ABSTRACT
Events can have their source in the environment, and the many ways such events affect the individual have already been discussed. We examined at some length how the other person as perceiver is able to evaluate and control his environment, which can have major consequences for p. Environmental conditions bearing upon the attribution of success, such as task difficulty, luck, and opportunity were discussed. That environmental circumstance may alter the distance between p and his goal, and thereby affect his desires and pleasures, was shown to be of theoretical and practical interest. In later chapters, especially Chapter 10, “Benefit and Harm,” the significance of environmental effects will be examined further. In the present chapter we wish to present a few considerations relevant in a general way to all such environmental effects on the person. The problem can be seen as one in which personal action is contrasted with what happens to us: pushing versus being pushed, being the hammer versus being the anvil, in general, activity versus passivity.
