MAB Technical Notes 5

Guidelines for field studies

in environmental
perception

Prepared in co-operation with SCOPE

Titles in this series:

1. The Sahel: ecoZogica2 approaches to Zand use

2. Mediterranem forests and maquis: ecology, conservation oxd management

3. Human population problems in the biosphere: some research strategies and designs
4, Dynamic changes in terrestria2 ecosystems: patterns of change, techniques for study and
apptications to management
5. Guidelines for field studies in environmental perception
Guidelines for field studies
in environmental
perception

Anne V. T. Whyte
MAB Technical Notes 5
Launched by Unesco in 1970, the intergovernmental Programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB) aims
to develop within the natural and social sciences a basis for the rational use and conservation of the
resources of the biosphere and for the improvement of the relationship between man and the environment.
To achieve these. objectives, the MAB Programme has adopted an integrated ecological approach
for its research and training activities, centred around fourteen major international themes and designed
for the solution of concrete management problems in the different types of ecosystems.

Published in 1977 by the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization,
7 Place de Fontenoy,
75700 Paris
Printed by Union Typographique,
Villeneuve-Saint-Georges
ISBN: 92-3-101483-8
French edition: 92-3-201483-l
0 Unesco 1977
Printed in France
Preface

How does man, as an individual or as part research activities within the framework of
of a particular cultural group, perceive the Programme. Some of these are directly con-
his environment? This question should be a cerned with perception as a major variable, as
fundamental consideration in all attempts in the MAB field study in Tunisia on the per-
to understand the complex interrelationships ception of the quality of coastal zones mod-
between man and the biosphere. Man's deci- ified by socio-economic development, and par-
sions and actions concerning his environ- ticularly tourism. Other projects have includ-
ment are based not only on objective factors, ed perception as part of a broader scientific
but also on subjective ones : this is the study, such as that sponsored by the MAB Na-
underlying principle of environmental per- tional Committee of Sri Lanka on ecological
-~ception research. and socio-economic aspects of peasant farming
One of the fourteen international project in upland areas of that country. Certain coun-
areas of Unesco's intergovernmental Programme tries, such as Australia (Seddon and Davis
on Man and the Biosphere (MAB), Project 13 1976, "Man and landscape in Australia") have
("Perception of environmental quality"), is organized seminars around specific aspects
addressed to such perception studies. The of MAB Project 13. Other countries, such as
main characteristics of this MAB project were Canada, the United States and Mexico (Canada-
elaborated by an expert panel convened in MAB 1977), have joined together in sponsoring
Paris in March 1973. As described in the rep- methodological training workshops in the field
ort of the panel (Unesco 1973a), six priority of environmental perception research.
research areas were identified for Project 13, These and other attempts to promote envi-
including perception of environment in iso- ronmental perception research within MAB,
lated or peripheral ecological areas, percep- have at times revealed that a lack of aware-
tion of typical man-made landscapes of eco- ness of available methods - many of them re-
logical, historical or aesthetic importance, cently developed - has hampered the incorpor-
and perception of quality in urban environ- ation of a perception approach into field
ments. studies dealing with man's interactions with
The panel also considered that perhaps the various types of ecosystems and oriented to-
most important point to be stressed in MAB wards the solution of concrete problems. Al-
Project 13 activities is that in any programme so it has become clear that many biologists
which hopes "to increase man's ability to man- and natural resource scientists are unfamil-
age efficiently the natural resources of the iar with the possibilities for systematic ob-
biosphere", the perceptions of the people di- servation in the field of subjective percep-
rectly involved need to be taken explicitly tions.
into consideration along with those of ex- Thus the need for methodological guide-
perts or officials. The panel concluded that lines for planning field investigations in
Project 13 would have limited value as a rel- environmental perception became increasingly
atively isolated component of the MAB Pro- apparent. In particular, it was felt that a
gramme. The success of this project will de- methodological study was required which would
pend mainly on the degree to which a percep- both provide a rationale and description of
tion approach can be-incorporated into, and the field of environmental perception in the
reflected in, other MAB projects. context of man-biosphere relations and eco-
Since 1973, many MAB National Committees system management, and suggest alternative
have launched or identified concrete field research methods for field investigations of

_...
-- _--- ,--.. ^_..,
x.-._-_--
 environmental perception accompanied by indi- Guidelines document, placed in the hands of
cations of their advantages and limitations inexperienced field workers, will automatica -lY
for specific purposes and conditions. provide all the knowledge and understanding
In an agreement with the Scientific Com- of available methods necessary for carrying
mittee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) out perception studies. The Guidelines is no
of ICSU, Unesco entrusted this methodological substitute for the direct involvement in re-
study to an ad hoc group of SCOPE Project 7 search activities of social scientists know-
("The communication of environmental informa- ledgeable about available methods and trained
tion and societal assessment and response"). in their use.
This group was headed by Dr. Ian Burton - Second, most perception research and devel-
chairman of SCOPE Project 7 - and Dr. Anne opment of techniques has been undertaken in
Whyte, both of the Institute for Environmen- industrialized, and in particular English-
tal Studies of the University of Toronto, speaking, countries which are often charac-
Toronto, Canada. Dr. Whyte generously agreed terized by a high level of urbanization, and
to be responsible for the study of methods a relatively modern agricultural economy. Care
and techniques suitable for inclusion and to must be taken in extending and transferring
prepare a guidelines document. the methods described in the Guidelines to
In order to make this methodological study circumstances different from those in which
more than a simple transcription of readily they were originally developed and tested.
available knowledge into a new format, SCOPE This can be done, and done very satisfactorily,
Project 7 undertook to draw a large number of but the caveats that apply to the transfer of
people into a discussion of the study. A num- technology also apply to that of research me-
ber of small group meetings were convened to thods and techniques.
explore its possible contents and orientation. In making available the Guidelines as
In addition to individual reviews and advice MAB Technical Notes 5, Unesco and ICSU hope
from many scientists, the draft document was to encourage the inclusion of perception
reviewed at an international workshop on me- studies as an integral part of interdisci-
thods and interpretation of environmental per- plinary research on man-biosphere relations
ception research, sponsored by the MAB Nation- and ecosystem management. Another aim is to
al Committees of Canada, United States and promote the exchange and dissemination of in-
Mexico, and held at the University of Victoria, formation among scientists working on environ-
B.C., Canada, in May 1976. The present Guide- mental perception problems in different cul-
lines is the result of this process of con- tural settings and geographic regions. In this
sultation, review and refinement. Its main respect, a detachable questionnaire on the me-
purpose is to provide an elaboration of the thods and techniques described in the Guide-
ideas involved in the perception approach, to lines has been included to solicit the con-
describe methods and techniques of research, crete comments and suggestions of research
and to discuss and evaluate their requirements workers in the field. In the light of the
and suitability for field research in the MAB responses to this questionnaire the Guide-
context. lines will possibly be revised and up-dated.
It is hoped that MAB National Committees Unesco-MAB and ICSU-SCOPE wish to express
and other national and international groups their thanks to all those who have contributed
will make wide use of the Guidelines and in to the present study, and particularly to Dr.
particular that research project managers and Anne Whyte for preparing the Technical Note
field investigators will find it helpful to for publication. The views expressed by her
refer to this document in the formative or in this publication are not necessarily shared
preparatory stages of research design. by Unesco or by SCOPE.
Two cautionary notes must, however, be
made. First, it should not be assumed that the
Contents

Foreword...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

I. Environmental perception research ........ ................ 11

The role of environmental perception in MAB . ................ 11
Design of the Guidelines .......... ................ 14
Suggestions for further reading ....... ................ 16

FIELD METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

II. Basic approaches . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

III. Observation ................... ................ 21

Direct observation ............. ................ 21
Specialized techniques in direct observation ................ 24
Indirect observation ............ ................ 33
Participant observation ........... ................ 35
Suggestions for further reading ....... ................ 37

IV. Ask ing questions ................ ................ 37

Interviewing ................ ................ 37
Measuring verbal response .......... ................ 40
Suggestions for further reading ....... ................ 45

V. Projective techniques and other specialized ways

of asking questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................ 45
Verbal tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................ 45
Graphic tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................ 52
Other specialized interview techniques . . . ................ 57
Suggestions for further reading . . . . . . . ................ 64

VI. Listening, recording and coding ......... ................ 65

Methods of structuring listening ...... ................ 65
Coding answers ............... ................ 75
Suggestions for further reading ....... ................ 83

___--. ..~. ,_.--w,_---

DESIGN OF FIELD STUDIES . . . . . . . , . , . , . . . , , . , . . . . . , . . . , . , . 85

VII. Selection of research variables ......................... 85

A systems approach ............................. 85
State variables ............................... 86
Perception processes ............................ 91
Output variables .............................. 94
Examples of field studies .......................... 96

VIII. Criteria for selection of methods ........................ 103

Matching field methods to system variables ................. 104
Matching methods to local field conditions ................. 104
Impact of environmental perception research ................. 108
Conclusion ................................. 112

Bibliography ..................................... 114

Questionnaire ..................................... 119

Foreword

In this Technical Note, I have tried to bring Ian Burton, Peter Jacobs, Robert Kates and
together methods and techniques that have been Philip Porter, whose thoughtful advice has
developed in many different disciplines, and improved the manuscript both in detail and
to evaluate them for use in the field in wide- in reorganization of some sections. I am grate-
ly differing environmental and cultural set.- ful to them for their time and patience.
tings. Throughout the work, I have grown in- The Guidelines has received the rare ben-
creasingly aware of the isolation of differ- efit of a practical comparative field testing
ent disciplinary approaches from one another by over twenty-five participants from some
in their testing of techniques and concepts. twenty countries during a workshop on methods
Evaluating them for measuring environmental and interpretation of environmental percep-
perception and for use cross-culturally, has tion research held in Victoria, B.C., Canada
proved to be a more critical test than most in May 1976. The workshop was sponsored by
techniques can survive. In general, highly the MAB National Committees of Canada, Mexico,
structured techniques were not included, eith- and the United States of America and was sup-
er because they impose the researcher's view ported by the Canadian International Devel-
too heavily on the data or because they can- opment Research Centre (IDRC), Unesco and the
not be used outside the cultural setting in Canadian and United States National Commis-
which they were first developed. The evalua- sions for Unesco. To the sponsors and par-
tion of available techniques revealed a clear ticipants of the workshop, I should like to
need to develop new field techniques and re- record my thanks for the help and insight pro-
search instruments that can be used in more vided by their efforts in the field and around
than one cultural context. the discussion table. The participants were:
In bringing together the material included M. Yusuf Badri (Sudan), Jacques Barrau (France),
in the Guidelines, I have been helped by the Jacques Bugnicourt (Institut African de Ds-
advice of many scientists who responded to a veloppement Economique et de Planification,
request from myself and Ian Burton in 1974 Senegal), Ian Burton (Canada), Boontham Dham-
for suggestions and materials. These are: charee (Thailand), Bo Edvardsson (Sweden),
Howard Andrews, Duane Baumann, Len Berry, Har- Adetoye Faniran (Nigeria), Mario F. de la
old Brookfield, David A. Brusegard, David Can- Garza (Mexico), F. Gonzales Bernaldez (Spain),
ter, Kenneth Craik, Gyb'rgy Enyedi, Richard Pierre Guertin (Canada), Aminul Islam (Bang-
Feachem, Marilyn Gates, Norton Ginsburg, Bri- ladesh), Gerhard Kaminski (Federal Republic
an Goodey, John Harrison, D.R. Helliwell, Ray of Germany), David Kinyanjui (Kenya), R. Lis-
Hudson, Hersch Jacobs, Peter Jacobs, Kevin ter (New Zealand), J. Maini (Canada), E.M. de
Lynch, Charles Mercer, Lester Milbrath, Kath- Oliveira (Brazil), Philip Porter (USA), Rio
erine Muir, H. O'Reilly Sternberg, Tim O'Rior- Rachwartono (Indonesia), Patricia Roberts-
dan, Henry Riecken, J.S. Rowe, Tom Saarinen, Pichette (Canada), Alexander W. Ryabchikov
Philip Sarre, Derrick Sewell, John Sims, S.B. (USSR), A. Sekarajasekaran (Malaysia), Der-
Smith, Nice Stehr, Clive Taylor, Yi-fu Tuan, rick Sewell (Canada), Linda Van Keuren (USA),
Geoff Wall, Gilbert White, Joachim F. Wohl- Ann Whyte (Canada), Hiroaki Yoshii (Japan),
will and Ervin H. Zube. Their help is grate- Estela Zamora (Philippines). A report on the
fully acknowledged here together with my apol- workshop is being prepared and will be pub-
ologies for not being able to include every- lished in 1977 by Canada-MAB.
thing that they suggested. Ian Burton, chairman of the SCOPE Working
The Guidelines has also been reviewed by Group and of the Expert Panel on MAB Pro-

9
ject 13 which met in Paris in March 1973, Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., M.J. Kirk-
played a leading role in planning and launch- by, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Mouton/Edicom,
ing the Guidelines project. He has also been Northwestern University Press, Oxford Univer-
a source of constructive advice and criticism sity Press, Penguin Books Ltd., Pergamon Press
throughout. Ltd., Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., T. Saar-
The major writing task has been supported inen, University of Illinois Press, University
by the Institute for Environmental Studies of of Wisconsin Press. Full citations are given
the University of Toronto which has provided in the appropriate places in the text, togeth-
two valued resources - research time and a er with the relevant entry in the bibliography.
congenial interdisciplinary atmosphere in The Guidelines represents the inputs of many
which to work. In particular, I should like people and the help and collaboration of SCOPE
to thank Ann Young who singlehandedly took on Project 7 and of UNESCO-MAB. It is hoped that
the tasks of research and editorial assistant these collaborative efforts may serve to stim-
in collecting material, typing and editing ulate interest in environmental perception
the manuscript, and drafting the diagrams, studies and their implementation in MAB field
whilst remaining always cheerful. projects.
Thanks are also due to the following in-
dividuals and publishers for permission to
reproduce copyright material: Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co., Inc., American Geographical
Society, Association of American Geographers,
Athens Center of Ekistics, I. Burton, Clark Anne Whyte
University Press, Consultant Psychologists Institute for Environmental Studies
Press Inc., J. Dollard, Faber and Faber Ltd., University of Toronto

10
Introduction

I. ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION RESEARCH

THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION IN MAB on environmental perception is to provide a

systematic and scientific understanding of
Environmental perception research shares a the view from the inside-out, in order to
paradigm of man-environment relations in which complement the more traditional and external
man's individual and collective understanding scientific approach. The view from the inside
of the environment is seen as a major force may be that of any individual, of a local com-
in shaping that environment through the ac- munity, or even of a whole rural population.
tion of man's choices and behaviour. Man's The scale is less important than the relation-
perception of the environment is considered ship between those on the inside, and those
so fundamental that it becomes the main point traditionally on the outside. The inside view
of departure for any analysis of man-environ- is characterized by familiarity and long ex-
ment relations. perience often coupled with inability to ef-
A perception approach to man-environment fect rapid changes. It is seen as personal-
relations recognizes that for each objective ized and subjective. In comparison, the out-
element and relationship in the biosphere, side view becomes associated with development,
there are many perceived elements and rela- action and objectivity against internal tra-
tionships as seen and understood by different dition and resistance to rapid change.
people and at different times and places. Man It is where these two ends of the spectrum
reaches decisions and takes action within the come up against one another in a conflict of
framework of his perceived sets of elements interest over resource use - for example, in a
and links rather than any externally defined conflict between the local community and na-
"objective set". Within any given time frame tional planners - that the differences in per-
or culture, scientific knowledge of the day ceptions between the two groups, and the need
may also be viewed as more formalized and to understand both within the same analytical
rigorous sets of perceived environmental el- framework, become highlighted and of urgent,
ements and relationships. This is most easily practical importance.
recognized for past, superceded modes of sci- Many examples could be cited to show the
entific thinking such as pre-Copernican value of a perception approach to man-bio-
astronomy. For the purposes of analysis (and sphere relations. The two which are given
decision-making), the present state of sci- here illustrate some of the advantages and
entific knowledge of the environment is usu- some of the difficulties.
ally taken to be "objective reality". In this
sense, the environmental perception of an in- SoiZ erosion
dividual or group may be brought more closely
into line with scientific, "objective" under- Few areas demonstrate so graphically the
standing by education and information. existence of the unexpected result - or un-
Environment is both a physical and social predicted perception - as the Valley of
milieu, but within the scope of this Tech- Nochixtlan in southern Mexico. Many of its
nical Note emphasis is placed upon perception side slopes are ravaged by active gullies
of physical or tangible parts of the bio- which remove the surface wholesale and leave
sphere, including the works of man himself. the slopes bare of vegetation, fields or
One important objective of research based houses. Since the Spanish Conquest, an aver-

11
 Environmental perception research

age depth of 5 m has been stripped from the Divide

entire surface area, producing one of the
highest rates of erosion recorded in the
world? Set between the forested uplands and
the agricultural valley floor, the area seems ]i
a wasteland which only drastic soil conserva-
tion measures could reverse.
a) Initial forested hill-side
Government experts share this view and have 7
instituted conservation measures including the
construction of low'earth ridges to slow down
soil movement. Few scientifically trained ex-
perts would disagree with their general per-
ception of the gullying as a problem but the
view from inside the valley is different.
Gullies are seen not as a hazard but as a re-
source. By directing the flow of the eroded
material, Mixtec farmers can annually feed
their fields with fertile soil and can, with cultivation of hill-top
greater effort, extend their agricultural land
by building new fields over a few years.
Over the past 1000 years, Mixtec cultiva-
tors have managed to use gully erosion to
double the width of the main valley floors =\yY&
from about 1.5 km to 3 km; and to infill the
narrow tributary valley floors with flights c) Gullies cut through
of terraces several kilometres long. Judi-
calcareous layer
cious use of gullying has enabled them to con-
vert poor hill-top fields into rich alluvial
farmland below, using the gullies to transport
the soil (Fig. 1). Thus before large-scale Gullies
gullying began, the agricultural productivity
of the valley area was less than it is today.
The difference between the "outside ex-
pert" view and the inside Mixtec one rests on d,G>aB
the farmers' greater experience and knowledge
of the local situation. Their experience of
the highly fertile and erodible local depos-
its, and their familiarity with the technical
and social bases of controlling soil movement,
are too particular to the Valley of Nochixt- t-- Organic material
lan to be readily translated to other areas.
Thus the concept "gullies are good" is not
part of the outside expert's portfolio. Nor . . . Caicareous layer (endeque)
could he be expected to know that intermar-
riage between the hill-top and valley bottom
communities enables families to "move with Und lsturbed
their soil" downvalley. Yanhultlan Beds
The Valley of Nochixtlan is an unusual Redeposited Red material
case; usually different groups agree that
soil erosion is a problem but disagree about
how to solve it. This example is intended,
however, to illustrate the importance of un-
derstanding local perceptions of the environ- Figure 1. Bene,ciciaZ efSect of gullying OM production
ment in the context of local resource use and of agr-kxZturaZ land in JochiztZan, ,Mezico
(reprinted with permission from *,,f. iirkby 7972)

1. The average erosion rate over the whole surface

was in the order of>10 mm per year over the last
500 years for a drainage basin of area>0.4 km2
(M. Kirkby 1972).

12
 The role of environmenta perception in MAB

social structure. But this is only the first, The rows of houses provide a close-knit so-
important step. In the example of Nochixt- cial structure, based on long-residence and
lan - as almost everywhere - both perceptions inter-marriage with its own institutions and
of the environment are valid, within their. customs. Information, advice, goods and ser-
own contexts. For the farmers in Nochixtlan, vices are shared and available when needed.
gullies are an important agricultural re- In moving people out of the old areas,
source. For the government authorities con- people lose both the physical and social as-
cerned with the area as a whole, gullies are pects of the support they had in their neigh-
also a problem - not for those farms whose bourhood and grieve in much the same way as
owners remain, but for the farms abandoned for a lost person (Fried 1963). It is not easy
by their urban-migrating owners and no longer to see how the planning dilemma might be
receiving replenishment and protection from solved. The evidence on clinical health ef-
the gullies. Thus, the national "problem" is fects of moving people to new communities is
that of urban migration and rural depopula- equivocal (Freeman 1972). Several studies
tion, which is a higher-order one, and which show increases in morbidity when people are
is outside the scope of agricultural author- moved, especially among women who have lost
ities and local communities. their social support while bringing up young
Environmental perception research needs, children. But it is difficult to separate the
therefore, to be contextual, i.e. able to re- effects of moving from the effects of living
late perceptions to the resource management in the new community. The two are different
context. In so doing, it becomes but one en- but linked planning problems.
try point into a larger system of environ- Isolation from familiar places and faces
ment, technology and society, and the diffi- as well as low residential densities and
culty becomes one of conceptual and empirical fewer really local facilities (such as the
closure to the "research-system". corner shop) became officially recognized as
"new town blues" as early as 1960 in the
Urban renewa United Kingdom. "New town blues" were old
community social problems exacerbated by the
In many cities, of which London, England, is moving process (Gold 1974; Goodey 1974).
just one example, planners are trying to move Speaking about Harlow in England, Pevsner
people out of old, poor housing of central puts forward the designer's view in the con-
"slum" or "twilight" areas into modern homes text of governmental constraints on permitted
in planned communities. The perceptions of population densities:
the planners have been mainly focussed on the the New Town Look is an appearance re-
physical conditions of the slum areas with sulting from urban types of building in a
their inadequate housing, poor sanitation, green rural setting. It is a happy look.
and lack of public open space. The new com- There is, however, one danger in this em-
munities they design are more open and green phasis on a green setting for every house.
with adequate sanitary facilities and more It is a danger for which the architects
modern housing. Services such as shops, so- and planners have no responsibility. The
cial centres, transport facilities and schools cause is the density laid down by the au-
may lag several years behind the arrival of thorities. The New Towns will never be
the new residents, but are eventually pro- towns in the sense in which Chipping Camp-
vided. den, or Lewes, or Petersfield are: urban
Why then is there accumulating evidence density is not permitted in residential
that urban renewal creates distress, and so- areas. The resulting looseness is diffi-
cial and family disruption, and may even i-n- cult to master visually, and it has, in ad-
crease health problems rather than solve them? dition, its social drawbacks (Pevsner
The view of the old and new areas seen 1954, p. 207).
from the inside - from the residents' per- The example of urban renewal reinforces the
spective - is different from the external one. significant differences that can exist between
To the outsider, a slum area may appear as the inside and outside views of an area. It
rows of tiny, old houses crowded together on also introduces the problems of criteria and
streets with no trees or grass and overhung proof in situations that are ambiguous and con-
by heavily polluted air. The same area to the flicting. These problems are not unique to en-
long-term resident means familiar places, en- vironmental perception research but they may
crusted with significant memories, and reas- be said to be endemic to it, because ipso
suring him of physical and social stability. facto perceptions are unique and likely to be

13

-.--...--- --- .--

 Environmental perception research

conflicting. management task (that is, the organizational

In the urban example a major difficulty task) increases in proportion and in sophis-
in implementing research results arises from tication at more aggregate and collective
inadequate criteria of what constitutes "men- levels of authority. Thus the relative em-
tal health" and "environmental quality" and phasis on communication and organizing pro-
how to separate interacting factors. In terms cesses will increase in the research model
of implementing the results of research, the of collective management.
policy-maker is confounded as much by what The role of environmental perception re-
the criteria might mean as by the conflicting search in man-biosphere relations can be syn-
implications of different studies. thesized into five goals:
These two examples dramatize the inside- 1. contributing to the more rational use of
outside view as dichotomies whereas in most biosphere resources by harmonizing local
situations no such simple polarizations ex- (inside) knowledge and that available from
ist. There are Mixtec farmers for whom gul- outside;
lies are a problem; and there are urban res- 2. increasing understanding on all sides of
idents who perceive the slums as their pris- the rational bases for different percep-
ons, not their homes; and for whom the new tions of the environment;
towns spell wealth, health and freedom. Sim- 3. encouraging local involvement in develop-
ilarly there are increasing numbers of sci- ment and planning as the basis for more
entifically trained administrators who are effective implementation of more appro-
sensitive to the inside view and who seek to priate change;
harmonize change and stability in better re- 4. helping to preserve or record the rich en-
source management. One of the roles of en- vironmental perceptions and systems of
vironmental perception research in the MAB knowledge that are rapidly being lost in
Programme is to foster such an approach on many rural areas;
an international scale. 5. acting as an educational tool and agent of
It can be argued that wherever people are change as well as providing a training op-
already living in an area and using its re- portunity for those involved in the re-
sources, scientific studies of their percep- search.
tions are a necessary corollary to any sci- These goals are deliberately formulated in
entific evaluation of the environment de- policy-oriented terms. It remains the task
signed to improve the rational use of natural of each researcher to be sensitive to the
resources. Local perceptions of the environ- needs of policy-makers. Ultimately his re-
ment provide a time frame that extends into search hypotheses, criteria, measured vari-
the past; they are an active agent in organ- ables and results should be capable of being
izing the system of resource use in practice; translated into action and generalized, if
and for good or ill, they reflect the raw they are ever to be implemented beyond the
material from which a more rational use of scope of his own research project.
resources will emerge. In this connection,
it is important to note that an individual DESIGN OF THE GUIDELINES
farmer deciding which crop to plant or which
tree to cut, is a resource manager in the This Technical Note is designed to fulfil
same sense that the head of a state water two main functions: to describe alternative
authority or national forestry commission is research methods for field investigations of
a resource manager. environmental perception accompanied by sug-
The difference between the individual far- gestions about their advantages and limita-
mer and the state official is one of scale: tions for specific purposes and conditions;
the scale of environmental impact of their and to provide a rationale and description
decisions and the scale of society on whose of the field of environmental perception in
behalf their decisions are made. They are the context of man-biosphere relations and
both resource managers in that they use, and ecosystem management. The ultimate purpose
thereby directly affect, the biosphere is to encourage organizers and planners of
through their choices. Their perceptions and national and international research projects
choices can be modelled and empirically in- on man-biosphere relations and ecosystem
vestigated in the same analytic framework management to include perception studies as
for different levels of resource management. an integral part of interdisciplinary inves-
The processes involved are similar for the tigations at the conceptual and field levels.
individual and the government body but the The Guidelines is considered as a flex-

14
 Design of the GuideZines

ible set of suggestions which provide the this nature; instead reference is made to a
basis for individual choice of both the as- few principal sources.
pects of the perception system to be inves- The methods also differ in spirit and gen-
tigated in the field and the methods by which eral philosophy. Some are more extractive in
to do so. nature while others have the dual aim of data
At the same time, by presenting an ap- gathering and education. S,elf-study, or the
proach to environmental perception that is design of methods to enable local people to
oriented to both systems modelling and eco- gather information about themselves, is an
system management choices it is hoped that important tool for creating scientific self-
the Guidelines may encourage and facilitate awareness and local research capability.
the inclusion of coordinated and comparable Many of the tests described here have not
perception studies across several MAB pro- been used in self-study investigations but
jects and the ecosystems with which they are could probably be adapted for this approach.
concerned. The methods are summarized in a reference
chart designed for easy location of the al-
Design and scope ternatives described in this Technical Note
(see page 105).
This Technical Note is designed as a prac-
tical document for use in the planning phases Relationship to environwentaZ perception
of field investigations into man-biosphere research
relations. It attempts both to structure the
field of environmental perception and to sug- In the Guidelines "environmental perception"
gest specific methods for analysis. is used to mean human awareness and under-
The need to formulate a structure in the standing of the environment in a general
field of environmental perception became ap- sense. It is taken to include much more than
parent after a survey of the literature individual sensory perception such as vision
showed that no general frameworks had yet or hearing. This broad definition of percep-
been developed. The frameworks suggested here tion is used in the MAB Programme (Unesco
are not, at least in their present form, ade- 1973a and 1974) but the use of the term "per-
quate for the field as a whole. They have ception" in this way, whilst correctly ap-
been selected as being most appropriate for plied in terms of everyday language, is more
the MAB Programme rather than on their a akin to "cognition" in psychological frames
priori theoretical validity. Their merit lies of reference. The term "environmental percep-
in the social science parallel to ecosystems tion" is therefore sometimes confused with
modelling that the systems approach provides, the more rigorous and narrower concept of
and in the perspective from the resource man- direct sensory perception as it is used in
ager's position that a choice model gives. psychology. It is an unfortunate situation,
The adoption of a particular framework in- which can lead to problems of communication
evitably leads to a rearrangement of the top- between psychologists and others in the field.
ics and methods within the field. Some con- However, the term "environmental perception"
cepts and studies become central while others to mean both sensory perception and cognition
are considered to have only peripheral impor- is probably too well established to be
tance. This selection process has occurred in changed now and in any case no generally ac-
the Guidelines and thus some researchers' ceptable alternative is available.
most important concerns are treated lightly Environmental perception as an area of
or omitted. For this reason, and in consid- study is a loose confederation of research
eration of the heterogenous nature of the interests which share a common orientation
field, the advantages of offering a framework and philosophy rather than close disciplinary
may seem debatable. It was decided, however, origins. The substantive field of interest is
that, although the boundaries of the frame- thus defined only at the most general level.
work could remain open and flexible, it would Both the wide range of methods employed and
be more useful in a planning document to the great range in scale at which analyses
clearly indicate the key elements. are made reflect the contributions which dif-
In the section on methods, emphasis has ferent disciplinary traditions have made.
been given to providing the basis for making Some of the disciplines which have contributed
a choice of methods rather than giving a de- to the field are anthropology, architecture,
tailed account of the development and anal- city and regional planning, geography, psy-
ysis of each method. This latter alternative chology and sociology. So far, the convergence
would have been impractical in a document of of interests from these disciplines has not

15
 Environmental perception research

led to any synthesis of models or methods

that lie beyond their traditional boundaries,
although several summary papers and books
reviewing the field are available. The field
has been characterized by the transferring
of concepts from one focus of inquiry to an-
other and the borrowing of methods between
disciplines. One major direction in this ex-
change which is of particular relevance to
environmental management at the governmental
level is the transfer of ideas from individ-
ual psychology, such as identity and role,
to the behaviour of groups and larger organi-
zations (e.g. Katz and Kahn 1966).
In a number of disciplines, the importance
of individual and cultural perception of the
environment for human behaviour began to be
discussed in the 1950s or even earlier. But
until the 1960s there was little sense of
impetus or cross fertilization of ideas. As
a multidisciplinary field with some common
research problems, environmental perception
began to appear in the early 1960s. During
this time, earlier ideas about cultural in-
p = perception
fluences on man's use of the environment be-
came re-expressed in terms of the influence
of the "perceived" or subjective environment.
These ideas soon led to a rapid development Figure 2. Pcsearch edfefmt in cnviro7mental per-
of empirical investigations into environmen- ception (based on Ihwseo Z973a, pp. 58-
and the need for more know- 531.
tal perception,
ledge about the role of environmental percep-
tion in environmental management became iden-
tified as a practical objective, During the mental perception are not necessarily trans-
last decade, environmental perception has be- ferable or even compatible with those devel-
come a rapidly expanding area of research oped in other sub-areas, despite the common
that is empirically and practically oriented. "perception" point of departure, Furthermore,
Although environmental perception is con- the sub-areas defined in Figure 2 as receiv-
cerned generally with man-environment rela- ing at least some attention within the field
tions as a function of man's perceptions, it of environmental perception do not cover all
has so far concentrated on a few aspects of those which are of concern and relevance to
that relationship and ignored others. The the MAB Programme.
parts of the field which have been developed
arise out of the interests of related disci- SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
plines and have often been pursued in rela-
tive isolation from each other. For example, There is now available a selection of books
work by psychologists and architects on the and review papers in English which serve as
perception of the architectural environment good introductions to the field of environ-
and its effect on behaviour in buildings has mental perception. The following suggestions
until very recently developed alongside, but cover only some of these, including the most
having little interchange with, work on per- widely available.
ception of natural hazards by geographers or Two early and comprehensive review papers
anthropological studies of folk taxonomies which provide good reference lists are those
of environmental phenomena. by Brookfield (1969) and Craik (1970). Goodey
Figure 2 presents diagrammatically one (1971) has written a short and very readable
view of the main research foci within environ- introduction to the literature. Lowenthal
mental perception ranging from those that are (1967) and Downs and Stea (1973) have brought
almost developed to those that are identified, together papers by different authors which pro-
but neglected. The methods and concepts em- vide useful sets of readings. Two books with
ployed in each of these sub-areas of environ- a stronger psychological emphasis are those

16
 Suggestions for further reading

by Proshansky, Ittelson and Rivlin (1970) and (1964), O'Riordan (1971, 1976), Sewell and
by Ittelson et al. (1974). The first book is Burton (1972), Burton, Kates and White (1976),
a more detailed collection of research pa- and White (1974). The last two are concerned
pers and the second serves as a more easily with the perception and management of envi-
assimilated introductory text. Another book ronmental hazards. At least one journal is
exemplifying the psychological approach to primarily concerned with the environmental
environmental behaviour and its implication perception research field: Environment and
for design and planning is that by Canter Rehavior.
(1975). Saarinen (1976) organizes the field In languages other than English, the lit-
in terms of environmental scale from archi- erature is sparser, but the following are
tectural space to urban and regional space available: Gehl (1971) in Danish; Hesselgren
to the nation and the world. Perception lit- (1966) in Swedish; Moles and Rohmer (1972)
erature with a more environmental resource and Kates (1970) in French; and Eringis (1975)
management focus includes Burton and Kates in Lithuanian.

