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Abstract
Grant Number: 1R03MH064527-01A1 Project Title: Expressions of Identity in Virtual and Physical Spaces
PI Information: Name Title GOSLING, SAMUEL D. gosling@psy.utexas.edu Abstract: The proposed research is based on the idea that environments individuals craft around themselves, such as bedrooms and offices, are rich with information about the occupants' personalities, abilities, values, and lifestyles. My collaborators and I have developed a model articulating the mechanisms by which individuals impact the environments they inhabit and the processes that observers use to make inferences about the occupants on the basis of these spaces. Our model specifies two broad classes of mechanism linking individuals to the spaces they occupy: (1) identity claims, which are defined as deliberate statements directed to the self or others regarding how one would like to be viewed, and (2) behavioral residue, which is defined as the physical traces of activities conducted in the environment. The goal of the two studies proposed in the present application is to examine the first of these mechanisms identity claims. The first study will examine personal webpages on the Internet. This study will be exploratory in nature, examining the motives for placing information about oneself in publicly accessible perceived as they actually see themselves or as they would like to be ideally? To investigate the function of public self-expression, the second study will examine what happens when individuals are prevented from making identity claims in their living spaces. In an experimental study using a yoked design, we will examine what happens when students must display another students must display another individual's identity claims on their dorm-room walls. Do individuals become distressed when they cannot use their physical environments to make statements about their values, attitudes, and preferences? Is their self-esteem diminished? Do their grades suffer? By identifying the role of identity claims and the impact of not being permitted to use one highly visible medium of student expression, we can begin to understand the importance of self-expression in the environment and elsewhere. If environmental self-expression contributes to mental and/or physical well being, then the findings will inform policies regarding the design of physical spaces in institutions such as prisons, offices, hospitals, and retirement homes. The two pilot studies proposed here will provide the foundation for a subsequent grant application designed to test the specific processes proposed in our model of occupant-environmental links.
Public Health Relevance:
This Public Health Relevance is not available.Thesaurus Terms:
environment, identity
Internet, attitude, emotion, housing, motivation, personality, preference, psychological values, quality of life, self concept, social behavior, university student
adult human (21+), behavioral /social science research tag, clinical research, human subject
Institution: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AUSTIN PO BOX 7726 AUSTIN, TX 78713 Fiscal Year: 2002 Department: PSYCHOLOGY Project Start: 01-APR-2002 Project End: 31-MAR-2004 ICD: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH IRG: ZMH1