Evaluating How and Why the Environmental Context Shapes the Course of Development Across the Adult Lifespan

There is a long-standing literature that has documented the importance of both the immediate and distal context in impacting mental and physical health across the adult lifespan. The goal of this symposium is to bring together a collection of papers that target the extent to which the immediate and distal context as measured through objective and subjective indicators relate to pertinent outcomes of mental and physical health. Staben and colleagues use an intensive longitudinal design in middle-aged adults to show that objective and subjective indicators of the neighborhood are associated with higher levels of and are protective against the impact of monthly adversity on mental health and well-being. Munoz and colleagues evaluate associations between objective and subjective early-life neighborhood contexts and whether they play a role in cognitive function at midlife. They find that poorer age-five self-report conditions were associated with lower working memory. Osuna and colleagues examine how both neighborhood and housing conditions play a role on psychological well-being. They find that housing and neighborhood safety conditions are associated with depressive symptoms over time. Piazza and colleagues examine associations between daily financial thoughts, SES, and indices of emotional and physical health. They find that individuals who reported more daily financial thoughts also reported more negative affect and physical symptoms. The discussion by Crimmins will integrate the four papers by highlighting the importance of how different forms of context can impact development in adulthood and old age, particularly in relation to health and well-being and consider future routes of inquiry.

Analysis of Relationship between Electroencephalograms and Subjective Measurements for In-Vehicle Information System: A Preliminary Study

In this study, we explored the relationship between objective and subjective measures for usability evaluation in in-vehicle infotainment systems (IVISs). As a case study, four displays were evaluated based on cluster location and display orientation (that is, front–horizontal, front–vertical, right–horizontal, and right–vertical). Thirty-six participants performed tasks to manipulate the functions of the IVISs and data were collected through an electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor and questionnaire items. We analysed a model that estimated EEG-based objective indicators from subjective indicators. As a result, the objective indicators reflected the subjective indicators and were considered to explain the driver’s cognitive state. Although EEG data were collected from only four participants, this study proposed an experimental design that could be applied to the analysis of the relationship between the subject’s evaluation and EEG signals, as a preliminary study. We expect the experimental design and results of this study to be useful in analysing objective and subjective measures of usability evaluation.

Emotional Responses to the Visual Patterns of Urban Streets: Evidence from Physiological and Subjective Indicators

Despite recent progress in the research of people’s emotional response to the environment, the built—rather than natural—environment’s emotional effects have not yet been thoroughly examined. In response to this knowledge gap, we recruited 26 participants and scrutinized their emotional response to various urban street scenes through an immersive exposure experiment using virtual reality. We utilized new physiological monitoring technologies that enable synchronized observation of the participants’ electroencephalography, electrodermal activity, and heart rate, as well as their subjective indicators. With the newly introduced measurement for the global visual patterns of the built environment, we built statistical models to examine people’s emotional response to the physical element configuration and color composition of street scenes. We found that more diverse and less fragmented scenes inspired positive emotional feelings. We also found (in)consistency among the physiological and subjective indicators, indicating a potentially interesting neural−physiological interpretation for the classic form−function dichotomy in architecture. Besides the practical implications on promoting physical environment design, this study combined objective physiology-monitoring technology and questionnaire-based research techniques to demonstrate a better approach to quantify environment−emotion relationships.

Examining the effects of safety behaviours on fear reduction during exposure

The use of safety behaviours has been considered one of the primary maintaining mechanisms of anxiety disorders; however, evidence suggests that they are not always detrimental to treatment success. This study examined the effects of safety behaviours on behavioural, cognitive, and subjective indicators of fear during exposure for fear of spiders. A two-stage design examined fear reduction and approach distance during an exposure task for participants (N = 43) assigned to either a safety behaviour use (SBU) or no safety behaviour use (NSB) condition. No differences were observed between the groups in subjective or cognitive measures at prettest, posttest, and one-week follow-up; however, unlike the NSB group, the SBU group did not maintain their gains in approach distance at follow-up, though this was no longer true after self-efficacy was covaried. These results call for a reconsideration of the practice of completely eliminating safety behaviours during exposure-based treatments for specific fears.

Examining the effects of safety behaviours on fear reduction during exposure

The use of safety behaviours has been considered one of the primary maintaining mechanisms of anxiety disorders; however, evidence suggests that they are not always detrimental to treatment success. This study examined the effects of safety behaviours on behavioural, cognitive, and subjective indicators of fear during exposure for fear of spiders. A two-stage design examined fear reduction and approach distance during an exposure task for participants (N = 43) assigned to either a safety behaviour use (SBU) or no safety behaviour use (NSB) condition. No differences were observed between the groups in subjective or cognitive measures at prettest, posttest, and one-week follow-up; however, unlike the NSB group, the SBU group did not maintain their gains in approach distance at follow-up, though this was no longer true after self-efficacy was covaried. These results call for a reconsideration of the practice of completely eliminating safety behaviours during exposure-based treatments for specific fears.

THE IMPACT ON THE PANDEMIC CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19) ON HOUSEHOLD WELFARE IN WEST SUMATERA

West Sumatera is the province with the highest number of Covid-19 casesin Sumatera Island and nationally it isin the ninth position. Similar to other events at the international and national levels, the spread of Covid-19 in West Sumatera has an impact on the regional economy. It affects not only the growth and other macroeconomic indicators but also the welfare of households and society directly. This study examines the effects of the pandemic Covid-19 on household welfare using objective and subjective indicators and observe into what extent the influence of PSBB and government assistance on community conditions during this pandemic. The results show that firstly, household welfare is above the provincial minimum wage, secondly, PSBB also affects people’s income, and lastly, not all households or communities are informed about the assistance from the government during the pandemic. Keywords: Covid-19, objective and subjective indicators, welfare, provincial minimum

Examining Distinctive Indicator Scopes Measuring Well-Being in Sustainable Development Assessment

The significance of acknowledging well-being (WB) has increased in local sustainable development (SD) assessment. Meanwhile, scholars and practitioners have paid growing attention to using subjective indicators which rely on a person’s subjective evaluation to measure SD subjects, due to the frequent critique. The predominant use of objective indicators to assess SD frequently overlooks capturing individual’s and community’s WB. Nevertheless, the scopes and functions of subjective indicators remain underexamined in the SD assessment context. Therefore, this study discusses the distinctive characteristics of subjective sustainable development indicators (SDIs), contrasting with objective SDIs, complemented by examining WB indicators. To this end, an analysis of the literature on indicator-based assessment of SD and WB at the community and local level was conducted. The findings highlighted that the three distinctive approaches of SDIs could optimally capture and address associated WB: the objective SDIs could most sufficiently capture and address material WB capture, which turned, however, the shortcoming that overlooks other dimensions of WB. In contrast, the expert-led subjective SDIs could optimally capture and address community’s social WB, whereby the outcomes reflected social norms and preferences recognised by a community and sustainability theories. Likewise, the citizen-based subjective SDIs distinctly measured individual’s life satisfaction levels, whereby the outcomes explicitly presented individual’s subjective WB while addressing local needs and values. This study finally suggests that the complementary use of the respective SDIs contributes to a thorough local-level SD assessment, by optimally addressing associated WB, which ultimately helps meet the current and future generations’ WB in achieving local SD.