those who are not frustrated.

Experimental Evidence:

Children were prevented from getting some attractive toys that was visible through a screen.

They were found to be more destructive in play. An American psychologist, John Dollard, gave Frustration-Aggression theory. According to this theory, it is frustration that leads to aggression.

5. Displacement: It refers to aggression shown towards the weaker person who is unlikely to react to aggression. Usually members of the majority group show aggressive behaviour towards minority group using abusive language or even physically assaulting the minority group.

6. Observing the Aggressive Model: Albert Bandura shows the role of modelling in learning aggression. For example, child observes aggression and violence on television and may start imitating that behaviour.

7. Provocation: Anger provoking action by others. For example, insults or threats, physical aggression or dishonesty may provoke aggression.

8. Availability of Weapons of Aggression: Observing violence leads to a greater likelihood of aggression on the part of the observer only if weapons of aggression like a stick, pistol or knife are easily available.

9. Personality Factors: Aggressiveness is a personal quality. For example, there are people who are naturally more hot tempered. It has been observed that people, who have very low self-esteem, suffer from insecurity, may behave more aggressively, in order to 'boost their ego'.

10. Cultural Factors: The culture in which one grows can teach its members to be aggressive or not to be aggressive by incouraging or praising aggressive behaviour or discouraging aggressive behaviour. eg. Some tribes are peace loving and some are very aggressive.

WHO (World Health Organisation) focuses on Biological, Psychological and Social aspects of health. It covers Physical, Mental, Spiritual aspects.

• Health and illness are a matter of degree.

• One may be suffering from a physically disabling disease but may be quiet healthy otherwise. e.g., Baba Amte and Stephan Hawkins who suffer from crippling diseases but have made great contributions in their field.

• People differ across cultures in their thinking about when and how people fall ill and therefore in the models which they use in prevention of diseases and promotion of health. e.g., Chinese, Indian, Latin hold good health results from the harmonious balance of various elements in the body.

Western Cultures view health as a result of fully functioning machine which has no blockage.

The different systems of medicine developed in different cultures are based on various models.

WHO report says Asia, Africa, Latin America and other developing countries people die due to communicable diseases. e.g., HIV/AIDS and TB; whereas the people belonging to developed countries like US and UK people suffer more from cardiovascular diseases, cancer and psychiatric disorders.

At the individual level, there are various factors which are associated with physical well-being or illness in different cultures.

1. Cognition:

(i) The variations in seeking help of doctors whether doctor is required or not is due to differences in beliefs people have relating to diseases.

(ii) The level of awareness of or information about disease, and beliefs about how it is caused also differ in cultures. e.g., small-pox is anger of MATA which needs not to be treated.

2. Behaviour:

(i) Evidence shows that behaviour we engage in and our life-style greatly influence health but different cultures perceive it differently. e.g., drug abuse, smoking and tobacco use, lack of physical exercise, etc. are associated with incidence of coronary heart disease, cancer, etc. but in villages even children are allowed to smoke.

(ii) A new discipline called behavioural medicine has emerged which seeks to alleviate stress through modification in behaviour, outlook and life-style. It is basically behavioural modification to attain good health.

3. Social and Cultural Factors:

(i) The relationship between hostility, anger and CHD is not found to be the same in all cultures. e.g., India and China.

(ii) Social and cultural norms associated with roles and gender etc. greatly influence our health behaviour. e.g., medical treatment for female is delayed because they are less valued, belief that they are hardy or the shame associated with the disease.

• Peace is a state in which various elements function in harmonious relationship and grow without interference in each other's activities.

• At a societal level, peace is necessary for growth and development. Bringing in and sustaining peace in society demands many things in which the following are more important.

1. Education of Peace:

• Just as man learns to fight and go to war, he can also learn to live peacefully.

• It is necessary to educate the public and particularly the young men and women to live in peace so that they may learn to look upon themselves as citizens to the world.

• The teaching of Gandhi ji's truth and non-violence are very much relevant nowadays to teach peace.

2. Development of International Relations: The promoting conducive international relations, eliminating prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination will enhance international co-operation and people will get the opportunity of coming into contact with each other. Consequently, international objectives will be pursued and unity would improve.

3. Social and Economic Welfare: Social and economic inequalities constitute the greatest single enemy of permanent peace. In most of the places, where war and conflict are taking places, poverty is very common. Therefore it is important that steps be taken up to bridge the gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots'.