17
Field methods

TI. BASIC APPROACHES

The number of techniques that have been de-

veloped or borrowed for field study of envrl-
ronmental perception has increased signifi-
Observing
cantly in the last ten years. These tech-
niques tend to have the aura of complexity
and disciplinary specialization that is often
confusing in new transdisciplinary research
fields. It is important to note, therefore,
that all field techniques are based on a com-
bination of three main approaches: observing,
listening and asking questions (Fig. 3).
These methods are complementary and basic to
all research in the field.
The variety of specialized techniques
gives the researcher the misleading impres-
sion that there is a wide range from which
to choose. Figure 3 shows diagrammatically
that "asking questions" represents the heav-
iest concentration of specialized field tech-
niques. This situation is based on three
trends: the reliance on questionnaires and Listening Asking Questions _
surveys in the social sciences in the past
few decades; the development of field inter-
view methods in environmental perception by Areas of research concentration
modifying clinical and laboratory techniques
(mainly "paper and pencil" tests); and the
search for scientific objectivity through ex-
Figure 3. PrincipaZ methodoZogicaZ approaches
perimental and statistical approaches to
studying "subjective" material. This does
not mean that well tried methods are not
available for those who would observe and
listen, but that methodological innovation ations (see discussion on criteria for selec-
and specialized techniques consist mainly of tion, pages 103-113). In the second place,
asking questions in different ways. methods of observation, listening and asking
It is equally important to note that questions provide different information which
there is no single, ideal or best method. In is mutually enriching. Thus, when possible, it
the first place, the best method is a func- is better to select techniques that are com-
tion of the research objectives, the field plementary in that they provide cross-checks
situation and the researcher. These are and new information (e.g. observed and re-
three major criteria for selecting any met:h- ported behaviour), than to concentrate all
od and no one technique is so universal that field techniques in one corner of the metho-
it can be successfully applied in all situ- dological triangle.
 Figure 4 shows the relative proximity less prior structuring of the research ques-
of some common field techniques to the re- tions by the researcher. Other methods more
searcher, the respondent and the field situ- directly base the data on the concerns 'and ac-
ation. Each of these three points - the re- tivities of those whose perceptions are being
searcher with his own informal perspectives studied. Various methods of observation, ques-
and more formalised research question, the tioning and listening cover a spectrum from
respondent representing the individual data researcher-structured to "respondent-situ-
point on aggregates of which data (especially ation"- structured.
verbal) are largely based, and the environ- In the most general terms, this spectrum
mental and social setting of the field in- can also represent a trade-off between more
vestigation - can exert more or less influ- controlled, experimental designs and consis--
ence on the design of the research project tent measurements, where the researcher
and on its implementation. Different methods takes the lead role, and the more idiosyn-
can be selected which provide for more or cratic, less statistically reliable, but of-

SITUATIOI\I

RESE:ARCHER \ RESPONDENT
Figure 4. Field techniques in relation to the researcher, the respondent
ad tke fieZd situation

0
 Observation: direct observation

ten more relevant findings of "situation-de- This goal is achieved through techniques
fined" research. These differences are typi- which make the respondents into field re-
fied in the contrast between "surface surveys" searchers through self-study methods. The
and "in-depth case studies", although the two role of the researcher is therefore one step
are not, and should not be, mutually exclu- removed from direct field data gathering; he
sive approaches. The many merits of the situ- becomes a part designer of materials for use
ationally-open approach (respondent or situ- by the local population, and a part trainer
ation-structured) are dependent, however, on of people to use them.
two methodological elements: In this Technical Note, methods are dis-
- the individual qualities of the researcher, cussed under four headings: observing, asking
especially his ability to harmonize appro- 'questions, listening, and coding answers.
priate selection and interpretation of These are not exclusive categories and many
data with minimal distortion (a very dif- techniques fall within more than one. The
ficult path to draw guidelines for, or to methods are only briefly described and re-
define); searchers should therefore consult more de-
- content analysis, either formal or infor- tailed explanations of their concepts and
mal, of the unstructured data obtained, procedures before using them,
in order to structure and interpret it.
In addition to methodological approach and SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
degree of prior structuring, a third axis is
shown in Figure 4 - that of degree of inter- Two of the books recommended on page 17 have
vention. Very few field research methods are sections devoted to methods: Proshansky, It-
unobtrusive. Most incur the Heisenberg ef- telson and Rivlin (1970) and Ittelson et al.
fect of interference with the phenomena they (1974)) which provides a more introductory
set out to observe, although the motivation overview. There are also numerous books avail-
for the development of many techniques is able on research methods in the social sci-
to minimize researcher impact on the obser- ences in general and in environmental behav-
vations made. Misinforming people followed iour in particular. These include Festinger
by debriefing afterwards (telling subjects and Katz (1953), Michelson (1975), Moore
about the real purpose of the experiment) is (1970), Moore and Golledge (1976), Preiser
a classic routine in psychological experi- (1973), Selltiz et al. (1959) and Schatzman
ments. Less directly, participant observa- and Anselm (1973). Chapters in these books
tion seeks to minimize the difference be- dealing with particular methods will be
tween the researcher and the researched in suggested in succeeding sections of this
the eyes of the study group; projective Technical Note. As the above books are
tests are then based on the rationale that largely concerned with quantitative methods,
their ulterior purpose and design is not per- Filstead (1970) on qualitative approaches
ceived by the respondent. and Webb et al. (1966) on unobtrusive mea-
Other less used methods are more oriented sures are also recommended. An applied, prob-
towards "research as action" and are ex- lem-solving approach is emphasized in Ackoff,
pressly designed to have an impact on those Gupta and Minas (1962) and Feyerabend writes
forming part of the study. These methods are "against method" in Radney and Winokur (1970).
based on the philosophy that the research ex-
perience is valuable in itself, and there-
fore something which should be equally
shared between researchers and researched.

III. OBSERVATION

DIRECT OBSERVATION quired - they require pretesting, trained ob-

servers, long periods of time, systematic ap-
Observing human behaviour in the environment plication and objective interpretation.
is the basic method for all other approaches Observations in environmental perception
to environmental perception. It provides the can be structured according to three dimen-
context in which methods are developed and sions (Fig. 5):
tested, and it is the most flexible in terms - the extent to which they are focussed
of time, cost, concepts and technique. High directly on environment or on human be-
standards of observation are not easily ac- haviour in relation to it;

21

--11__. ^I____. - .._--

 Observation

- the degree to which they are structured

or unstructured;
- whether the emphasis is on just recording Rating
what is there or on rating (evaluating) it. P
1
Structured observations

Structured observations are designed to mea-

sure the occurrence or interaction of speci-
fied sets of variables that are isolated as IBehawour Unstructured
far as possible by the researcher in his
choice of observation points in space and
time, and in his definition of categories in-
to which the observations are placed. Without
detailed knowledge of the research aims and
field situation, sampling and coding frames
cannot be prescribed. This is why unstructured
observation must come first, in the form of
a pretesting or design stage. During the pre-
testing, hypotheses can be generated and sel-
ected, the observations can be designed in Structured Enwonrnent
terms of which points, how many, and how of-
ten, and coding sheets can be drawn up and
tested for recording the observations. The
experimental design will dictate the neces-
sary level of reliability of observed data.

linstructured observations Reuxdmg

Unstructured observations are more dependent Figure 5. Three axes of' observation methods in
on the qualities of the particular researcher environmental perception
since there are fewer guides for him to fol-
low and a larger area open to his own initia-
tive and biases. The advantage of a less
structured approach is that it better pre-
serves the holistic nature of what is being
observed - the stream of human behaviour and
its complex interaction with the environment. a better approximation to the average or
The disadvantage is that it is usually a less "true" value. It is a particularly useful
rigorous approach in which the effect of dis- technique in the pretesting stage of struc-
crete variables is hidden in a matrix of the tured observations, and where ratings (eval-
"whole system". uations) are required. The use of several
Thus the two approaches achieve different judges is widely practised in environmental
types of analysis: the structured one tends perception studies because one is often deal-
to emphasize the interaction of individual ing directly with "subjective" values and cer-
factors and the unstructured one stresses sys- tain types of obvious biases can be reduced
tem interrelationshins. These distinctions simply by asking more than one person to judge
are as important as the more commonly recog- the same data. The selection of individual oh-
nized one that unstructured methods are more servers can be based on their roles as "ex-
open to subjective interpretation through the perts" in a relevant area of knowledge or ex-
observer's own perceptions and preconceptions. perience or can simply be in the interests
of increasing the number of judges to obtain
Expert or .simiZarity judgement an acceptable "mean observed value". Thus
the observers themselves become calibrated
One way to reduce the subjectivity of an in- as measuring instruments.
dividual's observations is to increase the
number of observers at any point and compare Examp 1e
their results. This gives an idea of the range Teams including teachers, engineers, psy-
of values (error or standard deviation) and chologists and architects visited twenty pri-

22
 Direct observation

mary schools in England and rated several acts is less frequent. For example, social in-
dimensions of the school environment such as teraction in a market place will be more fre-
thermal, visual, and noise levels (Sommer quent on market day than other days in the
1972). week, during the day rather than at night, in
For example, the following thermal prop- fine weather rather than in bad. The market
erties were rated and/or measured: place will have a more rapid series of inter-
1. Thermal comfort of the interior action events to observe than an empty resi-
air temperature measured values dential street. The context of the investiga-
radiation measured values tion and the daily, weekly, seasonal pattern
air freshness/stuffiness expert ratings of activity associated with it are the main
air movement measured values criteria for time sampling - together with
humidity measured values the general one that the longer the time per-
variability in conditions expert ratings iod, the better. Common time units range from
l/2 day (6 hours) once a day for a week up to
2. Thermal environment design
12-24 hours once a week for several months.
thermal properties of expert ratings
The unit for observation can be a place
building
or a group of people (or individual); or the
solar penetration expert ratings
observer himself can cover a transect and
thermal insulation expert ratings
even make his observations from a closed tra-
surface treatment outside/ expert ratings
verse. In studying water or plant use, for
inside
example, the researcher can either station
Asswnption. himself at the collection point or consump-
It is assumed that consensus of
tion point or preferably both in succession.
same expert's judgements provides consistent
It would be useful also to have a complemen-
measures of properties between buildings.
tary observation unit of the water or plant
collectors - that is, the observer should
Evaluation. In this example, no effort was
follow a person or group and record exactly
made to obtain ratings from the teachers and
what is done throughout the day. This pro-
pupils in the building. This would have added
cedure has been followed for nomadic groups
significantly to the value of the survey and
where the need to move with the resource
helped to validate the results.
managers is more obvious. It is also the best
way to study the use of wild plants in diet
Study units in direct observation
since many of these are consumed en route and
not brought hack to the home. There are many
The study unit for observation will involve
other situations where a similar sampling
sampling in space and time. Observation points
strategy is advantageous.
are usually fewer in number than, for exam-
ple, the number of interviews in a question-
Evaluation
naire survey, because the observation of hu-
Direct observation as a formal technique
man behaviour takes longer than the average
is less used in environmental perception than
questionnaire, and environmental observation
other, more verbally oriented methods. This
usually involves greater distance between
is probably because it takes longer to carry
data points than interviews. Rarely will it
out in the field than the average interview.
be possible to include all observation points
Its design and pretesting requirements and
(e.g. market places, landscape views, fields)
needs for well trained observers are similar
in a given study programme, so that sampling
to interview studies, but many studies seem
is necessary. However, in observation of be-
to lack the benefit of just a few days' ob-
haviour in particular, sampling strategy is
servation with which to compare their res-
often best designed with an eye to common
ponses to hundreds of interviews.
sense as much as to statistical procedures.
One bias of direct observation of behav-
Random numbers may never place the water
iour as a method is to emphasize "events"
quality observer at the single oasis in a
rather than "non-events" because discrete
desert valley.
acts are easier to count, and nothing hap-
Time samples also need to be selected in
pening is seen as a continuous event until
the context of study and not on a priori
relieved by another "event" when something
grounds. Landscape evaluation observation
happens. Thus despite what was said ear-
will take as long as the observation and rat-
lier about selecting observation points where
ing task requires - perhaps up to one hour
there is most activity, the record of "noth-
at a point. Observation of human behaviour
ing happening" can also be valuable data.
will take longer as the flow of events or

23

/.--"m-Ix- --,~ -,-_ --- ,.,...._...

 Observation

Sometimes it is difficult or impossible fluence how people respond to an area.

to do direct observation of behaviour. Res- - The significant visual elements can be iso-
ponse to earthquakes or floods, for example, lated and scaled either in the field or
is difficult to observe at the time because from photographs.
it requires the researcher to know in advance - The relationship between selected landscape
where the event will occur, or to be able to elements and their perceived value is suf-
travel quickly to the site. Such obstacles ficiently culturally influenced for an ob-
are not easily overcome, hence the necessity server's perceptions to be shared to some
to recreate behavioural responses by asking degree by a relevant larger group ("resi-
questions or listening to respondents' nar- dents", "users", or "general public").
ratives, after the fact. Similarly, behav- The first assumption is concerned with the
iour that occurs very rarely in the life of validity of the measure, and the last with
an individual (such as during a serious ac- its reliability. In other words, would people
cident) or gradually over a long period other than the researcher select the same fea-
(learning, some industrial diseases) are less tures of the landscape as being diagnostic
amenable to a direct observation approach. for determining landscape "value" and would
other people make the same evaluations of par-
SPECIALIZED TECHNIQUES IN DIRECT OBSERVATION ticular landscape scenes even if they agreed
on the salient diagnostic features?
Landscape evaluation Whether or not these assumptions are rea-
sonable can be determined by comparing two
The sensory experiences [of landscape] are methods of landscape evaluation, both of which
derived not from visual satisfaction alone use direct observation of the environment.
but from an amalgam of all five senses. The first is a technique developed by Leopold
The sounds of birds, running water, rust- (1970) to compare the aesthetic appeal of dif-
ling trees, church bells, bustling city ferent river valleys in the United States to
streets; the smells of earth, vegetation, aid the environmentalist to quantify his
newly tarred roads; these can be power- judgements. The second is a method to develop
fully evocative of the 'genius loci' of a map of landscape quality to use as a re-
country or town (Fines 1968). gional planning tool in southeastern England
Despite the great difficulties in trying "ob- (Fines 1968).
jectively" to evaluate the subjective exper-
ience of landscape perception, it is increas- Examp2e 2: LeopoZd's (2970) method of 2and-
ingly necessary to do so. Landscape is a re- scape eva2uation
source which has an economic value and use- Method. Forty-six factors were selected which
fulness. Planners at all levels of government were considered relevant to landscape aesthet-
are asked to identify priority landscapes and ics (Table 1). These were grouped into physi-
areas as part of local and regiona land use cal factors (e.g. river width, velocity, val-
planning. ley height); biological and water quality fac-
Much of the work done in measuring land- tors (e.g. water turbidity, pollution, land
scape quality has been problem-oriented and flora); and human use and interest factors
designed to meet specific land use planning (e.g. accessibility, vistas, urbanization).
needs. Similarly, a visual analysis of land- Each of these factors was provided with a
scape quality is often undertaken as one part 1 to 5 evaluation score for which verbal des-
of a larger socio-economic and ecological criptions or numerical values or categories
evaluation of an area. The recent trend in were given by the author (see Table 1).
several countries towards requiring environ- Sites to be evaluated were observed from
mental impact assessments to be made for new one point at the edge of the river. The ob-
man-made projects and processes has encour- server completed the checklist of forty-
aged efforts to provide scales by which land- six items without regard to whether he con-
scape quality can be measured. Thus the plan sidered evaluation number 5 as superior or
to build a hydro-electric dam in Hell's Can- inferior to evaluation number 1.
yon in the United States led to Leopold's Once the set of selected sites was di-
work in devising a "uniqueness" scale for rectly observed (in the original study this
landscape quality (Leopold 1970). consisted of twelve river valley sites in
Idaho), the relative uniqueness of each land-
Assumptions scape factor at each site was computed by
All of the methods used for landscape eval- dividing each evaluation category by the num-
uation involve three main assumptions: ber of sites that fell into it and assigning
- Visual landscape elements in some way in- the same score ("uniqueness ratio") to each
24
 Specialized techniques in direct observation

FACTOR DESCRIPTIVE EVALUATION NUMBERS

NUMBER CATEGORIES 1 2 3 4 5

PHYSICAL FACTORS
1 River width (ft.) at <3 3-10 10-30 30-100 >lOO
2 Depth (ft.) low <.5 .5-l 1-2 2-s >5
3 Velocity (ft. per sec.) ( flow ) <.5 .5-l 1-2 3-5 >5
4 Stream depth (ft.) <l 1-2 2-4 4-8 >8
5 Flow vari&ility Little variation Normal Ephemeral or large variation
6 River pattern Torrent 1001 & riffle Without ril%=s Ieandrr Braided
7 Valley heieht/width 21 2-s 5-10 11-11 215
8 Strrnm bed material Clay or silt Sand Sand & gravel C.ravel Cobbles or larger
9 Red slope (ft./ft. I <.ooo:t .0005-,001 .oo l-.005 .OC5-.Ol >.Ol
10 Drainclpe area (sq. mi.) <l l-10 10.100 10-1000 >I000
11 Strrarn ,,!llr*~ 52 3 4 5 26
12 Erosi of banks Stal,le Slumping Eroding large-
13 Sediment d~.pwition in bed Stalrle wale deposition
14 Width of \alley flat I ft. I <lOO 100-300 300.,500 .500- 1000 > 1000
B101.0C1~ 8 FATEH F~c~oas
@.AI.ITY

15 water rol0r Clear cvlorless Cnxw tints n ro\\,,

16 Turbidity (parts per milli<m) <2.5 25.150 150-1000 1000-5000 >,ooo

17 kloating muirrial None Vegrtalion Foamy Oily Variety
18 Water condjrion (grncral) Poor Gwd Exrcllent
Algae
19 Amrlunt Infested
20 Type Clue-green Diatom Floating green Sonc
Larser plants
21 An1crunt Infrstcd
22 Kind Ullk~OWll Elodra. duck Water lily Caltail
rooted weed
23 Rivrr fauna Large variety
24 lollution evidence Evident
l.nnd flora
25 Valley Open Open w. grass. Brushy Wooded Trees and brush
trees
26 Hillside Open Open w. grass. Hrushy Wooded Trees and brwh
trees
27 Diversity Small Great
28 Condition Good Overused
HUMAN ~JYE & hTERES+ FACTORS
Trash & litter
29 Metal no. per <2 2-5 5-10 10.50 >50
30 Paper 100 ft. of <2 2-5 5-10 10-50 >50
31 Other ( rivrr 1 <2 2-5 5-10 10.50 >50
32 Material removable Easily removed Difficult removal
33 Artificial controls (dams. etc.) Free and natural Controlled
Accessibility
34 Individual Wilderness Urban or paved access
35 Mass use Wilderness Urban or paved access
36 Local scene Diverse views Closed or without
and scenes diversity
37 Vistas Vistas of far places Closed or no vistas
38 View confinement Open or no Closrd by bills.
obstructions cliffs or trees
39 Land use Wilderness Crazed Lumbering Forest, mixed Urhanized
recreation
40 Utilities Scene unobstructed Scrnc obstructed
by power lines by utilities
41 Degree of change Original Materially altered
42 Recovery potential Natural recovery Natural recovery
unlikely
43 Urbanization No buildings Many buildings
44 Special views NOIE Unusual interest
45 Historic features None M.Sy
46 Misfits None Many

KEY: < less than, > greater than, ?Z less than or equal to, I divided by

Table 1. Scales for emluation of Landscape factors (reprinted

with permission from LeopoZd 2970)

25
 Observation

site for that factor. For example, if two form, it is culture-bound and researcher-
sites were classified as category 5 for ac- structured. If used in other studies and in
cessibility (paved access), then each site other countries, the significant landscape
would have been assigned a uniqueness ratio features would need to be chosen within the
for accessibility of 0.50 (1 divided by 2 local cultural context. The selection should
sites). The uniqueness value was thus inde- also reflect a consensus of a representative
pendent of the scales set up for each factor example of people, using similarity judgement
(in this example, paved access to wilderness). techniques (page 22).
When uniqueness ratios were obtained for The main assumption of the method - that
each of the forty-six factors, the ratios for uniqueness is critical to landscape value -
each site were added up to give a "total un- is probably less true for longer settled coun-
iqueness ratio" for that site. Using these tries where typicality (e.g. the typical Nor-
totals, the uniqueness of one site could be mandy countryside in France) is valued in its
compared with that of another; the higher the own right. Similarly, the emphasis on natural
ratio, the more unique the site. This total river features of the landscape is obviously
ratio was objective in that it did not dis- less valid in other environments. With appro-
tinguish between aesthetically attractive or priate selection of landscape features and
unattractive uniqueness. recognition of the cultural and spatial limits
Any combination of the forty-six factors to their validity, Leopold's method can form
could be selected to perform additional oper- the basis of a useful and systematic approach
ations and obtain indices of, for example, to landscape evaluation.
river character, degree of pollution or bio-
logical importance. Example 2: E'irzes' (2968) method of landscape
Using two such indices of "valley charac- c7)aha tion
ter" and "river character", Leopold sought Yethod: development 0s scale. A representa-
to validate his case for Hell's Canyon's (Id- tive group of forty-five "judges" was sel-
aho, lJnited States) scenic qualities by com- ected to independently rank and evaluate in
paring i~ts score with those similarly ob- terms of beauty, twenty selected colour photo-
tained for four recognized spectacular natural graphs of landscape and townscape views, all
beauty spots in the tinited States: Grand Can- of which were taken under average atmospheric
yen, Yellowstone, Snake River in Grand Teton conditions. One photograph was selected as a
National Park and Yosemite National Park. "control view" with a value of 1.0 and numer-
ical values were assigned by each judge for
A:;:;ury3iion. Leopold's main assumption is that each view in relation to the control view.
unique landscape is of more significance to The design experts within the forty-five
society than landscape that is common. Beyond judges provided a scale of values from 0 to
this explicit rationale, there are several 32 which were then arranged in six categories:
other assumptions that are implicit in the unsightly, undistinguished, pleasant, dis-
method: tinguished, superb and spectacular (Fig. 6).
- The forty-six landscape factors selected
are appropriate for measuring landscape Field work. This technique was used to de-
significance to society. velop a map of landscape value for use in re-
- Of the forty-six landscape factors sel- gional planning of East Sussex, England. It
ected, twenty-three can be concerned with required one surveyor and one driver for 90
river characteristics. working days in the field for an area of 773
- Social features of landscape (historic square miles (c. 2000 km2), which is a rate
features, urbanisation, appropriateness of progress of 8.5 square miles per day (c.
of buildings) can be scaled from 1 to 5 22 km2/day). This was followed by 25 man/
in the same manner (and by the same ob- days of office work in drawing the map (equiv-
server?) as river depth, width and vel- alent to about 30 square miles, or 80 km',
ocity. per man/day).
- A site can be evaluated from one observa- The surveyor needed to be trained in land-
tion point. scape and map interpretation. He was expected
- "Uniqueness" can be additive to enable to choose an area of suitable size for each
comparison of sites. day's work and design an economical route
- The method is quantitative and scientifi- around it. He then selected his own observa-
cally objective. tion points. In the East Sussex survey, about
The setting out of the assumptions implicit two viewpoints per km2 were used. Some idea
in Leopold's method indicates some of the of the field task involved will be gained
main problems in using it. In its present from these extracts from the field manual:
26
 SpeciaZized techniques in direct observation

DESCRIPTIVE SCALE OF LANDSCAPE NORMAL RANGE OF VALUES FOR

CATEGORY VALUES TYPICAL LANDSCAPE & TOWNSCAPE TYPES
,2 <LANDSCAPE VALUE UNITS1 (5EE - ATFOOT W v

CA 1
31.

M-

29.

CI HIGHEST NORMAL VALUE -WORLD

(wwtoI special atwaphwc plw~wla)

Ia a HIGHEST NORMAL VALUE -

GREAT BRITAIN
17

It

4
7 8 9
SUPERB I2 Q HIGHEST NORMAL VALUE- EAST c /5
SUSSEX AND LOWLAND BRITAIN

---._
-.._-
lb-----
DISTINGUISHED 6
MEAN-EAST SUSSEX WITH
S COUNTY ROROUCHS S.2R
MEAN-SOUTH EAST ENGLAND 43
4

PLEASANT 3

2
UNDISTINGUISMED

UNSIGMTLV

Lmvlond Lmdrcop Types Highland l.ondscope Types

I. Countryside spoilt by wcossiva cluttw. IO. Hi;h hills and moo.
2. Flat unrolievad plains (inc. prairie. steppe, desert and tundra). I I. Loww mountains (*.I. Britain)
3. Flat or gmtly undulrtin; humanised countryside. 12. Groat mountains, canyons. wrtwfallr.
4. Woods and forats (incorior). Townscape Typos
5. Coastal marshes. creaks. duna. 13. Slums and dwalict areas.
6. Fbt DC #ently undulating heaths and commons. 14. Modern industrial l d commercial areas.
7. Landscrpad parks. IS. Modem suburbia.
8. Low hills (inc. Downs. woodad hills). 16. Towns of~rchitactunl and historic interest.
9. Couul cliL. 17. Classic towns (e.g. Florw~ca. Venice. Edinbuwh).
Note: Many of hichest value viws combin. two or mom of ah
WP-.

Figure 6. Scale for hadaoape beaity evaluation (reprinted with

peniaaion from Fines 1968)

27
 Observation

- "At each viewpoint the value of views in Comparison of LeopoZd's and Fines' methods
all directions (where significant) will Comparison of these two direct observa-
be recorded." tion methods reveals that the major weakness
- "Views over a particular tract of land of landscape evaluation is its subjective ap-
should be obtained from several different praisal of landscape on behalf of other peo-
directions." 0, and its highly local validity to speci-
- "Establish for a particular tract of land fic cultures and environments for any one
the highest and lowest values." scale or system of nomenclature. There is so
- "View - a sector of the landscape enclosed far no universally accepted system of land-
within an angle of 600." scape values or of the most significant land-
- "Tract - a small indivisible area of land, scape features. The criteria for selection of
homogeneous in character, normally bounded view values (in Fines' method) and landscape
by natural features, e.g. a ridge and wa- features (in Leopold's method) are arbitrary.
tercourse" (Fines 1968). Neither method deals explicitly with the is-
Field observations (the numbered values for sue of changing landscape value over time or
each view) were recorded directly onto maps. with more complex values such as "ambiguity"
Later, in the office, these observed, view and "complexity" which have emerged in stud-
values were converted into values for areas ies of urban perception as valued attributes
or tracts, paying particular attention to (see pages 66-69).
uniqueness of a view and to special sequences Other methods have been developed speci-
of views. The evaluation of "absolute beauty" ficially for forest landscapes (Litton 1968)
was made irrespective of the relative acces- urban landscapes (Steinitz 1968), and the ab-
sibility of the area (i.e., even where no one sorptive capacity of landscapes to change
could see it). (Jacobs and Way 1969). Some of these use di-
rect observation of the environment, while
Assumption. The assumption in this method is others use photographs or slides as surro-
that landscape beauty is a culturally shared gates. Some focus on landscape as an aggre-
value, which can be reliably scaled indepen- gate or "view", while others evaluate par-
dent of the observer and that, in England, ticular landscape elements.
relative relief (and associated land use) is
a prime determinant of landscape beauty. Behavioura mapping

Evaluation. This approach to landscape ap- Behavioural mapping is a technique used to

praisal is replicable in other environments record what human activities take place where.
where "views" are relevant although the cri- The maps provide a graphic, shorthand des-
teria for the categories are clearly cultur- cription of different types of behaviour for
ally biased and researcher-structured. New a defined spatial unit, which can be a build-
sets of categories would need to be selected ing, a street or a larger area such as a na-
and validated for extending the study outside tional park. The scale of the study unit helps
of England. The method is laborious and re- to define the number of observation points and
quires an "expert" observer in its present time samples. In large areas such as national
format but could be modified to use several parks, the observed behaviour may be of car
less experienced observers. Accessibility may and pedestrian movements, such as stops to
not be considered an important criteria of admire views or animals, or to take walks and
beauty in the landscape but it is important picnics. In these cases, several observers
in evaluating it for mapping as opposed to stationed at points or going along transects
"site" evaluations. The field time would be through the area can be used as the sampling
much increased where roads are poor and the basis. In smaller areas such as buildings and
observation points would be more widely spaced children's playgrounds, all the relevant space
Where topographic and land use maps are avail- may be observable from one point and time sam-
able (scales of 1:63,360 or less), a map in- ples may be every 15 minutes to 1 hour over
terpretation technique produces comparable an entire day.
results to direct observation (Linton 1968).
In the absence of detailed maps or air photos, Method
direct observation can be a systematic though The standard procedure for behavioural
culture-dependent method for landscape evalua- mapping is to:
tion. Fines' technique, modified for local - identify the categories into which the
circumstances, could, for example, be used continuous stream of behaviour is to be
for this purpose.

28
 Specialized techniques in direct observation

grouped by first observing the areas to be observer was or was not present.
mapped and recording observations as a nar- In conclusion, it has been demonstrated
rative; use similarity judgement to check that the technique is highly reliable as a
reliability of categories (see page 22); scientific method. Its validity is more dif-
- define the area to be mapped; ficult to ascertain, but despite its heavy
- prepare observer instructions and coding dependence on the initial categories set up
sheets, and a sampling schedule; to group many different behaviours, it is al-
- carry out field observations, recording so expected to be reasonably valid. Its con-
them onto data sheets or maps; straints are the practical ones of the area
- analyse data; that can be covered by direct observation
- make experimental change in environment and its limitation to easily visible and
and repeat survey of behaviour (optional). spatial behaviour.
The total frequency of all types of activi-
ties in any one place defines its behavioural Example
density and the relative frequency of each An example of the application of behav-
type of behaviour defines its activity pro- ioural mapping is provided by Ittelson, Riv-
file. lin and Proshansky (1970). The study unit was
two psychiatric wards of a large, private gen-
Assumption eral hospital each having about twenty-two
The underlying assumption is that the spa- patients staying up to about 3 months each.
tial distribution and frequency of different Observers first recorded all patient behav-
behaviours of individuals and groups are re- iour over periods of a few hours and listed
lated to the environment in which they take 300 descriptions of behaviour. Trained judges
place. reduced this list to six categories: isolated-
passive, isolated-active, social, mixed-ac-
Evaluation tive, visit, and traffic-behaviour (Table 2).
Behavioural mapping is a simple and re- Observers were trained in the method and be-
liable technique for observing how people re- came familiar with the hospital routine and
act to specific environments. It is most rig- ward personnel before making observations.
orous where the area to be mapped is small These were recorded on data sheets and key
(e.g. within buildings), and where the "be- punched later. Observations were made every
haviours" are of a restricted range. It is 15 minutes during most of the working day.
particularly useful in longitudinal or ex- Where it was checked, agreement between ob-
perimental study designs where an environ- servers was high - 84 per cent of behaviours
mental variable can be modified after the were reported identically by two independent
first maps are made and its effect on behav- observers. Other checks on reliability were
iour measured by a second observational sur- equally high.
vey (as in the example below). Two decisions An initial survey showed a high proportion
which must be made at the outset, and which of isolated behaviour in the one room of the
affect the interpretation of the results, are ward and alterations to this area, followed
the way the behaviours are categorized and by a resurvey, showed a complex pattern of
whether the observed behaviours are those of behavioural adjustments throughout the var-
individuals, in which case the observed en- ious parts of the ward. The study thus demon-
vironment must include both other people and strated that overt behaviour and environment
physical components, or of groups. Observa- are functionally related, and that this re-
tions of group behaviour may still emphasize lationship can be measured by behavioural map-
interaction with other groups (e.g. people ping. The researchers also stress that be-
on beaches) or the groups may be relatively havioural mapping can be used to describe the
isolated from one another (e.g. in a wilder- relationship between physical space and be-
ness area). haviour and to compare two or more different
The technique requires that the observer situations or conditions.
does not intrude on the behaviour of the ob-
served any more than necessary. He should Behaviour-setting survey
try to fade into the background and obviously,
the longer he continues to observe, the less Assumptions
intrusive he will be. Cross-checks of ob- A survey of behaviour-settings is the me-
server intrusion are useful, such as asking thod developed over a 25-year period by
some people afterwards whether they saw any Roger Barker. This method is an outcome
significant differences in behaviour when t:he of his "real world" approach to the study

29
_ _. -^_"I_
 Observation

Patient reclines on bench, hand over face, but riot aslwp

Patirnt lica ill bed awake lie awake
.~____
Patient sleeps on easy chair Isolated
One patient sleeps whde others are lined up for lunch sleeping Passive
Patient sits, smiling to self sitting
P.ltient alts, smoking and spitting alone
Patient writes letter on bench
Patient takes notes from a book write
Patient sets own hair p?rSd
Patient sits, waiting to get into shower hygiene
Patient reads newspaper and paces Isolated
Patient reads a book read Active
Patient and nurses aid stand next to alcove
Patient stands in doorway smoking stand
Patient paces between room and corridor
Patlent paces from roonl to room saying hello to other patients pacing
Upon receiving lunch so~ne patients t.lke it to bedroom
Patient sits at table and eats by self eating
Patient cleans tables with sponge
Patient makes bed housekeeping

Two patients listen to record player phonogrnph-

Patient turns down volume on rxlio dl hlixed
Patient knits, sitting down arts Active
Patient paints (oils), sitting down and crafts
Patient and registered nurses watch TV together
Patierlt watches TV, goes to get towel, returns TV
Patient stands and watches a card game watching a
Patient sits on cans in hall watching people go by activity

Patients play soccer in corridor

Patient and doctor play chess games
One patient talks to another in reassuring tones Social
Four patients sit facing corridor, talk sporadically
Patient fails to respond to doctors questions talk
Patient introduces visitors to other patient
Patient stands near room with visitors talk (visitor) Visit

Patient comes in to flick cigarette ashes

Patients go to solarium traffic TGlRC

Table 2. Classifying behaviour into categories (reprinted with permission

from Ittelson, RivZin and Proshansky 1970).

30
 Specialised techniques in direct observation

of behaviour and environment (Barker 1968). for the design of built environment in
His model of environmental perception is fo- comparisons between towns, countries, cul-
cussed on "behaviour-settings" which are eco- tures, etc.
logical units in which people exhibit char-
acteristic patterns of behaviour. The units Emmpte
have definite bounded locations in space and Barker's survey of Midwest, Kansas (Barker
time. For example, a church service and a and Wright 1955; Barker and Gump 1964; Bar-
school playtime are behaviour-settings where- ker 1968), a small town of 830 inhabitants in
as the educational system and teenagers are the United States, has been a major effort of
not. Most of human behaviour occurs in well the Midwest Psychological Foundation for over
defined socio-physical settings such as a 25 years. The study - with its comparisons in
shop, meeting hall or recreation park. Yoredale (Yorkshire, England) and Svelvik,
Barker's thesis is that behaviour within Norway - stands as the prototype behaviour-
the same behaviour-setting is more similar setting survey. Trained observers were used
than the behaviour of any individual as he in direct observation studies which sometimes
moves between different behaviour-settings. followed one person for a whole day and which
This is true for both individuals and people together total several man years of field ob-
in the aggregate. Thus we will behave dif- servation.
ferently in a church, in a shop, and on a The results of this study have been de-
sports ground although we remain the same peo- tailed in several reports, showing the dif-
ple. In overt behavioural terms, the behav- ferent levels of usefulness of the results of
iour-settings are more consistent than peo- this kind of survey.
de, thus forming characteristic ecological For the town of Midwest, the 830 inhabi-
units. A survey of behaviour-settings is thus tants spent 1,125,134 hours in the town's 884
a method for obtaining an inventory and des- behaviour-settings during the survey year.
cription of the behaviour-settings of larger The time spent within any one setting ranged
ecological units, such as a town or an in- from 1 hour (Saddle Club Organizing Meeting)
stitution (e.g. school, hospital). It is one to 87,376 (Trafficways).
way to discover the rules of the game - the In terms of local autonomy, over 70 per
arrangement of appropriate behaviour for dif- cent of the inhabitants' time was spent in
ferent places and different times, which peo- behaviour-settings controlled within the
ple read from environmental cues every day. town and the surrounding district compared
to less than 5 per cent controlled at state
!vethod and federal levels - an interesting index of
The steps Barker proposes for a complete the high degree of local control over their
behaviour-setting survey of a town are: life-spaces.
- identify all possible behaviour-settings The 884 behaviour-settings of Midwest could
using direction observations, content analy- he grouped into 198 categories, or "genotypes"
sis of local newspapers, public notices, in Barker's terminology. In a comparison with
etc.; Yoredale, in England, nearly half of these
- eliminate "non-behaviour-settings" that genotypes were shared between the two differ-
do not fulfil specified criteria (see Bar- ent national and cultural settings.
ker 1968, p. 37-46); In comparing behaviour-settings within
- conduct a direct observation survey schools, critical distinctions in behaviour
of each behaviour-setting (usually by 30 were found between large and small schools
minute periods), recording observations (Barker and Gump 1964). Children in small
in terms of behaviour episodes and rating schools were more actively involved and more
them into eleven action patterns and four closely regulated; they saw themselves as
behaviour types, as well as describing the functionally more important to the school
characteristics of the setting (see Table and sharing more responsibility. They
3 for summary of observation ratings an2 identified more closely with the school.
scores);
- classify behaviour-settings into groups Evahatiovz
(genotypes) ; behaviour-settings are in A behaviour-setting survey on the scale
the same genotype if they can continue of the Midwest survey is a time-consuming
functioning normally when their key per- and expensive operation involving trained ob-
sonnel are interchanged (e.g. lawyer in servers, the analysis of many data and a com-
a legal office, teacher in school, man- mitment of at least a year's field work for
ager in a factory); one small community. The work done is impor-
- interpret data in terms of implications tant as a rare in-depth study of environmen-
3 1
 Observation

BEHAVIOUR - SETTING

ACTIVITY
RATING SCALES
T
BOUNDARIES

ACTION PATTERNS

aesthetic
business frequency
education duration
government occupancy time
nutrition penetration (roles
personal appearance
physical health
professionalism
recreation
religion

TOTAL

BEHAVIOUR ORGANIZATION

affective pressure
gross motor activity welfare (purpose
manipulation autonomy
talking
thinking

TOTAL b

(a + b + p) constant X OT
Richness of Behaviour-Setting Index =
100

Table 3. Barker's system for describing behaviour-settings

32
 Indirect observation

ta1 perception in a natural setting, but it Webb et al. (1966) provide many examples
is unlikely to be replicated on a similar of indirect observation, or unobtrusive mea-
scale. At the level of a whole community, it sures. In addition to measurements made by
is questionable whether the investment in hidden instruments (instead of human obser-
field effort is worth the output in terms of vers), they suggest three main sources for
results which can be useful for policy- indirect measures:
making. In Midwest, more behaviour-settings - erosion measures, trace indicators such
were found than the total number of inhabi- as wear on paths to measure traffic;
tants. The logistics of doing such a survey - accretion measures, accumulating indica-
soon grow to unmanageable proportions if lar- tors such as dust on library books to mea-
ger communities are studied. sure readership;
Many interesting data were generated which - archival records, official, institutional
suggest possibilities for better describing and sales records as data sources.
a town as an ecological unit, but the most The use of archival records is similar to
practical results were gained at the level of "listening and coding" methods. In Durkheim's
comparing buildings and their functions. The (1951) study of suicide, analysis is made of
work on schools has direct value in design- suicide rates from archival records for sev-
ing their physical layout and their social eral centuries in terms of season of the year,
organization. The comparison made in the be- time of day, education, sex, etc. McClelland
haviour of old people in Yorkshire, England, (1961) also makes use of a wide variety of
and Kansas (Barker 1961) can be used in help- archival material including folk-tales and
ing to provide better community facilities children's stories in his analysis of "The
for old people. Achieving Society". City directories can be
It is possible to take Barker's methodo- used to study rates of residential mobility
logical approach and study particular behav- for different ethnic groups as they become
iour-settings to answer specific research acculturated into the urban society (Ianni
questions. His scheme for categorizing behav- 1957-58). Social mobility and family organi-
iour may not, however, be universally appli- zation have been studied using information
cable. There also remains the problem that inscribed on gravestones (Warner 1959).
the classifying and rating of behaviour re- The possible sources of indirect informa-
lies on the judgement of the observer. Where tion are endless and can provide important
tests for inter-observer reliability were supporting evidence to that gained by other
made, they were found to be acceptable (Bar- methods. The methodological advantages of
ker and Wright 1955). these sources lie in the non-interference with
The behaviour-setting survey is based lar- human behaviour as it happens, also possible
gely on direct observation with some inter- to some extent with other methods. The major
viewing. A future direction might well be to weakness of such sources are that they inte-
increase the complementary role of interview- grete many variables and are thus less useful
ing after observations have been made. The for analysing the process of environmental
data would be richer and less time consuming perception leading to human actions.
to collect.
Example: Dongore welt water use
INDIRECT OBSERVATION
At Dongore, in rural Ethiopia, good water is
Direct observation sees behaviour as it hap- supplied by a government well which serves
pens; indirect observation uses the effects about 3000 people who walk an average dis-
of human action on the biosphere as a mea- tance of 2.5 km to fetch water. A study was
sure of'behaviour. It is an integrated mea- made of water use at the well (Browne 1974).
sure which includes environmental perception Direct observation on several days was used
with behaviour. in combination with interviews with people
For example, the movement of people in the who came to the well, and the use of water-
countryside can be measured by direct obser- sale records to integrate the other time sam-
vation or by interviewing a sample of respon- ple data over a year.
dents. It can also be measured by the differ- Figure 7 shows the water collected from
ential width and wear of tracks and paths. In the well over a year, as indicated by the in-
an area where people's movements are entirely direct measure of monthly revenue. It was re-
recreational, such as a national park, their vealed that water was bought from the well
behaviour might be directly related to their by most users only in the dry season. During
perception of the landscape and preference the wet season, they used other poorer quality
for different recreational activities. sources. The implications for health benefits
33

II- ---XI .-
 Observation

---
1000 I- A

3 year averoge
I : \
: \ i
I I \
-- 1971/2
/ :
900
1972/3 :
I I
___----_ 1973/4
I
I I
I :
800
I / !

