An Introduction to Environmental Types
Being at Home
We
have all felt it: that sense of "being at home". Home is a place
that fits with who we are and what we need. Sometimes a home supports
us, as we face different struggles
in our lives. Other times, a home can challenge us to be more than
we are and to grow into the people we are destined to be. Occasionally,
we find ourselves in some very inhospitable places, and like the
characters
in so many classic stories; we struggle to return to our homes.
This
project has concerned improving people's journeys through life
by enhancing our understanding of the
different places in which they find themselves. We are all unique
individuals, so the places that each person finds to be a "home" are
a little different. As a matter of fact, the type of place that
one
person considers to be a home can be quite challenging and stressful
to another person. To unravel this paradox, we need a model of
human
behavior that incorporates dynamic views of people and places: the person-environment interaction model (Lewin,
1936; Walsh, Craik & Price, 1992), as discussed below.
But, we also need a theory to guide
our exploration of the interactions between people and places. This
project has its roots in work originally written by Carl Gustav Jung.
Reflecting his years of observation of the human condition, Jung's
Psychological Types (1921/1971) has provided a rich
understanding of how people are different in similar ways (i.e., personality).
His theory also served as the basis to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator™
or MBTI™ (Briggs & Myers, 1998), which has grown to be the
most widely used measure of individual differences (McCaulley, 2000).
What has been missing in MBTI™ research and practice has been a way
to describe and measure the behavioral environments in which the
different
psychological types must function. Environmental Types
and the Salter Environmental Type Assessment (SETA)
seek to fill this gap.
The Person-Environment Interaction (PEI) Model
The PEI model allows us to depict
human behavior (B) as a function (ƒ) of the interaction
(x) between a person (P) and an environment (E) over time (T): or
as the conceptual equation: B = ƒ (P x E)/T. For this project,
however, a huge problem revolved around simple terminology. Jung's
original book appeared in the early 1920s, before much of modern psychology
had jelled. Therefore, Jungian terms need to be reformulated to fit
within the four key components of the B = ƒ(P x E)/T equation.
Function
The function that results in behavior
concerns an exchange of what Jung referred to as libidinal or psychic
energy. Nowadays, we might use the term "stimulus energy".
Jung also noted that this energy is dynamic and has a life of its
own
in determining behavior. As conduits for these exchanges, people
and places are unique and variable, however, and each can either
enhance or impede the flow of psychic energy. Therefore, the variable
natures of the person and the environment AND the manners in which
they interact determine the quality of the exchanges of energy,
which in turn determine our behaviors.
Interaction
Interaction is best understood
through the notion of congruence: that matching process between
the needs of a person and the demands of the environment. When a
match is good, the flow of energy between person and environment
is relatively undeterred. The type congruent individual is
comfortable, minimally stressed perhaps, or may be having that sense
of being at home. Not all person-environment matches are perfect,
however. Personal attributes and environmental characteristics can
be so dissonant that any interaction leads to dysfunction, or worse,
energy cannot be exchanged. As a matter of fact, a type incongruent
individual may experience a particular environment as quite trying
and even dangerous.
Person
Jung noted that, to understand
how people function, we must examine their general orientation to
the environment (extraversion-introversion) and their differences
in perception (sensing-intuition) and evaluation (thinking-feeling).
In this way, psychological type preferences become especially
critical in our explorations of person-environment interactions.
Fortunately, building on Jung's original work, decades of research
with the MBTI™ have helped us to understand the "person variable" quite
well (see Resources
page for more information).
To
use this approach effectively, however, we must view people's
preferences both individually and
collectively. Often, examining how an individual interacts with
a particular environment can be very enlightening, especially
when
we want to help that person succeed in the setting. In others instances,
the shared needs of a group of people are also relevant. As the
growing body of SETA research shows, type congruence between
the "style" of environment and the collective expectations of
the people it can be more important than the experience of any
single person.
Environment
For all their differences, people
do not behave in a vacuum, and a behavioral environment provides
a context for behavior. In every environment, a functional gestalt
emerges to provide it with a level of coherence and to manage our
interactions with it. The natures of these gestalts, or environmental
egos, so parallel the personal systems that Moos (1994) has
referred to the differences among them as their "personalities" (p.2).
How a particular gestalt is achieved and maintained will be the
basis by which we will able to distinguish differences among
the various environments that people encounter.
Time
Although
interactions are often studied and discussed at one point in time, the
human journey is best described as series of interactions over time. As
such, the quality of past interactions may become a consideration
(element) in how a person approaches at current interaction, thus
leading to a more full understanding of congruence/incongruence. The
time variable also allows the interactional model to be more
developmental in nature, both in terms of the individual experience,
and as it relates to the historical interactions that Jung contended
shaped the collective conscious and unconscious (achetypal) aspects of
the psyche.
References
