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IV. ILLUSTRATING TRADE-OFFS: HOW PRIVACY-DRIVEN LIMITS ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES CAN CONSTRAIN THE REGULATORY POTENTIAL OF PERSONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION This Part provides examples of existing and proposed limits on the collection [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. THE PROMISE OF PERSONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION A. Informational Regulation/Norm Management B. Market C. Architecture D. Mandates III. THE PERILS OF PERSONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION: PRIVACY HARMS A. Identifying [...]

The Reasonable Person Model is a conceptual framework that links environmental factors with human behavior. People are more reasonable, cooperative, helpful, and satisfied when the environment supports their basic informational needs. The same environmental supports are important factors in enhancing human health. We use this framework to identify the informational requirements common to various health-promoting factors that are realizable through well-designed physical environments. Environmental attractors, support of way-finding, and facilitation of social interaction all contribute to the health-relevant themes of community, crime, and mode of transportation. In addition, the nearby natural environment, although often neglected, can serve as a remarkably effective resource.

A central sociological problem is the extent to which genetics and the environment influence human behavior. Studies of twins are a core method in attempts to disentangle and to determine the comparative strength of genetic and environmental influences on psychosocial outcomes. A critical assumption of twin studies is that both monozygotic 'identical' twins and dizygotic 'fraternal' twins share common social environments. Therefore, any greater similarity of monozygotic than dizygotic twins is attributed to genetic influences. This paper tests the equal environment assumption by examining the extent to which greater concordance of adolescent monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins results from social, as well as genetic, influences. Bivariate comparisons indicate that monozygotic twins show greater similarity than dizygotic twins in socially-based characteristics including physical attractiveness, time spent in each other's company, the overlap in friendship networks, and friends' use of alcohol. Multivariate analyses indicate that measures of the social environment sometimes reduce of eliminate apparent genetic effects. In comparison with genetic indicators, social variables are usually stronger predictors of depression and alcohol use and abuse. These findings suggest that past twin studies could overstate the strength of genetic influences because some similarities in behavior among monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins stem from social influences.

Freese and Powell make a number of critiques of the theoretical assumptions, statistical methods, and use of variables in our paper, which raises questions about the typical use of the equal environments assumption in twin research. We do not find that any of their critiques modify our conclusion that the equal environments assumption cannot be taken for granted but must be subjected to empirical testing. We hope that our paper and the resulting exchange will lead sociologists to become more actively involved in the debate regarding the extent of genetic and environmental influences on social behaviors.

The present paper explores whether the theory of planned behavior (TPB) must abandon the notion that perceived behavioral control (PBC) has a direct influence on behavior. In a cross-sectional survey of 895 Swiss residents, our hypothesis was tested by means of structural equation models. Applied specifically, PBC turned out to be a significant direct predictor of one's performance. A general version of the TPB based on aggregated measures, however, revealed PBC's direct influence on behavior to be nonsignificant and, presumably, a non-universally applicable and thus nongeneralizable part of the theory. Intention determined 51% to 52% of people's ecological behavior, which supports the claim of a strong attitude-behavior relation. Attitude, subjective norms, and PBC, the 3 TPB components, account for 81% of intention's variance.

On the basis of the idea that situational norms are mentally represented as associations between environments and normative behavior, it was proposed that an environment can automatically direct normative behavior. More specifically, when situational norms are well-established (e.g., when entering the library, one should be silent), an environment is capable of automatically activating mental representations of normative behavior and the behavior itself. In these experiments, participants were exposed to pictures of environments, and effects on accessibility of representations of normative behavior and on actual behavior were assessed. Results indicated that representations of behavior and actual behavior itself are activated automatically when (a) goals to visit the environment are active and (b) strong associations between environment and normative behavior are established.

The author discusses the publications on species extinction. The topics of interest include the ecological history pattern of human behavior which even today continuies to plague the humans and the Earth's other species.