Environmental Psychology

Introduction

Technological advances- were hailed for making dramatic improvements in the

quality of life and for facilitating the endless search for comfort and luxury.
(w/out appreciation of the effects-- on the quality of the environment)

Gradually-- we have become aware of the delicate balance between the quality of
the environment and the quality of human life.
● Balance- can be easily upset by human actions.

Environmental Debate

22nd century- Earth would become inhabitable due to sufficient abuse that the
environment has received.

They point with indignation to the number of species that have become extinct in
the past 100 years, the desertification of once arable lines, the denuding of
forests, and the eutrophication of waters caused by acid rain.

● a helpless pawn in the struggle between the haves and the have-nots.

Usurpation (the act of taking control of something without having the right to,
especially of a position of power) of natural resources by the powerful and a
desire to maintain them by the weak, they claim, has turned the environment into
a battleground and the ultimate loser in this struggle.

The recent emergence of environmental psychology as a discipline signals a

growing discontent with mere speculation and uninformed rhetoric (often
emotional) and reflects the efforts of social, behavioral, and biological scientists
(along with their colleagues in the design and engineering professions) to gain
data-based answers to questions regarding human/environment interactions.

● increased concern + coupled with increased research = substantiation of

some popular opinions and to a refutation of others.

What is Environmental Psychology?

: behavioral science that investigates, with an eye toward enhancing, the

interrelationships between the physical environment and human behavior.
 ● constitutes an area of inquiry that is rooted in numerous disciplines.
● Scientists (involved in environmental concerns), - proponents = tend to
focus on socially relevant problems arid to emphasize the practical
application of knowledge.
○ emphasize the interrelationship of environment and behavior, the
physical environment as influencing people's behavior, and people
as actively and sometimes passively, influencing the environment.

○ Interested in various physiological (e.g., changes in heart rate,

endocrine functioning, galvanic skin response, mortality)",
psychological (e.g., spatial behavior patterns, mental images,
environmental stress, attitude change), and behavioral processes
(e.g. altruism, aggression, performance). by which people respond to
the complexities of their environment.

○ They are concerned with understanding human attitudes about,

experiences within, and behaviors toward the environment, with an
eye toward changing those attitudes and behaviors to promote
environmental preservation and to maximize human functioning.
○ interdisciplinary perspective: might be concerned with
meteorological, physical, geographical, architectural, and/or
ecological features of the environment that might have an impact on
its inhabitants.

Field of Environmental Psychology- attempts to deal with these concerns

simultaneously to develop a systematic and integrated understanding of the
interrelated processes governing organism /environment relationships.

Environmental Psychology Assumptions

● The Earth is the only suitable habitat we have, and its resources are
limited.
● The Earth as a planet has been profoundly affected by life.
● The outcomes of land use by humans tend to be cumulative and therefore
we have obligations to ourselves as well as to the future generations to
minimize their negative effects.
● Sustained life on Earth is a characteristic of the ecosystem and not of
individual organisms and populations.

Theories in Environmental Psychology

Geographical Determinism
 ● Toynbee (1962) theorized that the environment (specifically,
topography, climate, vegetation, availability of water, etc.) presents
challenges to its inhabitants.
● The notion of environmental challenge + behavioral response =
appears often in one form or another in various theories in
environmental psychology.
● Barry, Child, and Bacon (1959) - (suggested--emphasizing)
agricultural and non-nomadic cultures = responsibility, obedience,
and compliance in child-rearing practices. Nomadic cultures -
independence and resourcefulness.

(The notion of environmental challenge and behavioral response, although

rooted in the thinking of such geographical determinists, appears often in one
form or another in various theories in environmental psychology)

Ecological Theories

- theories concerned with biological and sociological interdependence

between organisms and their environment has also significantly influenced
thinking in environmental.
- organism-environment reciprocity

Behaviorist Perspective

- Comes from the discipline of Psychology

- Involves the reaction of behaviorists to the failure of personality theories to
account fully for human behavior.
- central to most current theories of environment behavior.

Gestalt Psychology

- (Gestalt psychologists) concerned with perception and cognition than with

overt behavior.
- The most important principle of this body of work was the objects, persons,
and settings are perceived as a whole.
- behavior is rooted in cognitive processes; it is determined not by stimuli,
but from the perception of those stimuli.

Arousal Theories
- Concerned with the influence of arousal on performance.
- Inverted U-relationship - performance is maximized at intermediate levels
of arousal but falls off as arousal is either increased or decreased.
Hebb (Neurologist, 1972) - linked arousal with increased activity of the reticular
activating system of the brain.

Berlyne (1974) - characterized arousal as lying on a continuum anchored at one

end by sleep and at the other by excitement.

Mehrabian and Russell (1974) - identified arousal as a major component in

people's affective responses to their environment.

Factors impacting arousal level

Temperature - An increase in ambient temperatures leads to increases in arousal

level.
● Higher arousal = performance enhancement
● Over-arousal = performance decrements
Physiological Changes: Blood vessel dilation, Pupil dilation, Perspiration,
Increased heart rate

Personal Space Invasion - increase in personal space invasion = increase in

arousal and performance decrements. (MiddleMist, Knowels, and Matter 1976)
Physiological Changes: delayed onset, shorter duration of urination for males.

Noise Level - increase in noise level = increase in arousal and performance

decrements (Evans and Kohen 2987)
Physiological Changes: Alters blood pressure, heart rhythm, the flow of gastric
juices to the stomach

Stimulus Load Theories

- Central to stimulus load theories is the notion that humans have a

limited capacity to process information.

Cohen, 1978 - When inputs exceed that capacity, people tend to ignore some
inputs and devote more attention to others
● stimuli most important to the task at hand are allocated as much attention
as needed and less important stimuli are ignored

Behavior Constraint Theories

- focus on the real, or perceived, limitations imposed on the organism by the

environment.
- theories, the environment can prevent, interfere with, or limit the behaviors
of its inhabitants (Rodin & Baum, 1978; Stokols, 1978).
Brehm and Brehm (1981)
● Psychological Reactance - assert that when we feel that we have lost
control over the environment, we first experience discomfort and then
attempt to reassert our control.

Adaptation-level Theories
● Similar to stimulus load theories
● Excessive stimulation, as well as too little stimulation, is hypothesized to
have deleterious effects on emotions and behaviors.
● speak specifically of two processes that make up this relationship—the
processes of adaptation and adjustment.
● Organisms either adapt (i.e., change their response to the environment) or
they adjust, (i.e., change the environment with which they are interacting).
● Piloerection - hairs in the body are standing up pr what is called “goose
pimples”

Effects of Environmental Stress

Noise - unwanted sound and is typically characterized by intensity (e.g. decibel),

frequency (e.g.pitch), periodicity (continuous or intended duration (acute or
chronic).

Crowding - a psychological state that occurs when a person perceives the

number of people in the environment to be exceeding one’s preference.
● crowding elevates physiological stress: the longer people experience
crowding, the greater the elevations.
● For example, crowding elevates skin conductance, blood pressure, stress
hormones.
● Household crowding - an important source of chronic stress.
● Social withdrawal - coping mechanism reduced eye contact, greater
interpersonal distancing, and more pronounced inhibition in initiating a
conversation.

Poor Housing Quality - related to symptoms of subjective stress and mental

health problems: symptoms of anxiety and depression.
● Improvements in housing conditions are also associated with increases in
happiness and life satisfaction.

Poor Neighborhood Quality -

Traffic Congestion -