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leaving a place does not end its influence. the mood created by a place can
continue to influence behavior even after leaving. in the preceding section we
discussed several types of psychological processes that seem to be affected
by mood. here we would like to emphasize that the influence of mood may be
independent of the cause of the mood. the event that alters mood may last
only briefly, but the mood may persist. for example, in typical study on
effects of mood on altruristic behavior, a positive experience in the
experimental setting increases helping behavior after the subject has left the
setting (berkowitz & connor, 1966; isen, horn, & rosenhan, 1973; isen & levin,
1972; moore, under - wood & Rosenhan, 1973).
Zillman and his associates showed that one component - arousal - acquired in
one context does affect behavior in another context. one commontechnique
is to induce arousal through physical exercise and then to examine
subsequent behavior. for example, provoked aggressive behavior was found
to be greater if it followed physical exercise (zillman, katcher, & milavsky,
1972). similarly, subject reported feeling more " sexually aroused" by an
erotic film if viewing followed physical exercise (cantor, zillman, & bryant,
1975). these subjects also rated the film more exciting and more enjoyable.
in both the sex and aggression studies, subject reported beeing unaware of
the residual arousal. an important factor in the "relebeling" of arousal my
therefore be that the arousal is no longernoticeable, or at least no longer
attributable to its initial cause. arousal that is produced by the cumulative
impact of the many elements that consitute an environment, especially if
some of those elements are imperceptible, may therfore be particulary
subject to relabeling.
Lowenthal and prince (1976) emphasized the other side of the coin: the
pleasure derived from encounters with satisfying environment may help
mitigate the impact of unfortunate events. coles (1972), for example, argued
that pleasant physical surround-ingscan help individuals cope with poverty.
more recently, ulrich (1984) compared hospital patients whose window
looked onto a brick wall with those whose window looked onto a cluster of
stress. the pleasant sight of tress was associated with shorter postoperative
hospital stays, more positive evaluations in nurses notes, and the decreased
use of analgesics.
Concluding Remarks
several writers have pointed to emotion as a key link between aperson and
the surrounding environment (kaplan & kaplan, 1984; Lowrenthal & Prince, !
976: mehrabian &russell, 1974; tuan, 1974; ulrich, 1983; wohlwill, 1976). we
hope we have provided a convincing case that focusing on this link does
indeed help us understand the relationship between person and environment.
if that be granted, perhaps the reader will share our hope for progress on two
fronts: (1) in studying environments, we need a better understanding of such