7oc

400

300

2oc

lO(

July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jon. Feb. Mor. Apr. May June

Figure 7. The use of indirect ohseY?ation: monthly w~~mue frOl,i

water at Dongore weZZ, Ethiopia (reprinte,? ;~jitiz pcr-
mission from Brome 1974)

34
 Participtmt observation

of installing the deep well are obvious - for will have access to more data and will be
part of the year, the installation had no beq- able to interpret those data more meaningfully
eficial effect. in relation to the respondents' perceptions.
Supplementing this information by direct Until recently, participant observation
observation and interviews at the well for a was largely an anthropological method which
few sample days, the researchers were able to evolved as a necessary means to understand
relate the water use to poor management of foreign cultures and unknown languages. In
the well which exacerbated a situation in using participant observation to study the
which water quality was not perceived as a perceptions and functioning of the research-
high order priority for most households. Thus, er's own society, new possibilities and prob-
in addition to the cost of good water, people lems emerge.
were discouraged by long queueing times of
3-6 hours at the well which led to black mar- Observer-observed interaction
ket prices of eight times the official water
rate. Participation involves relationships with
other people. For the direct observer and
Evaluation the interviewer with his structured question-
naire, relationships with respondents can be
This study is a good example of a small-scale, kept relatively distant and short-lived. The
well designed investigation using three com- participant observer may have to maintain
plementary methods, including indirect obser- credibility and sociability with others for
vation, to provide a practical set of recom- weeks, months or even years, when he may be
mendations. It demonstrates how an indirect living relatively isolated from his own so-
measure can be used to extrapolate direct ob- cial structure.
servation and interview data over a longer The participant observer occupies a posi-
period and for the total population concerned. tion in the network of relationships he is
It also demonstrates the force of the argu- studying. His role as observer may be more
ment that three methods are better than one. or less disguised, as he may be more or less
active in the affairs taking place or more
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION or less marginal to the society, aloof to
its concerns and transitory to its develop-
Participant observation is a widely used and ment.
highly adaptable method for field investi- But wherever the observer may place him-
gation of environmental perception, whose self on any of these dimensions is less im-
theory and method are relatively little dis- portant than how the respondents perceive
cussed. It is a method more often practised him. Their images of the observer are cri-
than "talked-about".' In participant obser- tical to how they respond to him and what
vation, direct observation, asking questions data he will be able to collect. Once the ob-
and listening are blended together as the server is accorded a meaningful role by res-
researcher takes part in the life and actions pondents, his position in the social network
of the people he is studying. The researcher is assured and data collection are facili-
thus plays two roles - observer and partic-i- tated.
pant. His field work consists of joining in The collection and interpretation of data
the lives of his respondents, talking to some are conditioned by the observer's own percep-
of them (especially his "informants") and <as- tions and experience. The contrast discussed
sembling detailed notes as soon as possible by Oscar Lewis between his study and one done
after the events take place. by Robert Redfield of the same community of
Tepoztlin in Mexico, illustrates the impor-
Assumption tance of different observers' perceptions
over and above any "objective" changes that
As an approach, participant observation im- took place in the village between the two
plies less concern with methodological re- studies:
finements for handling data after they are The impression given by Redfield's study
collected, and more concern with the needs of Tepoztlan is that of a relatively
for valid data (Vidich 1954-55). Its ratio- homogeneous, isolated, smoothly function-
nale is that the researcher who participates ing and well-integrated society made up
of a contented and well-adjusted people.
1. Someimportant exceptions are Kluckhohn (1940), His picture of the village has a Rous-
Lewis (1951) and Whyte (1951). seauan quality which glosses lightly

35
 Observation

over evidence of violence, disruption, pologist to put the respondent at his ease
cruelty, disease, suffering and maladjust- as teacher and expert where the researcher
ment. We are told little of poverty, eco- is clearly alien to the society. It is a much
nomic problems, or political schisms. more difficult role to play in one's own so-
Throughout his study we find an emphasis ciety without incurring the personal label of
upon the cooperative and unifying factors fool or deceiver, or both.
in Tepoztecan society. Our findings, on Working in his own society, the participant
the other hand, would emphasize the under- observer has the advantage of familiarity with
lying individualism of Tepoztecan insti- much of the cultural meaning of what he ob-
tutions and character, the lack of coop- serves and the disadvantage that, in fact,
eration, the tensions between villages his experience is more limited than his res-
within the municipio, the schisms within pondents usually realize. Situations par-
the village and the pervading quality of alleling those in anthropology, where sub-
fear, envy and distrust in interpersonal cultures are studied within one's own society
relations (Lewis 1951). (e.g. ethnic, social, occupation groups) en-
able a naive stance to look more plausible.
Field strategy
Use of informants
Commitment versus aloofness Again, the obvious difficulties in under-
Participant observers usually try to keep standing foreign cultures has made the an-
their own preferences and allegiances hidden. thropologist more experienced in the use of
Sometimes the problem of conflict of inter- local informants than most other social sci-
ests emerges and each group will want to know entists. Experience has shown that informants
with which faction the observer's loyalties are often self-selected people who are them-
lie. It is a natural demand, for the research selves somewhat marginal to the group being
er is likely to be entering several camps - studied, and who are able to "objectify"
indeed, he will be deliberately trying to their experiences. The great advantage in-
maintain his neutrality and access to all formants have over the observer himself is
sides in order to describe the situation ob- that their perceptions have been shaped over
jectively. This may make him suspect unless time by their experiences within the study
his role as transcender of local discords grow, however much they are able to "objec-
and "aloof-observer" is acceptable to all. tify" them later. Like the observer, however,
His position outside the situation clearly they tend to be marginal to the local group
shapes the character of the data he can ob- and this will colour their information. The
tain. use of informants is thus an adjunct to par-
The alternative direction to take is that ticipant observation; it should not be con-
of "emotional identity" with the respondents sidered a substitute.
(or one section of them) in addition to "role
identity". It may thus become impossible for Field notes
the observer to remain outside the situation Records of observations should be made as
and he may even deliberately reject his ob- soon as possible as the sense of immediacy is
jective role in favour of commitment to his important to what they convey. Writing up
new society. Rather than a slide in one di- notes each day is a standard part of field
rection, the participant observer often ex- work in participant observation. The research
periences emotional swings of the pendulum process inevitably brings changes in the ob-
as he observes events from day to day. As a server's perceptions as his understanding of
scientist he should be aware of these emo- what he sees deepens. Field notes made later
tional pulls and record them as part of his in the period of observation will reflect
data. these changes. There is a natural tendency
to discard earlier perceptions in favour of
Naivety Versus expertise later ones, and to redraft earlier notes in-
Anthropologists working in alien cultures to the perceptual framework of later ones.
and languages have an important advantage The final report thus emerges as a more co-
over the researcher working within his own herent document which may mask valuable data
society; they can reasonably maintain an at- on the process of change and alternative per-
titude of ignorance and naivety which enables spectives on the events which took place.
them to ask simple questions, and to repeat The observer's last set of categories and
them rather in the manner of a child seek- perceptions are not necessarily his only, or
ing information. It is easier for the anthro- most valid, ones.

36
 Asking questions: intemietiing

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING In addition to the specific references to

landscape evaluation techniques, two overview
Selltiz et al. (1959) discuss structured and papers by Jacobs (1975) and Crofts and Cooke
unstructured observations and Webb et. al. (1974) can be mentioned, Webb et aZ. (1966)
(1966) have useful comments on simple obser- provide the best source of material on indi-
vations and problems of sampling. Barker (in rect observation and Rosenthal (1966) comple-
Barker and Wright 1955, Barker and Gump 1964, ments their thesis with his work on experi-
Barker 1968) has developed the most compre- menter effects in behavioural research.
hensive system of behaviour observation and, Kluckhohn (1940) and Whyte (1951) discuss
in addition to the references cited in the the methodological issues in participant ob-
text, a good analysis using long periods of servation. There are many examples in differ-
observation is given in the account of "One ent languages of participant observation avail-
boy's day" by Barker and Wright (1951). able in sociological and ethnographic studies.

IV. ASKING QUESTIONS

INTERVIEWING itory "opinions" versus deeper-seated

"values".
As in observational methods, techniques in If the answers to these questions are gener-
asking questions range from highly structured, ally positive, then a questionnaire or stan-
preceded ones to informal, unstandardized ap- dard interview schedule is likely to be the
proaches. Interview and questionnaire methods research instrument chosen. Questionnaires
are used far more than observational methods are the most structured form of asking ques-
in the social sciences; this is still true to tions since respondents are usually asked to
a lesser extent for studies of environmental complete the answers without the interviewer
perception. The rapid proliferation of ques- being present to clarify and elaborate the
tionnaire social surveys since they were de- questions or to give encouragement. The choice
veloped in nineteenth-century Europe is less of a standardized interview schedule (some-
a reflection of their superior validity as a times also called a "questionnaire") usually
means of obtaining data, than of their rela- implies a trade-off between reliability and
tive economy in time and effort. Except for efficiency, over validity, in its widest sense
the more specialized interviews - which may of measuring perceptions as the respondent
merge into participant observation - asking perceives them.
questions to which responses are specifically In contrast to some of the observational,
directed generally takes less time per res- listening and interviewing methods described
pondent than observing him or listening to in this Technical Note, there are many des-
his freely composed narratives and descrip-, criptions and discussions of interviewing me-
tions. thods. A practical guide to structured survey
Asking questions of people also provides interviewing was published by the Survey Re-
information that could not be systematically search Center in Michigan (1976). Dexter
observed, such as questions about the past (1970) has discussed specialized interviewing
and future, and questions on attitudes, feel- and included an annotated bibliography. Gor-
ings and beliefs. The choice of a more or less don (1969) has compared various types of in-
standardized approach involves consideration terviews and their applications. In addition,
of: most standard texts on social science methods
- the confidence with which the researcher include interviewing techniques and sampling
feels he can "precede" the data and an- design. The Guidelines will therefore briefly
ticipate all the relevant questions and review the various ways of asking questions
categories of responses; and concentrate on describing some special-
- the need to obtain large samples for quan- ized techniques for environmental perception.
titative analysis and statistical infer-
ence to larger populations; Unstandardized interview
- the time, money and personnel available
to do the research; An important difference between an unstandar-
- the literacy and familiarity of respon- dized (elite, in-depth, specialized, key ac-
dents with questionnaires and interviews, tor interview) and a standard, survey inter-
opinion polls, etc.; view is that in the unstandardized one, all
- research questions and goals, e.g. trans- respondents are not considered equal. Some

37

--. _ ._--__-ll
I.
 Asking questions

people are better informed and more sensitive lectual criteria with the respondent seeing
to the topic of the interview and their res- himself as "consultant to the research pro-
ponses carry more weight in the final analy- ject" (Lerner 1956). Nadel (1939), describ-
sis. Thus, where a deviation would be handled ing his field work in Africa with one tribe
statistically in a survey, a unique or un- whose culture was characterized by individual
usual response in an unstandardized interview aggression and jealousy, comments:
may form the basis of a revised interpreta- In the case of interviews which bear on
tion. secret and forbidden topics, I have found
The design of the interview is not un- it profitable to stimulate the emotionality
structured, as is sometimes claimed, but is of a few chief informants to the extent
implicit and not visible in the form of ques- of arousing almost violent disputes and
tionnaire schedules, etc. It requires thor- controversies. The expression of doubt and
ough familiarity before the interview with disbelief on the part of the interviewer...
the topic of the interview and with the main induced the key informant to disregard his
actors and events likely to be involved. A usual reluctance to speak openly (Nadel
set of key questions should be prepared be- 1939) *
forehand and can be written out on a single In other tribal and peasant settings, an in-
sheet as a reminder during the interview. terview situation should reflect the highly
The reward for good preparation is often deferential and respectful mode, character-
an easy, conversational interview between istic of many traditional societies.
two people who respect one another's roles
and who have a certain degree of mutual trust, ReZiabiZity and validity in unstandardised
with one person (the respondent) sharing his interviews
greater knowledge and experience (of the to-
pic in hand) with the other (the interviewer). A frequently asked question is: how do we
The main principle to keep in mind is to know people are telling the truth? In sur-
encourage the respondent to present not only vey interview studies, errors in response are
his perceptions of the situation but to let handled statistically - it is hoped that the
him define that situation in his own terms, number of people giving false answers is small
to include, as far as possible, what he him- enough to be counterweighted by the large num-
self regards as relevant. Apparently incon- ber of "correct" responses.
sequential remarks can reveal important in- In unstandardized interviews, the number
formation when considered in the context of of interviews is not as high and each one may
that, and other, interviews. It has been sug- produce "unique" information. One approach to
gested that one should aim for "something this problem is to design the interviews so
which sounds like a discussion but is really that each interview acts as a partial cross-
a quasi-monologue stimulated by understand- check on the others.
ing comments" (Dexter 1970). For example, in a study of information
In introducing the interview, the inter- flow between key people involved in managing
viewer should be fairly vague about the fo- an environmental pollution problem, the ob-
cus, becoming more precise with later ques- ject was to relate their perception of the
tions. "Tough" questions are best left un- problem with their roles and access to rele-
til near the end of the interview, after vant information. Questions directed to find-
there has been an opportunity to establish ing out who passed confidential information
some rapport between the respondent and the to whom for each respondent, acted as cross-
interviewer. Notes should ideally be as com- checks between the interviews (Wbyte 1975a).
plete as possible and written up the same day. Thus one can proceed round a structure of in-
Tape recording is possible in some interview terviews as though surveying a closed tra-
situations but requires an enormous amount verse. The degree of error is represented by
of time to transcribe and inhibits some res- the gap between the starting and finishing
pondents as well as some interviewers. points, and there is usually sufficient ad-
It is important to establish a temporary ditional information to allow the "error" to
working relationship with the respondent but be assigned to particular interviews.
the form the relationship takes will vary be-
tween situations and cultures. In North Amer- rnttarV?:el,,er-respondent effects
ica, interviews tend to go better, compared
to England, if the interviewer displays an An interview represents a social interaction
outgoing, slightly aggressive personality. between two or more people, no matter how
In France, interviews with key actors need short and formally conducted it may be. The
more frequently to be established on intel- nature of that social interaction inevitably
 Interviewing

will make some difference to the data ob- In general, the following points should
tained. The researcher needs to be aware of be considered in designing interview sched-
likely effects and their magnitude and di- ules.
rection, especially when they are systemat-
ically operating in one direction. Logic
It is usually assumed that establishing a The schedule should have its own internal
friendly rapport based on mutual respect will logic and consistency. Its structure and pur-
minimize bias either in the respondents' an- pose may not be fully appreciated by the res-
swers or in the interviewer's interpretation pondent but he should be able to see the
and recording of them. Standardizing the ques- "sense of it" or he will be confused and start
tion is one strategy to minimize interview asking why the questions are being asked.
biases. Another is to select interviewers who Questions should therefore flow logically from
are likely to be able to establish rapport one another, to the extent possible, and,
and to be sympathetic to the respondent. This where a new topic begins, it should be intro-
selection may include consideration of the duced with an explanatory sentence or two.
ethnic origin, age, sex, social status and
personality of the interviewers. There are Information
no hard and fast rules, but in North America, The respondent should be told at the out-
female interviewers and younger interviewers set something about the questionnairelinter-
of both sexes are generally found to make the view - its purpose, who is doing the research,
best interviewers in terms of establishing how long it will take, and if results will be
rapport (Hyman et al. 1954). This may imply available to respondents. The respondent
that the interview situation is most succes- should usually be assured of anonymity (ex-
ful when it mirrors one of "experienced teach- cept where he agrees not to be anonymous) and
er-naive learner" in the eyes of the respon- thanked for agreeing to be interviewed. In
dent - at least for survey questionnaires. some cases, confidentiality of data obtained
Another source of interviewer-respondent and reassurances of security of information
effect is where either party is embarrassed will also be relevant.
by a question or perceives the other to be.
This is particularly important for projective CZarity
techniques where familiarity, competence and The schedule should be clear to the inter-
ease with the technique on the part of the in- viewer, who should have been trained or at
terviewer are critical to their successful least familiarized with this particular sched-
use in the interview. ule. Instructions to both interviewers and
Where interviews are aimed at a socially respondents should be uniform and unambiguous.
useful objective such as improvements in for-
est management or soil conservation, it is Cross-checks
important to make the interview itself a two- The design should include questions which
way exchange of information. At the same time enable cross-checks to be made either within
as obtaining information from the respondent, different parts of the schedule or between
it ,is possible (and usually desirable) to use the interview and other (e.g. census) data
the opportunity to provide him with informa- (internal and external validation).
tion on the topic of the interview. Thus, in-
terviewing becomes more than an extractive Order
process; it is educational for both interview- Order within the schedule is important
er and respondent. since there are sequential and time effects
as with any other social relationship. Res-
Questionnaire and interviezc, schedule desigx pondents tire through the course of an inter-
view. They also may become wary, oversensi-
Pretesting with a small number of respondents tized, anxious to please or hostile. "Diffi-
is almost always necessary in designing a cult" questions are therefore asked towards
good questionnaire. It is not possible to see the end; and open questions are asked before
all the ambiguities, conflicts and difficul- closed ones. In giving lists of objects to
ties that particular questions and wording rank or scale, there are systematic order-
might produce, nor to know all the alterna- effects and biases. For example, last ones
tive responses that should be included in are most recalled; right-hand end of scale
closed questions. The first affects the re- is more commonly used whatever its label;
liability of the research instrument and the first ones mentioned in predominantly right-
second, its validity. handed societies are more influential. These

39

--_.ll---LII -._--.".-.-_._-_-_-^ ...-

 Asking questions

can be minimized by careful design and by time it is said (or immediately after the in-
the use of cards. terview) without structuring the respondent's
answer before he gives it (Table 4).
Intervieuer's report Open questions can provide daunting arrays
This report is completed privately at the of data but if they do, it suggests that a
end of the interview by the interviewer. His closed question would have been less valid
evaluation of the respondent's attitude and (would have missed important options) and
any additional comments he may make, enable when they do, they can usually be coded into
the researcher to evaluate the meaning and a manageable number of categories with ac-
usefulness of the responses. The interviewer ceptable inter-coder agreement. The main dif-
can also make his own estimate of the age and ficulty is not that the task of coding such
income of respondents. questions is unquantifiable or not objective,
but that it is time-consuming.
Length
Ideally, interview schedules should be as Ctosed questions
short as possible. Thirty minutes is about Highly structured techniques have not been
as long as an interview can reasonably be in widely used for environmental perception, but
Europe and North America without prior ap- there are times when closed questions are the
pointments being made with the respondent. obvious and best format. Some questions seek
specific information, such as the individual
MEASURING VERBAL RESPONSE characteristics of the respondent - his age,
education, address, etc. Other questions sim-
Alternative question formats ply require a yes/no answer. Where closed
questions are given with a list of alterna-
Gpen questions tives, they can be used to educate the res-
Open questions fall into the same class pondent and indirectly make him aware, with-
as unstructured observation and non-standard out embarrassing him, of more possibilities
interviews - that is, they maximize the res- than he might otherwise consider. They also
pondent's view of the situation and minimize are less difficult for many respondents who
the effect of the researcher's preconceptions have only to respond to a given set of choices
on the responses. This type of question pro- rather than initiate or create an answer. In
vides, however, a more time-consuming and a long interview, fatigue and impatience are
less rigorously quantifiable set of responses important considerations; time limitations,
for analysis. In environmental perception re- where many topics need to be covered, are com-
search this disadvantage is often outweighed monly met by using closed questions.
by the fact that the rationale for doing the Closed questions usually simplify the situ-
study in the first place is to understand the ation. However, when attempts are made to
respondent's perspective. make the closed question comprehensive, the
Responses to open questions should be re- number of options which must be given can
corded as verbatim as possible to include make the question so cumbersome that an open
both the relevant "facts" and enough of the question becomes simpler to ask and easier to
verbal expressions used to convey the nuances respond to.
of meaning. Anonymous individual responses As a general rule, open questions are given
can be used as examples to illustrate and de- before closed questions covering the same to-
tail particular aspects of the perceptions pic in order not to bias unduly the content
being studied. The usual caveats about the of the open responses.
protection of identity apply (see page 112).
Open-ended questions can also be handled quan- Forced-choice questions
titatively by using content analysis to code The forced-choice question asks respondents
them and to draw up frequency tables for the to select from two or more given alternatives,
categories selected. This is commonly the way that which one comes closest to their own view
that pretesting is done to find out what res- or situation. It requires that each alterna-
ponses should be offered as alternatives in a tive be simple, conceptually and literally,
closed question. and that each be roughly opposite on some rel-
One way to allow for more rapid analysis evant dimension. This is a more difficult task
of open questions while not losing the fla- than it may appear.
vour and variety of individual responses is Forced-choice questions facilitate coding
to use preceded open questions. The interview- and analysing of the results, but there are
er is asked to code the open response at the sometimes difficulties in administering these

40
 Measuring verbal response

Open: How would you describe this area?

(Probe) What are its main characteristics?
Response (record verbatim) -

Pre-coded open question: How would you describe this area?

(Probe) What are its main characteristics?
Response (record verbatim)

Interviewer coding (do not say these to Respondent mentions:

respondent. Check as many as applicable) people
housing
services
cheap, convenient
changes
other (specify)
Closed: Which of these descriptions do you think apply to this area?

In- Don't
Yes NO between know

too many people

poor housing
poor services
cheap
,(
convenient
changing
good neighbours -

Forced choice: Which of the following statements do you think

best describes this area?
a or b
a. The houses and services are poor
b. It is cheap and convenient
a. There are too many people
b. The neighbours are good --
a. There are a lot of changes here
b. This area hasn't changed much ___-

Table 4. Comparison of op?n, closed and forced-choice question fonats

41
 Asking questions

questions because respondents feel none of influence of particular labels on intermediate

the alternatives are suitable and are hes- points and it gives the respondent a freer
itant to select one without being encour- choice which does not greatly increase the
aged. Thus, their response may literally be difficulty of his task and which can still
"forced". This is more common with respon- be readily scaled by the coder (by simply mea-
dents who are particularly knowledgeable or suring with a 100 mm ruler). Its main disad-
aware of the topic, as they often see the vantage for some interviews is that it re-
forced-choice question as irrelevant and over- quires the respondent to read the statements
simplified. It is also sometimes unclear what and fill in the scale himself.
the forced-choice question is actually mea- A danger in the use of a continuous scale
suring, especially when compared to scaled is that it may appear more accurate than it
questions. really is. By cumulating many such observa-
tions into a frequency diagram, a false im-
Scaled questions pression can be given of the fineness of gra-
Scaled questions, often called Likert ques- dations that people use or of the distinctions
tions, are advantageous in that they provide that they actually make.
ordinal data (and, in the case of attitude
scales, interval data). There is a vast lit- CarJd questions
erature on scaling techniques, especially in The problem of order-effects in asking
the context of attitude scales (see, for ex- questions is a particularly acute one in en-
ample, Fishbein 1967). Scaled questions are vironmental perception because questions are
often put in the form of statements to which likely to raise topics which the respondent
the respondent shows his degree of agreement has not intellectually formalized or verbal-
or disagreement with the scaled value - de- ized to any great extent - for the most part,
gree of importance, expense, experience, etc. people relate to their home, city, and inter-
There are several formats for the scales, actions with the natural environment in an
the simplest being a three-point scale (e.g. implicit, non-verbal way. The order in which
high-medium-low) from which the respondent topics or environmental stimuli are given to
selects the appropriate value (Table 5, part the respondent will be most influential where
A). These are simple enough to be read out to he has not thought them out beforehand. One
the respondent and short enough to repeat for way to reduce this source of error and to make
each successive statement. the data more valid is to-present the stimuli
More complex scales can have from five to in random order for each respondent. Thus or-
thirteen points but three to seven are most der-effects will still operate at the individ-
common, since the task of discriminating so ual level but not when the data are handled
finely becomes arduous and may not reflect collectively.
the respondent's perceptual categories unless Card questions, where the elements are
he is very involved and informed on the to- written or depicted on individual cards, en-
pic. Each point on the scale can have its own able the interviewer to "shuffle" the cards
label or the end points only are labelled and randomly select them for presenting to
(Table 5, part B). The second form requires the respondent. The interviewer should note
the respondent to be more familiar with the the order of presentation.
idea of such scales and what he is asked to The use of cards is also valuable where
do. The exact wording of the scales is highly the respondent is asked to evaluate a set of
influential in where people score their feel- elements, e.g. to rank them in order, or to
ings and opinions on it. In the example given, put them into categories. Ranking more than
changing the end label from "very large" to about six elements is a difficult task when
"large" or "extremely large" would change its they are presented either verbally or visu-
perceived value, and the number of times it ally as a consolidated list. The respondent's
was used, even though it remained the extreme task is simplified by being able to arrange
category. and rearrange the cards until the (perceived)
The format given in Table 5, part C, has right order is found and a more accurate res-
been developed more recently. It consists of ponse is also achieved. Similarly, cards are
a line (usually 100 mm long) with labels only valuable means of grouping elements into sets,
at either end, such as "highly important" and especially where the sets are created by the
"highly unimportant". The respondent is asked respondent himself to reflect how he discrim-
to cross the line at the point which he feels inates between elements (Q-sorts). The advan-
best represents his view. The advantages of tage of card questions is that they can be
the line scale are that it lessens the undue easily rearranged and that they allow for

42
 Measuring verbal response

A. 3-point scale
If your village had a new water supply would : check one

the number of people using it be

the number of animals using it be

B. 7-point scale
Hand respondent card with scale (below). Circle number each time that cor-
responds with his views. If he says 'don't know' check number 8 but do not
suggest it to him.
SCALE

If your village had a new water supply how would you rate the following pos-
sible changes?
Don't
Circle one know
the number of people using it in the wet season 12 3 4 5 6 7 8
the number of people using it in the dry season 12345678
the amount used for drinking and cooking 12 3 4 5 6 7 8
the amount used for washing 12 3 4 5 6 7 8

C. Continuous scale
Here are various views that have been expressed about what happens when a
new water supply is put in a .village. Would you please say how far you agree
or disagree with these views for your village by putting a cross on the line
at the place which represents your position. If you strongly disagreed with
the view, YOU might put the cross at that end of the line. If you neither agree
nor disagree, you should put your cross in the middle of the line.
Please only cross each line in one place.

Water will cost less money

strongly strongly
agree disagree

The women will have too much free time

strongly strongly
agree disagree

There will be more illness

strongly strongly
agree disagree

Many people and animals will come in the dry

strongly season strongly
agree disagree

Table 5. Some altsrnative formats for scaled questions

43
 Asking questions

"second thoughts". Another advantage is that relevant ways to classify respondents for the
the respondent is allowed to handle the cards, particular research goals of environmental
which is a more interesting and concrete task perception studies. Their socio-economic char-
than answering a series of questions. Respon- acteristics are usually obtained in the inter-
dents in many cultures have been found to en- view as a standard procedure (age, sex, in-
joy this type of questionning and to be inter- come, occupation, etc.). Running cross-tabu-
ested in sorting cards. lations of responses with the respondent's
age, sex, socio-economic status is also a
Obtaining relevant quantitative data fairly standard type of analysis provided for
in many package social science computer pro-
Categories grammes. While these data may be valuable
In most questionnaire studies, categories from an environmental perception point of
are provided by the researcher in the light view, the respondent's own categories of his
of his research questions and the results of social setting are also relevant. This has
his pretesting. In environmental perception been found to be true in studies of percep-
research, there is a strong rationale for en- tion of environmental pollution in England
abling, as far as possible, the respondent where people did not think of themselves ac-
to determine his own categories and to assign cording to the researchers' categories of
elements to them. The use of open questions "45-60 year olds" or "income group 3". In-
which are coded by several judges is one way stead, their reference groups were residen-
of emphasizing the respondent's view, espe- tial associations and professional groups,
cially if one or more of the judges has a which were the groups with which they identi-
similar background to the respondents, or to fied and which determined their behaviour
whom the respondents are well known. (for response to pollution).
Q-sorting, or asking the respondent to ar- It is possible to obtain the resident's
range elements into sets, is a more open way own perception of his socially relevant group-
of obtaining the respondent's own categories ings by asking him to describe himself or by
and the criteria he uses for dividing up his using Q-sorts to arrange social elements into
perceived environment. Q-sorting is a recog- categories (e.g. age, ethnic, occupational
nized laboratory research technique for ob- groups or named individuals).
taining inter-coder agreement in similarity
or expert judgement approaches, for example Rankings
in designing attitude scales. It can also be The problem with strong order-effects in
used in the field as a research instrument previously non-verbalized data has been dis-
with respondents. The task can be more or cussed with reference to card questions,
less structured, from putting the elements which are recommended for ranked questions.
(usually in the form of cards) into a speci- For similar reasons, i.e. the topic not being
fied number of labelled categories (boxes or formally considered by the respondent before
piles), and with a specified (forced) distri- the question is asked, many questions in en-
bution, to allowing the respondent to decide vironmental perception that ask respondents
the number and labels of the categories him- to rank data do not obtain relevant orders
self. The size of categories and the frequen- in the middle ranks where respondents are
cy with which they are used by different res- relatively "indifferent". Thus respondents
pondents can be analysed quantitatively to are able more readily to say which comes first
obtain a "cultural" or collective view of the and last and less sure of exact order in the
environment that is relatively free of the middle. With this proviso, useful ranked data
researcher's influence. on environmental perception can be obtained
Categories can also be obtained using a from interviewing respondents.
specialized technique called repertory grid
(see page 59 ). Scaled data
Interview schedules and questionnaires The use of a scaled format (Table 5) en-
provide a great wealth of raw material for ables responses to any individual question
producing frequencies and cross-tabulations to be ranked along the dimension of the scale.
in environmental perception as for any other Sets of questions or statements can be con-
research area. The importance of having rele- structed which provide interval data on
vant frequencies in terms of the environmen- strength and direction of respondent's per-
tal categories used has already been dis- ceptions and values. These statement sets
cussed. are usually done for scaling attitudes and
It is also valuable to consider the most their construction requires expert judgement,

44
 Projective t:echniques: verbal tests

pretesting and validation in the field. Al- detail than other methods. Reference can be
ternatively, already constructed scales are made, for example, to Cannel1 and Kahn (1953)
available but they also entail pretesting in and the chapters on verbal scaling in Sell-
the field situation (see page 57). Such tiz et al. (1959). Hyman et al. (1954) is en-
scales require that the respondents answer tirely devoted to the issues of social re-
in terms of the dimensions provided by the search interviewing and Kish (1965) discusses
researcher. An alternative approach, which survey sampling. The interviewers' manual
provides non-parametric data, is multidimen- written by the Survey Research Center of the
sional scaling in which the scales are elic- University of Michigan (1976) is clearly set
ited by the respondent (see page 58). out with illustrative sample pages. A good
introduction is also given in Michelson (1975),
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING particularly in the chapter by Marans. Dex-
ter (1970) is recommended for unstructured
Books on research methods usually discuss in- interviewing.
terviewing and survey techniques in more de-

V. PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES AND OTHER SPECIALIZED WAYS OF ASKING QUESTIONS

Projective techniques can be used to encour- The tasks involved in projective tech-
age respondents to give freer, less inhibited niques range from a simple association of
responses that include both their conscious words to asking respondents to create a story
and unconscious feelings. This is achieved from a short beginning or a picture. The tasks
by enabling people to "project" their own thus include association, ordering and selec-
thoughts onto a character or scene represen- tion, completion and creation. The respon-
ted in words or pictures. The techniques va- dents are asked to respond to verbal stimuli
ry considerably in how deeply they are in- (words, sentences, stories), graphic stimuli
tended to probe the individual's personality (cartoons, pictures, blank sheets of paper),
or unconscious. As used in the field, the and game situations (Table 6). Each of these
techniques are generally modified to test for combinations of task and stimulus is best
specific dimensions of perception rather than suited for particular research needs and field
an in-depth analysis of personality or atti- situations. There is no single best method.
tudes. Generally speaking, projective techniques re-
The procedures described in the following ly on trained, sympathetic interviewers and
discussion are more formalised and reliable are biased towards literate respondents used
methods of asking the type of questions which to working with paper and pencil.
can easily be posed in an unstandardized in-
terview, questions such as: "Imagine a flood VERBAL TESTS
bigger than any you have experienced in which
..* " or "How would you describe your ideal Adjective check-lists
environment or Utopia?". These are everyday
conversational projective techniques. A list of adjectives can be presented to the
The techniques included in the Guidelines respondent who can indicate which adjectives
have been used in the field and are, with describe the environment or other topic of
some training, relatively easy to administer the test. The list should comprise adjec-
and code (usually for specific dimensions). tives relevant to the topic and should re-
The techniques may also produce data rich flect all the environmental attributes likely
enough for a trained person to extract much to be perceived by respondents. It should al-
additional information. Projective techniques so reflect everyday language and avoid spe-
are, however, often worthwhile even when the cialized terminology. The technique is sim-
analysis is deliberately limited. Adaption ple and provides limited though useful in-
to the field situation usually reduces the formation. The list should not be too long
experimental rigour or clinical depth with or the task becomes wearisome.
which they were first developed. But the com-
pensations can be that, compared to the lab- Semantic differentia2
oratory setting, the tests are more relevant
to respondents' real lives and concerns; in This technique is presented as a more elab-
addition, related interview and behavioural orate form of the adjective check-list, more
data provide checks for validity. carefully grounded in psycho-linguistic the-

45

.__ . . ..,, _ ..-_...--- I

 Projective techniques and other speciaZized ways of asking questions

TASK STIMULUS
VERBAL GRAPHIC GAMES
WORDS SENTENCE STORY CARTOON PICTURE BLANK

Association Adjective Korschach

check-lists Test
(inkblots)

Ordering, Semantic Attitude Structured Picture

selection differential scale scenario Arrangement
Place Personality Test
preferences scale Szandi Test
o-sorts MDS Rep. grid
Rep. grid

Completion Sentence story Rozenzweig Doll

completion completion Picture construction
Argument Scenario Frustration
completion Test

Creation Self- Free story Environmen- Mental maps Environment

description tal Apper- (TAT) building
labels ception (children)
Test Role games
TAT
Note. Techniques discussed in this Technical Note are indicated in itabzcs.

