Appendix A
Safe: “You are single, have a university degree, and do not have any children. Your parents and siblings are supportive and you get along well with them. You live in a neighborhood that is generally safe, relatively clean, quiet and well maintained. Your neighbors are OK, either friendly or keeping to themselves. You have a stable job; as far as you can tell you will remain employed for the foreseeable future. In general, you are happy at work and get along well with your boss and co-workers. Your job provides you with a steady income that meets your needs satisfactorily. You own your own flat and are able to pay your mortgage on time. You have some savings and/or investments and look forward to a reasonably secure future.”
Harsh: “You are single and you have no children. You left school at 16 years of age, which didn’t make your parents very happy, but that didn’t really matter since you didn’t get along with them anyway. In fact, you still don’t get along with them and barely get along with your siblings. At best, your family relationships could be described as distant and at worst conflicted. You live in a neighborhood that is dirty and noisy. The community areas are not well maintained, and some areas are even dangerous. Your neighbors are generally unfriendly or keep to themselves, but a few are quite nasty and you don’t like running in to them, which is sometimes unavoidable. You recently lost your job because of a combination of economic cutbacks as well as conflicts with your boss and coworkers. You only started this job a few months ago, and so are faced with unemployment yet again. From your previous job searches, you know that work is limited and you have no idea when you will be employed again. You rent a flat that needs repairs, but the landlord has refused to fix the problems, partly because you owe back rent. And this is not the only bill that has gone unpaid.”
