Places of Comfort and their correlation to a student's major

This topic submitted by Jona Shehu, Taylor Florence, Kathryn Cheney ( Shehujp@muohio.edu, Florentn@muohio.edu, Cheneykc@muohio.edu ) on 11/8/04 .

Natural Systems 1 Syllabus---Western Program---Miami University

PLACES OF COMFORT
Student Generated Lab Proposal

Chris Myers
10/07/04

Shawn T.
Jona S.
Kathryn C.
Taylor F.

Hypothesis

We believe that the studentÕs majors at Miami University will directly correlate to their area of comfort. For business students it will be in an area of commerce, for majors that are directly related to English their area would be the library, and for majors that are related to the natural world such as botany their place of comfort would be an outside environment.

Alternative Hypothesis

Regardless of their major students at Miami University will choose an environment of comfort that does not directly correlate to their major.

Introduction
Comfort can mean many things to many different people but for our purposes in this lab we will make a direct definition of what we mean by comfort. A place of comfort, therefore, is a place that a person can best relate to as a place were they feel more relaxed and are surrounded by things that are familiar to them.
Places of comfort are not easily found on campus, so where do students find their solace? This is the question that our group hopes to find the answer to. From a stranger's eye and the tour guide's mouth, the most logical and popular location for relaxation and comfort is the library. Most popular of the libraries would be King Library. Why, you say, when there are so many different libraries that Miami University has to offer? One of the reasons King Library could be a popular location to study is not because a student can stay focused on their work, but because everyone else they know will be there as well. When a student goes to King Library, they might not have the intentions to study alone but in a group setting and therefore they would meet in a group room. It is possible then to give a place a meaning be that meaning added by friends or by a picture on the wall. A place can become more comfortable if it includes something meaningful to the person. (Giving places meaning / edited by Linda Groat)
Another location on Miami University's campus would be the Architecture Library. If a person has an interest in architecture, the most logical place of comfort for them, would be at this location. For some, the location of this building is more convenient because it is the same place where classes are held. It is also a place where information for research for projects and related assignments can be found. As a result, the Architecture Library can, therefore, be considered a second home for the many that step through the threshold of this particular building. The idea of home is a key aspect to what people find at a place were they can find relaxation and comfort. (Person-environment psychology)
There are many reasons for people finding comfort in a certain area and it is impossible to deny that a personÕs up-bringing would have nothing to do with their area of comfort. People born in an urban environment might find the city more comfortable because they understand their way around an urban area. Urban environments are a place that is created by man, where nature has little force. (The urban homesteading catalogue) If we look at someone growing up in a city, we can see that they understand how to read the signs of a city better by looking for things that people in the country might not see or understand because the urban environment is foreign to them. (Urban cognition / edited by Tommy GŠrling)
The landscape of a location can also affect the way a person sees a certain area. Certain people might find a landscape outside pleasing if it is on the coast but not if it is on a mountain range. There are also people that like the outside environment no matter what it is, even if it is a swamp, because they see something more than just nature. (The Soul of nature: visions of a living earth) For most people who find the natural world comforting it must be noticed that people might only find one landscape of the natural world comforting and not all. People in Ohio might see the landscape differently from each other and have different feelings towards it. (Landscape perception)
Some people also like to transform the landscape around them such as back yards or front yards in their houses or businesses. These areas around buildings people can find comforting if they are able to add a little bit of their own character to them. (Building in the Garden) People find this in gardens but we can see it in the world around them. People might find more comfort in an environment if they are able to change it in some way, like a person may change a part of their garden.
People of different ages could find different places comfort because things change as they grow. A person living in a city 50 years ago might not like the city today but could have loved it in the past. This could also be true vice versa. People change over time to liking different things and thus things could change in their comfort level as the world changes around it. It is an evolution of an environment that could make a person like or dislike what is going on in their environment. (Evolutionary social psychology)( Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture)
We must also look at the idea that some people really are comfortable in any environment. Some people will not really have a preference. They could be comfortable in a library or in an office building. For these people we could say they are creating places of comfort wherever they are. (The art of comfort; illustrated by Dorothy Ivens)
One great way to see what people find comfortable is where they vacation to. For a vacation is usually supposed to be relaxing and thus comfortable for people. Look at where most people go and what people do to get them there. There are many tourist attractions on this earth and some people like sitting on a beach while others like skiing in the mountains. People have different places of comfort and thus so do people with their environment at home or in Oxford. It is logical to say then that people are merely attracted to different things. Though people with certain jobs might be attracted to certain types of vacations and this could be the same as people with certain majors being attracted to certain environments. (Sustainable tourism: a marketing perspective)
With places of comfort, maybe people would like to get away from were they usually are because they find the area stressful. People have always tried to escape from their work if they donÕt like it. I am sure that people try to escape from their majors and there can be different ways of doing this, from lighting a candle to walking in the woods. It does not matter what major one is but sometimes one just wants to get away from the norm. (Holistic management : a new framework for decision making)

