Human response to environmental noise. Psychological research and public policy.

A research-based, policy-directed argument is made for increasing psychologists' involvement in environmental noise research. Federal policy problems are related to the government's reliance on limited data from a dose-response model and the neglect of key psychological issues such as individual differences in reactions to environmental noise, the psychological factors that mediate annoyance and that identify subgroups that may need protection from stress-related health effects, and the relationship of perceived control to public response. Problems that have limited the usefulness of the empirical base for understanding the psychological mediation of noise effects are reviewed. Research applications of psychological stress theory and noise appraisal models are discussed as essential both to fill in gaps in the literature and to move empirical inquiry in a direction that can inform public policy.