Table 6. Tasks invoZved in some projective and related techniques

ory. It is one of the most popular "paper items per minute so that ten concepts each
and pencil" tests in environmental perception, with ten scales take about 15 minutes per re-
used especially in relation to architectural spondent. Analysis is usually done by com-
space. It is not dissimilar to attitude scales puter, using coefficient of correlation tests
in its construction of bipolar scales and in to measure interrelationships among scales
what it often seems to measure. and concepts, and factor analysis (principal
components solution) to explain the interre-
Method lationships in terms of their overall pattern
The test consists of a set of concepts or dimensionality. Thus the number of items
which are measured by a set of bipolar ad- per respondent should be as large as is prac-
jectival scales. The set of scales is repeated ticable in order to increase the accuracy of
for each concept. Each concept/scale measure- the measure. Usually the semantic differential
ment is called one "item", test takes about 30 minutes to administer.
Respondents are asked to place an "X" in
one of the seven spaces between the adjectives Assumptions
pairs at the location which best represents The test was originally developed by Os-
their view of the concept. For example, good, Suci and Tannenbaum (1957) in order to
CONCEPT : Wilderness measure the "meaning" of word labels in re-
lation to the psychological "meaning" of the
Orderly - - - - X - - Chaotic concepts they describe. Their theoretical ba-
SCALE: sis centred on linguistic encoding; research-
Dangerous --X---- Safe
ers using the semantic differential technique
Thus for each scale, the respondent's direc- should become familiar with its conceptual
tion and intensity of polarity is obtained. background.
Scales and concepts are presented randomly to One important idea is that of "semantic
reduce order-effects and the "high" and "low" space" which is defined as
values of the scales are varied from right to a region of some unknown dimensionality
left for similar reasons. Typical instructions and Euclidian in character...Each semantic
given to the respondent are shown in Table 11. scale defined by a pair of polar (opposite
The choice of number of concepts and scales in meaning) adjectives is assumed to rep-
can be left to the individual researcher. Stu- resent a straight line function that passes
dents have been found to do ten to twenty through the origin of this space, and a

46
 VerbaZ tests

sample of such scales then represents a characteristic dimensions: evaluation, power

multidimensional space. The larger or and activity. Where these dimensions have
more representative the sample, the better fixed ratios of one to another (Bechtel 1975),
defined is the space as a whole (Osgood, they appear to mirror a part of language
Suci and Tannenbaum 1957, p. 25). structure itself.
These authors define differences in semantic An example will clarify the concepts in-
meaning as: volved in semantic differential tests. Figure
the successive allocation of a concept to 8 shows the "meaning" of twelve environmental
a point in the multidimensional semantic hazards as perceived by a sample of fifty-
space by selection from among a set of eight Canadian students (Golant and Burton
given scaled semantic alternatives. Dif- 1969). Each student judged each hazard against
ference in meaning between two concepts twenty-one adjectival scales. The results
is then merely a function of the differ- were analysed by correlations and principal
ences in their respective allocations components analysis. The two main factors to
within the same space. emerge were "man-made hazards" and "natural
Semantic space has now been defined by over hazards", with quasi-natural hazards of pol-
1000 studies (Heise 1969) and it has three lution as a third factor.

NATURAL HAZARDS
Factor II
I.0
Snowstorm.
Tornodo
0.8 0
l Eorthquoke
l Flood

0.6

. Epidemic

0.4 l Riot

. Building Collapse
l Housefire
0.2
. Air Pollution @Auto Accident
MAN-MADE HAZARDS l Boat Accident
.Woter Pollution
I I 1 I
Factor I t I I I 1 I
- 1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 ,-0 2 0.2 0.4 0.6 08 1.0

-0.2

-04

-06

-0.8

Figure 8. The meaning of hazards obtained by

semantic differential: loading values
-1.C
of concepts on two principal factors
(reprinted with permission from
GoZant and Burton L969)

47

" ~,L" ---_

 Projective techniques and other speciaZized ways of asking questions

Evahation in environmental perception, it is more eco-

The semantic differential is a relatively nomic in design and administration than it is
simple test to administer, though it is a in enabling the researcher to meaningfully
highly repetitive task which rapidly induces interpret and use the data obtained. It re-
boredom. In the field, it is difficult to ask quires elaborate analysis and is weakest for
respondents to spend 30 minutes or more fill- those environments of most interest to field
ing in semantic differential scales without investigators.
specific motivation, such as analysis of a
particular building for which user-evaluation Sentence completion test
is needed. It is in these latter situations
that the test has been most widely used. :??ethod
A number of problems posed by this test In this technique, the projective element
have been described by Bechtel (1975). For is provided by a sentence beginning or stem
use in large-scale environments, especially which the respondent is asked to complete.
complex natural and man-made ones, the prob- For example, in a study of perception of home
lems Bechtel discusses are exacerbated. These area one might use sentence stems such as:
are mainly problems of ambiguity about the "When I think of my farm, I..." or "If we
concepts being measured and ambiguity and dis- moved from here I...".
tortion of the factors elicited. The stems ideally should be free of affect-
When a concept (e.g. strange environmentsj laden (emotional) words that might unduly in-
is unfamiliar to the respondent, it can seem fluence the response and should encourage
ambiguous so that he cannot meaningfully des- dichotomous classification of responses or a
cribe it in relation to other concepts. Am- simple range of responses along a defined di-
biguity also arises when the concept is a mension. Sentence completions are often most
complex one (e.g. landscape, street) and when effective when they describe behaviour situ-
it is not clear to which specific parts the ations. They can be read out to the respon-
respondent is referring when he scales the dent and his completions recorded by the re-
concept. The use of a semantic label for such searcher or written in by the respondent him-
complex environmental stimuli obviously glos- self.
ses over many details giving the impression Sentence completions are one form of a re-
of "wholeness" that may not exist in the res- lated series of tests ranging from word as-
pondent's eyes. This problem has arisen when sociation to paragraph completion, argument
semantic differential scales have been used completion and story completion. They enable
to measure perception on urban walks (see the respondent to answer freely within an am-
page 66). biguous framework constructed by the research-
One problem with this technique is that er. Thus the subject of the response is di-
the use of the factor analysis procedure al- rected by the sentence stem but the direction
ways gives factors or dimensions which are is free enough to reveal strong differences
orthogonal in nature, whereas in reality the among and between people. As illustration,
dimensions may be "correlated" and oblique one sentence completion test has been used in
to one another. Also, in many empirical stud- the twenty-three nation comparative interview-
ies, the way the dimensions should be labelled study of perception and response to natural
is unclear because they often seem to contain hazards (White 1974). The results showed dif-
a mixture of adjectival scales. This diffi- ferences among and between people as indiv-
culty arises in part because researchers de- iduals and among and between social groups as
rive their own scales for particular investi- to how they viewed natural hazards and other
gations without any very clear basis for doing negative events, which were seen as setbacks
so. either to be mastered or to be accepted fatal-
These difficulties are related to a more istically.
general issue in assigning "dimensions" to
environmental perceptions, cognitions and val- Assumptions
ues. Often such classifications are constructs Sentence completions are based on the fol-
of the method and/or the research questions. lowing assumptions:
They do not necessarily reflect the way the - The respondent will reveal his subjective
respondent categorizes the world, either ex- feelings and intended behaviour in the way
plicitly or implicitly, nor reveal the prin- he completes the sentences.
ciples of his classificatory system. - The sentence stems do not bias or direct
Generally speaking, despite the fact that the respondent when he completes them.
this test is one of the most commonly used - The respondent understands the task suf-

48
 Vee2qbaZtests

ficiently and is familiar with the idea several respondents were alienated by the
of sentence construction. test, although they understood it. Perhaps
- The sentence completions can be reliably even more significant was the fact that some
coded for the dimensions they were de- interviewers disliked the test, and their
signed to measure. feelings about it were probably conveyed un-
knowingly to respondents.
EvahatiorL The test requires respondents to under-
Compared to other projective techniques, stand the task, i.e. to comprehend the struc-
the materials for sentence completion tests ture of a sentence. From a cross-cultural
seem relatively easy to design for each spe-- point of view, this is a severe limitation to
cific field investigation. Similarly, ad- the test. Tn parts of Bangladesh and certain
ministered as part of a longer interview, other rural areas where it has been used with
they are less time-consuming than most other largely illiterate populations, the task
projective tests. They appear to have val- (seemingly simple to researchers) is not eas-
idity in that they do reveal differences be,- ily understood; the respondent tends to wait
tween people's responses. for the interviewer to finish his sentence,
It can also be argued, however, that a di- and he may well think the interviewer rather
rect question would be as effective and prob- foolish to stop in the middle of a sentence.
ably simpler to code. As for most projective As a specifically cross-cultural test, there
techniques, coding is a disadvantage of the are also difficulties of translation into dif-
test. When responses are reduced to a posi- ferent languages and idioms. To measure the
tive-negative dichotomy, much of the rich- same dimension or concept in different cul-
ness of data and advantages of the indirect tures, quite different sentence stems need to
technique are lost. More refined coding, on be used, requiring a translation of concepts
the other hand, is best done by those with rather than just a simple word translation.
training and experience, and by using more Research workers in each country must under-
than one coder to provide a measure of re- stand the test fully and be capable of design-
liability. In field conditions, coding is of- ing their own field instruments using the
ten middle-range in depth and refinement, technique.
with three to five categories set up for spe-
cific dimensions. Example: perception of hurricanes
Some problems also arise in constructing A study on perception of hurricanes (Bau-
and administering sentence completion tests. mann and Sims 1974) was carried out as part
Special care needs to be taken in not in- of the cross-cultural research on perception
cluding sentence stems which bias the res- of natural hazards (White 1974). The sentence
ponse, such as everyday expressions to which completion test consisted of ten sentence
there are "automatic" completions. For exam- stems given in the first part of a standar-
ple, this sentence stem used in a study of dized interview. The sample consisted of 360
air pollution perception in England was: respondents in the United States (in three
"Being a success in the world results from towns in Florida, Mississippi and Texas) and
. . . " to which over 80 per cent of respondents 147 respondents in Puerto Rico (one coastal
added "hard work". Other construction prob- and interior site).
lems include the use of "1" and "my" over "we" The sentence completion test was designed
and "our". If the inappropriate pronoun is to explore:
used, respondents seek to correct the stem - perceived response to hurricane hazard be-
rather than complete it. fore, during and after it might occur;
The major difficulty lies in administering - perceived efficacy - internal-external con-
the test. Because of its simple construction, trol (see page 89).
its projective aspects and checks for inter- The coded responses to the sentence completions
nal reliability (such as repeated themes) are on perception of hurricane hazard for the
visible to the respondent and may well irri- United States and Puerto Rican samples are
tate him. It is also a rather unnatural task given in Table 7. They show that respondents
to finish someone else's sentence, especially in the two areas differ in the ways that they
in cultures where politeness in waiting for anticipate responding to a hurricane before
people to finish what they are saying is the and after it might occur, but perceive very
norm. Nor is it an interesting or very re- similar strategies for coping during the storm.
warding task. In the field testing of percep- There is generally greater acceptance and
tion methods during an international ElAB work- passivity on the part of respondents in Puerto
shop in Victoria, Canada (Canada-MAB 1977), Rico than in the mainland United States in the

49

-.-..- ^ .- .-------- ..1.1. ~_-,.*"

Projective techniques and other specialized ways of asking questions

Puerto Rico U.S.

(N = 141) (N = 360)
Sentence stems and completions @) 6)

If d hurricane is predicted. I
mnkc preparations (unspecified) 31
keep on the Art 19
feel fcar/jnxict) 4
seek refuge 14 29
[other] 14 17
When a hurricane is coming, I feel
fear 48 31
anxiety 9 18
concern for the consequences 26 15
dcrirr to take precautions 2 14
[other] 15 22

Duritlg the hurricane

During the hurricane, I

make preparations (unspecified) 38 17
pny 10 18
communicate with others 13 9
feel fearlanxiet) 9 16
protect l)stzlf 13 18
protect others 12 8
proceed normally 5 7
[other] 0 7
Going through a hurricax makes me feel
tc;ir 38 31
xnuiety II 23
negative emotions (unspecified) 6 10
concern for the consequences 36 15
[st.1ys c;rltn) 9 4
[other] 0 17
In 3. hurric.me the people I fcrl some rcsponsilnlity for are
fanily of procrcatioll (husband
or wife and chddrcn) 40 37
children 9 17
,ments 6 7
family and nonfamily 24 25
nonfamil) 14 12
[other] 7 2

29 26
23 18
10 IO
l? 29
14 4

6 6
IO 7

31 48
6 6
4? 11
II 2
4 17
6 16

Table 7. Sentence compZetion tests for hurricane

perception (reprinted with permission from Bawnann
and Sims 19741

50
 VerbaZ tests

face of hurricane hazard. tives he most agrees with. If he feels an ad-

ditional outcome is likely, this should also
Scenarios be recorded. A card should be made for each
scenario and should be presented separately
Scenarios are a technique which are related to the respondent. His answer should be ob-
to sentence completion but which provide much tained before the next card is presented.
richer data. They consist of a short story or
set of initial assumptions which describe an Exm@e. The following test example was used
initiating chain of events. The respondent is in the MAB Perception Workshop, Victoria,
asked to continue the sequence as he thinks Canada (Canada-MAB 1977). A structured scen-
it might, or will, occur. As used today in ario (one of two stories) was given to farm-
perception research, the method has parallels ers to measure their feelings of personal con-
in both the story-telling tests used in clin- trol or responsibility for environmental ha-
ical psychiatry and educational psychology zards to agriculture. The three alternative
(as well as in social games in many cultures) outcomes given in each case included one ex-
and in fault-tree analysis as developed in ternal response, one internal, and one in-
systems engineering (particularly in nuclear termediate response indicating compromise or
engineering). In the latter case, the scen- adaptation. Instructions given to the re-
ario is used to discover and assign probabil- searcher were:
ity numbers on possible combinations of events, - Give respondent card.
such as simultaneous failure of engineering - Explain that you would like him to read
components. It is a highly quantified and rig- first one story and then say which of the
orous form of scenario analysis which is ra- three outcomes he thinks would be most
pidly increasing in importance. likely to happen. Encourage him to select
The advantage of scenarios as a field re- only one alternative. Record his answers
search method is that people generally enjoy together with any comments or additional
doing them and appear to readily "project" outcomes he suggests. Prompt the respon-
their own attitudes and feelings into the se- dent for additional comments if this seems
quence of events and their outcomes. At a useful, especially if he suggests that
relatively superficial level, scenarios are there are other possible outcomes, or if
fairly easy to code, but, as in other pro- he points out reasons for his selection.
jective techniques, more profound analysis is Once he has done this, ask him to read the
more difficult. second story, and to repeat the procedure.
A sample card would be:
Structured scenarios
One way to ease the coding problem is to CARD REFERENCE
structure the scenarios into three or four one farmer had a very productive farm in Sanich and
possible alternative outcomes and to ask the grew bulbs and potatoes for export. But a run of bad
respondent to either select the one he pre- weather conditions meant the farmer lost his liveli-
fers or thinks most likely to occur, or to 1hood over a few years. People talked a lot about this.
rank or rate each outcome. Providing alterna- A. Somepeople said it was probably the man's fault.
tive outcomes constrains the respondent's If he'd done the right things it wouldn't have hap-
freedom of expression but enables him to con- pened.
sider possibilities he may not have thought B. Somepeople said that you couldn't blame a man
of by himself. In this situation his response when things like this happened. We have to learn
may not be stable. It may change rapidly over to take the bad with the good.
time because the question is not salient to C. Other people said that it was just another exam-
him. On the other hand, a valuable education ple of what happened when we didn't work in har-
mony with the environment but used methods that
process may take place. Presenting alterna- disrupted the balance of nature.
tives is particularly useful for stimulating
discussion between respondents in a group Which of these explanations do you most agree with?
setting.

Method. A test consists of one or more struc- Unstructur~ed scenarios

tured scenarios, describing locally relevant Unstructured scenarios are administered
situations in two sentences. Each "story" -is in a similar way without suggesting alterna-
followed by about three alternative outcomes tives, although encouragement to develop ideas
and the respondent is asked to read the scen- the respondent introduces and to take them to
ario and then to state which of the alterna- conclusions, is allowed and is usually

51

._1__- --l,,xI --_ .I- _ l.ll-l.-_

 Projective techniques and other speciatized.ways of asking questions

necessary to obtain good (projective) stories. part of the interviewer and the ability to
The respondent's story should be recorded ver- encourage respondents without directing them.
batim if possible. If he digresses into des- Otherwise, the stories can be sketchy and
cription without a "plot" he can be gently poorly developed without providing data rich
encouraged back towards specifying events in enough for analysis.
his story.
Used in this way the scenario is a story- /lna?,~sis. Analysis of structured scenarios is
telling technique in which the respondent's straightforward since respondents are asked
imagination is stimulated by the story begin- to check one of several given alternatives,
ning with which he is presented. each of which is usually designed to corre-
The scenario given to the respondent spond to a general dimension of interest to
(whether he is a layman or an expert) can be the researcher. Analysis of the unstructured
more or less complete in terms of plot de- scenarios requires content analysis, prefer-
velopment and sequence of events from the ini- ably by several independent judges.
tial conditions. Where the technique is used The structured format where alternatives
to educate perceptions and increase environ- are given allows the respondent to consider
mental awareness rather than to elicit the equally several possibilities, which may not
respondent's perceptions, the story is pre- have occurred to him spontaneously in the in-
sented as a more developed chain of events. terview situation (though they could possibly
Obviously, the degree of scientific rigour have occurred to him outside the interview).
versus imagination that such developed scen- It has been used successfully as a technique
arios include can vary. Erickson (1975) pro- in rural areas in developing countries with
vides examples of carefully constructed scen- people who would not be comfortable with some
arios for presenting the likely impact of of the other "pencil-and-paper" tests. It is
the loo-year flood in Boulder, Colorado, USA. also a valuable technique for involving in-
His detailed construction of the chain of dividuals and groups in decision-making in
events as the flood progresses through the both developed and developing countries and
city is based on documented evidence of ex- for educating people to the range of options
isting land use and flood control conditions possible.
linked by scientific inference about the ve-
locity and discharge of the flood. The re- GRAPHIC TESTS
sulting scenario is long but sufficiently
well documented to let decision-makers see .Yn7~ironmentaZ &perception Tests
where they might implement changes to alle-
viate or reduce a particular danger ("fail- The term Environmental Apperception Tests
ure-mode" in the language of fault-tree anal- (EATS) is used for picture-story tests de-
ysis). Well constructed scientific scenarios, signed to elicit environmental perceptions.
however, require considerable understanding They are similar in format to the clinical
of the situation and close documentation to technique known as Thematic Apperception Test
be convincing. In many field investigations, (TAT) developed originally by Murray (1947)
simpler stories are usually at least partly as a measure of personality and aptitude.
projective in design to elicit reactions from Since Murray developed the original set
respondents about the outcomes, as well as of picture stimuli, many others have been
increasing environmental awareness and sen- used with specific relevance to individual
sitivity. studies. The form of analysis also varies
from analysis rooted in the tradition of ab-
Evahation normal psychology, to straightforward analy-
Administration. Scenarios are usually easier sis of the respondent's story in terms of its
to administer than sentence completions and structure, style, coherence and consistency,
are generally enjoyed by respondents (al- etc. In terms of the pictures used or the
though some object to them). These reactions analysis of them, there is, therefore, little
help establish rapport as well as obtain good in common between TAT tests that have been
data. Structured scenarios, where several al- applied to personality testing, and Environ-
ternative outcomes are listed, are more mental Apperception Tests, except for the
straightforward to administer and easier for general "picture stimulus-story response" for-
the respondent to complete. Unstructured mat. It is unfortunate that all of these tests
scenarios, where the respondent is asked to tend to be described as TAT tests, since some
develop a story from a brief set of initial other term such as that proposed here would
conditions, require more experience on the perhaps provoke less defensiveness on the part

52
 GraphZc tests

of some psychologists who feel, with good ually include three to six pictures.
reason, that untrained researchers should not
embark on individual personality analysis. .kfethod
As used in environmental perception, EATS The respondent is shown a picture and
can usefully form a field technique for ob- asked to make up a story about it describing
taining responses along specific dimensions who is in the picture, what his or their feel-
being investigated (e.g. efficacy, territor- ings are, what is happening in the picture,
iality) while placing less demand on the what led up to the scene, and what the out-
training of the story analyst. The more par- come will be. Prompting is allowed and the
ochial pictures (showing local scenes or story is recorded as verbatim as possible.
events) and more explicit ones appear to The other pictures are similarly presented
evoke less deep emotional responses, and res- in turn and the stories recorded. They can
ponses that are more directly related to peo- be presented to groups of people (e.g. as
ple's roles and behaviour than to their per- slides) and the stories written by the res-
sonality. pondents themselves. The stories are later
The pictures should be sufficiently am- analysed using content analysis.
biguous to allow free rein to the respondent's Typical instructions for administering
imagination (for this reason colour is usu- the test could be:
ally avoided) and the set should together - Hand respondent one picture at a time.
show a range of incidents and scenes. They - "Please would you look at this picture
can be either photographs or drawings (Fig. carefully for about 30 seconds. Now can
9). If people are in the picture, they ide- you please make up a short story based on
ally should include some of the same sex and the picture. Try to give the story a def-
approximate age as the respondent (or be am- inite ending and use what is in the pic-
biguous). In a clinical TAT for personality, ture for your plot. For example, who do
ten to twenty pictures are used in two l-hour YOU think is in the picture and what might
sessions. As a field instrument, EATS usu- he be saying? What might have happened

Figure 9. Environmental Apperception Test: emntple of a picture shown to farmers in Victoria, Canada

53
 Projective techniques and other specialized ways of asking questions

or will happen?" mers tending to see success in terms of per-

- Interviewer should ask the respondent to severance.
speak slowly so that the main ideas can
be noted. Evaluation
- Interviewer should try not to say anything Saarinen made some suggestions for making
more until the pictures have been des- practical use of the results of this type
cribed, although general encouragement can of study. Since the dominant environmental
be given to elicit more detailed narra- perception of the farmers was of a long-term,
tives. He should then thank the respondent "deadlocked" conflict between man and nature
and say the stories are very good and in- (farmer and drought), Saarinen considered
teresting. that innovative solutions were unlikely to
- It is very important to try to record the be adopted by the majority of farmers. Thus
story verbatim. he concluded that government policies to re-
locate farmers would be resisted by most far-
Example: perception of drought hazard on the mers, and agricultural innovations would be
Great Plains, United States adopted by only a few individuals.
One of the photographs used by Saarinen Both interviewers and respondents can en-
(1966) in his study of drought perception joy this technique if the interviewer is com-
showed a man with a stooped posture standing petent and at ease with it. For both, it pro-
in a barren field. The attitudes revealed by vides a change from the routine verbal ques-
farmers in the Great Plains to this situation tion-answer format of an interview. As for
are shown in the following extracts of the several of the techniques described in the
stories that Saarinen obtained: "Because of Guidelines, the results can be analysed at
the great opportunities in the late 20s and more than one level, depending upon the re-
early 3Os, this farmer moved to the drylands search questions being asked, the suitability
of the High Plains. His first few years were of the pictures, and the experience of the
successful . ..And for the next four or five analyst. Where the pictures are essentially
years the wind blew and the soil drifted... graphic forms of structured questions, they
And in despair with his hands in his pockets will elicit fairly specific, structured res-
and his head bent low, he started his return ponses which should not be analysed at any
to the big city." 'I.. .He's thinking of some deep psychological level but rather at the
way he's going to control it." "...Nature level of attitudes, or dispositions to act,
will take care of it if he gives a little in relation to the environment.
help." 'I...' Bout the most hopeless feeling Commonly, the stories generated by the pic-
there is in the world." (Saarinen 1966). tures evoke longer and more useful data than
In this study, the stories were analysed those evoked by verbal scenarios. But pic-
using a technique to abstract a three-part tures require even more careful pretesting
theme (initial phase which sets the scene; than verbal stimuli because incorrect details,
action phase in which something is done; and or too many of them, in the picture can stim-
a resolution phase or outcome). Murray's ulate inappropriate responses, which cannot
(1947) scheme of psychological "needs" and be readily coded. In a cross-cultural test a
external "presses" on the personality was picture stimulus has advantages over verbal
used to analyse the events described within ones because of its suitability for many pop-
the three parts of the theme. Saarinen used ulations. For some people, such as illiterate
a group method of analysis rather than try- groups, old people and children, it has ob-
ing to understand the relationship between vious important advantages over verbal tests;
individual personality and environmental per- The difficulties of finding suitable pictures,
ception. whether drawings or photographs, should not
Saarinen was able to show that conflict be underestimated. It is not yet known if a
was the main element in the farmers' percep- set can be devised which would be valid for
tion of their environment, with their need more than one culture or ecological setting
to achieve production in opposition to en- because little effort has yet been given to
vironmental forces (drought). However, whilst developing such environmental cross-cultural
most farmers experienced this conflict, they picture tests.
expressed in their stories little in the way Barrau (1976) has used a procedure in
of solution. Almost half envisaged doing noth- southern France in which children were asked
ing and most of the others showed only pas- to draw pictures of their community. The chil-
sive coping mechanisms. Thus for them the dren as a group selected those pictures which
confiict continued unresolved, with the far- they felt were most representative of their

54
 Graphic tests

village or neighbourhood. These pictures were area that is drawn but the fact that the re-
then presented to the adults of the community spondent himself translates his mental images
as a set of picture stimuli to elicit adult into graphic, spatial terms.
perceptions of their home environment. In The respondent may be asked to describe
this way, child and adult perceptions could what he has drawn and to annotate it. Depend-
be compared and discussed and the pictures ing on the research questions of the investi-
themselves were generated from within the gation, the map can be content analysed in
community. terms of its structure, components, style, or
In general, this method has considerable what it includes or does not include. The
potential for field studies in environmental analysis of the maps obtained from a sample
perception. It enables free responses that of respondents can be converted back into a
provide insight to the researcher beyond what cartographical form to present a model of the
he may be able to code in a formal analysis, collective image held by a group of people.
at a group level, and gives revealing specif- Such group mental maps can then be compared
ic details which convey the flavour of the with those of other groups.
local situation. Sanders and Porter (1974) compared draw-
ings of an outline map of Africa made by stud-
Mental maps ents in Tanzania and the United States (Fig.
10). Using principal components analysis and
Mental or "cognitive" maps are a technique principal axes factor analysis, they were
for finding out the images of spatial rela- able to systematically compare shape and or-
tionships and environmental characteristics ientation errors between the two groups of
that people "carry about in their heads" and students. They suggested that similar analy-
the attitudes they hold towards them. These ses might be made of successive early maps of,
maps fall into two main groups: for example, Africa or the New World to deter-
- mental maps of places of which people have mine how historical perceptions of newly dis-
direct sensory experience (e.g. their home covered lands changed as knowledge of them in-
area, place of work); creased through time.
- mental maps of areas perceived through cog- These collective images have been used in
nitive processing of personal experience comparing different ethnic and social groups'
(e.g. travel) and information (e.g. books, mental maps of a city and in tracing the de-
films, conversations), reflecting the in- velopmental sequence of spatial images in
dividual's ignorance, prejudices or be- children of different ages. Lynch (1960) did
liefs (e.g. national stereotypes). pioneering work in comparisons of urban im-
Maps of places people experience directly are ages, but his samples of respondents were
concerned with the cognitive processing of small and not selected primarily to represent
sensory perception, particularly in relation social or ethnic differences within the city.
to distance perception, orientation, spatial His main concern was with the "imageability"
relationships and environmental "legibility" of the environment.
(see page 65). The second group of maps is In a more structured form of the test, the
based on the whole system of the perception respondent is simply asked to draw a line
variables described in the discussion on ba- around the part of the map which he considers
sic approaches and reflects perceptions in to be his own area or neighbourhood. The con-
the sense of prejudices, preferences and cept of "neighbourhood" has both social and
stereotypes. The two types of mental maps are physical meanings to most people whose area
characteristically obtained by different me- of social contact and identity is usually
thods. smaller than their perception of physical
homogeneity such as housing type (Lee 1968).
Direct (or revealed) mental maps It has been found in other studies that the
In this method the respondent is asked to residents' perceptions of what constitutes
draw a map (on a blank piece of paper or area their neighbourhood differ from that of plan-
of ground) of an area, or a route. The area ners, and knowledge of residents' perceptions
or route may be defined as a specific geo- is useful to planners in urban renewal and
graphic location (e.g. Nairobi), as an area design. The careful structure of respondent
known to the respondent (e.g. his neighbour- samples (e.g. ethnic groups; young and old
hood), an area in his past (e.g. his child- people) can enable researchers to make valu-
hood environment), or a hypothetical area able suggestions about the planning and de-
(e.g. his "Utopia"). sign of such areas with particular reference
The unifying element is not the type of to the needs of particular groups. A good ex-

55

_.,_
_II___--..__
-_ .. _.I-,
 Projective techniques and other specialized ways of asking questions

ample of the use of this technique in urban Younger children were found to draw their
planning is given by Appleyard (1969) in his neighbourhoods much smaller than older chil-
study of the new Venezuelan city of Ciudad dren. This was the only significant effect of
Guayana. age found, which is a surprising finding in
view of the developmental psychology assump-
Example: Children's perceptions of their tions made about children's perceptions of
home environment. Maurer and Baxter (1972) space. The effect of race was strongest;
used mental maps to study children's images white children were able to draw more accu-
of their homes, neighbourhoods, journeys to rate maps of the whole city, and their neigh-
school, liked and disliked places and their bourhood maps covered larger areas. Their
city of Houston, Texas. The children included friends lived farther away from their home
ninety-six black, white and Mexican-American and they were more likely to ride than to
boys and girls from 7 to 14 years old. Each walk to school. White children had lived at
child was interviewed by a young woman of the their present home for less time than black
same race and asked to draw maps on paper of and Mexican-American children. Their maps em-
his neighbourhood and city. Each child was phasised the structure and pathways of their
asked to name places on the maps, to describe areas and were bounded by main roads and rail-
the journey between home and school and to ways. In contrast, black children's maps em-
say where he most liked and least liked to phasized the home.
play.

Note. Twelve randomly selected examples of student attempts to draw the shape of Africa.
Figures A-H were drawn by Tanzanian students, and Figures I-L by American students.
The area of each has been standardized.

