Gary Evans
Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professorship
2009
DEA

Web Bio Page

Current Activities

Current Professional Activities
Academic Expertise: Professor Evans is an environmental and developmental psychologist interested in how the physical environment affects human health and well being among children. His specific areas of expertise include environmental stress, children's environments, and the environment of poverty.

Professor Evans received an Honorary Doctorate from Stockholm University in Sweden in 2006 and is a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health and on the Board of Children, Youth, and Families for the National Academy of Sciences.  He is the 1997 recipient of the EDRA Career Award and Past-President of the Division of Environmental Psychology of the International Association of Applied Psychology. Evans has received a Senior National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He has a Ph.D. in environmental psychology with post-doctoral training in psychoneuroendocrinology and in human development. Professor Evans has given several hundred lectures and invited talks in over 35 different countries. He is also the recipient of numerous teaching awards.

 


Current Research Activities
Gary Evans is the author of over 200 scholarly articles and book chapters plus five books. Current research is focused on environmental stress, children's environments (e.g. schools, daycare, housing), and the environment of poverty. He is also doing work on the development of environmental attitudes and behaviors in children. Professor Evans' work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Mac Arthur Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Swedish Work Environment Fund. Professor Evans has been awarded two Fulbright Research Fellowships and is the recipient of a Senior National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. He recently held a fellowship in Rome from the University of Rome, La Sapienza I.

Biography

Education
Colgate University    1971  AB Highest Honors in Psychology
University of MA, Amherst 1973  MS  Psychology
University of MA, Amherst 1975  PhD Psychology
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm Sweden  1988  Post Doctoral  Psychoneuroendocrinology
National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, National Research Service Award, 
    1999  Human Development 

Keywords
poverty, children, stress, cumulative risk, environmental attitudes

Courses, Websites, Pubs

Courses Taught
DEA 1500 Introduction to Human Environment Relations
    Introduction to how the physical environment and human behavior inter-relate.  How are health,  emotions, performance, interpersonal relationships, and organizational effectiveness, influenced by the physical environment?  We also examine the flip side of this focus.  How do human attitudes and behaviors affect the environment?  Issues of cultural and economic diversity are integrated throughout. The course is organized into four major sections, each devoted to one setting: Home, City, Work, and Earth.  Within each section various Human-Environment Relations Processes are discussed.  Each of these processes helps explain how and why human behavior and the environment inter-relate.  Two examples of HER processes are privacy and environmental attitudes. Each section ends with several case studies illustrating how these HER Processes can be put to work to improve human health and welfare, as well as the conditions of our environment. Every other week hands on exercises and projects are conducted in small discussion sections in lieu of lecture.  An optional Writing in the Major section is available to all students.
DEA 2500/6600  Environment and Social Behavior
    This course is organized around two core principles of Human Environment Relations. First, although the physical environment can directly affect human behavior, more typically the effects of the physical environment are indirect.  Both the social context and personal variables can alter or moderate the nature of human-environment relations.  Second, it is not sufficient to evaluate design in terms of aesthetics alone.  Good design is more than pleasing the eye.  Design subtly and at times forcefully fosters or inhibits the human spirit. The two main projects for this class are: a. a collaborative design programming project with an interior design studio to assist a not-for-profit organization in need of design work; b. a post-occupancy evaluation of a facility that serves individuals with special needs. 
HE 3100 Mentoring in Higher Education
    Human Ecology upperclassmen who are mentors in the College Partnership Program take this seminar as part of their preparation and support for their work as mentors with incoming students to the College. This course is also a Writing in the Major seminar. Topics include: mentoring, adult development, peer counseling, cross-cultural counseling, racism, minorities in higher education and in the professions.


Related Websites
DEA 1500 Course Website
http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/dea150

Selected Publications
Evans, G.W. & Schamberg, M.A. (2009). Childhood poverty, chornic stress, and adult working memory.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Evans, G.W. & Kim, P. (2007). Childhood poverty and health. Psychological Science.

Evans et al. (2007). Cumulative risk, maternal responsiveness, and allostatic load among young adolescents. Developmental Psychology.

Evans et al. (2007). Young children's environmental attitudes and behaviors. Environment and Behavior.

Evans, G.W. (2006). Child development and the physical environment. Annual Review of Psychology

Evans, G.W., et. al. (2005). The role of chaos in poverty and children's socioemotional adjustment. Psychological Science

Evans, G.W. & Marcynyszyn, L.A. (2004). Environmental justice, cumulative environmental risk, and health among low- and middle- income children. American Journal of Public Health

Evans, G.W. (2004). The environment of childhood poverty. American Psychologist

Evans, G.W. (2003). A multimethodological analysis of cumulative risk and allostatic load among rural children. Developmental Psychology. 

Evans, G.W. (2001). Environmental stress and health. In A. Baum, T. Revenson & J.E. Singer (Eds.). Handbook of Health Psychology, Mahway, NJ: Erlbaum

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Evans, G.W. (2000). Developmental science in the 21st century.  Social Development.

Evans, G.W., et al. (1999). Parental language and verbal responsiveness in children in crowded homes. Developmental Psychology.

Evans, G.W., et al. (1998). Chronic residential crowding and children's well being: An ecological perspective. Child Development.

Evans, G.W., et. al. (1995). Chronic noise and psychological stress. Psycholgical Science

Garling, T., & Evans, G.W. (1991). Environment, cognition and action. NY: Oxford.

Cohen, S., Evans, G.W., Stokols, D., & Krantz, D.S., (1986). Behavior, health and environmental stress. NY: Plenum.

Evans, G.W. (Ed.) (1982). Environmental stress. NY: Cambridge.