Models for the Assessment of Stimulus Conditions Favoring Harm and Excessive Loads in Home Office Environments

Seeking to connect the knowledge of Environmental Psychology and Ergonomics of the Built Environment to provide guidelines to assist home office projects, this article presents the preliminary results of the first stage of the doctoral research conducted at UFPE in Brazil, in collaboration with FAUlisboa in Portugal. This research aimed to formulate an assessment model for the environmental conditions that promote discomfort and excessive loads in home office environments. To achieve this, the study considered the aspects of privacy control, biophilia, office clutter, and coherence (achieved through reduced contrast). The empirical investigation in this initial stage, structured through Facet Theory, employed the Multiple Sorting Procedure to collect data from 58 Brazilians and 45 Portuguese participants. The data were analyzed using the multidimensional scaling technique of Similarity Structure Analysis with the aid of the computer program HUDAP (Hebrew University Data Analysis Package) computational program. The empirical results revealed that the home office environment with a dedicated workspace, privacy control, the presence of biophilia, the absence of office clutter, and minimal to moderate contrast, is associated with conditions that promote the reduction of excessive loads and perceived state anxiety in the investigated environments. Furthermore, there was partial consensus in the majority of results between the two groups under study.