Pro-environmental actions that can help protect the environment from pollution are:

1. Reducing air pollution
2. Reducing noise pollution
3. Managing disposable of garbage sensibly
4. Planting trees and ensuring their care
5. Saying no to plastics in any form
6. Reducing the non-biodegradable packaging of consumer goods
7. Laws related to constructions that violate optimal environmental design be implemented

Strategies for reducing aggression and violence are:

1. Parents and teachers should be especially careful not to encourage or reward aggression in any form. The use of punishment to bring about discipline also needs to be changed.
2. Opportunities to observe and imitate the behaviour of aggressive models should be reduced drastically. Avoid portraying aggression as heroic behaviour.
3. Poverty and social injustice are the cause of frustration which leads to aggression.
4. Reduction of poverty and social influences help in reducing frustration levels and thereby curb aggressive tendencies at least to some extent.
5. Inculcating a positive attitude towards peace at the community level.
6. Propagation of the concept of non-violence.

Pro-environmental actions to protect the environment from pollution are:

1. Reducing air pollution
2. Reducing noise pollution
3. Managing disposal of garbage sensibly
4. Planting trees and ensuring their care
5. Saying no to plastics in any form
6. Reducing the non-biodegradable packaging of consumer goods
7. Laws related to constructions that violate optimal environmental design

Instrumental

body language

Crowding refers to a feeling of discomfort due to the presence of too many people or things around an individual.

It gives an experience of physical restriction and the lack of privacy.

Stereo-types

Pro-environmental behaviour includes both actions that are meant to protect the
environment from problems, and to promote a healthy environment.

Promotive actions to protect the environment from pollution are:

1. Planting trees and ensuring their care, keeping in mind that those plants and trees should not be planted that have adverse health effects.
2. Saying ‘no’ to plastics in any form, thus reducing toxic wastes that pollute water, air and the soil.

A psychologist engages in observing various facts surrounding including people and varying events.

1. Observe patiently.
2. Beware of reactions, emotions, and motivations of people.
3. Ask a question that can be answered while observing.
4. Observe with an optimistic curiosity.

Major consequences of crowding:

1. Feeling of discomfort.
2. Loss or decrease in privacy.
3. Negative view of the space around the person.
4. Abnormal behaviour and aggression among human beings, an increased population has sometimes been found to be accompanied by an increase in violent crimes and aggression.
5. Crowding leads to lowered performance on difficult tasks that involve cognitive processes.
6. Lower academic performance of children: Children growing up in very crowded households show-

1. Lower academic performance.
2. A weaker tendency to continue working on a task.
3. Greater conflict with their parents.
4. Get less support from their family members.

Some strategies for reducing aggression and violence –

1. Parents and Teachers should not encourage and reward aggression in any form.
2. Opportunities to observe and imitate the behaviour of aggressive models should be reduced drastically.
3. Poverty and social injustice may be a prominent cause of aggression. Implementing social justice and equality in society may help in reducing frustration levels and thereby curb aggressive tendencies.
4. Promoting a positive attitude towards peace and practicing non-violence.

Biofeedback is a process to monitor and decrease the physiological aspects of stress by providing feedback about ongoing physiological activity and is associated with relaxation training. Biofeedback involves three stages:

1. Building up awareness of particular physiological response,
2. Devising ways to control the physiologic response in a calm atmosphere
3. Using the control methods to suit everyday life.

Instrumental

The experience of crowding has the following features.

1. Feeling of discomfort.
2. Loss or decrease in privacy.
3. The negative view of the spice around the person.
4. Feeling of loss of control over social interaction.

Television provides a large amount of infotainment in an attractive form, and in the visual mode, for which it became a powerful medium of instruction.

Children spend more time in watching different programmes.This reduces their habit of reading and writing, and also their outdoor activities such as playing.

Television watching may have an effect on children’s ability to concentrate on one target, their creativity and ability to understand, and also their social interactions.

These programmers may distract young viewers and interfere with their ability to concentrate on one target.

In The case of adults as well as children’s, it is said that a consumerist attitude has developed, and this is due to television watching. Numerous products are advertised, and it is very natural for, the viewer to get carried away.

Pressure

Crowding refers to a feeling of discomfort due to the presence of too many people or things around an individual.

It gives an experience of physical restriction and the lack of privacy.

These include being involved in a variety of extreme events such as a fire, train or road accident, robbery, earthquake, tsunami, etc. The effect of these events may occur after some lapse of time and sometimes can last for a very long time after the actual event
in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Professional help will be needed to cope with them.

The following are the three situational factors that lead to aggression.

Learning: Human beings take to aggression due to learning rather than as an inborn tendency.People exhibit aggression because they found it rewarding. For example, hostile aggression allows the aggressive person to get what s/he wants.

Availability of weapons of aggression: It has been found that observing violence leads to a greater aggression. The proximity of weapons of aggression and their immediate availability increase the likelihood of aggression on part of people.

Personality factors: People with low self-esteem and insecurity behave in an aggressive manner to boost their ego. Similarly, people with a high self-esteem behave aggressively and find it as away to look down upon others.