The question of where a person is most comfortable or can feel more relaxed can either be complex or simple. Our project plans to reveal where people are most at ease during the duration of their time here at Miami University. We want to know if their major correlates to their choice of environment. Before looking into the additional research of this subject, we would assume that certain people would be attracted to places that have not only a special interest to them, but the location would be in conjunction with their major.
What do you plan on accomplishing and why does this interest you?
As we complete our surveys and later compare them to our research, we want to plan on accomplishing the following things:
1) Find out the different areas in which people feel most at ease
2) Why these locations have their appeal
3) Who goes to these locations
4) And if any of these locations have any significance to the person's respective major(s)

This topic of research interested us as a group because the four of us, in fact, do have different areas where we feel most at ease. When were started to discuss why, we contemplated what others may do as well. We also noticed that we all have a different field of interest and thought that would be an aspect as to why our choices were so different.

References

1. Title: Giving Places Meaning/edited by Linda Groat Imprint: London; San Diego: Academic Press, c1995
2. Person-environment psychology : new directions and perspectives / edited by W. Bruce Walsh, Kenneth H. Craik, Richard H. Price
Imprint Mahwah, N.J. : L. Erlbaum, 2000
Edition 2nd ed
3. Title The urban homesteading catalogue / prepared by Urban Systems Research and Engineering, Inc. for Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Policy Development and Research
Imprint Washington : Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development & Research : for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1977
4. Title: Urban cognition/ edited by Tommy Garling Imprint: London; San Diego: Academic Press, c1995
5. Title The Soul of nature: visions of a living earth / edited by Michael Tobias and Georgianne Cowan
Imprint New York : Continuum, c1994
6. Title Landscape perception / edited by Amita Sinha
Imprint London ; San Diego : Academic Press, c1995
7. Author White, Stephen Title: Building in the Garden : the architecture of Joseph Allen Stein in India and California / Stephen White Imprint Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1993
8. Evolutionary social psychology / edited by Jeffry A.Simpson, Douglas T. Kenrick
Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997
9. Title The Adapted mind : evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture / edited by Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby
Imprint New York : Oxford University Press, 1992
10. Author: Massee, William Edman Title: The art of comfort; illustrated by Dorothy Ivens Imprint Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill 1952 Edition: 1st ed.

11. Author Middleton, Victor T. C Title: Sustainable tourism : a marketing perspective / Victor T.C. Middleton with Rebecca Hawkins
Imprint Oxford ; Boston : Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998
12. Author Savory, Allan, 1935- Title Holistic management : a new framework for decision making / Allan Savory with Jody Butterfield
Imprint Washington, D. C. : Island Press, c1999
Edition 2nd ed
13. Author: Slater, Keith Title: Human Comfort/ by Keith Slater Imprint: Springfield, Ill,. U.S.A.: C.C. Thomas, c1985

