Journal of Environmental Systems 

About: Journal of Environmental Systems is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Environmental impact assessment & Recreation. It has an ISSN identifier of 0047-2433. Over the lifetime, 694 publications have been published receiving 6046 citations.

A Prison Environment's Effect on Health Care Service Demands

Abstract: This study looks at the impact of a corrections environment upon prisoners through a process of monitoring inmate attendance at sick call clinic. Contrasting cell block designs and characteristics are compared on the basis of significant differential demands for health care services emanating from specific areas. Known psychological and physiological responses to situations perceived to be threatening provide the theory that health behavior may be used as one indirect measure of environmentally induced stress. Findings suggest there are architectural design features of the prison environment that provide basis of perceived threats to inmate safety and survival. Loss of privacy on several dimensions appears to be a critical environmental characteristic. Research has established that abnormally high utilization of health care services occurs in total institutions. This raises several questions. Do people who find themselves in total institutions have characteristics which are predominantly unique to their population but at variance from the general population? If so, would such variation influence the differences in utilization of health care? Are there common characteristics of total institution environments that would cause the high rates of health care utilization? Studies of Navy ship crews by Doll et al., 1969 [1] ; Gunderson et al., 1970 [2] ; and a prison study by Andrew Twaddle, 1976 [3], revealed health care utilization patterns which were similar to each other. Here two different total institutions with different subject profiles produced similar patterns. This suggests the possibility that characteristics of total institutions are causal rather than characteristics of the subjects.

Exploring the Difference Between Recyclers and Non-Recyclers: The Role of Information

Abstract: This article reports on a pilot study which explored how recyclers and non-recyclers differ. Two hundred households were first identified by direct observation over a series of months being either recyclers or non-recyclers. These households were then contacted and ninety-one respondents agreed to answer a series of verbal questions and complete a short written questionnaire. While from a preliminary study, these data are useful in suggesting that recyclers and non-recyclers are similar in their prorecycling attitudes, extrinsic motivation, and the degree to which they viewed recycling as a trivial activity. They differed significantly, however, in the degree to which they required additional information about recycling. Non-recycling respondents indicated a lack of information on how to carry out the activity. The study is also of interest due to the isolation of attitudinal and behavioral aspects of recycling. Since some form of relationship between these two constructs is so pervasive in the literature, the results are conceptually intriguing. Perhaps more important, however, are the practical implications for enabling non-recyclers to change their behavior independently of their attitudes. In addition to accumulating great wealth, an affluent society generates an enormous quantity of solid waste [1 ,2] . For instance, in 1971 Americans discarded over 125 million tons of solid waste; by 1988 the quantity amounted to over 160 million tons and current projections indicate that by 1990 the amount could top 200 million tons. The standard waste disposal practice of landfilling, questionable on ecological grounds, is now a politically unacceptable option. Siting new landfills and expanding old ones are difficult tasks. Yet our waste management options are

The Relative Effectiveness of Models and Prompts on Energy Conservation: A Field Experiment in a Shower Room

Abstract: Signs were placed in the field house shower rooms of a university campus exhorting people to conserve water and energy by turning off the water while soaping up. Making the signs more obtrusive increased compliance but also increased resentment. Far greater compliance was achieved through a combination of a sign and an accomplice modeling the appropriate behavior. Still greater compliance was achieved when two accomplices performed the requested behavior simultaneously. There are a number of ways in which the administrators of an institution (like a university) might attempt to promote energy conservation. They might make capital changes by retrofitting buildings; they might attempt to change the attitudes of those who use their faciUties by public information campaigns; they might exhort or prompt people to turn off lights, keep windows closed, turn down thermostats, take shorter showers, etc., by placing appropriate signs all over the place. Several observers have argued that impersonal measures like prompts, information campaigns and the like might not be an effective tool for energy conservation because, frequently, what is being asked for is the adoption of an innovation or the change of a life-style [1,2] . Where the adoption of innovation is concerned, behavioral scientists suspect that individuals might be more effectively influenced by direct contact with the behavior of other people