ENVIRONMENTAL-STRESS AND URBAN BEHAVIOR

The study of interactional behaviour in an urban environment shows that city dwellers are characterised by withdrawal into themselves, a decrease in the level of attention paid to others and more violent reactions to environmental stimulation. These distinctive characteristics can only be understood in relation to a background of behavioural habits onto which is grafted the reaction to an acute stimulus. A model based on the conditional intervention of cognitive processes, and notably of control in relation to the relative importance of the aversive stimulation to which the subject is exposed, summarises the effects of stress in an urban environment.