Methods
For our student generated lab we would like to look at places of comfort around Miami's campus and trying to find out if students major's directly relate to their choice of an area of comfort. The definition of comfort we are using is a place that a person can best relate to as a place were they feel more comfortable and are surrounded by things that are familiar to them. To be able to do this we will have to make groups of majors that we believe would relate to the area to which they find comfort. The people who are English Majors would like to be in the Library? Would the Biology Majors like the out doors? And finally, would the Business Majors would like to be in a place of business up town or in Shriver?
We then see we have three basic groups of people: one relating to books, another to business, and the last to the out doors. We believe that the people that would be attracted to the business areas would be businesses majors, these people would find comfort in this area because this is where they could be immersed in their future field of work and there would be other who have the same interest. Then we have Majors at Miami University that are directly related to English, such as they must read novels and write reports where their use of the English language is critical in the grading of the report, such as English Majors and History Majors which would be attracted to the Libraries because they find that they can relate to the Library because of the plentiful amount of literature for the papers they would have to write. Then there are the Zoology, Botany, Biology and Micro Biology Majors these people would be attracted to out side environments because of there interest in the outside world and trying to understand it.
Now we must find sample groups of these three different major groups and pole them to find what areas around campus they would find most appealing to be in, there area of comfort and relaxation. To do this we need a sizable amount of samples from each of the majors and we also need a good poling device. To do this we expect to get at least 200 people from each major and give them a questioner.
There will be at least two questions on the questioner. The first of the questions will ask, "What is your Major?" The second question will ask, "From the pictures below what environment do you find your self most attracted to, as a place of comfort and relaxation?" Below this question will be three pictures, one a Library, one of an outside environment, and one of up town business area. The person then will place a mark next to the picture to indicate what they feel most comfortable with.
After we complete the gathering of our data it will be time to find out if our hypothesis is correct. To do this we will do a statistical analysis to find out if a person's major does directly relate to their places of comfort. It is our belief that when all is said and done that there will be a direct correlation between the two.

Results
Because we havenÕt performed our experiment yet, we have no results to include to the paper.
Data sheet
With the use of a survey, we hope to sample random people by asking them to choose which place they'd feel most comfortable spending time in.
Which of these places would you like spending most of your time in? Place a check next to one of the descriptions below.

___ Outside (pictures of a park) ___ In the library (picture of library)
___ Uptown or in an urban area(picture of uptown)
We will have more then one picture of a Library and of an Urban Area/Business district so that people do not judge the picture but what it represents.
Discussion
Now is the time to play the devil's advocate. If it so happens that our hypothesis has nothing to do with our findings, where do we go from there? We should take the information that we have gathered and draw a new conclusion. For our topic, this would mean that the place of comfort would not directly relate to that person's major but something else. Thus we should therefore look into a different direction as to what may influence a person's comfort area. Would they be influenced by where they were reared (rural, urban, etc.)? What where their parents' occupations? How old were they? How dedicated were they to their school work? Do they even enjoy or want the major they are studying?

Our Day
The day we present our findings to the class, we want to make our class interactive. We feel the class needs to be interactive because without discussion, the class will be dull and the information presented will not sink in. So to begin, we want the class to come up with a hypothesis on whether or not there is a direct correlation between someone's major and their places of comfort. Secondly, we want the class to fill out the same questionnaire that others have already answered in the Miami University community. That way, when we are further into the class, the students will have a better understanding of the type of questions we have asked others. After they have completed the questionnaire, we will take a few minuets for the class to break up into small groups of three to four so they can converse over their answers. About ten minuets later, we will reconvene to have different groups share with the rest of the class what their group had come up with. We will then commence to share with the class why we chose to design the questionnaire the way we did, why we chose this topic, and finally our findings.
Time Table
In order to start our research on where people are most comfortable on campus, the first thing that we had to do was create a survey that would enable us to compare people's major to the places they are most drawn to.
In order to create a survey, the next thing that we did was find out the most common places people go to study. The three that we decided on were the Library, Uptown, or places in nature. We have divided up certain tasks among the group and gave the task of creating this survey to Jona. We decided that Jona should take pictures with her own personal camera so that we would have the most up-to-date information contained on our survey.
On this survey we are going to include a space where people can write down their major. Even though this part of the data seems so small it is one of the most vital parts because this is what we are going to base our conclusions on. Since our hypothesis is that we think where people feel more comfortable is related to their major, this small amount of information can make the biggest difference in our research.
We also decided to include both the inside and outside views of the library, and certain places uptown. We all agreed that this is important because some people may interpret the outside view as meaning you like to be outside. This tiny error could affect the way that someone would answer.
After creating the survey we are going to hand them out to random people. After finding enough people to complete the survey we are going to compile the information gathered and apply it to the outcome of our study. Even though there is not too much data or information to be collected our study will be widely spread out and contain various majors.

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