Figure 10. Revealed menta2 maps: African and American students' attempts to
draw the shape of Africa (reprinted with permission from Sanders and
Porter 29741

56
 Ot32er specialized interview techniques

Indirect mental maps lections of scales to measure attitudes to a

With this method, the respondent is asked wide range of specific and general phenomena.
to rank a series of elements (e.g. countries, It is thus worthwhile to survey the litera-
towns) in terms of some attribute (e.g. know- ture to determine which is most appropriate
ledge, or his preference for them as a place for the research to be undertaken (e.g. Rob-
to live in). These rankings are then aggre- inson, Rusk and Head 1973; Robinson and Sha-
gated for the total sample of respondents, ver 1973; Shaw and Wright 1967).
factor analysed, and presented graphically in One problem encountered when using these
map form. The mapped attribute can be presen- scales is that the wording of the statements
ted as isolines superimposed upon a carto- is usually critical to the responses. For
graphic map of the area. this reason, in any particular field situa-
Distortion in distance or area can alter- tion, it often seems preferable to construct
natively be used to represent the difference a new scale. Thus, the number of scales is
between the geographical spatial relation- constantly increasing; very few of them are
ships of different places and their perceived used in more than one study, so that the val-
values for a group of respondents along a idity and reliability of most scales are un-
named attribute. The latter can produce hu- known.
morous maps of gross over-distortion of local
areas to reflect ethnocentrism and territor- Scale corlstrwtiov.
iality as well as our common ignorance of more An attitude scale is a collection of state-
distant places (Could and White 1974). ments to which the respondent is asked to re-
Indirect mental maps are less a technique spond one at a time by indicating to what ex-
of eliciting spatial images than one of pre- tent he agrees or disagrees (see discussion
senting in map form aggregated perceptions of, on scaled questions). Ideally the statements
or preferences for, geographic places. It is should be short, contain one idea, and be
unfortunate that both the direct and indirect phrased in unambiguous language suitable to
methods have come to be known as "mental the study population. The statements included
maps", since only the method involving the in the scale (usually between ten to thirty
individual respondent as the principal draught- statements) are selected from a much larger
sman can really be described as a "mental map" number on the basis of pretesting (with a num-
test. Maps of the second type (indirect men- ber of judges rating all statements) so that
tal maps) are more accurately described as the relative strength of each statement can
maps of spatial knowledge or preference. be calculated. The final scale is made up of
those statements which appear to cover the
OTHER SPECIALIZED INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES range of attitudes found among the study popu-
lation. These statements should be spaced
Attihde scaies roughly equally apart in attitudinal distance
and should be consistent in discriminating be-
The concept of attitude is described on page tween people where their attitudes are placed
93. Attitudes usually are considered to in- along the scale.
clude emotional, intellectual, and behavioural The scale requires validation by testing
aspects which together predispose the indiv- on two populations which on other behavioural
idual to act in a certain way. In terms of or social characteristics would be expected
stability, attitudes are assumed to come some- to differ in attitude along the measured di-
where between values (long-term) and opinions mension. If the scale measures significant
(transitory). Thus, attitude scales are usu- differences in attitude between the two popu-
ally designed to measure attitude direction lations, it is considered ready for use.
(positive or negative towards the attitude Attitude scale construction is described
object), attitude strength (the extremity or in more detail in Fishbein (1967). It is not
moderation of view) and consistency (expected possible here to go into the theoretical dif-
relationship between attitudes). Studies mea- ficulties surrounding these scales but anyone
suring attitudes at different points in time contemplating constructing his own scale
for the same population can also use these should be aware of them. One major problem
scales to measure attitude change. which should be at least mentioned is that
Attitude scaling is now a well developed it is difficult empirically to find a rela-
technique, forming a major research area with- tionship between measured attitudes and ob-
in social psychology. There are several col- served behaviour (Wicker 1969).
 Projective techniques and other specialised ways of asking questions

Evaluation MultidimensionaZ scaling'

The advantage of using an attitude scale
is that, if properly constructed, it provides Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a tech-
interval rather than nominal or ordinal data nique designed to overcome some of the tra-
so that the relative attitude strengths of ditional problems in scaling verbal response.
different people and groups may be compared. These problems include:
The difficulty is that the large number of - sensitivity to the way the scales are ad-
statements necessary to obtain valid mea- ministered, especially in interviewer-re-
surements sometimes tire the type of respon- spondent interaction effects;
dent who thinks carefully about each one, es- - assumptions that the researcher can pre-
pecially if the scale is part of a longer in- judge which and how many relevant dimen-
terview. Some people also find it irritating sions to measure;
to consider statements that seem to them to - assumptions that the scales selected by
be irrelevant, oversimplified or self-evi- the researcher are unidimensional.
dently wrong-headed. This is a similar prob- Multidimensional scaling is a means of scal-
lem to that of forced-choice statements (see ing respondents' judgements or attitudes
page 40) and is a particular difficulty with along dimensions which are obtained from the
more knowledgeable and thoughtful respondents. respondents' answers rather than from the re-
Sometimes respondents want to make two sep- searcher's questions (Romney, Shepard and
arate assessments, one for the present and Nerlove 1972). It can also be used to show
one for the future; or alternatively, for how how distance is subjectively distorted in re-
things really are, and for how they should be. lation to the absolute distances that exist
Filling in responses to a number of state- between points in Cartesian space. When inter-
ments, especially for more complex scales, re- stimulus relationships are shown in a two-
quires effort and concentration. Also the re- dimensional configuration, the result is a
petitiveness of some ideas used for internal mental map which depicts the way people
validation can be noticed and queried by re- stretch and compress their perceived environ-
spondents. These are problems common to many ment.
attitude scales.
Attitude scales are easy to analyse be- Method
cause they are already constructed to allow The technique requires that the respondent
rapid scoring. The ease of analysis is gained makes a successive number of judgements. These
only at the expense of careful and time-con- may concern the distance between two points,
suming scale construction. or the difference between two attitude state-
Attitude scales are usually highly situ- ments, or which one (object, statement, place)
ation-specific with regard to culture and lo- he prefers to another. Thus the respondent is
cation. Even between North America and Eng- evaluating the similarity, dissimilarity or
land, attitude statements require different degree of association between any stimuli or
wording. When attempts are made to use the elements. These may be presented to him as
same instrument for wideiy different cultures, triads (see page 59)or as successive pairs
the problems are magnified to such an extent (Messick 1956; Torgerson 1952). If the stimuli
that the validity of the instrument becomes are attitude statements, a respondent can be
highly questionable. Designing a scale for requested to estimate the differences between
each specific situation is therefore a time- stimuli on a scale where 0 represents total
consuming task leading to scale proliferation dissimilarity and the upper end signifies to-
and problems of validation, but this is nec- tal similarity. Often a respondent is asked
essary if such a technique is to be used to simply indicate his preference, and the
cross-culturally. distance between the stimuli is measured by
A more fundamental problem is that atti- the proportion of times he chooses one over
tude scales were initially developed for lit- another.
erate, western populations generally familiar
with questionnaires, opinion polls and pencil- Analysis
and-paper tests. In many other cultures, the Multidimensional scaling is concerned with
task of saying how far one agrees or dis- the problem of representing n objects geo-
agrees with a set of statements is not part metrically by n points so that the distances
of the culture or social organisation. The
use of attitude scales cross-culturally is 1. The author gratefully acknowledges the help re-
therefore fraught with many difficulties. ceived from Hersch Jacobs in writing this section.

58
 Other speciaZized interview techniques

between each point in space correspond to an are included, but every additional stim-
empirical measure of relatedness among var- ulus increases the size of the task ex-
ious psychological stimuli. Consequently, the ponentially.
technique involves two models. The first one, - The dimensions obtained by analysis 'are
a distance model, is necessary to obtain in- not always clear in their number or iden-
ter-stimulus distances. Psychological distance tity.
is viewed in terms of agreement or disagree- - The task for the respondent and interview-
ment between two statements. Short psycholog- er is time-consuming, onerous, and largely
ical distances represent dissimilarity or dis- uninteresting.
agreement, while long psychological distances The last point should perhaps be the most in-
represent similarity or agreement. The dis- fluential one for field investigations.
tances are supplied by the respondent's judge-
ments. Repertory grid
The second component of the multidimen-
sional scaling procedure is a spatial model The repertory grid is a method devised to
to determine the dimensionality of the space, measure how people categorize phenomena
and the projections of the stimulus points (places, people, events). It enables the re-
along its axes. Numerous algorithms have been searcher to find out what things are put in
developed, but modern multidimensional scal- the same or different classes in people's
ing began with a non-metric procedure devel- minds and how the classes of phenomena are
oped by Shepard (1962) and Kruskal (1964a, distinguished from each other.
1964b). Analysis is now carried out using com- The method was originally developed by
puter package programs such as TORSCA and Kelly (1955) as a clinical technique to mea-
INDSCAL which incorporate various improvements sure personality by asking people to dis-
to the original formulation (Golledge and Rush- tinguish between people in their personal
ton 1972). The number of dimensions obtained lives (mother, teacher, etc.). It has since
and their identity must generally be inter- been used in environmental perception to mea-
preted on the basis of the loadings each stim- sure, among other things, tribal perceptions
ulus has on each of the dimensions for the of agricultural problems in Africa, percep-
various solutions. tions of urban services, and comparisons of
This procedure is characteristic of any different places (locally and nationally). As
factor extraction technique such as principal used in environmental perception, its results
components analysis, but multidimensional are not necessarily interpreted within Kelly's
scaling has two advantages. Experience has personal construct theory from which it was
shown that an acceptable solution seldom ex- developed as a model of personality.
ceeds three dimensions. When the judgements
of a group of respondents are collapsed into Method: presentation of triads
a single matrix by calculating the modal or The technique is one of presenting a res-
median differences between pairs of stimuli, pondent (or group of respondents) with triads,
the Shepard-Kruskal procedure yields a me- or sets of three phenomena or concepts. These
tric solution from the weakest possible as- are usually words either written on cards or
sumptions in the original data. spoken verbally. They can also be pictures
on cards, drawn on the ground or pointed out
Evaluation in the environment. Cards have the advantage
Multidimensional scaling is a potential1.y that the respondent can handle them, and phy-
important technique in environmental percep- sically rearrange them as he considers alter-
tion because it does not impose the research- native groupings so that the task becomes
er's structure on the data at the outset. Re- easier, more concrete and evidently more en-
cause it is also essentially a non-parametric joyable.
technique, it has advantages over other multi- For example, "mountain", "river", "field",
variate analyses. At the same time, however, "village" etc., could be presented in several
it does have several disadvantages for use different ways depending on the interview cir-
in the field: cumstances. These are called "elements". They
- There is at present no basis for determin- may either be given as a set to the respon-
ing the number of respondents necessary dent or he may produce his own. Often res-
to produce meaningful and stable dimen- ponses to open questions in the rest of the
sions. interview can provide the "set" of elements.
- The number of stimuli given to each res- Alternatively, the element-set can consist of
pondent must cover a large enough range some researcher-initiated responses and some
to ensure that all the relevant dimensions respondent-initiated ones.
59

~-" .-. - -..._....--,--_^,_

 Projective techniques and other specialized ways of asking questions

The respondent is then asked to indicate analysis in order to identify the major prin-
one important way in which any two elements ciples on which he discriminates between phen-
of the three presented to him are alike and omena. The triad method of presentation is
are different from the third element. In the being increasingly used in field research in-
example above, he might say "mountain" and dependently of repertory grid techniques.
"field" are alike because both provide him The repertory grid presents more difficul-
with food. ties to the interviewers than to the respon-
Then he is asked which card is the odd dents. It is a relatively complex procedure
one and in what way it is different from the for interviewers to fill in the grid correctly
others. If "river" were the third element in as well as randomly present successive triads.
the triad, he might say it was different be- Interviewers therefore need considerable train-
cause it didn't provide food but flooded his ing in the use and rationale of the grid be-
crops and ruined them. For another respondent, fore using it in the field.
one could imagine a quite different set of The simplest way to present the interview-
constructs and groupings for these same three er's task is to show a grid and a set of ty-
elements, reflecting differences in environ- pical instructions to interviewers (Table 8).
mental perceptions and lifestyles.
For each of the remaining cards in turn, BvaZuation
the respondent is then asked to say whether For the respondent, whose task is to sel-
they are more on the "alike" side or the "un- ect between three given variables on the
alike" side of the construct he has defined. grounds of his own criteria of "difference"
(Alternatively, respondents may be asked to and "alikeness", the task is relatively sim-
rate the elements according to how much alike ple. The use of cards makes the task more
or unalike they are on the construct, but concrete and enables the respondent to make
this is a more difficult task for the res- alternative rearrangements. The structure of
pondent in an already long test and requires the task itself is different enough from the
more analysis.) usual interview schedule to provide a relief
The elements are randomly presented in from questioning. To complete a full grid re-
sets of three, ideally until all possible quires one or more hours, and this is a sig-
combinations have been explored. This full nificant problem in using the repertory grid
repertory grid allows analysis of the rela- as one part of a longer interview.
tionship between a respondent's constructs Repertory grids can be analysed at several
by factor analysis or principal components levels. Where complete grids are obtained,

Table 8. Instructions for repertory grid ELEMENTS

Use a small set of cards. These are the

"elements".
1. Interviewer place three cards selected
at random in front of the respondent and
ask him to say one important way (con- ALIKE DIFFERENT
struct) in which any two of them are a-
L x AA D D 0 D-X D A wet
like and are different from the third
one. Write his response in the "alike" E dry

column. BT home ADXAXAOAAA dangerous

z --
2. Then ask which is the odd card out and 5 3 ours DOAXADDAXD not ours
in what way it is different from the t
-
others. Write down his response in the 4
"different" column.
3. Write X in the appropriate boxes for the -5
two "alike" elements. y-----
6
Write 0 in the appropriate boxes for the
"different" element. 7
+-
4'. For each of the remaining cards in turn,
ask him to decide whether it is more on 8
the "alike" side or the "different" side
of the construct. 9
Write in A (alike) or D (different) for 10
each box in the row as he answers.
5. Repeat for as long as possible, or until Note. The elements and constructs filled in are samples only.
the grid is completed.

60
 Other speciaZized interview techniques

they are usually key punched for the comput- environment in several studies (Baumann and
er and analysed by factor analysis or princ- Sims 1974). This dimension is described on
ipal component analysis. For incomplete grids page 89. It can be measured by devising
where the object is to gain some sense of the scenarios, sentence completion and Environ-
main criteria by which phenomena are compared, mental Apperception Tests, among others,
analysis can usefully be done at the "eye- to elicit responses along the axis of per-
balling" level. Thus, there is potential for ceived control or perceived powerlessness.
sophisticated analysis with repertory grids,
but much can also be learned at the level of InternalL-External Control Scale
identifying people's "labels" for environmen-
tal components and places. One well known measure for efficacy is Rot-
The use of cards, real objects (e.g. ter's Internal-External (I-E) Control Scale
plants, pointing to parts of the landscape) (Rotter 1966) to measure people's perception
or drawings in presenting triads of elements of their degree of control over events in
makes repertory grids an attractive and flex- their own lives and in the world in general.
ible cross-cultural technique. However, its Although it is not so pure a scale as it was
two main difficulties - the time taken and originally thought to be and although later
the need to carefully train the interview- work has shown "personal control" (personal
ers - make this technique less useful in a events) and "control ideology" (events in
survey or sampling situation. It should per- general) to be different components of the
haps be restricted to supplement in-depth scale, it has been widely and successfully
studies by experienced personnel, so that ad- used, mainly in North America. Personal con-
ditional material (e.g. folk-lore, linguis- trol is found to be the dominant factor, ac-
tic data) can be used to give a more complete counting for most of the variance. Over fifty
context to the repertory grid data. The re- per cent of the studies investigating Internal-
pertory grid is an important means of probing External control have used the Rotter I-E
categorisation, but it tends to provide only scale although there are another twenty scales
one possible taxonomy, whereas most people developed to measure efficacy (reproduced in
and cultures operate with a complex set of Robinson and Shaver 1973).
criteria for their environment. The scale is a self-administered paper-
and-pencil test and consists of twenty-three
Personality measures forced-choice questionnaires, plus six "fil-
ler" questions that are not scored. Internal
Personality scales and tests (including the statements are paired with external statements.
TAT) are largely concerned with measuring in- One point is given for each external state-
dividual personality in relation to the so- ment selected. Scores can range from zero
cio-psychological environment rather than the (most internal) to twenty-three (most exter-
physical environment - in the context of land- nal).
scape, towns, streets and places. The I-E scale was tested in the field by
?lany of these personality measures require participants at the MAB perception workshop
use by highly trained personnel and/or they held in Victoria, Canada, in May 1976 and
require the respondent to "take a test" in evaluated for its usefulness cross-culturally
the sense of sitting down with paper and pen- (Canada-MAB 1977). It was found that in a
cil and filling in one hundred or more items. field setting even within North America (as
Their predictive ability for how man per- opposed to student populations on campuses),
ceives and relates to his physical environ- the forced-choice format produced considerable
ment is not yet known, although work by Craik difficulty in admini-stration. Respondents were
(1975) using a battery of personality tests unwilling to commit themselves to either al-
in assessing environmental appraisal, may un- ternative, despite the initial assurance that
ravel some of the more relevant measures. the task was simply an exercise to decide
Generally, tests which measure only a few which extreme statement was closest to their
dimensions of personality rather than seek own view. Extreme statements were alienating
a comprehensive personality assessment have and respondents wanted to modify them, if
been more successful in relating personality they had not already rejected both views.
to environmental perception. This is true The task was also fairly long (15 to 20
for Saarinen's (1966) modified analysis of minutes), especially when respondents felt
farmer's responses to TAT or (EAT) pictures negative about it, and were unused to such
of drought. It is also true for measures of pencil-and-paper tests.
efficacy or perceived control over one's The concept of perceived control over the

61
 Projective techniques and other specia2ized ways of asking questions

environment was considered to be significant

in environmental perception and behaviour, but
doubts were raised as to whether this scale
was the best way to measure it for household-
ers in Victoria. The wording of the statements Risk-SeekIng
showed a strong orientation towards American
college students and was not relevant enough
to the respondents. Even though the Victoria
respondents were part of a literate, "western"
society, the task of identifying themselves
with a long series of extreme statements was Independenlly-
not congenial to them. Oriented
The workshop therefore concluded that the
I-E scale in its present format is not use-
ful cross-culturally although the concept of
internal-external control in relation to the
environment is of relevance. The present I-E
scale is directed at control over events in
the context of a particular type of society,
and in any cross-cultural modification its
content and format would need to be com-
pletely reconstructed.
Dependently -
Oriented Oriented
Environmenta persona2ity measures
The development of personality measures
specifically with reference to man's inter-
action with his natural and built environment,
rather than with society, is still in its in-
fancy. We lack a coherent model of man-envi- Risk-Avolding
ronment relations which would provide criter-
ia for selecting dimensions along which to
measure individual personality dispositions Figure 11. Major dimensions in man-environment
towards the environment. Even more important, relations being measured by present
in terms of personality dispositions, it is environmentaL? personality scaZes
not yet known if the physical environment is
significantly different from the social en-
vironment to require new models of man-envi-
ronment interaction. The relationships be- nology, aesthetics and privacy. The test is
tween the individual, his social setting, a self-administered paper-and-pencil one in
and his ecosystem are not well conceptualized which the respondent is asked to indicate the
in scientific theory. extent to which each statement describes or
Three measures have been developed in applies to him, using a full 5-point scale
North America for scaling personality among from strongly disagree to strongly agree (see
specific dimensions in relation to the phy- page 42 on scaled questions). The test takes
sical environment (Little 1973; McKechnie up to 40 minutes for unselected adult samples
1974; Sonnenfeld 1969). The three main di- in North America, and is invalid if more than
mensions found are: control over nature, so- sixteen items are not completed.
cial versus technological orientation and From the 184 responses, eight environmen-
risk-seeking avoidance, with a fourth dimen- tal disposition scores and one validity score
sion of time orientation and change. These (called communality) are obtained. These are
dimensions are shown as axes in a hypothet- described in Table 9 together with idealized
ical man-environment "space" in Figure 11. descriptions of how a high and low scorer
might be described. The ERI has already re-
Environment Response Inventory (ERI) ceived some validation in North America and
The most elaborately developed measure is this work is being continued.
the Environmental Response Inventory (McKech-
nie 1974) which consists of 184 statements Evaluation of environmenta persona2ity mea-
covering a wide range of attitudes to the sures
natural and built environments, science, tech- Table 10 shows the relationship of scales

62
 Other specialised interview techniques

-
HIGH SCORERS ARE OFTEN LOW SCORERS ARE OFTEN
DESCRIBED AS: SCALE AND MAJOR THEMES: DESCRIBED AS:

Aesthetic, affectionate, complicated, dis- PA (Pastoralism). Opposition to land develop- Apathetic, conscientious, conservative,
tractible, outspoken, progressive, rebel- ment; concern about population growth: preser- conventional, deliberate, dependable,
IIOUS, unconventional, unpredictable, vation of natural resources, including open friendly, honest, practical, self-controlled.
selfish. space; acceptance of natural forces as shapers
of human life; sensitivity IO pure environmental
experiences; self-sufficiency in the natural
environment.

Critical, skeptical, responsive to urban UR (Urbanism). Enjoyment of high density Conscientious, conventional, friendly,
aesthetics, highbrow, concerned with living; appreciation of unusual and varied generous, nonverbal, opportunistic, ro-
philosophical problems in life, valuing in- stimulus patterns of the city; interest in cultural bust, simple, unselfish.
tellectual activity, managerial interests. life; enjoyment of interpersonal richness and
diversity.

Autocratic, condescending, conservative, EA (Environmental Adaptation). Modification Artistic, awkward, compassionate, curious,
efficient, enterprising, extroverted, hard- of the environment to satisfy needs and desires, distractible, idealistic, introspective,
headed, mannerly, methodical, power and and to provide comfort and leisure; opposition moody, nonconforming, sensitive, sen-
money oriented, judgmental, aesthetically to governmental control over private land use; suous, worrying, forthright.
unresponsive. preference for highly designed or adapted en-
vironments: use of technology to solve environ-
mental problems; preference for stylized en-
vironmental details.

Adventurous, disorderly, distractible, SS (Stimulus Seeking). Interest in travel and Conscientious, conservative. fastidious,
dreamy, easy-going, immature, impulsive, exploration of unusual places; enjoyment of practical, responsible, rigid, severe, stingy.
progressive, unconventional, undepend- complex and intense physical sensations;
able. breadth of interests.

Capable, competent, diligent, efficient, ET (Environmental Trust). General environ- Bitter, cold, coarse, dissatisfied, distrust-
helpful, ingenious, resourceful, stable, mental opennes\. respowivene\F, and trust: ful intolerant, moody, prejudiced, spend-
thorough, tolerant, well-adjusted. competence in finding ones way about the thrift, unkind.
environment vs. fear of potentially dangerous
environments; security of home; fear of being
alone and unprotected.

Affectionate. artistic, changeable, de- AN (Antiquarianism). Enjoyment of antiques Coane. cool, conservative, deliberate,
pendent, dreamy, emotional, forgiving, and historical places; preference for traditional mischievous, moralistic, practical, sly,
idealistic, introspective, aesthetically vs. modern design; aesthetic sensitivity to stolid, unemotional.
reactive, warm. man-made environments and to landscape;
appreclatlon of cultural artifacts of earlier era<;
tendency to collect objects for their emotional
significance.

Aloof, arrogant, autocratic, bitter, cold, NP (Need for Privacy). Need for physical Appreciative, cooperative, easy-going,
formal, hard-hearted, sulky, polished, isolation from Ftimuli; enjoyment of solitude: friendly, seeking reassurance, warm. seeks
resentful, stubborn. dislike of neighboring; need for freedom from acceptance. lacks confidence, introverted.
distraction.

Arrogant, conceited, egotistical, hard- MO (Mechanical Orientation). Interest in Affectionate, feminine, generous, sincere,
hearted, masculine, self-seeking, inflexible, mechanics in its various forms: enjoyment in understanding, submissive, sympathetic,
sociable, manipulative. working with ones hands. interest m techno- warm.
logical processes and basic princlplea of 5clence:
appreciation of the functional properties of
objects.

Calm, civilized. initiatory, mannerly, pa- CO (Communality). A validity scale. tapping Hard-headed, flirtatious, good looking, im-
tient, tactful, trusting, rule-following. honest, attentive. and careful test-taking atti- mature, opportunistic, versatile, witty,
tude; response to items m statistically modal independent-minded, psychologically
manner. complex.

Table 9. Environmenta Response Inventory Scales (reprinted with

pert&&n from McKechnie 19741
 Projective techniques and other specialised ways of asking questions

Scales

Dimension ERI EPI T-P Scale

Control of nature Environmental Control

adaptation
___-
Harmony with nature Pastoralism' Sensitivity

Dependence on nature Environmental

trust

Social orientation Urbanism Person orientation

--- ~~__ .-.- ~___~~~~__.__~_~__
Technology orientation Mechanical
orientation Thing orientation
____ __- .____
Table 10. Comparison of
Solitary orientation Need for privacy
the dimensions measured __-
by the EnvironmentaL Re-
Risk seeking Stimulus seeking Mobility
sponse Inventory (ERI),
Risk-taking
Environmental PersonaZity
Inventory (EPI), and the Time orientation Antiquaridnism
T-P Scale
'Note that the use of "pastoralism" here does not imply stock-herding people but
individuals who are conservationist, somewhat fatalistic and sensitive to nature
(see table 9).

(in terms of their verbal labels) measured social processes, the available personality
by the Environmental Response Inventory, ERI, measures are not yet suitable to be used
(McKechnie 1974); the Environmental Person- cross-culturally in their present forms.
ality Inventory, EPI, (Sonnenfeld 1969); and In addition, as field instruments, espec-
the T-P (Thing-Person) Scale (Little 1973). ially among largely illiterate populations,
The most comprehensive set of scales is that present personality tests are obviously lim-
of the ERI which includes all the axes dia- ited by their length (except for the T-P
grammed in Figure 11. By comparison, the T-P Scale), by their paper-and-pencil test for-
scale is focussed on the social axis and the mats as well as by the content of their state-
EPI measures personality along the risk-tak- ments. Until further development is made with-
ing and environmental control axes. in different cultural contexts, personality
The rational construction of the ERI scales dimensions are probably best measured by con-
and their similarity to scales obtained by tent analysis of projective tests.
factor analysis suggest that the scales are
measuring significant dimensions, at least SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
for North American populations.
Use of the ERI cross-culturally is, how- The literature on projective techniques is
ever, limited by its derivation within a sin- very diverse and much of it is highly tech-
gle cultural context. It has been shown in nical. Researchers wishing to find out more
many anthropological studies (and discussed about the semantic differential technique
cross-culturally by Douglas 1966, 1970, and should consult Snider and Osgood (1968). Sim-
Whyte 1975b) that an important dimension in ilarly, the repertory grid technique is des-
environmental perception is where the dis- cribed in Bannister (1970), Harrison and Sarre
tinction is made between man and society on (1971, 1975) and Slater (1969). Q-sorts are
the one hand, and environment on the other. discussed in North et al. (1963) in the con-
What is considered to be "man-made" or "man- text of content analysis. Mental maps are des-
caused" versus "environment-caused" varies cribed by Gould and !Jhite (1974) and Downs
with individuals and cultures. The personal- and Stea (1973). Saarinen's (1966) study of
ity dimensions presently being measured by perception of drought hazard is a good em-
available tests may thus be subsumed below pirical example of some of the possibilities
another untapped dimension. In view of the and problems of fieldwork using Environmen-
strong cultural differences in defining what tal Apperception Tests. Saarinen also dis-
is external to man (his environment) and in cusses projective techniques generally in It-
attributing cause and effect in natural and telson (1973). The literature on attitude

64
 Listening, recording and coding: methods of structuring Zistening

scales has already been mentioned but two tude scales, and Fishbein (1967) for a thor-
source books are worth repeating here: Robin- ough introduction to theory and method.
son and Shaver (1973) for examples of atti-

VI. LISTENING, RECORDING AND CODING

METHODS OF STRUCTURING LISTENING ceptable research results. Some guidelines

have been given in the section on unstandar-
The third major methodological approach to dised interviewing (page 37) which is the
environmental perception - that of listening form of interviewing which comes closest to
and recording oral and written evidence - com- a "listening" approach. Further guidelines
bines the skill of observation and interview- will be described in the section on oral his-
ing with the art of understanding what is tory. Oral historians have developed a wealth
heard and read and the faithful transcription of experience in letting respondents speak
of it into a permanent record. about themselves and their own lives, using
Listening and recording are primarily, but a research approach similar to that of many
not exclusively, concerned with oral evidence. anthropologists, except that it is applied
As methods, they place major importance on ob- to the researcher's own society and culture.
taining respondents' perceptions and informa- Both research traditions have much to offer
tion without constraining their form or con- to students of environmental perception.
tent by the immediate research objectives. Three methods - urban walks, time diaries
These perceptions and knowledge are trans- and oral histories exemplify the usefulness
mitted to the researcher either as conversa- of a listening and recording approach. These
tions or through diaries kept by the respon- are not exclusively oral listening methods,
dent. Like the participant observer, the re- nor are they completely unstructured. But
searcher who uses listening as a main field they do reflect a research relationship in
approach will spend much of his time talking which the researcher hears what the respon-
with people and then transcribing what he dent can tell him in his own terms. In other
has heard. words, the respondent becomes the "expert"
Listening and recording are rarely singled within the confines of the immediate research
out for separate treatment in methodological topic.
discussions. There is no set of rules to fol-
low since so much depends on the individuals Urban walks
concerned - both the researcher and the re-
spondent. They also produce invaluable but Urban walks are a synthetic technique in that
generally non-numerical data that have been they combine observation, interviewing and
unfashionable among social scientists in re- listening in various degrees. They were pio-
cent decades. The art of "scientific" listen- neered by Lynch (196G) in his study of the
ing is therefore the most neglected technique imageability of urban environments in the
in the researcher's field kit. United States. Since then, several similar
Listening and recording require sympathy studies have been undertaken to compare dif-
and patience on the part of the researcher ferent groups' images of their cities (e.g.
who may have to sit through, and later trans- children, ethnic groups, occupational groups),
cribe, a long and apparently tangential mono- including a comparative study of four cities
logue whose bearing on his research is un- in the United States by Lowenthal and Riel
certain at the time. They also require skill (1972). Each study used the urban walk tech-
in coding narratives into categories if any nique in a slightly different way.
quantitative analysis is to be done with the
material. Assumptions
Listening and recording require much time The assumptions of the technique of urban
and effort. Each session with a respondent walks are as follows:
may take several hours and researchers, such - Cities are complex physical and social en-
as oral historians, who use listening as their vironments which require "decoding" in or-
main tool may visit one respondent many times der for the individual to find his way.
over a period of years. Orientation, route-finding and distance
It is not possible to specify a set of estimation are ways in which environmental
methodological rules to follow which, if ad- perception enables people to live in a
hered to, would produce "scientifically" ac- city and to "read" it.
 Listening, recording and coding

- The "imageability" of a city is a source - what were his feelings on the walk;
of emotional satisfaction to individuals - what made the greatest impression on him.
and groups. This imageability is related, The respondent is shown a set of photographs
at least in part, to the design and lay- of buildings, street views, etc. He is asked
out of urban settings in the context of to say which ones he noticed during his walk.
their present use. These responses are compared with his obser-
- The high information content of a city re- vations at the time of the walk.
quires cognitive organisation into a co-
herent pattern. The process of acquiring bfethod 2 (LouenthaZ and Riel 29721
this coherent image brings satisfaction SmpZing. Respondents are recruited from var-
to the individual. ious groups to be reasonably homogeneous with
- Within cities, sub-groups with different respect to several principal background char-
behavioural patterns perceive the city dif- acteristics and large enough to provide sta-
ferently. These distinct perceptions in tistical validity. Ten walks are selected as
turn help to shape their urban behaviour representing the "quintessence" of the city
(especially spatial). Examples of sub- rather than its overall character. Each route
groups are: professional planners and resi- is designed to provide a change in direction
dents; residents of different neighbour- and a well defined beginning and end. Each
'hoods; and ethnic, occupational, social and respondent is asked to cover all ten walks.
age sub-groups.
Walks. The walks can be taken in any order
?b.kt:iod % (Lynch and Riukin l959) but only in the prescribed direction because
SampZing. The walk is selected by the re- views and impressions are obviously influenced
searchers to be reasonably characteristic of by the direction taken. Respondents have to be
the urban area. It is not chosen by the res- by themselves and walks have to be taken on
pondents. Respondents are not selected on any specified days of the week, during daylight
statistical sampling basis as the numbers of hours when it is not raining. No more than
them are small anyway. two of the walks can be taken in any one day.

i;'aZk. A respondent (usually a resident) is Questionnaire: YahIe 2% (from LowenChal l972).

asked to take a walk around a specific urban The structured questionnaire is completed by
route with an interviewer. He is told: "We the respondent immediately after the walk, of-
are about to take a short walk. Don't look ten at locations suggested in the walk itiner-
for anything in particular, but tell me about ary. It includes a semantic differential test
the things you see, hear or smell; everything (see page 45) to find out which traits, among
and anything you notice." A microphone is at- twenty-five pairs, respondents feel are most
tached to the respondent and everything he significant in each walk and a description in
says is recorded. There should be a minimum their own words of the area or of their feel-
of talking by the interviewer. Afterwards ings about it.
these verbatim impressions are transcribed
and content analysed (see page 75). An alter- Ir,tem)iei,l. A few days after the last walk is
native procedure is for the interviewer to taken, the respondents are interviewed about
take as full notes as possible during and im- their recall and asked to elaborate on their
mediately after the walk. written questionnaires. Background data on
the respondents and their impressions of the
htersrieu. Within 2-3 days after the walk, city are obtained.
the respondent is interviewed. He is asked to
recall the walk and the things and events he
noticed. His verbal description is recorded. Both methods of urban walks are heavily de-
After this open-ended question on recall, spe- pendent upon content analysis as a means of
cific questions are asked, such as: structuring the free impressions provided by
- questions about particular buildings, the respondents. Lowenthal and Riel (1972) also
sounds, traffic signs, etc.; make use of the semantic differential test to
- how many definite areas he had passed by; provide comparative ratings across walks and
- if he felt the areas had any order of con- respondents for twenty-five pairs of descrip-
tinuity and if so, why; tions or verbal labels. This makes possible
- whether the part of the city visited seemed the statistical handling of data, but has been
to fit into his picture of the city as a criticised for the selection of non-standard
whole; semantic pairs which does not allow valid com-

66
 Methods 0-f structuring Listening

-Walk Questionnaire

1, NSllle Date and Time of Day Path No.

2. Weather conditions il. warm a. windy a. bright

(check 1 of each pair) b. cool- b. still - b. cloudy

3. Your own condition

4. Experience: Have you previously been: Often Sometimes Never

a) in this neighborhood - - -
b) along much of this path - -

Question 1.

On the next page you will find twenty-five pairs of opposing words, each Pair

separated by a line with five spaces. OTI each line, check the space that best

describes what you saw on the walk you have just taken, For instance, if you

feel the walk is very clean, check the space farthest to the left:

Clean X dirty
P--P-

If it is sanewhat more clean than dirty, check here:

clean ------ X dirty

If it is equally clean and dirty or neither, check the middle space:

clean ----- X dirty

If it is somewhat more dirty than clean, check here:

Clean ------ X dirty

If it is vury dirty, check the space farthest to the right

clean p----w X dirty

Table 11. Questionnaire and semuntic differential test for urban walks (reprinted
with permission from Lowenthal i!9721

67
 Listening, recording and coding

A natural artificial
-----

B contrast -----
uniform
C people -----
things
D WY beautiful
-----

E appearance --e--
meaning
(shape, texture, (use, associations,
color) symbols)
F SId.ly -----
fresh
G vertical horizontal
-----

H ordered chaotic
-----

I moving motionless
---_c-

J smooth -----
rough
K poor rich
-----

L open bounded
-----
M boring interesting
-p-7-

N old -----
new
0 quiet -----
noisy
P vivid --- -- drab
Q self-awareness awareness of surroundings
--- --

R pleasant unpleasant
-----

S business use living use

-----

T clean --
dirty
---

U dense --- --
empty
V suburban -c_
urban
---

w individual features overall views

-7
(details)
---
(wholes)
X like dislike
---
Y dark --- -- light

Question 2,
What are the most significant qualities of this path? G{g$the five words
on the list which best apply to this oath.

Question 3.
Describe this path or your feelings about it, using four words srhich are e on
the list above.
a. b. CI d.

Question h.
Please look over the questionnaire, end when you are certain yo'u have completed
each question, cherk here

Table Il. Continus,i.

68
 Methods of structuring listening

parison with other semantic differential stud- what a person did - when, where, for how long
ies and linguistic models (see page 46). The and with whom. The significance of events for
semantic differential technique also empha- people and their feelings about what they have
sizes the walk as a whole unit rather than done are given more attention in an oral his-
allowing respondents to refer to particular tory approach than in the usual time diary.
parts of it. It removes the "particularity" Time diaries are most commonly used to
of environmental elements and constrains the simply find out the total amount of time de-
description of the area into twenty-five pre- voted to particular activities, the variation
selected categories. of these allocations of time for different
The urban walks provide vivid descriptions days, months, seasons or other significant
which can be presented as maps to graphically stages and cycles, and the characteristic pro-
illustrate differences in urban images be- file of activity for a particular respondent
tween different groups. or group of respondents.
Content analysis of Lynch's respondents The usefulness of time diaries for record-
provided five main design elements in the ing behaviour should not be underestimated.
ways they organized their perceptions of the How people behave and allocate their time re-
city: paths, edges, districts, nodes and land- flects attitudes and values as well as per-
marks. Using these categories, trained obser- sonal, social and environmental constraints
vers then surveyed the urban area to produce under which they live. Time diaries also pro-
"imageability" maps. These maps have obvious vide information about environmental and so-
implications for urban planners but do not cial needs and the demand for facilities (e.g.
seem to have been taken up as practical plan- community, transport, recreation).
ning tools. Similarly, Lowenthal and Riel's Interest in how people allocate their time
conclusions for environmental design are un- arose partly through time and motion studies
likely to be implemented since they largely in factories in the 1930s in industrial coun-
imply "non-designable" elements such as am- tries, including the Soviet Union and the
biguity, contradiction, variety and unexpected United States. Time diaries have since been
juxtaposition. widely used in urban and land use planning and
So far urban walks have not proved to be in architectural design. They have also been
an important technique for urban design, but used to obtain communication networks - to
they are a valuable and flexible research find out who met whom and when, and to design
tool to reveal differences in environmental the scheduling of meetings and management ac-
perceptions and images between urban areas tivities in complex organizations. The time
and urban groups. They are also a useful tech- diaries method can be usefully extended to
nique for comparing respondents' (residents') environmental management problems especially
images of their neighbourhood as obtained in where interdepartmental or interagency col-
interviews, with the researcher's (stranger's) laboration is needed.
own view. Thus it is useful for the research- A major cross-cultural investigation into
er himself to take an urban walk around the time budgets has been undertaken by social
area in which he will interview others, scientists in twelve different countries by
These walks have usually been made in ur- the European Coordination Centre for Research
ban areas by researchers interested in the and Documentation in the Social Sciences.
design aspects of cities, taking advantage of
the concentrated source of environmental stim- Method
uli in urban settings to study environmental Time diaries can be included as part of
"legibility". Apart from practical problems an interview schedule, although they take
of distances required to provide a variety of considerable time to complete and although
stimuli, there is no reason why the method it is difficult for respondents to recall ac-
cannot be used to study perception of other, curately even one day's activities in detail
non-urban environments. once that day is over. Some interviewers are
uneasy about probing for details on people's
Time diaries activities or become bored with the repeti-
tiveness of the task.
Time diaries, or time budgets, are simply Perhaps a better method in literate socie-
means of recording what a respondent has done ties is to ask the respondent himself to keep
during a recent period of time - usually a a diary of his activities either by following
day or a week. They differ from oral histories a structured format provided by the research-
in that they are more specific to particular er, as in the example in Table 12, or by al-
times and are usually more factual in terms of lowing him to keep a diary of events that he

69

- --- - _..----.- I- 1.._^ -."".-

 Listening, recording and coding

A. TODAY IS:
Mon Tues @ Thurs Fri sat SUII (circle one)
c$Giz$ rest day other (circle one)
(&Tzql not typical (explain why) (circle one)

B. Please fill in the diary for each activity that takes more than 15 minutes.
Where more than one activity takes place together, record each of them. Waiting
time, travelling time and doing-nothing time are all separate activities and
should be individually recorded.
Please try to fill the diary in at several points throughout the day in order
to make it as accurate as possible. Put both starting and finishing times and
try to account for the whole 24 hours.

