Environmental Psychology is the study of people and the environments they inhabit. Whether a “nature” setting like the woods or the beach, or a built environment like a school, office or restaurant, hospital or park. I have a B.A. in psychology, so I consider myself “informationally” qualified to assert that Environmental Psychology (or Environmental Social Science) is an evolved form of Psychology.
Environmental Psychology is the ONLY social science field to develop wholly interdisciplinary tools with which to consider the transactional relationship and effect that place and spaces have on human physiology, psychology and behavior. Because we are an interdisciplinary social science, our methods, language and theoretical foundation allow us to work closely with many other fields: anthropology, sociology, architecture, geography, urban studies, women’s studies, political science, landscape design, information science and more.
Wherever there are people, there is a place; and whatever field studies either of those two actors, environmental psychology can deepen the inquiry.
Environmental Psychologists study everything about people in places: the ways that people learn, comprehend and conceptualize the layout, location and rules of their space; furthermore, we take a sophisticated approach to the way people [learn to] navigate through, behave in, or relate to people and objects within their environment.
You will find Environmental Psychologists working in any field that accounts for people in places, or in discourses which intersect environment and psychology, emotion, culture, embodiment, activism, power relations and hegemony, and more.
Visit the Links page for site by fellow Environmental Psychology students. We all have varied topics, yet we are representative of the same field.
