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Environmental psychology is the study of the interconnections between people and environments, including natural landscapes and built environments. It is a diverse and multidisciplinary area of study that includes topics such as wayfinding, restorative environments and the management of shared spaces. With more recent attention being paid to global changes, the promotion of conservation behaviour and the need for a conservation psychology is being promoted (Clayton & Myers, in press). The aim of this brief introduction to environmental psychology is to provide an overview of some of the main topics
Seeing environments
We locate ourselves in environments by an active process of constructing internal representations or cognitive maps. These structures bring together past experience with current perceptions. They include
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representations of cognitions, affects and behaviour. They enable us to plan our movements as well as navigate through the present environment. This combination of past and present means that we never see the world as it is. We see the world we expect, the world coloured by our feelings, the world coloured by our memories of the present scene and those it reminds us of. Even in new places we see the past not the present. Siegel and White (1975) propose that we begin the process of constructing cognitive maps by identifying and remembering landmarks. We then put landmarks together into routes, which include landmarks and other decision points, for the purpose of wayfinding. Finally they propose that routes are combined into networks to provide a more holistic representation of an environment. Others, such as Kuipers (1982) for example, say that we represent space more like an atlas than a map; that we have representations at different levels of detail. One level might be a relatively detailed representation of the area around ones own house; another might be a less detailed representation of the forest in which ones house is located; while yet another might be a course representation of the region of which the forest is a part. We prefer some places to others. We prefer and approach places where we expect to experience positive feelings and avoid those where we expect negative feelings (Veitch & Arkkelin, 1995, p97). A place that one person perceives as beautiful and restorative may be seen by another as sinister and dangerous because of past experience. Salience produces distortions in our environmental representations. Ladd (1970) carried out a classic study of black children who lived in a district of Boston, USA. Ladd asked the children to draw maps of the area and then interviewed them about their drawings. Distortions included children drawing the areas where white people lived as larger and more central than their own area. Some also drew the street that marked the boundary between the black area and the white area as larger than other streets.
Needs perspective
Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) developed these ideas further and proposed that our environmental preferences evolved from the most salient environments for seeking food and fulfilling other fundamental needs. In other words, humans have positive aesthetic reactions to environments in which we have functioned more effectively over the greater part of our evolutionary history. A study consistent with these ideas was carried out by Orians & Heerwagen (1992). They invited participants from three countries to rate their preferences for different types of trees. The most popular were those resembling savannah trees, while the least popular were those that departed most from that type of tree in terms of height and density of foliage. From their study of peoples preferences for photographs of different scenes, the Kaplans identified four components of environmental preferences: Coherence: the level of organisation of a scene Legibility: the ease of processing the elements of a scene Complexity: the diversity of the elements in the scene Mystery: the potential of a scene to provide new information
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relaxation, as measured by heart rate, compared to viewing an urban environment (Laumann, Grling and Stormark, 2003). Kaplan, Ivancich and De Young (2007), in describing the many roles played by natural elements within urban settings, emphasise the importance of nature within urban environments. As the authors put it, Urban nature is not just an amenity; it is essential.
benefits of participating in gardening. The latter study also reported benefits of increased sociability, reduced vandalism and neighbourhood revitilisation. At an individual level, this study also reported increased selfesteem. Medical checks on the participants found lowered blood-pressure, reduced need for medication, and feeling more relaxed and needed. Both active gardening and the passive contemplation of plants appear to have therapeutic effects. According to Mitchell and Popham (2008), parks, playing fields and forests provide both a stress-reducing restorative effect and also allow more physical activity, both of which improve health by lowering the risk of heart disease. The authors observed that having access to such environments substantially narrowed the health gap between rich and poor in terms of death rates. According to Ulrich and Addoms (1981), even people who do not visit parks feel better for knowing that they are there; an argument in favour of creating parks and reserves in remote areas with restricted or perhaps only webcam access. A study in Sweden of elderly (average age 86!) residents in a care home, showed that they obtained higher scores on tests of concentration when they had a rest period in a natural setting compared to an indoor setting (Ottosson & Grahn, 2005).
