ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a model of environmental influences important for mental health proposed by Warr (1986, 1987 and 1993). The model draws on that proposed by Jahoda (1982) emphasizing the importance for well-being of categories of experience provided by formal and informal institutions. It also encompasses features which Fryer and Payne (1984) highlight in their personal ‘agency’ account of people coping well with unemployment. The model is situation centred in that it emphasizes the importance for well-being of environmentally afforded categories of experience and is ‘enabling’ in that it recognizes that people can shape the character of their environment and influence its impact upon them. The model is thus concerned with person-situation interactions and processes, as well as with categorical features.
