The Environment and Mental Health: A Guide for Clinicians
Lundberg, A. (1998). Risk perception and coping . In Spedden, S. E. (Ed.). The environment and mental health: A guide for clinicians. (pp. 103-114). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Many factors influence perceptions of environmental risk and choices of coping strategies. We make judgments and decisions within a framework that is described by cultural and personal values, historical and personal experience and knowledge, and institutional and personal capabilities. Over time, this framework changes. As values, knowledge, and capabilities change, risk perceptions and coping options will change with them. Clinicians who evaluate and assist individuals experiencing distress from environmental interactions are confronted with the complicated, changeable,and yet, essential relationship between people and their world.