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activities, there is evidence that green areas with trees are more likely to attract local residents of all ages to use the space and thus deter crime (Coley, Sullivan, & Kuo, 1997). In a study of felt safety, one hundred residents of a single area in Chicago reported that their sense of safety was influenced by the density of trees and the maintenance of the grass in an area adjacent to their homes (Kuo, Bacaicoa, & Sullivan, 1998). A further study using police crime reports in a city neighbourhood found that more vegetation around a building was associated with fewer violent crimes and fewer property crimes (Kuo & Sullivan, 2001a). It is unclear whether such effects are due to reduced mental fatigue leading to reduced impulsiveness or to the perception that an area is better cared for and protected, and is thus a less suitable target for crime. What is clear is that the presence of trees, grass and other vegetation in an otherwise built environment has an important role in influencing the social interactions that take place there (Sullivan, Kuo, & Depooter, 2004).
Effects on aggression
A further study by Kuo & Sullivan (2001b) supports the view that natural environments can contribute to reduced aggression and violence in inner cities by reducing mental fatigue and thus irritability. In this study, levels of aggression and violence by single mothers was reduced in those who had a view of trees and a green area, compared to those with a built (labelled barren) view. The study involved random allocation of families to a housing project. Bell, Greene, Fisher & Baum (2005) discuss this effect in terms of attention restoration theory.
Conclusion
Although a very slim introduction to environmental psychology, the areas outlined here are clearly relevant and important to human health and well-being. Yet, from even the early days of the field (see Proshansky, 1987, for example) doubts have been cast about the viability of the area. Stokols (1995) offers a different perspective and suggests that the field of environmental psychology is flourishing, but that it is losing its distinct identity as its concepts and methods become diffused through many other branches of psychology and other disciplines.
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For a contemporary account of the field and a more in-depth review of the trends that have contributed to the current state of environmental psychology, see Giuliani and Scopelliti (2009). For an exciting synthesis of environmental psychology with another relatively new field, positive psychology, see Kaplan and Kaplan, (2008). It has been an aim of this paper to illustrate the relevance of environmental psychology to a number of important and pressing issues. Indeed, many issues related to human health, well-being, and both pro-social and anti-social behaviour, cannot be understood without including the perspectives and findings of environmental psychology.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29, 375-386. Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15, 241-248. Kaplan, S. (2001). Meditation, restoration and the management of mental fatigue. Environment & Behavior, 33(4), 480506. Kaplan, R., Ivancich, J.E. & De Young, R. (2007). Nearby nature in the city: Enhancing and preserving livability. Retrieved 23rd December 2010 from: http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/48784 Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S. (1989). The experience of Nature: A psychological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S. (2008). Bringing out the best in people: A psychological perspective. Conservation Biology, 22(4), 826-829. Kaplan, S., Kaplan, R., & Wendt, J. S. (1972). Rated preference and complexity for natural and urban visual material. Perception and Psychophysics, 12, 354-356. Kuipers, B., 1982, The `Map in the head' metaphor. Environment and Behavior, 14, 202-220. Kuo, F. E., Bacaicoa, M., & Sullivan, W. C. (1998). Transforming inner-city landscapes: trees, sense of safety and preference. Environment and Behavior, 30(1), 28-59. Kuo, F.E. & Faber, T.A. (2004). A potential natural nreatment for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity disorder: Evidence from a national study. American Journal of Public Health, 94(9), 1580-1586. Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001a). Environment and Crime in the Inner City: Does Vegetation Reduce Crime? Environment and Behavior, 33(3), 343367. Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001b). Aggression and violence in the inner city: Effects of environment via mental fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33(4), 543-571. Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001a). Environment and Crime in the Inner City: Does Vegetation Reduce Crime? Environment and Behavior, 33(3), 343367.
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