1992 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A cross-cultural study on environmental amenity
| Project/Area Number |
02451018
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Psychology
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
SOUMA Ichiro Waseda University, School of Human Sciences, Professor, 人間科学部, 教授 (00063488)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ANDO Takatoshi Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Department of Sociology, Researcher, 助手 (00202789)
SAKO Toshihiko Waseda University, School of Human Sciences, Professor, 人間科学部, 教授 (10000069)
YAMAMOTO Takiji Waseda University, School of Human Sciences, Professor, 人間科学部, 教授 (30033541)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1990 – 1992
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| Keywords | Environmental amenity / Cross-cultural study / physical environment / interpersonal environment / sociocultural environment / organismic-developmental, systems perspective |
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| Research Abstract |
This study was to examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in what the undergraduates from four cultural groups described as necessities, amenities and luxuries in the physical, interpersonal and sociocultural aspects of the environment.
The questionnaire requested up to 10 examples of necessities, amenities and luxuries for the physical, interpersonal and sociocultural aspects of the environment as well as demographic questions (sex, age). Data was obtained from the undergraduates in Japan (96 men and 108 women), Korea (32 men and 32 women), U.S.A. (52 men and 40 women) and Russia (34 men and 32 women). Data analysis consisted of the 10 most frequent examples offered by men and women in four cultural groups separately according to nine categories (three quality categories, viz., necessity, amenity, luxury in combination with three aspects of the environment, viz., physical, interpersonal, sociocultural).
For all groups sampled, the greatest frequency of occurrence of examples offered occurs for the necessity/physical environment category, with frequency of response decreasing as one moves to the amenity and to the luxury categories within each environmental aspect. In parallel fashion, the frequency of response decreases as one moves from the physical to the interpersonal to the sociocultural category within each of the quality categories.The greatest commonality of responses in the category necessities relevant to the physical environment among the four cultural groups is considered to reflect similarity of values. Differences in values among the cultures represented are suggested by the responses which are unique to a given cultural group. It must be emphasized that the findings reported here are only preliminary, and that further investigation is required to establish the trends, which have been observed.
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