Where did it Alone or with Other simulta- Typical activity

Time Activity take place? someone else? neous activities for this time

Table 12. Exmple of a structured time diary fomat

considers significant. The time diary can be plants while hunting or walking to work).
a highly accurate record of behaviour and can Coding the information contained in a di-
maintain this reliability over longer periods ary is a problem similar to that faced by ob-
of time than any other method, servers who need to code behaviour. Attempts
Diarists are often asked to cover periods at providing respondents with preceding cate-
of 24 hours to include at least one workday gories are most successful when the respon-
and one weekend day. If the researcher is par- dents or their activities being researched
ticularly interested in c,ertain aspects of are relatively homogeneous, so that the num-
time budgeting or behaviour he should make ber of categories required to cover the range
this clear to the respondent either through of behaviour is not too large. For general
briefing sessions or by the format of the populations, experience has shown that about
diary to be filled in. The minimum time per- 100 categories are required to cover the popu-
iod to be individually specified should also lation's range of activity, but individually
be made clear to the respondent - 15 to 30 most respondents find it difficult to clas-
minute periods are commonly used units. He sify their own activities according to such
should also be made aware of how to record a large numbei of categories (Michelson and
activities carried out simultaneously (e.g. Reed 1975). The ninety-nine categories de-
reading and travelling, collecting edible vised by the Multinational Comparative Time

70
 Methods of structuring listening

Budget Research Project (Szalai 1966, 1972) tion that followed the First World War is
have been subsequently used by several re- closely documented in his respondents' ac-
searchers but there are no universally agreed counts of new social habits that arose in
codes for activity time budgets (Table 13). dress and behaviour, changes often initiated
Respondents keep time diaries most con- by one individual in the community and soon
scientiously when their purpose is understood followed by others.
and when they are personally distributed and
collected. This is particularly true if the Method
researcher takes time to discuss the diary Taking oral evidence requires time, some
with the respondent. Such social interaction, means of recording what is said (tape record-
however brief, cannot be replaced by asking er, written notes), and above all an inter-
respondents to mail their diaries or by writ- ested and sympathetic listener. The success
ten requests to fill them in. of the method depends to a great extent on
the researcher as a person, his knowledge of
Oral history the topic and the relationship he can estab-
lish with the respondent. This is stressed
Oral history is a method whereby oral evi- by oral historians who emphasize the value of
dence is taken from people who have usually intuition and imagination over a set of tools
directly experienced the events they talk and techniques.
about or who are relating accounts that have With these caveats in mind, a few guide-
been personally handed down to them. Histor- lines should be noted in addition to those
ians have used this listening technique to mentioned in the discussion on "unstandar-
record from older people their stories, im- dized interviewing' (page 37), and "interview-
pressions and memories of events that oc- er-respondent effects" (page 38).
curred when they were younger and before the - Do as much background research as possible
major social and technological changes of into the research topic and if possible
this century took place. In both rural and have an initial exploratory interview to
urban environments the use of oral history discuss the research project with the re-
methods has captured vivid descriptions and spondent.
otherwise unknown detail of the immediate - Do not try to rush the interview or do
past. Oral evidence is obviously of impor- more than one or two interviews in a sin-
tance where documentary material is absent gle day. Take time and ask to meet the re-
either because it never existed or because spondent again at a later date rather than
written records were later destroyed. The exhaust either the respondent or the re-
South Wales Miners' Library and Coalfield Pro- searcher.
ject at University College, Swansea in the - Explain to the respondent how you are going
United Kingdom demonstrates the significant to record what he says, and why. Make sure
contribution that oral evidence can make in that he agrees at the outset, especially
a situation where the documentation - colliery if tape recordings are to be made.
records - was systematically destroyed by the - Let the respondent set the pace and the di-
coal owners when the mines were nationalized rection of the conversation with as little
in 1947 (Evans 1976). interruption as possible from the research-
Oral evidence is also of particular impor- er. Even if the account seems haphazard and
tance to the study of environmental percep- rambling, it may have value that the re-
tion because it reveals not only the facts searcher cannot necessarily predict at the
of environmental experience and behaviour but time.
also the feelings and meanings for people - Phrase your questions carefully and leave
that are associated with them. In respondents' them open-ended without suggesting definite
own accounts of events, people and places, alternatives which might constrain the re-
they reveal their perceptions, attitudes and spondent's answers.
values as well as convey the spirit and sense - Ask the more difficult or sensitive ques-
of actually having been present. tions towards the end of the meeting after
Oral evidence can also document the "min- some rapport has been established. If there
utiae of change" which occur progressively are several difficult issues, try to space
so that each step is considered too trivial them out so that the respondent can talk
to record formally but is remembered by those about topics he enjoys between them. Phrase
who were present. Evans (1975, 1976) exem- difficult questions in the third person,
plified this in his studies of rural and ur- such as "Some people say that..." to avoid
ban England and Wales where the social revolu- any sense of researcher-respondent confron-
 Listening, recording and coding

(IO
01
02
07
04

05 Second job
06 Meals at work
07 At work, other
OR Work breaks
09
tr:1n\port Travel to job

I0 Prepare food
II Meal cleanup
I2 man hU~C
13 Outdoor chores
14 Laundry, ironing
15 Rcpau or upkeep of clothe\. ~hocs. underwear Clothes upkeep
I6 Other repairs .md hontc opcratmns Other upkeep
17 Gardening, animal C:IIC* Gardening. animal care
IX Hcnt and \\ater suppl~c\-uphwp Heat, water
19 Othrv (r.g. dcnlmg w!th bill% and var,~,u\ other papcry, u\ual care
to houwhold mcmbcrs, etc.) Other duties

20 Baby cam
21 Child cart
22 SupervlGon of whool \sork (cxerciux and lew~n~) Help on homework
23 Rcadmg of talc\ or other non-whool books to children, conversations
with children Talk to children
24 Indoor &amts and manual mstruction Indoor playmg
25 Outdoor games and u alkp Outdoor playlg
26 Medical care (wcitlnp the childrenc doctor or dentist, or other
activities related to the health of children) Child health
21 Other7 Other, babysit
28 Not to bc uwd Blank
29 Travel to accompany chlldrcn lncludmg waiting for means of transport Travel with child

furclmsin~ of goods and SEW~CES(3039)

30 Purchasmg of everyday consumer goods and products Marketing
31 Purchasing of durable consumer good< Shopping
32 Personal cart outside home (e.g. hairdresser) Personal care
33 MedIcal care outside home Medical care
34 Administrltive scrviccs, offices Administrative service
35 Repair and other services (e.g. laundry. electricity, mechanics) Repair service
36 Waiting, queueing for the purchase of goods and services Waiting in line
37 othrr\ Other ICWICC
3x Not to bc u\cd Blnnk
39 I ravcll~ng connected to the ahow nwtmncd actwitw\. mcludmg
\w,t,n&, for ,,,<~all\ (II fr.lncpl3rt

4(1
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
4x
49

Table 13. Coding for time budget activities by MuZtinationaZ Comparative Time-Budget
Reseazh Project (reprinted with permission from Szalai 1972)

72
 Methods of structuring listening

Attend rchool

Other cIa\ws
Special lectuie
PolItical courses

Home\vork
Read to learn
Other study
Blank
59 Travclhng conncc ted to the above mcnttoncd acttvittes, Including
wa1tmg lor mean\ 01 tranPport Travel, study

Civic oud colkctrre participation ocririrics (6049)

60 Parttctpntion as rnemlicr of a party. of a union, etc.) Unton. politics
61 Voluntary activity as an clcctcd official of a social or pohttcal
organlratlon Work as officer
62 Partictpation m mcetmgq other than those covered by 60 and 6 1 Other participation
63 Non-patd collective civic activtty (c.p. volunteers) CIVIC acttvities
64 Partictpatton In reliptou9 organizations Relrgious organzalion
65 Rclipwus pract~cc and attcndmg rc ligmus ceremonies Religious practrce
66 Participation in V;IIIOU~ factory cot~nc~l~ (committce7, commissions) Factory COlmCll
67 Parttctpatton tn other xsoctations (family, parent. mihtary, etc.) MIK. organmtlon
68 Others Other organization
69 Travelling connected to the above mentioned activities, including
waiting for means of transport Travel, orgamzation

Spectacles, mterfoblntenl, socral life (7@ 79)

70 Attending a sports event Sports events
71 Circus, music-hall, dancing, show, night-club (including a meal
in the entertainment local) Mass culture
72 MOVICS Movies
13 Theatre, concert, opera Theatre
74 Muwum, cxhibttlon hluwums
75 Rccew~ng v151t 01 frrcnds or vl\ltmg frlcnd\ Viriting wrth friend\
16 Party or rcccptmn with meal olfcred to or offered by friends Party, meals
71 CafC, bar, tearoom Cafe. pubs
78 Attending receptions (other than those mentIoned above) Other soctal
79 Travelling connected to the above mentioned actwlttcc, Including
waiting for mcan5 of transport Travel, social

Spor:s and cctwe leisure (X0-89)

80 Practice a sport and physrcal exerciw Active sports
81 Excursions. hunting, fishing Ftshing, hiking
82 Walks Taking a walk
83 Technical hobbxp, collection% Hobbies
84 Ladtccwork (confection, ncedlc work. drcs$mak,ng, knittmg, etc.) Ladles hobbles
85 Artistic creatton~ (wrlpturc, painting, pottery, literature. etc.) Art work
86 Playmg a musical instrument, ringrng Making music
87 Soaety gamer Parlor games
88 Others Other pastime
89 Travclhng connected to the above mentioned activities, including
waittng for nxans of transport Travel, pastime

Passive leisure (90.99)

90 Listemng to the radio Radio
91 Watching television TV
92 Listening to records Play records
93 Reading books Read book
94 Reading rcvtcw, pcr,odical%. pamphlets etc. Read magazine
9s Readmg newspaper Read paper
96 Convcrcationc, including telcphonc: conversation Conversation
91 Writing private correspondcncc Letters, private
98 Relaxmg, reflectmg. thinking, planning. doing nothing, no visible
activity Relax, thmk
99 Travelling connected to the above mentioned activities, including
waiting for means of transport Travel. leisure
 Listening, recording and coding

tation. about the noise of the conveyors: I didn't

- At the end of the respondent's discussion, realize how much we were depending on our
what has been said should be reviewed and ears when we were working: little cracks
supplementary questions asked to clarify in the top, or little flakes dropping by
or obtain more detail about points already here - things like that, rumbling. So much
discussed. Important topics can be intro- easier when you were working in a stall.
duced several times from different points You could say when a place was squeezing,
of view and each time it is likely to pro- when it was preparing to collapse, set-
duce new, useful information. tling down or something. You were careful
- Reliability in oral evidence can be in- when you heard that. And you could listen
creased by asking respondents' advice on for the coal working, and find exactly
what other evidence or people could help where was the easiest place to go and pull
to document their talk and by finding out out a dram of coal. This business of lis-
indirectly whether the respondent exper- tening: when you are knocking the top. We
ienced the events he is discussing first- used to have to hold the mandril firm and
hand or only heard about them. Respondents tap the top with it; and we could say wheth-
themselves may have kept diaries or have er that top was safe or not, just by the
pertinent written documents such as let- sound. The only thing we had to watch for
ters and newspaper cuttings. were the balls - balls of iron ore that
- The notes or tape recording should be would give a solid sound, and still drop
transcribed by the person who has met with without any warning (Evans 1976, p. 167).
the respondent as soon as possible after The second and third quotations provide evi-
the interview, preferably the same day, dence for Evans' argument that social struc-
as in the case in classic anthropological ture and* material culture are intimately
field work. Only a person who was present linked, and that therefore, to understand the
at the discussion or interview can anno- changing social relations in the mining com-
tate a transcription adequately. Having munity above ground, it is necessary to know
been present when the respondent was talk- the changes that occurred in the working con-
ing enables the researcher to understand ditions of the miners below ground.
what is conveyed through the same kind of The following quotation refers to the situ-
osmosis that enables the respondent to re- ation just before mechanization began in the
create his first-hand experiences. Although 1920s and 30s.
transcription is laborious and slow, it The first time you'd see this kind of or-
enahles the researcher to re-live the con- der was in the morning when you went under-
versation and see nuances he earlier missed, ground. The boy would go along, and he'd
nuances that would have perhaps escaped pick up the powder-tin, and he'd go to the
him altogether if the transcription had blacksmith shop, and he'd pick up any
been done by someone else. It is worth con- drills that had been sharpened. And then
sidering showing the written record of the you went underground. You had your lamp, of
interview to the respondent in a follow- course, with you then; and you'd have to
up interview for further amplification or wait at the 'locking-station' then. The men
correction. congregated together and the boys congre-
gated together: it was unheard of then for
E3xmpZe: Perception o;f the elf-feet of mechani- a boy to go and sit with the men. Or if -
zation on mining and the mining community in as I was telling you - if a boy even ven-
South &%es (iinite:?. Kingdom) tured an opinion in amongst the men, it was
This example and the quotations which fol- the biggest crime you could commit. And
low are drawn from the work of George Evans this was the order of things. When you went
(1975, 1976) in England and Wales, where peo- to the face and you were having your morn-
ple's perceptions of vanishing urban and ru- ing break perhaps only you and your 'butty'
ral environments were studied. The first quo- [friend] would be together, and you'd sit
tation concerns the effect of mechanization with him. But if there were - if you were
in the mines on the miners' perception of like I was: in a heading with a lot of
their physical environment in terms of their boys, the boys would sit together and the
awareness of danger and their ability to dis- men would sit together. And it stayed like
criminate between different parts of the coal- that and it never altered. Walking out af-
field. terwards the boys would walk out together,
I felt very unsafe when I went on a con- and the men would walk out together. The
veyor. There was something you said, Ifan, boys never fraternized with the men: they

74
 Coding answers

were always kept strictly in their place. and systematically describing the content of
During the time that I was there I can't messages. Messages in this sense include doc-
remember an occasion when the boys were umentary material, folk-tales, the contents
allowed to join in with the men in any- of diaries, speeches, answers to open ques-
thing; until he had a collier's number. tions and the stories elicited by the var-
Then he'd be a man then. And he could join ious projective techniques described in the
in the jaw: he could talk with the men. discussion on projective techniques.
He changed his status! (Evans 1976, p. As a systematic method, content analysis
160). was first used in the United States by stud-
The third quotation refers to the social im- ents of journalism to study the contents of
pact of mechanization. newspapers during the 1920s. Simple techniques
Now there is another thing that mechani- of tabulating frequencies of occurrence for
zation has done. It was virtually impos- straightforward categories such as foreign af-
sible [under the old stall system] to be fairs, domestic affairs, politics and sports
a cheeky boy underground. Now, under mech- were used. During the same period, content
anization, the boys are put to work in analysis began to be applied to literature to
groups; so the boys themselves create describe stylistic and linguistic character-
their own sort of society; and they can istics.
pick on one man and be quite rude to him - From the late 1930s the focus of the tech-
an old man. But when the boy - it's true nique became both more political and more con-
he was in a group to start with, but then cerned with mass media, especially through the
he had to go on his own with a man. And work of Lasswell (1960). During the Second
they had various ways of putting you in World War it advanced rapidly as a technique
order: they could see your father in the for analysing propaganda material.
lamp-room; or on a Saturday, if you came Since that time content analysis has been
in to work and your 'butty' wasn't there, widely used in many fields including history,
the other men wouldn't take you; and you linguistics, mass media studies and psychol-
had to walk home and you wouldn't have ogy. Its techniques have become more sophis-
any pay. There were no set rules. That was ticated and there is now a computer process
the way it was done. Nobody ever wrote t.he called the "General Inquirer" which can ra-
rules. But they soon put cheeky people in pidly analyse content material and perform
their places; and this was the kind of re- required frequency counts and statistical
lationship between man and boy in the col- tests (Stone et aZ. 1966).
liery (Evans 1976, p. 173). Content analysis has not only been applied
to many fields of inquiry but also used to
6'vaZuation answer very different types of questions.
The type of information contained in these Messages have both form and meaning. Tradi-
oral accounts cannot be found in written doc- tionally message "form" was studied within
uments and would escape the net of ,structured linguistics and message "meaning" by content
questionnaires. The collection of this type analysis. This distinction is no longer va-
of information depends on long, unhurried con- lid since the structural analysis of messages
versations between respondent and researcher is now the concern of content analysis. For
who share a mutual trust and interest in the example, whether an invitation is internally
topic. structured in formal or informal phrases af-
As a method, recording oral evidence has fects the "meaning" it imparts to the receiv-
the advantages of high validity and low re- er. Similarly the exact structure of a ma-
searcher domination with disadvantages of gical chant or folk-tale may determine its
high time requirements and few checks on re- intended effect, and thus its meaning.
liability. Since the narratives can be vivid In addition to describing message struc-
recreations, it is often wisest to minimize ture, two major aims of content analysis are
coding and numerical analysis, and let the description of message content and inference
words speak for themselves. from message content to the senders and re-
ceivers of messages. Typical questions posed
CODING ANSWERS of message content description are:
- What is the subject matter of the message?
Content analysis 0-f verbal mate&a2 - What trends in content occur over time?
- How do different messages or communication
Content analysis is a general term used to channels differ in content?
cover a set of techniques for objectively - How readable is the message?

75
 Listening, recording and coding

- What stylistic features, characteristics - construct categories for coding (see below),
and patterns can be seen for sets of mes- e.g. by subject matter, positive and nega-
sage (e.g. for the writings of one author tive statements, people mentioned;
or one newspaper)? - read through or listen to material and code
Questions about what inferences can be made the occurrence of each item into the ap-
from the content of messages by the people in- propriate category, using more than one
volved in sending or receiving them rest on coder wherever possible;
assumptions about the relationships between - revise categories and units if there is
individuals and their verbal messages. Two poor inter-coder agreement (poor relia-
types of relationship exist: explicit mean- bility);
ing, such as in propaganda which is politi- - tabulate frequencies of occurrence between
cally or commercially motivated; and implicit material being compared;
meaning, such as may be revealed about peo- - interpret data.
ple's attitudes through projective tests or The keys to successful content analysis are
free conversation. The difference between the the selection of units, construction of Cate-
two may be roughly characterized as explicit gories, and good interpretation. For the oth-
meaning assuming that the sender "means what er aspects, frequency counting involves only
he says" and implicit meaning requiring the systematic coding and careful tabulation.
analyst to "read between the lines". The assumption that greater frequency of
The assumption of implicit meaning in mes- an item is directly related to its signifi-
sages is a cornerstone in much psycho-anal- cance or importance is valid for many, but
ytic theory. For example, a highly anxious not all, situations. For example, in material
person would be expected to reveal his state which has an explicit motivation, the absence
of anxiety in the way he speaks and writes. of a particular item may be significant for
From this it is also argued that this an- deducing the source's intentions. Similarly,
xious state can be isolated and systematically in analysing a person's psychological state,
described from verbal evidence. Questions con- it may be the repression of a topic that will
cerning inference are generally, but not ex- identify his most important feeling. In these
clusively, directed towards the sender or cases, better techniques may be either non-
producer of messages. For example, mass media frequency analysis, which uses simply the pre-
research has used content analysis to iden- sence or absence of a particular item, or
tify the attitudinal and behavioural res- structural analysis, which is concerned not
ponses of audiences of messages. The char- with frequency of occurrence but with the pos-
acteristics of senders, especially their in- sibility of occurrence for given items.
tentions, attitudes, and psychological states,
as well as the intensity and direction of Example I: content analysis of Oaark super-
these attributes, are probably the most com- stitions
mon inferences made from verbal messages by The material used in this study (Miller
content analysis. 1972) consisted of 1715 orally recounted su-
perstitions collected by Randolph (1947) be-
Frequency counts tween 1899 to 1947 from people, some of whom
had been original settlers in the Ozark Moun-
The basic logic of counting frequencies in tains (an area in the states of Missouri and
content analysis is that the greater the Arkansas in the United States), having moved
source's interest in, concern with or know- from Kentucky and Tennessee. The objective
ledge of a given topic, the greater will be was to establish what these early pioneers
the relative frequency with which that to- considered the most significant characteris-
pic will be mentioned, as compared to other tics of their environment as reflected in
topics. The principle is thus a simple one their everyday sayings. Examples of the units
of counting frequencies within categories. (superstitions) used are:
The method involves several preparatory Category
steps which are common to other, more so- - "Cattle will not fatten pro-
phisticated techniques of content analysis: perly unless there is an un- ANIMALS
- select hypotheses to be tested; even number in the herd."
- select material to be content analysed; - "The first frost occurs nine-
- select units for measuring frequency, e.g. ty days after the first at- WEATHER
column inches, key words, literary forms, tack of hay fever in the au-
conversational exchange, scientific papers; tumn."

76
 Coding answers

- "If you soak the cobs from Frequency

seed corn in water, there x
will be an abundance of rain CROPS Environmental feature
for the crop, but if you Animals (domestic and wild) 27.11
burn them, there will be a Natural vegetation 16.55
drought." Weather, seasons, heavenly bodies 14.63
- "At midnight on January 5 WATER Crops 3.32
some well water becomes wine." Water 1.34
The superstitions were simply coded into six
62.95
broad environmental categories (Table 14).
Non-environmental or combined
From her content analysis, Miller concludes (e.g. witchcraft, death, dreams) 37.05
that the Ozark environment in which these
traditional sayings developed was a well wat- Table 14. Environmental perceptions of eady
ered, humid and forested one where environ- &ark settlers in the USAas revealed in their
mental hazards such as tornadoes and hail- orai: superstitions (based on Miller 1972).
stones were known and feared.
Bowden included in his units American geo-
Euahation. The rich material on oral super- graphies and school textbooks published be-
stitions collected by Randolph is worthy of tween 1800 and 1880 having more than 120 words
much more content analysis than is presented describing the geography of the Western In-
here, as Miller's study itself indicates. The terior. He found 184 such books. The cate-
study is, however, a useful example of the gories used to code the material were subdiv-
material which can be used in environmental. isions of desert and non-desert (Table 15).
perception and which can be collected and an- Using content analysis, Bowden found that
alysed in many traditional societies through- the Great American Desert as a name and im-
out the world. The hypotheses that such ma- age was predominant in textbooks only in the
terial can be used to test can vary from those 1840s and early 185Os, and not throughout the
concerned with environmental perceptions and period, even until after the American Civil
beliefs in general, to specific studies of War (1861-1865), as had been argued by some
traditional knowledge about, for example, the historians. The term first appeared in New Eng-
use of herbs in medicine. land on the eastern coast of the United States
between 1814 and 1830 and from there spread
Example 2: American perceptions of the "Great to the rest of the continent. Bowden also
American Desert" between 1,800 and l870 found that the more elementary geographies,
False images of unknown places have char- which were most likely to have been read by
acterized oral and written geographies of potential settlers, did not carry the desert
many different societies, and have been the image but that the books with a more educated
motivation behind much early geographic ex- readership did. He also compared the content
ploration. Bowden (1969) used content anal- of books published in the eighteenth-century
ysis to evaluate the hypothesis that in the with contemporary newspapers which carried
first half of the nineteenth-century, the letters from western travellers and found no
American public image of the western United mention of the area as a desert. Similarly,
States between the Mississippi and the Ro- settlers' diaries do not mention a desert
ckies was that of an uninhabitable desert. (Jackson 1972).
This myth is supposed to have remained pre-
dominant until about 1870 when a more inform- Evaluation. Bowden's study is a good example
ed image was established of the "Great Wes- of the diverse material which can be content
tern Prairies" or the "Great Plains" with analysed and compared to examine a particular
pastoral and agricultural potential. The ef- research question. He used textbooks, news-
fect such widely held environmental images papers, settlers' diaries, explorers' jour-
might have on migration and economic exploi- nals, and accounts of military expeditions
tation of an area is obviously far-reaching. that were available for the period 1800 to
Looking out from his forests, the Ameri- 1880. By comparing the frequency of occur-
can of the generation before the Civil rence of the desert image he was able to iso-
War pictured on his map of the continent late the perception of the desert to the el-
a blank space before the Rocky Mountains. ite and educated people of New England who
It was labeled The Great American Desert. were not potential migrants. He was thus able
As long as he pictured it there, he would to refute the idea that the desert image was
not settle it (Hart 1957, p. 31). a psychological barrier to westward migration

77
 Listening, recording and coding

in the United States. my neighbourhood you see street after street

all the same".
Evaluative assertion analysis The third assumption is that coders can
agree on the direction and intensity of as-
The purpose this technique is to measure the sertions. For example, they would agree that
evaluations of significant concepts contained "the mountain clans despised the lowlanders"
in a message in a way that is objective, and is a dissociative assertion of high intensity
distinct from the evaluations that the coder while "newcomers gradually became accepted as
or analyst would himself make. It involves villagers" is an associative assertion of weak
reducing raw messages to standard forms and intensity.
scaling the simplified assertions obtained, Fourth, one assumption is that coders can
usually along a positive-negative, favour- agree on the direction and degree of evalua-
able-unfavourable dimension. tions made for common-meaning terms. For ex-
ample, "content analysis is a method" has zero
Assumption evaluation, while "content analysis is a com-
The technique is based on several assump- plete fabrication" is strongly negatively eval-
tions about the judgements that coders are uated in the message.
able to make. First it is assumed that cod- While these assumptions can be verified to
ers can distinguish between "attitude ob- some extent by using several coders and test-
jects" and "common-meaning material". The ing for inter-coder reliability, there remain
former are objects to which individuals will problems of objectivity in making the required
differ in attitude and the latter are objects judgements. For example, is "science is limi-
or concepts which can be reasonably assumed ted" an individual attitude or a commonly
to be culturally shared. Examples are: "my shared view? And is it equivalent to "science
father is a bad man" (attitude object) and has its uses"? Many of these difficulties seem
"murderers are bad" (common-meaning). to be resolved by common sense rather than by
Second, it is assumed that coders can re- formulating rules. The experience of content
liably judge when two alternative construc- analysts using this technique is that the
tions are equivalent or non-equivalent in judgements can be reliably and validly made
meaning. For example, they would agree that if the coders are intelligent, well trained
there is equivalence between "the area is and share or are thoroughly familiar with the
physically homogeneous in housing" and "in same language and culture as the sources of

78
 Coding ansuers

ENVIRONMENTAL PEOPLE INVOLVED PLANNING

FEATURES PROPOSALS
(examples)

POSITIVE 3 Opera Inigo Jones' master plan

EVALUATION Flower market Les Halles

1
St. Paul's church author's, proposal

2 Drury Lane dossers

Bow Street Convent Garden
most houses Community Association

tea-stand drifters
Albert's cafg (vagrants)
Strand

0
I trolleys
fruit
of coppers (police) conservation proposal

boxes

-1 i
Table 16.
Example of an evaha- radicals Architectural
tive assertion scale: Architectural Association's pro-
analysis of one author's -2
Association posal
argument in a phi+ politicians
ning dispute over Co- developers
vent Garden (the old
flower and vegetable Greater London Greater London Council
market) in London, NEGATIVE -3
Council Plan
En&& (based on EVALUATION
speculators
Mazis 2975)

the material being analysed. a noun or an adjective.

Thus Osgood defines an evaluative asser-
Method tion as a linguistic construction in which an
Osgood (Osgood 1959; Osgood, Saporta and actor (attitude object) is associated with,
Nunnally 1956) has been the principal devel- or dissociated from, a complement (attitude
oper of the technique. He describes four object or common-meaning) via a verbal con-
stages. Stage 1 involves identification, iso- nector. Only those assertions are counted
lation and masking of attitude objects. The which include at least one attitude object
coder reads through the message and substi- and some evaluation. Osgood, Saporta and Nunn-
tutes symbols (usually letters) for every- ally give detailed translation rules for con-
thing which would elicit attitudes from a verting raw messages into assertions.
subsequent reader, i.e. any information about In Stage 3 directions and intensities are
who, what, when and where. For example, "The assigned to connectors and evaluators. Using
Nile was Egypt's lifeline according to the a chart of commonly formulated assertions,
early Greek scholars" would become "A was E's the coder assigns each connector (verb phrase)
lifeline according to the earliest Cs". and each common-meaning evaluator a direction
Stage 2 is the translation of the message and value in terms of a seven-step scale run-
into an assertion form. The message is re- ning from -3 to t3.
cast into a set of commonly constructed as- Stage 4 involves obtaining an evaluative
sertions which are equivalent in meaning to scale of attitude objects. The coder deter-
the original. The linguistic form most used mines the average evaluation score for each
in English has been commonly adopted for this attitude object as it appears in all types
technique, i.e. the "actor-action-complement" of assertions and places each one on a sin-
construction. The actor is usually a noun, gle seven-step evaluative scale (Table 16).
the action a verb, and the complement either

79
 Listening, recording and coding

Evaluation as synonyms, such as "rural" and "country".

This technique is very time-consuming even Unless these are placed together in the same
with trained coders who are generally able to category, a contingency analysis is likely to
process only one page of triple-spaced mater- find them highly dissociative, because where
ial (133 words) per hour. A shortened form of one appears the other does not, i.e. they are
the technique has been shown to increase the substitutes for one another.
speed to three pages per hour, but inter-co- The assumption linking message contingency
der reliability fell to 0.75 from 0.85 (Os- structure with the sender's cognitive asso-
good, Saporta and Nunnally 1956). The trans- ciation structure has received some experi-
lation of the material into assertions also mental verification (Osgood 1959). Inferences
means that it loses considerable flavour and about association structure are largely inde-
nuances of meaning. On the other hand, trans- pendent of either item frequency or evalua-
lation of material into a uniform format eases tions made of items. Contingency analysis is
the task of the coders who scale the asser- thus a complementary technique in content an-
tions. Holsti (1963) points out three main alysis in that a property of messages differ-
sources of low reliability: ambiguity of cate- ent from that obtained in frequency counts or
gories selected, confusion over varying roles evaluative assertion analysis is measured.
played by an attitude object within one sen-
tence and difficulty in giving numerical val- Method
ues to complex sentences. Selection of units. Messages to be analysed
The strengths of the method lie in its are first divided into units. These units are
ability to greatly minimize the potential bias often natural ones such as individual letters,
of the analyst's own attitudes by word-mask- diary entries, newspaper articles, or res-
ing, and in its comparability across both ponses to a particular interview question.
messages and sources. Thus it is possible to Where the message is continuous, arbitrary
use evaluative assertion analysis to say units appropriate to the research needs have
which of several sources best corresponds to to be set up. Obviously, contingency values
a particular criterion (e.g. law, norm, eth- are partly dependent on the size of units
ic) in the assertions made. It is also readily selected, since if the units are as small as
adaptable to computer processing since the individual words there will be no contingen-
message has already been put into standard- cies, and if the units are too large most
ized form. items contained in the message will be con-
Osgood (1959) stresses that the technique tingent on others. Theoretically some cri-
is aimed at obtaining evaluations of what terion should be used which separates units,
the message actually says, and not of what for example on the basis of time elapsed be-
the source may have really intended. Thus tween them, thus taking into account the pos-
where one is interested mainly in inference sibility of cause and effect between units.
from the message to the source, other tech- Often the information required to establish
niques in content analysis would be more ap- such theoretically appropriate units is not
propriate. available within the message itself.

Contingency anaZysis Construction of categories. Categories are

set up so that their number, breadth and na-
Contingency analysis is a technique used to ture are appropriate to the particular re-
measure the co-occurrences of items in a mes- search objectives. The finer the categories
sage and to establish whether the number of used, the larger the sample of messages that
times two or more items appear together is must be analysed in order to obtain signifi-
greater or less than would be expected by cant contingencies.
chance. From the co-occurrences found in a
message, inferences can be made about the Coding the messages. The coder examines each
"association structure" in the mind of the unit of the material and scores it for each
sender. The associations between items may content category on a data table such as that
be positive (e.g. references to "environmen- shown in Table 17. Each row represents a dif-
talist" and "conservationist" appearing to- ferent unit (e.g. questionnaire response) and
gether with a greater than chance frequency) each column a different category.
or negative (e.g. references to "tourism and Two possible scoring methods are used. If
air pollution" appearing in conjunction less the units are small, the coder does not need
frequently than expected by chance). One dif- to score how many times a category is used in
ficulty arises immediately with words used a message, but merely indicates its presence

80
 Coding answers

Content Categories
-__
Units Housing People Economics Natural Change etc.
(responses) types environ.
1 -t - - +
2 - -
Table 17. Construction of + - +

contingency matrix from 3 -.

+ - -
+
raw.data: raz data matrix
(hypothetical example for :
responses to question on n etc.
neighbourhood character-
istics) Per cent

or absence with a plus or minus sign. Where Where items co-occur with a greater than
the units are large and where many categories chance frequency, the obtained contingency
occur in each unit, a simple presence or ab- will be greater than the expected value, and
sence score shows everything contingent on vice versa. Calculations can then be made for
everything else. the significance of the differences between
Therefore, frequencies of categories used expected and obtained contingencies by stan-
per unit are entered and the median frequen- dard statistical tests, establishing a table
cies are calculated for each category as it of significant contingencies or cluster anal-
appears across all units. Comparison of the ysis (Osgood 1959).
category frequency for each unit with its
median, enables the coder to assign a pos- Evaluation
itive or negative sign to each cell in the When contingencies in a set of messages
table, according to whether its frequency is are found to be significantly above or below
above or below this median. chance, there is evidence for message struc-
ture. As Osgood points out, however, infer-
Constructing a contingency matrix. The ex- ence from this to the cognitive association
pected or chance contingency for each pair structure of the sender is at least partly
of columns is obtained by multiplying togeth- dependent on the sender's motives for pro-
er the sheer rates of occurrence of these two ducing the message. When the messages are
categories (row labelled "per cent" in Table purposeful and deliberately worded - such as
17). The expected contingencies are then in propoganda, advertising or organizational
placed in the upper right hand cells of the memoranda - any structure in the message is
contingency table (Table 18). In the corres- more likely to reflect policy and strategy
ponding lower cells of the matrix, the ac- than cognitive association of an individual.
tual obtained contingencies are entered. Thus the inferences made from a contingency
These are the percentages of units where analysis need to be carefully considered in
plusses occur in both of the columns tested the light of the total context of the mes-
in Table 18. sage.

