psych 372 environmental psychology (11b cities2)

8/11/2019 Psych 372 Environmental Psychology (11b cities2)

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Cities: Stress, social capital,urbanization, pathologyPsychology 372



The problem of the city



Stress-related pathologies in cities

• Anxiety disorders: 21% higher in cities• Mood disorders: 39% higher in cities

• Psychosis: 100% higher in cities



Causes of city-related stress

• Physical risk• Attentional demands

• Social stress



Crossing Houston St in

NYC



Arousal levels rise and fall as we move throug



We aren’t great at self -assessment of stress

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churchyard parsicolony

hospitalgarden

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Self-assessment

What the body says



The dynamics of pedestrian stress



Stress and the HPA axis



Attention and urbanization



Attentional demands of urban environments

Himba have been

partially urbanized



Flanker task



Flanker tasks and urbanization



We don’t know the long-term neurological effects ofdifferences (but we’ll discuss again when we look aeffects of nature exposure



Urbanization and schizophrenia

• Increased risk of schizophrenia in cities was first observed in 19

• More recently, a dose-response curve has been shown suggesincrease in # of years spent in an urban setting is related to incrof schizophrenia, up to about age 15 (those who live in large citabout 2.75 times the risk of developing schizophrenia



Why?

• Socioeconomics, pollution, etc. have been ruled out

• Is it because those at risk are more likely struggling and so moremove to the city?

• Dose response curve then doesn’t make sense

• Effect seems reversible – moving out of city lowers risk



At the neighborhood level:

• Social fragmentation index

• % unmarried

• % single person households

• % private rentals

• % moved within the last year

• SFI correlates with psychosis, suicide rates



At the neural level



Amygdala volume and social network size



Urban stress and the brain

How does a psychologist make you fee

stress?

Montreal Imaging Stress Test



Montreal Imaging Stress Test(MIST)

• Step 1: Hard arithmetic!

• 12547/x231=?

• 555/14=?




• Step 1: Hard math!

• Step 2: Tell them that they are doing even worse than thare.




• Step 1: Hard math!

• Step 2: Tell them that they are doing even worse than thare.

• Step 3: Make fun of them.



Urban Stress and the amygdala

Lederbogen et al, 2011

Everyone gets stressed, but the brains of urban dwellers and

respond differently!The amygdala of city dwellers



Summary

• City life is not “natural”

• Living in a city actually changes brain function

• We see manifestations of this in changes in mental pathology in the effects are easily measurable even in those of us who don’t s

affective or other disorders

psych 372 environmental psychology (11b cities2)

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