ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: HISTORY, WHAT IT STUDIES, APPLICATIONS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary discipline that focuses on the study of the interaction between people and their environment. Its objective is to understand how the environment affects us, whether natural or artificial, and how it influences our personality and general life. Within this field, the word "environment" refers to a large number of different elements.

Environmental psychology is one of the most recent branches of this scientific discipline. Starting in the 1960s, scientists began to wonder what the relationship was between our way of acting and the environments in which we move. From this moment, investigations began to be carried out that seek not only to solve problems, but to improve the well-being of all the inhabitants of society.

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Some of the most important aspects studied by environmental psychology are the effects of environmental stress on us; the characteristics of the environments that improve our well-being; and promoting ways of acting at the social level that can help preserve a healthy and beneficial environment.

Due to the complexity of the topics studied from environmental psychology, this discipline usually has the collaboration of experts from other areas. Thus, for example, it is common for professionals such as educators, anthropologists, sociologists, politicians, economists, architects, and geologists to collaborate on projects related to this field.

Environmental psychology also collaborates with other similar fields with which it overlaps in some cases. These include ergonomics, ecological psychology, ecopsychology, environmental sociology, environmental design, and social psychology.

History

The origins of environmental psychology are not very well defined. It is believed that the first mention of the term was given in the book Geopsique, by American author Willy Hellpach. In this work, we talk about issues such as the impact that the Sun and the Moon have on human activity, or the consequences that elements such as colors or the weather have on our behavior.

Even before environmental psychology became established as a discipline in its own right, many other authors examined the relationship of people with our environment and the effect it produces on us. Some of the most important were Kurt Lewin, Egon Brunswik, Jakob von Uexküll, Carl Friedrich Graumann, and Gerhard Kaminski.

Kurt lewin

The origins of environmental psychology as an independent discipline had to do with the outbreak of the Second World War. When this conflict (possibly the bloodiest in history) ended, psychologists wanted to understand how it was possible that so many millions of people had been involved in such violent acts that went against human rights.

Thus, fields such as social psychology began to investigate group processes, attitude changes, conflict, aggression and prejudice. Indirectly at the beginning, several discoveries were made that led researchers to believe that the environment in which people move has an important effect on the way they act.

Thus, for example, the first researchers in this field realized that in areas where it is extremely hot, violence is often much more widespread than in areas with more moderate climates. Something similar happens with overcrowding, that is, with an excessive population density in a city or neighborhood.

After making several similar discoveries, early environmental psychologists decided to get out of the lab and began collecting data in all kinds of different situations. From this moment on, the field of study of the discipline continued to expand, until it took the form it has today.

What does environmental psychology study? (object of study)

The main objective of environmental psychology is to understand how the environment in which they move affects people, as well as the relationship between the two. At first this discipline was limited to natural environments, but later it was expanded to include those created by man.

Environmental psychology encompasses various approaches, and is considered multidisciplinary. Thus, for example, it collects elements from both cognitive-behavioral psychology and sociology. All this, with the aim of creating a body of data that can be applied in a practical way to solve the problems we face on a daily basis.

Among the elements that are studied from environmental psychology, we find some such as human relationships, personality and individual differences in this sense, beliefs, emotions and thoughts. It also studies how purely environmental factors affect all of them, such as overcrowding or the presence of green areas.

On the other hand, in recent times research has also begun on the opposite relationship. Environmental psychology wants to understand what are the effects of different human attitudes and behaviors on the environment, to be able to solve problems as serious as climate change.

Theoretical approaches

As we have already seen, environmental psychology encompasses a very broad field of action. However, there are some transversal concepts to all his discoveries and that determine the theoretical focus of the discipline. Next we will see which are the most important.

Place identity

One of the most important concepts in environmental psychology is that of place identity. According to researchers in this discipline, it is a subdivision of the concept of oneself that includes those areas in which the individual spends more time.

Place identity has a major effect on our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions. Examining our environment, people value the quality of our experiences, so factors such as our self-esteem and our subjective well-being depend on those areas in which we move.

Thus, the environment can help or harm us in different areas, such as setting goals, expressing our emotions, developing our desires, or the appearance of negative feelings. The term "identity of place" has been central to the development of environmental psychology since its definition.

Attachment to a place

One of the most important theories within this branch of psychology is the one that defends that people form very close relationships with the places where they spend a lot of time.

Attachment to a place is defined as the set of affective ties that bind a person to a specific environment, the product of a long-term relationship between the two.

This attachment goes beyond the simply aesthetic or rational. For example, a person who has lived her entire life in a country will miss her homeland despite currently residing in a better place. Some environmental psychologists believe that this phenomenon is at the origin of others such as patriotism.

Environmental perception

One of the most studied areas within this discipline is the way in which people perceive our environment. Although at first glance we do not realize many of the elements present around us, everything seems to indicate that our subconscious collects a large amount of data about what surrounds us.

These data about our environment that we unconsciously perceive can serve to modulate our behavior, thoughts and attitudes. Thus, simply entering an area with unpleasant characteristics our emotions can worsen, while our energy levels decrease. All this will happen without us knowing what the cause is.

Applications

The environment is an ever-present factor in all human activities. Because of this, environmental psychology is a multidisciplinary subject, which can be applied in many different ways. Here are some of the more common ways to use your findings.

Environmentalism

Due to the growing social awareness that exists around problems such as climate change, environmental psychology has reoriented part of its efforts and is trying to discover how best to get people to take care of their environment.

In this sense, this discipline focuses on developing a new model of society that allows us to live in harmony with nature, without this implying a decrease in the quality of our living conditions.

Business field

Despite the fact that environmental psychology originally had nothing to do with the world of business, today its discoveries are considered extremely useful within this area.

Thus, for example, our knowledge of the effects of the environment on our behavior helps to create workspaces designed to increase the well-being and productivity of employees.

In this way, aspects such as the distribution of the offices, the type of furniture used or the decorations included in the workspaces are examined from a psychological point of view.

Urban planification

One step further is the use of the discoveries of environmental psychology to design cities in such a way that their inhabitants achieve the highest possible level of well-being.

In this area, aspects such as the presence of green areas, the appropriate population density for each area, or the distribution and appearance of buildings are examined.

References

1. "What is environmental psychology?" en: The Mind Is Wonderful. Retrieved on: October 15, 2019 from La Mente Es Maravillosa: lamenteesmaravillosa.com.
2. "Environmental Psychology: definition, applications and approaches" in: Psychology and Mind. Retrieved on: October 15, 2019 from Psychology and Mind: psicologiaymente.com.
3. "What is Environmental Psychology?" in: Positive Psychology. Retrieved on: October 15, 2019 from Positive Psychology: positivepsychology.com.
4. "What is environmental psychology?" in: Australian Psychological Society. Retrieved on: October 15, 2019 from Australian Psychological Society: psychology.org.au.
5. "Environmental psychology" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: October 15, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.