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Using Place Rules and Affect to Understand Environmental Fit

A Theoretical Exploration

Washington State University's Interdisciplinary Design Institute

This article describes a multimethod intrinsic case study of environmental fit—as conceptualized by Lawton—in an adult day facility through assessing the relationship between competence and interpreted place rules as an indicator of consensually understood environmental press and observable affect as a measurable outcome. This research study of an adult day care serving people experiencing dementia suggests that Canter's concept of place rules may be conceptualized as a consensual aspect of environmental press, interpreted largely through the observation of patterns of activity within a given physical setting. The congruence between the purposes that underlie these rules and those sought by participants is assessed through the aggregation of affect observations. The findings suggest that the degree of fit between the participants and their environmental milieu varies for each of four distinct groupings of participants. Aspects of the physical setting and its use associated with the assessed misfit are discussed.

Key Words: dementia • spatial cognition • geronotological environments

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 37, No. 3, 330-363 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0013916504272657


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