Housing People Economics Natural Change Nth

types environ. category

People EXPECTED
(CHANCE)
Economics CONTINGENCIES
Natural
OBTAINED
environ.
(ACTUAL)
Table 18. Construction of Change CONTINGENCIES
contingency matrix from
Nth
rm data: contingency ma-
trix

al
 Listening, recording and coding

This technique is less time-consuming than ysis which could be widely shared between re-
evaluative assertion analysis, especially search projects, the use of contingency anal-
where only presence and absence of categories ysis to determine clusters of related items
used are scored. But it is of course measur- in a more rigorous fashion, does afford the
ing a different aspect of message content. possibility of having common categories be-
How far the associations obtained from con- tween studies on similar topics.
tingency analysis can be related to the pat- Inter-coder agreement is also less diffi-
tern of cognitive constructs that are obtained cult to achieve in practice than it might ap-
by repertory grid techniques (page 59) has pear in theory or in anticipation. For exam-
not yet been systematically studied. Contin- ple, experience in coding sentence comple-
gency analysis is the technique in content tions (see page 49) about people's percep-
analysis closest to methods of structural tion of air pollution in very different ur-
linguistics. Interchange between the two ban settings has shown both that inter-coder
fields is increasing. agreement is not difficult to achieve, and
that the range of individual responses with-
Construction of categories in one country is relatively small (A.V. Kirk-
by 1972).
The task of constructing good categories is An ad hoe approach to coding categories
common to all coding procedures as well as is illustrated in Table 19 where sentence com-
to content analysis itself. Any subsequent pletions obtained as part of a house-to-house
interpretation of data or inference from co- interview in urban areas of the United King-
ded and scaled responses to human perception dom were coded into five categories represent-
and behaviour can only be as good, and no ing degree of active response to the threat
better, than the categories chosen for anal- of air pollution.
sis. It is best to make categories as discrete
Much content analysis has used ad hoc single component and explicit as possible.
categories which rely on the judgement and Reliability is increased as the number of de-
intuition of the researcher in the context of cisions the coder has to make is decreased.
his research objectives. Where the research Too much emphasis on reliability, however,
goals are highly specific, this procedure can may make coders unnecessarily conservative
still be used, but reliability is considerably and increase their proportion of "uncodable"
increased if more than one coder goes through responses. The researcher may also lose the
the material and categorises it independently. coder's insight and intuition which may bring
Tests can be run to establish the degrees of to light more richness in the data. The con-
inter-coder reliability (different coders struction of the best categories cannot al-
classifying the same material) and intra-co- ways be carried out by the rule book, but
der reliability (degree of agreement between must combine scientific method with intui-
two attempts at coding at different times by tion and understanding of the data and their
the same coder). sources.
The units for coding can be key words or,
more commonly in environmental perception re- Fvaluation
search, themes or concepts. The classifica- Simple content analysis is widely used to
tion should ideally be systematic in that code responses to questionnaires, different
most items can be coded somewhere (that is, types of behaviour and environmental charac-
the proportion of uncodable items is small) teristics, Most researchers employing this
and that there are some common criteria link- a:? hoe approach to coding would probably not
ing the categories and rough equivalence be- describe what they were doing as content
tween them. For example, the rationale of analysis. The descriptions of more elaborate
Lasswell's (1960) categories of pro-self, pro- and formal techniques are given to introduce
other, anti-self and anti-other is clear, as the reader to possible ways of increasing
is the non-equivalence of "reindeer" in a the reliability and scope of content analy-
classification comprising "wild animals, do- sis, which in turn makes a less structured ap-
mestic animals, edible plants, inedible plants, preach to research more amenable to scien-
rocks and minerals, etc.". tific method.
While it is difficult at this time to con-
ceive of standardised units for content anal-

82
 Suggestions for further reading

Raw data Categories Obtained frequencies

(examples of responses) (intercoder agree- (four cities in U.K.)
ment 0.93)
Number Per cent

. .
..would die due to my chest
. .
..wouldn't do anything
. .
..would accept the inevitable passive
. .
..would put up with it as T'm only working acceptance 83 19.76
class
____.--
. . ..would close all windows
. . ..would stay indoors immediate
. . ..would wear a mask avoiding
. . ..would bring in my washing action 110 26.20
. . ..would probably move into the country
. . ..would go away if I could longer term
. . ..would move house avoiding
. . ..would leave district action 108 25.70
,...would report it
. . ..would protest to my Member of Parliament
. . ..would protest vigorously to all people in complaining
authority and reporting 42 10.00
. . ..would complain to authorities
. . ..would make a complaint and try to get others
to do the same
. . ..would campaign against it active
. . ..would make as little smoke as possible response 42 10.00
. . ..would stop burning coal fires
_______~__~
. . ..would quit
. . ..wouldn't move uncodable 35 8.34
. . ..don't know (no response)
Total 420 100.00

Table 19. Constructing categories: example of coding sentence completions

about response to air polhtion in the United Kingdom

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING is less concerned with method but is a well
illustrated and well written demonstration
Helpful suggestions on conducting unstruc- of his perception approach to urban form and
tured interviews are given in a chapter by design.
Morrissey (1970). Much other useful general Szalai (1972) is an excellent source book
advice on the art of listening is given in for methods, concepts and comparative empir-
Dexter (1970). Two recent books by Evans ical data on time budgets for twelve coun-
(1975, 1976) exemplify the kind of material tries. He also includes an extensive biblio-
that can be obtained through listening to graphy divided into theoretical and empirical
respondents and provide fascinating reading works, of the literature available in several
on perception of social changes in the United different languages (including French, Ger-
Kingdom. An earlier study made in 1937 (Dol- man, Japanese and Russian).
lard 1957) of black people's life histories In addition to the books suggested above
in a town in southern United States is anoth- for further reading about the listening ap-
er vivid empirical example of listening as proach, there are also several journals de-
a research tool. Dollard also discusses the voted to oral history, including the Oral His-
use of his approach in the context of escalat- tory Review (annual) in the United States and
ing quantification in the social sciences. Oral History (twice yearly) in the United
The clearest statements of urban walk pro- Kingdom.
cedures are given in Lynch and Rivkin (1959) Researchers should also look at the bib-
and Lowenthal and Riel (1972). Lynch (1960) liographies in Waserman (1971) and Moss (1974).

83

. ...---
Design of field studies
,

VII. SELECTION OF RESEARCH VARIABLES

A SYSTEMS APPROACH all system.

Following the nomenclature suggested in
Ecosystems and perception systems Unesco (1972), system variables are defined
as state variables, processes, output vari-
Integrating environmental perception re- ables and driving variables.
search with ecosystem studies is dependent State variables include measurable pro-
on comprehensive models being developed for perties of the system such as biomass (eco-
perception processes. These models must be system) and group characteristics (perception
comparable to the best ecosystem ones. Mo- system). It is the changes in these state
dels in human perception and decision-mak- variables that are of major interest. Their
ing tend, of necessity, to be restricted to values at any particular time depend on
description of a few variables, and are of- changes within the system.
ten limited to either a psychological or so- Processes provoke changes in state vari-
ciological level of explanation. Nothing of ables, and their rates are determined by the
the scale and sophistication of ecosystem current or previous values of these and other
modelling has been attempted. state variables and of driving variables.
This situation is due in part to the na- They thus constitute the mechanism by which
ture of systems in which human thought is these variables are coupled.
a dominant variable. Cause and effect re- Output variables are the quantities which
lationships are even more difficult to model the model is required to predict. Sometimes
in social systems, where both individual and these may constitute a sub-set of the state
collective perspectives must be taken into variables; more often they will include quan-
account. Also, there has been a greater con- tities calculated from the state variables.
centration on measurement in the social sci- Clearly these are the quantities of most di-
ences rather than a refining of concepts. rect interest to the manager who proposes to
This is perhaps most true of geography and make use of the model.
social psychology where more effort has been Once the boundaries of the research sys-
expended on developing sophisticated mea- tem have been defined, those variables which
sures than on evolving rigorous concepts. lie outside the system and which are not af-
For example, attitude measurement is rela- fected by processes internal to it but which
tively advanced, whereas the concept of at- impinge upon it, can be considered as driving
titude remains a mixture of opinions, be- variables. In environmental systems the most
liefs and feelings that interact to form a important driving variables are usually ma-
"state of readiness for action". jor climatological or meteorological factors
The lack of a "birds-eye" view of envi- which trigger the actions of erosion, dis-
ronmental perception is particularly critical ease, natural predators, etc. In environ-
at the research planning stage and it is for mental perception systems, a new technolog-
this reason that in this Technical Note, an ical discovery or government policy imposed
attempt has been made to provide at least a from outside, may act as driving variables
generalised flow-chart indicating the main on the evolution of the system.
variables and linking processes of the over-

85

_""__.-l.- ..^..__... .._._-_ ~- --___I-

 SeZection of research variables

A simple mode2 of environmentat perception OWll "critical paths" through it (see the sec-
tion on examples of field studies). Unfor-
Figure 12 represents one way of organizing tunately, many empirical studies in environ-
the components of a general model of environ- mental perception do not clearly specify the
mental perception. In Figure 12 and in the variables considered in terms of their sys-
succeeding figures based on it, the state tematic relationships or wider contexts.
variables are arranged approximately in or-
der of: distance from the decision-point at STATE VARIABLES
the man-environment interface; and scale of
decision-maker from the individual resource Experience
manager making decisions on behalf of him-
self or his household, to the collective re- Experience is gained through time and becomes
source manager acting on behalf of many oth- part of the attributes of an individual and
ers. of social groups. It can also be learned from
Thus as one moves from the right to the other people's experience through the medium
left of the flow chart, the variables more of communication. Time itself is both a re-
directly impinge upon the output variables source which can be allocated in diverse ways,
for a specific situation (but they may not and a dimension which is perceived differ-
necessarily be more influential). And as one ently by separate cultures and individuals.
moves from the bottom to the top of the dia- Time and experience enter the system in three
gram, the variables become more relevant to important ways:
collective rather than individual decision- - The model describes processes leading to
making, though they are not exclusive to choice in relation to the environment which
either. Thus a progression can be traced from are repetitive; i.e. the model depicts only
individual and group characteristics, through one cycle of which there are many through
interviewing variables such as values and time. The output of one cycle becomes part
personality, to decisions and choices af- of the input for the next, through the vari-
fecting the environment. able of experience.
Linking the individual and social vari- - The cyclical or developmental nature of
ables are four interdependent processes which systems and choice processes can be more
together act as the main organizing force in formally modelled as a learning process,
the system. These are the "perception pro- so that individuals and social organiza-
cesses" which link all the components. In tions at any level can be regarded as
this model they are considered as four pro- learning systems. The variable of exper-
cess elements on the pragmatic grounds of ience is thus ordered in terms of learning.
what are measurably different components of - To make choices and arrive at policy for-
perception at the field level. Thus, cate- mulation takes time, so that in reality a
gorization and judgement are grouped together decision-making model has temporal as well
in the model because they are obtained to- as spatial dimensions. This is especially
gether by several field methods although they true for more collective choices where
are conceptually different parts of the per- communication and information flow con-
ception process. sume much time, and are often analysed in
The other three major divisions of per- terms of time (e.g. critical path analy-
ception used here are: sensory perception sis).
(e.g. sight, smell); attitudes; and commu- The idea of the time taken to arrive at the
nication and information flow. In the field, decision point at the interface of man and
these processes (either separately or to- environment introduces the consideration of
gether) can be investigated as links between time scales. Natural processes in ecosystems
any sub-set of variables relevant to the commonly operate at slow rates through long
study. time scales. Some environmental processes,
Figure 12 is a simple heuristic device to even man-influenced ones such as air pollu-
help organise the research planning task. It tion, may develop so gradually that they op-
cannot serve as a substitute for specific erate below the threshold of human sensory
hypothesis development and conceptual model- perception. Without scientific monitoring
ling within each research project. No con- they would, and have, remained undetected for
straints are placed on where the boundaries long periods. The management of these slow
of a specific study are drawn or on the op- environmental processes operates at very dif-
eration of the linking processes. Individual ferent, and more rapid, orders of time scale
research projects can therefore trace their once they are recognized (categorization and

86
State variables
87
 Selection of research variabZes

judgement). Institutional organizations for ferent groups of which he is a member and

decision-making are usually bounded by fixed the level of society being considered. An in-
time horizons of a few years. dividual's access to leadership, authority
Time is therefore a discontinuous vari- and power may stem from his possession of
able in terms of the different orders of time wealth, ownership of land, possession of spe-
scales for the resource manager and for en- cial "powers" (in magic, ritual, teaching or
vironmental processes. The different time hunting, etc.), or even from the fact that he
scales available to decision-makers influence has travelled more widely than his fellows.
their perspective on the problem and its al- These second types of measures are more in-
ternative solutions, particularly where they dividual to each investigation and require
are aware that time is a scarce resource. the judgement of the researcher to define
The way people perceive time has been which ones are appropriate. The first set
relatively little studied. Significant dif- should be collected in some form in any field
ferences have been shown between different study, whether using observation or ques-
cultures and societies in the perception of tioning.
(1) duration, (2) simultaneity, (3) rhythm In the model, individual characteristics
and (4) time horizons. Consideration of time are restricted to a relatively "objective"
perception as an important variable may be set of measures. The way people identify
particularly relevant in studies involving themselves with groups or places, or the sig-
two or more different cultural groups (Doob nificance that age, social status, occupa-
1960, Gale 1967, Ornstein 1969, Szalai 1972). tion, etc., have for them are considered as
attributes of other variables such as iden-
Examples of empirical measures for the variable tity and value system.
of experience
Perception of time, e.g. duration, time horizons,
Examples of empirical measures for the variable
time scarcity
of individual characteristics
Time budgets, e.g. time taken to reach decisions
- Age and sex
and their implementation
- Socio-economic level or class
Time scales, e.g. of institutions, organisations
and individuals - Ethnic group
memory and nostalgia - Occupation and skills
Learning,
- Education
Traditions, written and oral
- Religion
Previous events and case histories in the context
- Physical characteristics
of a particular study
- Income, individual or household
Historical and prehistorical antecedents and se-
- Roles, e.g. in household, work group, community,
quences from written and field evidence
larger society
- Groups, e.g. professional, religious, interest,
labour unions
- Wealth, e.g. in terms of land ownership, posses-
IndividuaZ characteristics sions, animals, cash
- Power and authority, e.g. position in work, po-
Individual characteristics are variables by litical, administrative, judicial or religious
which individuals are described and classi- spheres
fied in relation to their role and status in
society. Many of the common measures are in-
cluded in census statistics and they are Group characteristics
usually a part of any social survey or ques-
tionnaire. These are attributes such as age, This variable comprises those parameters by
sex, socio-economic class, occupation, in- which the population being investigated can
come and education. They are relatively ob- be described, classified and grouped. In part,
jective measures that are not usually dif- it consists of a set of measures parallel to
ficult to obtain. those suggested for identifying the charac-
There are also some more interpretative teristics of an individual. It is likewise
attributes several of which are measures of helpful to restrict this variable to a rela-
an individual's role and status in relation tively objective set of parameters. These data
to his power and influence in his society. can often be obtained from census and other
These range from the individual's role in socio-demographic survey material.
the household - whether he is head of the Of particular significance in this context
household, youngest son, etc. - to his role are those aspects of a population, such as
within the larger social spheres of commu- population density and mobility, rate of popu-
nity, tribe, city or nation. Each individual lation changes and the pattern, size and dis-
will have several roles relating to the dif- tribution of human settlements, which can have

88
 State variables

an impact on the biosphere. One index which sents the total of his being. Of these, the
has been borrowed from ecology and applied to third definition comes closest to a "percep-
human populations is that of "carrying capac- tion" view of personality.
ity". Carrying capacity can be used in devel- PersonaLity theory has been influenced by
oping a useful normative model against which four related approaches in psychology - clin-
actual population characteristics in certain ical, Gestalt, lcarning'theory and psycho-
contexts can be compared. For example, para- metric measurement - each of which has been
meters of population carrying capacity have emphasized in the various theories and tech-
been applied to isolated areas such as is- niques developed. The differences between
lands and mountains, or areas which are sub- these theories - ranging from Freud's psycho-
ject to significant population influx such analytic theory, to stimulus-response theory
as recreation areas (Dnesco 1973b). But such and Skinner's reinforcement theory, to exis-
a normative model should be used with cau- tential thecry - are so great that any state-
tion, as attempts to make it more realistic ment about personality would not hold with
for social systems by including some concepts any generality across them. It is therefore.
of perception and choice have so far not been important that any researcher who wishes to
very successful. use personality as a variable in his inves-
Some degree of comparability is desirable tigation should become more familiar with
between the measures selected for individual the alternative theories and their associ-
characteristics and those by which the whole ated parameters and techniques of measure-
population is described. The group charac- ment.
teristics variable is also a significant one, Although most personality psychologists
because in many areas population changes, are concerned with personality in a social
particularly population increases and move- setting, some work has specifically explored
ment, can be considered as a driving vari- the relation of personality to the physical
able in ecosystem management and man-envi- environment as expressed by environmental
ronment reLations. preferences, attitudes to environment and,
to a lesser extent, the behaviour of people
Examples of empirical measures for the variable towards the environment. These studies in-
of group characteristics
- Population size and density dicate that personality is a significant vari-
- Population structure - age, sex, workers/non- able in relation to environmental choices,
workers, land-owning/landless, etc. but adequate assessment of personality even
- Population increase and decrease - net change, using the scales and tests that have been de-
birth and death rates veloped, is a time-consuming field process.
- Population movements - migration, daily, seasonal
spatial movements "Efficacy" is a term that has been de-
- Size of groups, population clusters, settlement vised to bring together several concepts ex-
patterns pressed in the literature as "internal-ex-
- Population composition, e.g. kinship, ethnic, re- ternal control", "expectation theory",
ligion, linguistic, socio-economic
- Distribution of occupation, skills, education,
"powerlessness", and "alienation". It means
income, wealth, land the extent to which an individual perceives
- Housing and living standards, e.g. water supply his actions and views - as expressed in
and sanitation, number of rooms, diet, medical speech, writing or behaviour - to be effec-
services tive; that is, to carry some weight, and
achieve his desired outcome.
A similar concept has been developed wi'th-
Personality and efficacy in the framework of personality psychology
so that efficacy is placed with personality
There is no generally agreed definition'of for convenience here. The personality con-
personality. Its concepts are defined by the cept is called internal-external control,
particular theory of personality adopted and which is defined as the degree to which an
its parameters are those scores or descrip- individual perceives the events in his own
tive terms which are a part of that theory. life to be largely the result of internal
Definitions of personality tend to stress: forces under his personal control or the re-
the social aspect of personality in relation sult of external forces beyond his control,
to the response of others; the physiological such as fate, God and central government.
aspect that is rooted deeply in the charac-- Expressed in more sociological terms "alien-
teristics of the person; and the "wholeness" ation" is defined as the degree to which in-
or Gestalt aspect, in that personality is dividuals and groups feel outside the "in-
the organizing centre of a person or repre- group" whose actions are efficacious, i.e.
 Selection of research variables

who have power. his view of his own authority. "Acting be-
Efficacy or perceived effectiveness is yond one's brief", that is, outside of other
an important variable at two levels: people's view of one's authority (for exam-
- within any decision-making system, the ple in the giving or withholding of infor-
degree to which individuals and groups mation), influences the decision-making pro-
believe they are effective as resource cess and may produce conflict in resource
managers and as social influences on oth- management. In any case the researcher's
ers is a significant factor in what they view of the role and status of the decision-
choose to do; maker may not be shared by the individual
- in the larger context of man-biosphere concerned, and it is important to know how
relations, individuals and societies hold the individual himself identifies them.
different philosophies or "world views"
Examples of empirical measures for the variable
in which the degree of control they feel of identity
man has over nature, or nature has over -Reference groups of individual (self-defined)
man, varies. - Perception of his own role, status and authority
Special attention has been paid to the vari- - Attachment to places and communities
able of efficacy in the Guidelines because - Self-description
it is considered a particularly significant
one in man-biosphere relations.
Territoriality and ethnocentrism
Examples of empirical measures for the variable
of personality and efficacy
- Internal-external locus of control
Territoriality refers to attachment to, and
- Risk-taking, propensity to innovate sense of possessiveness of, a particular
- Environmental dispositions place or area. For human beings, it is a per-
- Environmental preferences ceived rather than an objective variable, al-
- Environmental personality inventory though it may be expressed in real spatial
- Attribution of causality, responsibility
terms. Territoriality operates at all scales:
from the strong feeling of territory that
people in old people's homes have for par-
Identity ticular chairs, to a peasant community's
deep attachment to its land and village, to
Identity is the variable which measures an the nation state's or tribe's sense of its
individual's self-identity and attachment or collective territory.
sense of belonging to a group, community or Territoriality has an "exclusiveness" com-
a particular place and area. It is an impor- ponent similar to that for other animals,
tant variable because the ways in which the i.e. other people should not have free ac-
researcher classifies and codes his sample cess to the area. This component is found,
population of individuals - for example, by for example, at the national level and also
age and socio-economic status - may not be in some urban systems which contain ghettos
the significant way the individual catego- or marked territorial components. Territor-
rizes himself. He may identify himself as iality also has an "attachment" component
conservative, a tribal leader, an artist, which expresses people's identity with places
a countryman or an intellectual and behave at the collective level - a feeling of shared
in conformity with these self-categoriza- identity with one's neighbours or compatriots.
tions or reference-groups. An urban expression of territoriality is
In an individual's attachment to a place, the "neighbourhood". This concept has both
the notion of identity parallels that of spatial and social attributes for people as
territoriality for the group. This latter a definable space containing particular fea-
variable is reserved for a more collective tures and lay-outs and as the location of
identity with land and people. The individ- their social interactions at the personal
ual's attachment to a particular place is and general levels. The neighbourhood is
more than a sense of territory. It is also the area people live in and where they are
an identity with the location of his home most likely to know and meet other people.
and personal experience in his past. Ethnocentrism expresses the degree to
In studying choices it is relevant to which perceptions of the outside world are
know on whose behalf the resource manager rooted in, and distorted by, a perspective
perceives himself to be making decisions. in which an individual's culture or person
This consideration involves his sense of is central and dominant. It is difficult not
identity as a collective decision-maker and to have an ethnocentric view of other people

90
 Perception processes

and places to some extent. Mobility and con- tific method are attitudes, while money and
tact with other cultures may reduce the scientific theory are values. Although values
strength of an ethnocentric view by increas- are considered as underlying attitudes, new
ing the number of alternative perspectives values can be created by attitude change.
from which to compare and evaluate new infor- A value may be verbally expressed as a
mation and by thus attenuating the influence belief or an attitude. It may also be en-
of stereotypes. Stereotypes are the genera- acted in behavioural acts, especially hab-
lized images (associated with attitudes) held its and rituals. Religious and political rit-
about people or places distant in social or uals express shared values as do the ways in
spatial terms. which friends greet one another in the street,
Territoriality and ethnocentrism are sig- the family members sit down to eat together,
nificant in man-environment relations be- or gifts are exchanged on particular occa-
cause they influence behaviour. Even within sions. Values are expressed, therefore, in
a single urban system, territoriality may daily behaviour, in social occasions, in folk-
strongly define and restrict spatial move- tales and mythology, in literature and art.
ments and communication. In a traditional In whatever form a culture is expressed, so
community, a strongly ethnocentric point of also are its values.
view may be associated with resistance to The particular significance of a value
innovations which are seen as coming from system in the context of environmental per-
outside the culture and thus constituting a ception is the way in which it constrains,
threat to it. In this type of community it or supports and encourages, choices and ac-
is important to understand ethnocentric view- tions relating to the biosphere. Traditional
points in order to present an innovation or resource management choices, by virtue of
social change in a form in harmony with its their historical continuity, are generally
world-view and set of values. in harmony with a society's value system.
New uses of the biosphere are likely, at
examples of empirical measures for the variable least for a short time, to be contrary or
of territoriality and ethnocentrism
Spatial movements alien to the values held by the community.
Location of social networks In this respect, an important aspect of a
Defensive or exclusive behaviour, e.g. street value system is how nature is regarded, and
fighting, refusal to sell land outside the com- whether it is considered an object of ex-
munity ploitation or conservation.
Values and attitudes towards other people and
places
Examples of empirical measures for values
Knowledge of other cultures and places
Preferences for other cultures, places, countries, relating to:
- Nature
landscapes
Expression in art, history, traditions, ritual - Particular places
- Different aspects of biosphere, e.g. land, water
and folk-tales
- Environmental quality
- Social and spatial mobility
- Tradition and change
- Productivity, profit and work
Value system - Social exchange of goods and services

All social groups have a value system which

is shared to some degree by each individual
member. The value system provides a frame of PERCEPTION PROCESSES
reference by which behaviour and ideas can
be evaluated and either accepted or rejected. Sensory perception
To differing extents, it provides a normative
behavioural model for the group. Each indi- Sensory perception is the direct experience
vidual has his own unique constellation of of the environment through the sense organs
values within the framework of value systems for sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
as shared by the groups to which the indi- A distinction is usually made between sen-
vidual belongs. sory perception and cognition or between sen-
Values are usually considered to be fun- sing and knowing:
damental qualities which underlie more ephem- Perception can be defined as the process
eral attributes such as attitudes. Attitudes of immediate experience in organisms.
have been defined as a "state of mind of the This-links perception with sensation;
individual towards a value" (Allport 1935). such primitive terms as 'seeing', 'tast-
Thus, love of money and respect for scien- ing' and 'feeling' are refinable into

91

" --._I .._.. _ -.^-^I .I .I. __-.-.* - _ 11..-..-11-1"4 ---.,.- ~_I ---- ----."------
 Selection of research Variables

perceptual processes. As experience be- skovits, Campbell and Segall 1956; Lloyd
comes less immediate and the amount of 1972).
inference by the organism increases, pro-
L:x,kmples of empirical measures for the variable
cesses of cognition have become involved. of sensory perception
Among the primitive terms are 'knowing' - Perception thresholds, e.g. of noise and smell
and 'thinking' (French 1963). - Visual perception, e.g. form, colour, detail and
variety
The argument amounts roughly to stating - Orientation perception, e.g. in urban environ-
ments
that 'perception' must have at least one
foot firmly on the ground, and that this
entails classifying as perceptual only
those responses which are at least part-
ly determined by, and directly linked to, Categorisation and judgement
the sensory information received by the
organism at the time they are made (Taj- Categorization and judgement are inherent
fel 1969). processes in decisions and explanations -
As thus defined, sensory perception precedes both scientific and everyday. Categorization
any understanding and selection among alter- is the means by which diverse phenomena are
natives. It is a basic input to the choice arranged in some order. By creating classes
processes but is usually distant from the which are meaningful to the individual or
decision-point in that many other variables group, categorization enables: separately
intervene. Choice also entails selection known objects or events to be linked toge-
among alternatives, which is explicitly be- ther; new phenomena to be assimilated and
yond the realm of sensory perception. classified; objects and events, as yet un-
Sensory perception is always to some de- known, to be predicted. Categorization is
gree a component in environmental percep- thus a cognitive process which performs the
tion, but its direct significance increases same functions in a general way as do the
in certain resource management situations development of taxonomies and theories for
such as, for example, visual perception in sci~ence.
the design of urban complexes and motorways, The ways in which people and societies
and acoustic perception in assessing the en- categorize phenomena are idiosyncratic. The
vironmental impact and social disturbance need to establish some order and taxonomy is
of airports and road traffic (Canter 1975). universal, but the criteria by which phen-
Increasingly, scientific monitoring sys- omena are distinguished are personal and
tems and instruments are extending and en- cultural. The agricultural agent in a pea-
dorsing human sensory perception in detect- sant community may clearly differentiate be-
ing environmental states and changes that tween his categories of "agricultural im-
are below sensory threshold of awareness be- provements" (new hybrid crops and irriga-
cause they are small, ambiguous or slow. In tion); "land reform"; the "provision of med-
these circumstances, information flow takes ical facilities" and "social security". He
the place of direct sensory perception in may consider the first category to be with-
the environmental perception process. in his professional domain and the other two
Many studies have revealed significant outside it. For the peasant farmer in the
differences in sensory perception of differ- same area, low crop yields due to drought and
ent cultures. Research has been focussed on poor land, and to an illness in the family
visual perception, particularly of colour, (which created expenses and a loss of family
orientation, depth and illusions. Colour labour), may be more relevantly labelled as
perception illustrates, for example, the cul- a single category "poverty" or "peasant" or
tural effect of language on the discrimina- "indian". The discrepancies between the
tions seen between colours; where there is agent's and the peasant's categorization in
no word for a colour, it will not be meaning- this example are based both on differences
fully "perceived" or categorized. Depth-per- in their criteria for classification and in
ception in two-dimensional representations the content of their categories. These dif-
is a learned skill, and the use of perspec- ferences can be the cause of misunderstanding
tive to indicate three dimensions is a re- and non-communication.
cent discovery of the western world which is Judgements (assessments, evaluations) are
still not shared by many cultures (Her- values assigned to classes once the classes

92
 Perception processes

themselves have been determined. The in- (feeling, emotional), cognitive (thinking,
dividual categories of any classification mentally organizing) and conative (behav-
of phenomena, even if it is shared by many ioural) components, and to be sets of dis-
people, are likely to have quite different positions to act.
values for each individual according to the Attitudes are measured in terms of their
positive or negative values or relative im- direction (positive or negative towards the
portance attributed to them. These values attitude object), their strength (the ex-
can change through the operation of percep- tremity to which an attitude is held) and
tion processes over long periods of time. their consistency. This last measure is re-
For example, environments dominated by moun- lated to attitude change and attitude for-
tains and "wilderness" areas have acquired mation, which are usually conceived of as
a positive value in western European so- processes operating towards achieving bal-
ciety today, whereas traditionally they were ance or congruence between different atti-
regarded as places to be feared and avoided. tudes, and between attitudes and behaviour.
Conversely, the city - once regarded as a Thus a strongly held attitude towards the
pinnacle of civilization's achievements - beauty of pastoral landscape would be ex-
is now becoming more negatively evaluated pected to be associated with a negative at-
as "a concrete jungle" (Tuan 1974). titude towards the spread of industry into
Within shorter time scales, judgements rural areas and with preserving the country-
can be formally and informally expressed as side in order to enjoy recreating there.
words or numbers in terms of subjective prob- Attitudes have come into prominence and
ability, utility, cost-benefit analysis and are relevant to field studies because much
risk assessment. Judgements of probability - attention has been given to methods of mea-
how likely something is to occur - are as suring them. Some one hundred or more scales
important as judgements of utility or cost-- for measuring attitudes towards specific ob-
benefit. Several distinctions can be made jects have been devised and collections of
in modelling judgement, particularly be- them are available for selection. These scales
tween judgements involving choices with or seek to measure the direction and strength of
without risk and between risk-takers and risk attitudes held for given objects.
avoiders. These judgements are discussed fur- While attitude scales have reached a rel-.
ther in the literature on decision-making atively high level of sophistication which
(e.g. Edwards and Tversky 1967; Slavic, Kun- can readily be applied to empirical investi-
reuther and White 1974; Kates 1977). gations, attitudes can also be measured in
a less quantitative way by direct questions,
Examples of empirical measures for the variables opinion polls, and a priori scales. These
of categorization and judgement
- Personal constructs and criteria for categories
are sets of statements which are assumed (but
- Descriptions of people, places, events not constructed as in a psychometric atti-
- Stereotypes tude scale) to represent equal degrees of at-
- Preferences titude strength. A widely used a priori scale
- Subjective probability and utility is that devised by Bogardus (1925) for mea-
- Risk assessment suring social distance, in which people are
- Cost-benefit assessment
asked the degree of intimacy they would wil-
lingly accept between themselves and members
of other races.
Attitude formation
Examples of empirical measures for the variable
of attitude formation (Attitudes can be measured
The concept of attitude is one of the most towards any attitude object)
empirically studied in psychology and soci- - Attitude object
ology. It has been given many definitions of - Attitude strength, e.g. extreme, moderate or
which that of Allport's is given here: "An weakly held attitudes
- Attitude direction, for or against
attitude is a mental and neural state of - Attitude consistency, within and between attitudes
readiness, organised through experience, ex- - Attitude change, e.g. with new information
erting a directive or dynamic influence upon
the individual's response to all objects and
situations with which it is related" (All- Communication and information flow
port 1935). It thus includes opinions, be-
liefs, and feelings which include a prepara- Communication and information flow are two
tion or readiness for response. Attitudes of the most important processes in decision-
are usually considered to have affective making, especially at higher levels of re-

93
 Selection of research variables

source management. Communication is a so- Examples of empirical measures for the variable
cial process operating between two or more of communication and information flow
individuals or groups. People act as sen- - Information flow and networks, e.g. spatial and
temporal aspects
ders and receivers of information, or as - Organisational arrangements for communication,
barriers and bottlenecks, for many reasons including structure and frequency
related to their perceptions of themselves - Information content, e.g. written, spoken
and of others, to organizational arrange- - Critical path analysis
ments in their institutions and groups and - Information transformation, e.g. in message con-
tent
to their view of the information and the - Information overload, diffusion, diversion and
decision-making process. In the broadest blocking
sense, therefore, the study of communica-
tion includes social perception, roles and
status, personality and group dynamics.
Within the framework of resource manage- OUTPUT VARIABLES
ment choice where the outcome of communica-
tion and the ways of optimizing information Choice and behaviour
flow for decision-making are important, the
organization of communication must be con- Choice and behaviour, together with deci-
sidered. Analysis of information flow and sion-making and policy, represent the later
information networks is well suited to field stages of the perception process which lie
studies because they are often outside the between cognition and action. They can be
formal organization of information flow considered as either state or output vari-
based on institutional hierarchies and of- ables. Choice is the selection of one al-
ficial communication channels. In simple ternative (or set of alternatives) in pre-
terms, the aim is to understand who says ference to others within a context that in-
what to whom, by what channel, to what ef- cludes the other variables in the model.
fect and for what purpose (Havelock 1971). Behaviour is generally a broadly defined
In such analysis, there are several pos- term which includes acts, including verbal
sible problem foci: acts, performed in response to the choice
- overall pattern of information flow be- process. Together, choice and behaviour
tween a network of individuals or groups; represent the output of the perception pro-
- critical circuit of information flow for cess which in turn provides feedback in the
decision-making; form of input to the variable of experience.
- timing of information flow; Choice and behaviour are less clearly de-
- locus of significant nodes in the net- fined than some of the other variables and
work where information is transformed, therefore can be considerably harder to mea-
blocked or disseminated; sure empirically. Behaviour and choice are
- changes occurring in the message as it continuous processes having many interlock-
is passed around the network, including ing causes which in practice may make it
changes in content, presentation, objec- difficult to isolate as a particular "act"
tivity, perceived authority or bias, or moment of choice within any defined de-
etc.; cision-making system. Behaviour as mea-
- the point at which information leads to sured in the field is commonly verbal be-
action determined by, for example, ac- haviour, i.e. it is the individual's ac-
quiring a critical amount of informa- count of his past behaviour, or his in-
tion, timing and significance of the tended future behaviour. Behaviour as a
person sending the information. response to perception and choice within
Information, organization and decision- the delimited context being investigated
making theories provide several formal mo- should also be distinguished from "habit"
dels for analysing communication. In em- which extends beyond that specific con-
pirical studies, social factors such as in- text. Here behaviour is used to describe
dividual roles and personalities tend to the outcome of individual choice in contrast
become more prominent. In some investiga- to the collective context of decision-
tions, communication must be regarded as a making and policy.
system or network, while in others it is
appropriate to view it principally as a
simple one-way input.

