Abstract
This chapter is an exegesis on the concept of the perceived environment and a test of its role in accounting for variation in adolescent problem behavior. The multiple environments in which an adolescent is simultaneously embedded are ordered along a dimension of explanatory or causal closeness to action from distal to proximal. Most distal is the physical/geographic environment; closer is the demographic environment; still closer is the social structural environment; and closest is the perceived environment, the environment that is experienced and that has meaning for the actor. It is argued that behavior is most invariant with the perceived environment. Data from a local study of over 400 high school youth and from a national sample study of over 13,000 similarly aged youth were presented. Results showed that, while almost no variance in adolescent problem behavior was accounted for by the set of (distal) demographic variables, substantial amounts of variance were accounted for by the (proximal) perceived environment variables. The importance of engaging the perceived environment in behavioral science research is strongly supported.
Reprinted with permission from:
Jessor, R. (1981). Chapter 19: “The perceived environment in psychological theory and research.” In D. Magnusson (Ed.), Toward a psychology of situations: An interactional perspective (pp. 297–317). Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.
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Acknowledgment
Preparation of this chapter was supported by Grant No. AA03745-01, R. Jessor, principal investigator. Support for the data collection was provided by Grant No. AA-00232 and Contract No. ADM 281-75-0028.1 am grateful to Dr. John Donovan for his contribution in carrying out the analyses of the data.
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Jessor, R. (2017). The Perceived Environment and the Psychological Situation. In: Problem Behavior Theory and the Social Context . Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57885-9_10
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