*** Welcome to piglix ***

Reasonable Person Model


The reasonable person model (RPM) is a psychological framework which argues that people are at their best when their informational needs are met. Positing that unreasonableness is not a human trait, but rather the result of environment (context and circumstances), the RPM attempts to define the environments/actions that foster reasonableness, defining three key areas that assist with this: model building, being effective, and meaningful action.

The RPM was developed by environmental psychologists Stephen and Rachel Kaplan and integrates principles from environmental, cognitive, and evolutionary psychology.

The RPM is a psychological framework that posits human functioning is improved when the following three domains of informational needs are met:

RPM states that an environment or context supportive of informational needs can foster reasonable behavior that will "bring out the best in people".

The use of the term reasonable in RPM has commonalities and differences with the colloquial use of the word. In RPM, reasonableness refers to the ways in which "one would hope people behave". The concept is partially conveyed by what it is not, unreasonable states such as incivility, aggression, irritability and impatience. Examples may also include "...demanding fairness for oneself while denying it to others, displaying intolerance and disrespect for others, willingness to harm or kill because of differences in beliefs, and attempting to extract the earth’s resources for personal gain without regard for the needs of future generations".

The RPM may be viewed as a contrary theory to rational man theory (also known as Homo Economicus) or related rational choice theory, in that it describes a landscape of mutual dependencies, such as the manner in which people treat one another. RPM assumes that information is often misunderstood, overwhelming, and unavailable. It also assumes that people are not interested in maximizing personal gain, but rather satisficing. RPM further asserts that people often have multiple concerns which cannot be reduced to a single monetary value.

Reasonableness shares some themes with subjective well-being, including emphasis on positive/negative affect and quality of life. However, whereas SWB addresses self-directed feelings, RPM also considers the contexts that foster civil behavior and improve relationships between people.


...
Wikipedia

...