94
 Output variables

Examples of empirical measures for the variable Examples of empirical measures for the variable
of choice and behaviour of decision and policy-making
- Alternatives, with or without consideration of - Administrative or political level at which de-
range and number cisions are taken
- Reversibility of choice, both short- and long- - Continuity or discontinuity of policy and im-
term portance of preceding policy
- Effects of choice on different time scales - Time horizons, urgency, reversibility of de-
- Constraints on choice and behavioural situation cisions
- Consistency of choice and behaviour; predicta- - Number and range of alternatives considered
bility - Decision-making style: conflict avoidance or
- Time, including duration, sequence, timing conflict resolution
- Future, present, past choices and behaviour - Context of decision - political, social, his-
torical, judicial
- Implementation of policy - by whom, when, how
Decision-making and policy - Effect of policy on alternatives for other levels
of decision-making
- Time taken to reach decision and its timing; re-
Decision-making is linked to policy to ex- lationship to initiating agent
press a more collective notion of choice - Degree of public involvement in other levels of
and behaviour at higher levels of resource decision-making
management. Like choice and behaviour, de-
cision-making is a target variable for the
types of field studies envisaged in the Human use systems
Guidelines. It lies at the interface of man
and environment and is the point through These systems are the organizations of so-
which all the other system variables are ar- cial, legal, political and economic systems
ticulated and find expression in man's ef- directed towards the use of ecosystems.
fect on the environment. Human use systems may be defined as or-
The antecedents of the decision-making ganizations through and by which resources
process have already been described within are managed. They vary in size and compo-
the context of perception processes. In col- sition from the household or tribe to the
lective choice, communication and informa- nation state or multinational corporation.
tion flow are of major importance in forming In their spatial expression, they are
decisions and policy. Time is also an im- rarely, if ever, congruent with ecosys-
portant consideration - both the timing, tems. Indeed they are often expressly or-
and the time taken, for decisions and the ganized to cut across several natural eco-
history of previous decisions and policy. systems in order to take advantage of the
Similarly, analysis of policy-making at complementarities and contrasts of dif-
higher levels of management (e.g. national) ferent ecological zones...It is these
will entail understanding the political, multi-ecological systems which constitute
judicial and administrative institutions, the frame of reference and responsibility
structural relationships and procedures in- of most national governments and adminis-
volved. trative units within them...These organi-
In the context of resource management, zational systems themselves form a nes-
three types of decision-making processes ted series, ranging in scale from the
are particularly relevant and together can household unit through the community and
define a particular "style" of management: local area to the national and interna-
- preventive or curative (anticipatory or tional levels. The relationships between
responsive) in relation to environmental these different levels of social systems

impact; are important, as are the relationships

- consensual (conflict avoidance), adver- between the biosphere and the social sys-
sary (conflict resolution) and "mixed" tem at each scale (Unesco 1974, p. 10).
decision-making in selection of alter- Human use systems do not necessarily include
natives; all aspects of, for example, an economic
- "private", "public" and "semi-enclosed" system; rather they emphasize those aspects
decision-making in relation to public which bear upon choice and behaviour in re-
involvement and range of alternatives source use and management. Sven given this
considered. focus, the selection of possible measures
is very wide.

95
 Selection of research Variables

Each field study will be made within an be measured to investigate different as-
existing context of social, legal, polit- pects of environmental perception. Their
ical and economic systems. The researcher purpose is exemplary only and in each case
will be aware of these major structures just other parts of the perception system could
as he is aware of the major parameters of have been selected for measurement using
the physical environment in which his field other parameters.
study is located. Together they form the Table 20 shows a summary comparison of
framework of "objective reality" which per- the four investigations in terms of the num-
ception shapes to make decisions possible. ber of system components (variables and pro-
For a model of environmental perception, cesses) they were concerned with, and the
attributes of the human use system to be main methods they used. Figures 13-16 pre-
selected may be of two types: they define sent the models of environmental perception
and describe the organizational settings of adopted or implicit in each investigation,
the study or they have major influence on the arranged in the common format of Figure 13
way choices are made. and with the measured relationships shown
Examples of the first type of attribute linking the boxes. Comparison of the fig-
are that the human use system is feudal or ures gives some idea of the range of dif-
capitalist, has a codified legal system ferent models (combinations of state vari-
based on precedent, has formal procedures ables and processes) that can be empirically
for planning resource use (such as envi- tested in the field by using measures rele-
ronmental impact statements or public in- vant to the local situation. It is thus pos-
quiries), is a chiefdom, totalitarian state sible to focus on the interaction of any
or democratic government, etc. These attri- sub-set of variables in terms of some, or
butes are significant in determining the all, of the perception processes that link
characteristic ways in which choices are them.
made but they operate less directly than The four examples given here reflect the
communication or judgement on a particular current state of the art in environmental
choice. They are contextual measures rath- perception in both the large diversity of
er than processes. perception models currently adopted in re-
Examples of the second, process-orien- search studies, and the concentration on
ted attributes are the ownership of land interviewing techniques for a wide variety
which has direct bearing on perceived power of environmental settings. They also re-
(efficacy), and value system and territori- flect the lack of longitudinal studies in
ality. Also of major importance is the sys- which the operation of feedback in the mo-
tem of division of labour which reflects del can be empirically tested.
the technological and organizational capac-
ity of the human use system. Mode7, for adoption of agricultural inno-
vation by peasants in a tropica forest
Examples of empirical measures for the variable ecosystem
of human use systems
- Resources (environmental, human, organizational) Figure 13 shows the selection of variables
type, number and diversity
and the measures used for a study of inno-
- Ownership of resources, including land, capital,
labour vativeness among Central American shifting
- Productivity of resources agriculturalists (Feaster 1968). The sam-
- Rent, yield, return for investment ple was seventy male heads of households
- Social organization, including division of la- among the Maya Indians of Belize (formerly
bour British Honduras). Six variables and two
- Scale and complexity of system
- Isolation or integration with other systems: processes were used to study the choice of
central or marginal position adopting an agricultural innovation. As an
- Environmental impact: scale and rate example of the measures obtained in the
- Rate of change field, the two selected for communication
and information processes were the number
of annual visits by agricultural agents and
the number of subjects discussed with oth-
EXAMPLES OF FIELD STUDIES ers.
Interest here was focussed upon the role
Four examples of field research studies of agricultural agents and the Village As-
have been selected to illustrate the wide sociation in communicating new ideas to far-
range of variables and processes that can mers. The study did not consider, for example,

96
 Examples of fieZd studies

FIELD STUDY PLACE SAMPLE SYSTEM PRINCIPAL METHODS

DATE COMPONENTS
RESPONDENTS
Vari- Pro- Observation Interviewing
ables cesses
--
Adoption of agricultural Belize 70 6 2 Participant Unstructured interview
innovation 1968 observation Attitude scale

Urban residential move- England 366 8 3 Structured interview

ment 1974 Projective tests
Semantic differential

Response to tropical Bangladesh 66 6 1 Structured interview

cyclone floods 1970 Sentence completion
Scenario

Planning policy for England 499 7 3 Direct Structured interview

conservation area 1974 observation Photographs
Semantic differential
Adjective check list

Table 20. Compa.kwn of fotcr exqles of field invest@ations in environmental perception

their early experience with innovations or tionnaire were open-ended, multiple choice,
their individual personalities as major and projective questions; Likert scaling
variables. techniques; and the semantic differential.
The main methods used in the study were
participant observation, interview survey Model ~OYI response to coastal fZooding hy
and attitude scale measurement. tropicaL eyeZones

Model for spatial movement of residents in This study (Islam 1974) was made within the
urban and industrial systems international programme of natural hazard
research carried out by collaborators in
This example is taken from study undertaken some twenty-three countries (White 1974).
by the North East Area Study Unit supported It concerns the area of coastal Bangladesh
by the Social Science Research Council of which suffered great damage and loss of life
the United Kingdom (Townsend and Taylor from tropical storms and coastal flooding
1975). It was a survey study rather than an especially during the disaster of November
in-depth analysis and it covered eight of 1970. The research was undertaken to inves-
the twelve system variables and three pro- tigate how residents perceived the hazard
cesses. Each one is investigated in terms of of coastal floods and how these perceptions
a few measures obtained through question- influenced their likely response to future
naires (Fig. 14). The focus of the study was situations, particularly in making the choice
to see how far identity with a particular lo- between migration and rebuilding their homes
cality or region influences the choice between in the same locations.
local and wider patterns of spatial movement. The investigation consisted of a stan-
Identity is considered in terms of the char- dard questionnaire given in a face-to-face
acteristics of the place, the characteristics interview to sixty-six residents in a com-
of the people interviewed, and their defini- munity which was inundated to depths of 3
tion and strength of attachment to a subjec- to 9 metres in the 1970 storm. Most of those
tively perceived area. interviewed were rice cultivators but a few
In the study, 336 male and female adult were businessmen and teachers. Figure 15
residents of four urban areas in North East outlines the six variables studied which
England were interviewed. A standard ques- were mainly in the context of risk assess-
tionnaire was used in an hour and a quarter ment of future hazard, together with the
face-to-face interview conducted by trained measures used.
interviewers, A sample was drawn from lists The investigation was concerned with in-
of electors within each of four urban areas, dividual choice and behaviour, as the con-
i.e. a clustered random sample was used. centration in the lower half of the diagram
Analysis was done using a computer. indicates. "Individual characteristics",
The main methods used within the ques- such as education and land tenure, is the

97
 Selection of research Variables
I I
>
[ >
IL
98
 Examples of fieZd studies
99
____-_- - -- -. .^ _ ^. ^. --. ^--_ -,-
 Setection of research variables
-1
I
I
I
.J
100
 Examples of field studies

main variable by which other variables are visitor-enjoyment terms.

coded and analysed. The amount of uniformity The study consisted of direct observation
within the sample found for some of the oth- of people and cars, and 499 interviews with
er variables (e.g. risk assessment of fu- visitors lasting twenty minutes each, in the
ture floods, fatalism in terms of internal- recreation area. Visitors were spatially sam-
external control, choice to remain rather pled by interviewing in different parts of
than migrate) enabled the researcher to make the conservation area having different rec-
some generalizations about the sample popu- reational facilities. The interview and ques-
lation as a whole. tionnaire part of the study included the use
The principal method used was that of the of photographs as environmental surrogates,
structured questionnaire in a face-to-face semantic differential and adjective check-
interview, within which were included a pro- list techniques.
jective story test to determine future risk
assessment and a sentence completion test EvaZuation
to measure internal-external control (ef-
ficacy). As has been stated earlier, these four case
studies have been selected as examples to
Model for planning poZicy for natural con- illustrate the range of empirical investi-
servation areas gations being undertaken on environmental
perception. They are neither demonstration
Figure 16 shows the seven variables exam- projects nor should they be individually
ined together with their empirical measures criticized outside the context of their own
for a field investigation of visitor use and research goals. Taken together they do, how-
perception of a natural conservation area ever, illustrate some of the possibilities
(Burton 1974). The area studied was in Can- and limitations of field studies in environ-
neck Chase, an area which consists largely ment perception.
of heathland given over to recreational use The sample sizes in the four studies (66-
in the Western Midlands region of England. 499 respondents) are larger than in many
The study sought to define the eco- other empirical field investigations, but
logical carrying capacity of the area with compared to the demands of statistical sig-
the perceptual capacity. The ecological car- nificance in social science data, they are
rying capacity was measured in terms of rec- small. Inadequacies in sample size and ran-
reational damage, particularly the effect dom sampling have been two major limitations
of trampling on vegetation changes and soil to statistical inference in many environ-
erosion. The perceptual capacity part of mental perception field studies carried out
the study was focussed upon visitors' per- so far. The statistically significant re-
ception of crowding in terms of their tol- lationships all too often seem to be confir-
erance for other cars and other people. mations of the obvious, while more theoret-
Perception of crowding was found to be re- ically interesting associations remain elu-
lated to home environment (type of house), sive to a statistical inference. Hence the
size of group, attitudes to crowds, and emphasis in this report on alternative sci-
general socio-economic and demographic char- entific methods to the accumulation of com-
acteristics. puter analysed cross-tabulations of ques-
The behaviour of visitors was measured in tionnaire responses.
terms of the frequency of visits, their mo- Dollard expresses the issue with refer-
tivation for visiting the area and their ac- ence to his own work as a psychologist work-
tivity patterns within the area. This be- ing in the "real world".
haviour was related to the individual and I came under pressure of the experimen-
group characteristics of the visitors and talists on methodological grounds. I had
to the weather. to amplify my mathematical and statis-
Correlations were found between these tical background. I had to learn some-
variables and the variable of choice and thing of psycho-physical methods as ap-
behaviour which can be used as input to de- plied to scaling and rating, and hence
cision-making and policy for the area. to test and scale construction. The im-
Planning concerns included the forecasting portance of reliable and valid data was
of attendance, estimating the ecological im- greatly raised up in my mind.
pact of visitors, and the recreational car-
I should like to be able to testify that
rying capacity of the conservation area on
were I to do this study of Southerntown
any day, or in any season, in ecological and

101
Selection of research variabZes
 Examples of field studies

over, now that I have better tools, I vironmental perception.

could do it much better. I am not so sure. Figures 13-16 illustrate a third charac-
The significant, and truly explanatory, teristic of present empirical work: its con-
data on the South is hidden behind great ceptual "looseness" and tendency to wander
sets of defensive habits. Much of the rel- all over the field, measuring variables in
evant material can appear only in inti- the hope that later analysis will reveal
mate relations where fear is reduced. The some significant relationships. Hypotheses
relation of friendship is such a one; the which have led to the research design rath-
psychoanalytic relation, another. Where er than the other way round often remain im-
friendships must be formed or patients ac- plicit and the selection of empirical mea-
quired in order to sample adequately, the sures to test them appears arbitrary rather
difficulties are grave indeed, Not every than theoretically determined.
nth person can be a friend (Dollard 1957). To some extent, therefore, environmental
Related to the problem of sampling is that perception research as a whole has fallen
of method. All four case studies used inter- between the two paths of statistical infer-
viewing as a principal method; three used ence and understanding people's perception
structured interviews and one used a less and behaviour at deeper, more meaningful
structured approach. Only two of the studies levels. In the context of responding to spe-
used observation to collect specific data cific environmental management questions,
and none used listening as a main tool. This however, the role that can be played by em-
emphasis on asking questions that arise di- pirical investigations using a perception
rectly from prior research objectives is approach is becoming more clearly defined
characteristic of many field studies in en- in models and procedures.

VIII. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF METHODS

The selection of suitable field methods is field perception studies, the range of tech-
generally a search for an acceptable com- niques described in the Guidelines (as well
promise between the conflicting demands of as others not specifically discussed here)
theory and field conditions, and the sup- can be considered as a resource pool on
ply of manpower. Some studies are designed which he can draw. Each technique can then
as experiments to test methods; other stud- be evaluated according to his own set of
ies begin with a theory and proceed to those criteria. The questions he might ask of each
methods that are specifically related to technique include:
it. Another group of studies are problem- - For what variables is it a good measure?
oriented. They are designed to answer cer- - Does it tell me more about the system as
tain environmental management questions a whole or about specific interrelation-
about human perception and behaviour and ships between variables?
are located in a particular place at a par- - Is it unobtrusive or does it help to
ticular time. For these projects, empirical educate and inform people?
realities tend to define what techniques - What data base does it require?
can be used. It is to this third, problem- - Can it be carried out in the given field
oriented group of studies, in which many per- conditions?
ception studies undertaken within the MAB - What are its requirements in time and
Programme fall, that this section is ad- manpower in developing any research in-
dressed. Such studies are likely to be part struments, actual field work and later
of larger scientific investigations, the analysis?
overall structures of which may be already - What level of explanation can be reason-
decided, in terms of location, purpose, and ably expected from the results?
scale. - What sampling strategy and sample sizes
The designer of an environmental percep- are involved?
tion component within such a larger collab- - What, if any, models and assumptions
orative effort will have to work within a about human perception and behaviour are
partly determined framework in which some implicit in the technique?
options are already eliminated because, for - Can its results be built upon, and added
example, they require a longer time or more to, in later research efforts?
highly trained research assistance than can It would be ideal if this chapter could pro-
be made available. For the designer of such vide the detailed evidence on which the re-

103

--__
l~l-ll---l..l-l.. -
 Criteria for seZection of methods

searcher could base his own specific an- for measuring individual characteristics
swers to these questions, but unfortunately such as age, sex, education).
the information available about most tech- - The degree of explanation they provide on
niques does not allow detailed comparative the variable is generally too poor or
evaluation. The trade-offs that occur be- superficial to justify their use and bet-
tween, for example, reliability and validity ter methods are available (e.g. adjec-
when techniques are changed in format or tive check-lists are not recommended for
procedure for local field conditions have measuring values).
not been systematically tested. This is a Table 21 shows that for obtaining information
major methodological obstacle to interna- on some variables, for example attitudes,
tional comparative research in environmen- there are as many as nine methods available
tal perception, and in the social sciences in addition to the standard technique of
in general. constructing attitude scales. For other vari-
What is possible at this time is a more ables, such as sensory perception, the range
qualitative comparative evaluation of tech- of suggested alternatives is reduced to di-
niques in terms of the system variables they rect observation and direct questions, to-
can best measure; their manpower and time gether with two specialized techniques for
requirements; their suitability for surveys, landscape and urban environments. Techniques
more detailed case studies, and educational such as content analysis and expert judge-
research approaches; their usefulness with ment are not included in the table because
people with limited educations; and the ex- they are components in many of the methods
tent to which changes in format and pro- listed and can be applied in the measurement
cedure can be made without lowering stan- of any variable.
dards of validity and reliability. The eval- Some methods can be generally applied to
uations that follow, together with the tables many variables (for example, direct ques-
based on them (Tables 21-24), are necessarily tions and unstructured listening) while oth-
only one person's perspective based on the ers are highly variable-specific, such as
weight of evidence so far. The evaluations repertory grid tests and landscape evalua-
are thus intended as guidelines only, and in tion. The suggested methods are also clus-
each case the researcher is urged to fur- tered in terms of the variables for which
ther explore the relevant literature before they are recommended; direct methods are
developing or adapting a particular tech- suggested for measuring the more objective
nique for his own study. characteristics of individuals, society and
environment; indirect techniques of asking
MATCHING FIELD METHODS TO SYSTEM VARIABLES questions are associated with measuring the
process of perception and choice; and obser-
Table 21 is a summary chart of the system vation techniques are generally recommended
variables described in the previous sect- for measuring behaviour.
ion together with the field methods that
are suggested to be suitable for measuring MATCHING METHODS TO LOCAL FIELD CONDITIONS
them under the proper conditions. Thus sev-
eral possible methods are indicated for each The likely field conditions under which many
variable, irrespective of their relative MAB research projects will be carried out
field and data requirements or level of ex- do not in any way resemble the standardized
planation. Those methods which are not sug- situations in which most specialized tech-
gested for a certain variable are excluded niques in environmental perception have been
according to one or more of the following developed. In addition, many techniques are
criteria: based on highly specific verbal forms and
- They are largely irrelevant (e.g. land- usages whose meaning and significance (and
scape evaluation is not recommended to thus validity) are lost when translated into
measure communication patterns). other languages and cultural contexts. Some
- They tend to yield inferences rather techniques are less exacting in their re-
than direct measurement and more direct quirements for trained personnel and stan-
means are available (e.g. personality dardized formats and procedures, while oth-
scales are not recommended for measuring er methods may become invalid through a
choice and behaviour). change in use to meet local conditions. The
- There are simpler, more economic means "local conditions" criteria which have been
of obtaining the same data (e.g. the sen- applied to the methods in the Guidelines are:
tence completion test is not recommended - the time taken to use a method; although

104
Matching methods to system variabZes and to local field conditions
 Criteria for seZection of methods

this includes time taken in the devel- approach, methods involving relatively
opment stage such as designing local re- short times per data point are probably of
search instruments, time taken in car- most interest. These include the most di-
rying out the main field research, and rect and most structured methods such as
time required for analysis, the emphasis direct observation, direct questions, check-
here is on time required in the field; list scales and structured questionnaires.
- the need for trained personnel to apply Some variables cannot be studied through
the method in the field area; quicker survey methods and these require
- the usefulness of the method with both longer times, different methods, and usually
literate and illiterate populations; a case study approach. For example, in Table
- the tolerance of the method to local 22 the study of social or personal values
variations in format, procedure and is best achieved by participant observation,
analysis to maintain validity and reli- unstructured listening and in-depth pro-
ability. jective tests which all require from sev-
eral hours' to several months' field work.
Time requirements Table 22 indicates a rough division of the
suggested methods on the basis of field
The time required by different field me- time requirements into survey and case study
thods to obtain data varies from a few mi- methods.
nutes to several days, months and in some
cases, years. The kind of data they are i"danpower and tl*aining
able to collect vary correspondingly from
objective, simple statistics to revelations The manpower required for a study of en-
about a respondent's individual personality vironmental perception depends on the study
and experience, and to complex information objectives and the research design. It can
about social interaction. range from an extremely large group con-
In environmental perception research, sisting of hundreds of field interviewers
there has been a trend towards using in- and involving many more data coders and
creasingly sophisticated or experimental analysts as, for example, in national sur-
research techniques and adapting them for vets, to the single scientist conducting a
use in natural field settings. The adap- small study and carrying out all the oper-
tation has usually involved considerable ations himself.
developmental work to produce a new re- The same range is found in the "gener-
search instrument to meet specific needs, ality" of the manpower or the amount of
and a streamlining of the technique as training required. For some tasks a high
used in the field to reduce time and man- degree of professional training and exper-
power needs. Techniques which fall into ience is needed. Other tasks can be per-
this group (particularly projective tests) formed by relatively inexperienced persons
may therefore appear to have low time re- given a few days', or in extreme cases, a
quirements in terms of field time. However, few hours' training only,
in their shortened forms there are serious Ideally the manpower is obtained in the
doubts as to their usefulness, and their quality and with the training requisite to
research instruments are highly specific carry out the study as designed. In reality
to particular places, and social and cul- the study usually has to be designed with
tural groups. They therefore require new the manpower availability (together with
research instruments to be developed, funds for training and time limitations)
tested and validated for each study area. very much in mind. In fact, the availability
Table 22 sets out the average time re- of manpower, funds and time, more often than
quirements for carrying out the field work not determines or greatly influences the
of a project using different methods. Es- design of the research.
timated average times are given for each It should not be assumed that a percep-
data point, which may be an individual re- tion study will necessarily be expensive,
spondent, a group of respondents, a site time-consuming, or exact a heavy drain on
or viewpoint. The data are obtained from limited supplies of trained manpower or
studies using the methods as they are des- skilled organisers. Much can be done, as
cribed in the Guidelines, Some methods can the literature makes abundantly clear, with
obviously be redesigned to take longer or short-term or temporary assistance. Stu-
shorter times. dents, high school teachers, sub-profes-
For researchers contemplating a survey sional and technical trainees often make

106
Matching methods to .ocal field conditions
 Criteria for selection of methods

excellent field workers and bring to the groups' perceptions). In these situations,
tasks of data collection a good combination a standard format is often inappropriate to
of enthusiasm, willingness to be trained for all groups being studied. For example, lan-
the job, capacity for hard and sustained ef- guage uses and the meaning of everyday ex-
fort, and sympathy with both the research ob- pressions can vary not only between cultures
jectives and the views of the people being and societies but within different parts of
studied. one city. Where terminology is critical to
Normally a perception study should be un- the reliability of the technique, as in at-
der the direction of a social scientist with titude scales, it cannot readily be changed
field experience in dealing with local pop- to accommodate local needs. The same problem
ulations. On occasion it might be necessary is faced in a field study in which several
for him to be able to draw upon particular assistants are working, who may inadvertent-
specialized skills where he himself may lack ly reduce the validity of their findings by
knowledge. A good perception study may well changing the order in which a series of ques-
require, for example, sociological or psy- tions or tests are asked, or by modifying
chological training in the use and inter- the wording sufficiently to alter its meaning.
pretation of some of the more projective me- These difficulties are most severe with
thods described in the Guidelines. It will verbal techniques and with highly structured
also require a good social/anthropological techniques. The margins of tolerance inherent
knowledge of the local populations as well in many verbal tests, such as attitude scales
as expertise in sample design, data coding and sentence completion tests, have not yet
and analysis, ranging from the most sophis- been properly determined, but preliminary in-
ticated computer-oriented techniques to sim- dications suggest that they are not very wide.
ple methods of analysis by hand. Accurate recording of directly observed be-
Table 23 presents the methods suggested haviour together with oral descriptions and
for measuring each variable according to narratives are approaches with the widest mar-
whether they can be carried out in the field gins of flexibility in the field but they do
by trained assistants or whether it requires not altogether escape the need for selectivity
professional field investigators qualified on the part of the researcher. It is not pos-
in the use oE social science techniques. The sible to record fully the streams of behaviour
concern here is with field time only since and conversation. Thus the researcher is al-
professional input is always necessary to the ways dependent upon his ability to selec-
design, development, analysis and interpre- tively record what is significant and hope
tative aspects of field work. that only what is trivial is lost.
In each case, there is at least one sug-
gested method for measuring a variable which IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION RESEARCH
can be executed by trained personnel in the
field. This makes the mounting of a percep- As perception studies are planned and imple-
tion study more feasible in many areas where mented, the question of their impact and util-
professional social scientists are not avail- ity has to be satisfactorily answered for each
able to play more than a supervisory or co- field project. In general, the utility of the
ordinating role in the field work itself. studies can be of two kinds. First, the re-
Even so, it is generally true that the better sults, in the form of findings or conclusions
methods for obtaining valid data on percep- usually presented in written reports, can be
tions and behaviour require more highly used in the formulation of policy and manage-
trained investigators and longer inputs of ment strategy. Second, and less appreciated,
research time in the field. the carrying out of the studies themselves
can at best serve a mutual educational fun-
2'0Zerance anJ fZezi/~ility ction, and at the very least have some im-
pact on the researchers and on those who are
Table 24 compares the suggested methods in studied.
terms of their usefulness with illiterate as It is important to consider at the design
well as literate populations, and in terms of stage of a perception study the impact of the
how exacting they are in their requirements study on respondents asked to participate. A
for standardized formats and procedures. The perception study can be used as an appropriate
flexibility of field methods is particularly vehicle for an exchange of information between
important when a study includes very differ- the researchers (or the research organization
ent populations (e.g. a cross-cultural study or government body) and those who participate
or one comparing different socio-economic in the study as respondents. As noted earlier,

108
Impact of environmentaZ perception research
 Criteria for selection of methods
x x
x x
x
x x
62
h
.:
 Impact of environmental. perception Research

perception research is not simply an ex- for discussion that has been known in some
tractive industry in which information is ob- studies to provide input into later community
tained from passive and naive "subjects". decisions.
Rather, it involves or should involve an ex-
change of information, expertise and perspec- Self-study
tives between respondents and researchers.
Those engaged in the study can gain a Unfortunately enough material could not be
deeper and richer understanding of the res- assembled for the Guidelines to discuss in
pondent's point of view. Often this can lead detail the experience of using self-study me-
to a greater appreciation of the actions or thods. Often these are simply adaptations of
inactions of the respondent which at first the kinds of methods discussed in the Guide-
seem irrational, and are subsequently under- lines involving carefully prepared explana-
stood to be deeply grounded in the tradi- tory material and "do-it-yourself" kits. Self-
tional wisdom of the community through the study methods enable local people to study
accumulation of long experience. their own communities and environmental set-
Equally, the respondents themselves can tings. They can range from national surveys
become more fully informed by the research of, for example, land use or public rights-
worker. For example, a farmer may be made of-way as has been done in the United King-
more aware of the choices open to him or of dom, to individual community-based diaries
ways in which his productivity might be in- or "village-books".
creased. Or, he may be informed by the re- These village case studies can be organ-
search team of threats to his livelihood that ized through schools, women's organizations,
he had previously not known about, or had dis- local unions or volunteer groups. Using cen-
counted. In such a case it is incumbent upon trally defined guidelines, members of the com-
the research worker not to simply identify a munity can decide in detail on the contents
threat, but to explain as precisely as pos- and contributors to the "book" which can be-
sible the nature of the threat and the de- come an invaluable data source of local cus-
gree of danger. He might then also go on to toms, beliefs, perceptions and behaviour. It
explain what the respondent can do to pro- also serves to invest the community with con-
tect himself. siderable pride and awareness of itself, its
What appears to be responsible action to past, and its future alternatives.
the research team may not appear so to the One such village book was initiated by an
respondent. In the example of soil erosion anthropologist in Mexico who helped a small
in Mexico cited in the beginning of this Tech- Indian community as listener and scribe to
nical Note, it can be appreciated that the record freely its own perceptions (Iwanska
peasants' view and the view of the soil con- 1971). In the United Kingdom, an educational
servation expert are likely to be far apart. organization (Advisory Centre for Education)
A perception study in such a case can pro- has prepared clear and simple kits for sur-
vide both groups with a greater appreciation veying environmental pollution such as air,
of the other's perception and lay the basis water and beach pollution. These are pub-
for mutual understanding and cooperation. Ef- licized through a national newspaper and or-
fective reconciliation of perceptions is un- ganized through the medium of an educational
likely as long as the different functions and club for children ("Watch"). The kits are
perspectives of each remain unknown to the sent by mail to children who use them in a
other. survey of their local area and return them
Some methods are more suitable to this co- to the central office. When some 15,000 chil-
operative approach. Structured scenarios, for dren become field workers for such a project,
example, enable the researcher to present sev- as in the case of the air pollution survey
eral alternatives to respondents of which they based on the presence or absence of lichen
were previously unaware and which may help to species, it can produce data far beyond the
improve their management choices. Similarly, detail and scale of that which can be achieved
the process of keeping a time diary or com- in more researcher-based studies (Jackson and
pleting a repertory grid is a self-revealing Young 1973).
one for the respondent. The educational com- A perception study can thus benefit a res-
ponent of the process is often enhanced by pondent in four ways. It can help make him
conducting the investigation with groups of aware of hitherto unknown or unappreciated
respondents rather than, or in addition to, opportunities. It can help prepare him for
individuals. The research task (categorizing, previously unrealized dangers, and it can
selecting alternatives) becomes a stimulus help him to understand and appreciate the
 Criteria for selection of methods

view of others which do not coincide with his national objectives and also how they might
own. Most important, it can be a stimulus to help the community and thus the individual
new and more effective actions in biosphere respondent. There is no substitute, however,
management. for a genuine attitude of respect towards res-
pondents. Where this is not present, its ab-
Rights of respondents sence is likely to be detected through non-
verbal communication by most respondents.
At the same time it should be recognized that
individuals and groups participating as res- CONCLUSION
pondents in perception studies have rights.
These include the right to privacy in their The intention of the Guidelines is to des-
own lives and the right not to have the in- cribe methods available for field studies in
formation that they have given the researcher environmental perception and to provide a ba-
disseminated without their prior approval. sis for choice between them. The criteria by
There is current debate about the infringe- which researchers can evaluate alternative
ment of the rights of "subjects" in social methods will vary according to their research
science investigations. Practices vary widely, problem and research area. There is, in any
and acceptable actions in one place are con- case, no single "best method". Nor are there
sidered improper elsewhere. easy shortcuts to doing worthwhile environ-
Two principles can be noted briefly. First, mental perception studies. The road ahead
the respondent should be looked on as a hel- seems at one and the same time to contain po-
per rather than as a subject. The dignity of tential methodological pitfalls and the pro-
the respondent should be preserved and pro- mise of considerable empirical reward for each
tected at all times. In short, he should be step taken. The usefulness of perception field
treated equally and with respect. Second, it research for environmental management prob-
is important that the respondent be given as lems is being increasingly exploited.
full and complete an understanding of the pur- As experience in the field widens and more
poses of the study as he wishes and as he can researchers are involved, better techniques
assimilate. At an early stage it may be de- and research instruments are generated. Some
sirable to conceal from respondents the pre- of these, in which the language and norms of
cise purpose of the study in order to ensure industrial, literate societies predominate,
that knowledge of the purpose does not dis- will inevitably need to be modified to permit
tort some responses. Before a researcher a wider application of the more specialized
leaves a respondent, however, he should en- techniques now available. Techniques which
sure that the respondent knows what the study minimize cultural biases are available in the
is about and what purpose it serves. simpler, more direct and more unstructured
These ethical principles are also impor- methods discussed here.
tant for another reason. Observance of them As a rule, simplicity, honesty and di-
helps to improve the quality and reliability versity should be stressed. There is no evi-
of the data obtained. It is well known that dence that more sophisticated techniques
a variety of extraneous factors may influence automatically produce better results. Their
respondents. Suspicions are bound to arise application to each individual situation
in the minds of some respondents that the in- needs careful evaluation. Time spent in de-
formation sought will be used in some way veloping a more elaborate way of asking a
against them. If such ideas persist and a question indirectly may well be better spent
gulf of distrust separates the respondents in establishing sufficient rapport with the
from the research staff, then the data ob- respondent to ask him the same question di-
tained will be highly unreliable. It has to rectly. Similarly honesty may succeed, and
be recognized that in some communities it is be more ethical, where subterfuge brings on-
virtually impossible for any outsider to es- ly doubt and ambiguity. Diversity in method
tablish a strong rapport. In all field stud- has been a relatively little used means of
ies of environmental perception, every ef- increasing the amount and quality of infor-
fort should be made to foster trust between mation. Wherever and whenever possible, a
the respondent and the research workers. This combination of the three approaches (asking
can be done to some extent by following some questions, observing and listening) should
common sense rules of procedure, such as care- be used. Similarly, structured and unstruc-
fully explaining the study, indicating for tured methods are complementary in the kind
whom and by whom it is being carried out, and of data they can provide. Structured ap-
how the results can be expected to benefit proaches tend to emphasize the operations of

112
 Conclusion

specific components of the system whereas or reluctance to carry out certain techniques,
unstructured approaches are more concerned then another approach will probably be more
with general relationships within the sys- successful.
tem as a whole. Even where guidelines are available, the
Finally, much has been said about methods selection of field methods and research in-
in the Guidelines and little about those struments remains a complex task of trying to
who will carry them out. Yet a study stands accommodate the various, and often conflict-
or falls not only on the rigour of its tech- ing, needs of research problems, field areas,
niques but also on the quality of its re- local populations, and research personnel.
search workers. Jung quotes a Chinese aph- The choice is therefore one that cannot be
orism: "If the wrong man uses the right means, engineered from afar, but relies also on lo-
the right means work in the wrong way"; he cal knowledge and initiative. The range of
concluded himself that "in reality everything methods discussed in the Guidelines gives
depends on the man, and little or nothing on some cause for optimism that the demands of
the method" (Jung 1967). scientific method and of local situations can
Thus methods by themselves are not enough. be methodologically reconciled. If so, en-
Matching methods to the field workers who vironmental perception research can move ra-
will carry them out is a further considera- pidly from the "drawing-board" and into MAB
tion in the design of projects. However metho- field research to play a practical role in
dologically and conceptually sound it is, a improving our understanding of environmental
technique can only be as good as its prac- management and man-biosphere relations.
titioner. If field workers express difficulty

1 13

_;___- ._- ,. ,"**,."_,

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 I
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Questionnaire
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One aim of the Guidelines is to encourage the development and exploration of
I established and new field methods in environmental perception through their practical testing
I in the field. To do so and to help strengthen existing networks of communication among int-
I erested scientists, users of the Technical Note are invited to send their comments and sugges-
I tions to the MAB Secretariat, Unesco, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France.
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The MAB Secretariat would also be grateful if readers would answer the following
I questions. If necessary use a separate sheet for each technique.
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1. Which techniques have you used in the field?
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I 2. What was the purpose of the study to which the techniques were applied? Please describe
I the study briefly and give references where available.
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3. Please write a brief evaluation of the techniques used giving details where possible of
I major advantages and disadvantages, cross-cultural usefulness and time and training re-
I quirements. Please give references where available.
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4. Additional comments (e.g. Would you use a given technique again in another study? In what
I
I
ways could the technique used be improved or adapted?).
I
I
I
I 5. Which techniques have you not used but think should be included in the Guidelines? Please
I
give references where possible.
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I
I
I
I 6. Which techniques would you like more information about?
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I
I 7. Do you have any suggestions as to how to make the Guidelines more useful for field re-
I search?
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I
8. Name: Position:
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I
I Address:
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I
I THANK YOU.

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A stylized ankh, the ancient Egyptian
sign for life, has been incorporated into
the symbol of the Programme on Man
and the Biosphere (MAB). ISBN: 92-3-101483-g