History

Pre-Psychology

Research related to the environment and behavior can be traced to turn of the 20th Century by non-psychologists

American Geographer F.P. Gulliver published research on “Orientation of children” in 1908(Cognitive Mapping)

Wayfinding – the process by which people navigate in their environment (Chapter 2)

Stages of development of Environmental Psychology (Gary Moore , 1987)

  1. A global exploratory stage
  2. Period of systematic differentiated and isolated research
  3. Integrated field

A global exploratory stagelate 1930’s to Early 1950’s

Characterized by explorations of dissident social scientists and environmental designers

  • Kurt Lewin’s – 1930’s “Field theory”
  • Edward Tolman 1940’s Cognitive theory of learning (cognitive maps in animals)
  • Egon Brunswik’s – 1950’s Environmental perception “Lens Model”

Edward Tolman“Cognitive maps in rats and men” (1948)

  • Dissatisfied with radical behaviorism
  • Strongly advocated to theorizing at the molar level

Egon Brunswik (30-50’s) - Focused on how the physical environmental affected behavior

  • First used the term “environmental psychology in 1934
  • Advocated using a wider array of environmental stimuli than psychologist of that time
  • Develop the “Lens Model” describing environmental perception

Systematic Differentiation stage - Characterized by bodies of systematic differentiated research

Usually conducted within a single discipline by an individual or small group of related researchers

Behavior Setting Theory

Roger Barker and Herbert Wright established the Midwest Psychological Field Station in Oskaloosa, KS in 1947 (students of Kurt Lewin)

  • Set up to study the effects of the total environment on child development
  • Develop a new method of observation for studying “Behavior Settings”
  • Called the field “Ecological Psychology”

Behavior settings are theorized entities that help explain the relationship between individuals and the social environment.

Includes both:Social rules and physical-spatial aspects

Behavior of people in these environments is more similar than the behavior of an individual person in different environments.

Hall’s work on Proxemics

Edward T. Hall study of proxemics or the study of spatial behavior (personal space, and territoriality) in the 1950-60’s

The Silent Language (1959) and The Hidden Dimension (1966)

Humphrey Osmond’s work on Psychiatric Ward Design (1957)

  • Sociopetal space – organization of space that encourages social interaction
  • Sociofugal space – organization of space that discourages social interactions

Influenced Robert Sommer’s work on Personal space in the 1960’s

Integrated FieldDuring the 1960-70’s the field emerged as an integrated field

  • Partly based on environmental concerns of the 1960’s and 1970’s
  • Collective interests among psychologists, sociologists and others led to the first directory of “Behavior and Environmental Design” 1965
  • First major journal of the field “Environment and Behavior” began in 1969
  • First text book on Environmental psych is published in 1974 by Ittelson and colleagues
  • The APA division of “Population and Environmental Psychology” began in 1976
  • In 1987, the first “Handbook of Environmental psychology” was published
  • New journals “Journal of Environmental psychology”
  • Graduate programs are developed in psychology and related fields
  • Emergence of International Environmental psychology research in Sweden, Japan and other countries
  • Emergence of the “Green” Revolution