Environmental Psychology Assignment

Name: Amna Amir
Roll No: BENV-18-02

Assignment
Qno1) Discuss critically the various elements that define the field of
environmental psychology?
Attention:
Understanding human behavior starts with understanding how people notice the environment. This
includes at least two kinds of stimuli:
➢ Those that involuntarily, even distractingly, command human notice, and

➢ Those places, things or ideas to which humans must voluntarily, and with some effort
(and resulting fatigue), direct their awareness.
Perception and cognitive maps:
How people image the natural and built environment has been of interest to this field from the
beginning. It has been discovered that information is stored in the brain as spatial networks called
cognitive maps. It is through these neural networks that humans know and think about the
environment, plan and carry out their plans.
Preferred environments:
People tend to seek out places where they feel competent and confident, places where they can
make sense of the environment while also being engaged with it.Being involved and wanting to
explore an environment requires
➢ Complexity and
➢ Mystery aspect etc. Complexity refers to the environment containing enough variety to
make it worth learning about. Preserving, restoring and creating a preferred
environment would increase the sense of well being and behavioural effectiveness in
humans.
Qno2) What is environmental stress, what causes this stress and how does
one cope with it?
Along with the common environmental stressors (e.g., noise, climatic extremes) some define stress
as the failure of preference, cognitive stressors as prolonged uncertainty, lack of predictability and
stimulus overload.
Causes:
Coping with stress involves a number of options. Humans can change their physical or social
settings to create more supportive environments such as family etc. which are smaller and where
humans can manage the flow of information or change the stress inducing stimuli.
How to cope up with it:
Participation:
The field of environment psychology is committed to enhancing citizen involvement in

environmental design, management and restoration efforts. It is concerned not only with promoting
citizen comprehension of environmental issues but with insuring their early and genuine
participation in the design, modification and management of environments.
Conservation behavior:
The field has also played a major role in bringing psychological knowledge to bear upon the
issue of developing an ecologically sustainable society. It explores environmental attitudes,
perceptions and values as well as devise intervention techniques for promoting environmentally
appropriate behavior.
Qno3) What are the impacts of the environment on humans and impact
on the environment by the humans?
Impacts of the Environment on Humans:

➢ A large number of psychological and other effects of physical environments on human
beings are assumed or expected and have been empirically demonstrated. Some of these
effects are relatively direct, whereas others are modified by person characteristics and
mediated by intraperson psychological processes. The social environment is another
mediator of effects of the physical environment.
➢ A complementary research focus which more recently has attracted attention is the study
of beneficial effects of environments, for instance, the restorative (Kaplan and Kaplan
1989) and stress reducing potentials of the natural environment (Ulrich 1983). The
recurrent finding that sensory deprivation may have positive effects (Suedfeld 1980) bears
theoretically on this current research with important practical implications.
Impacts on the Environment by Humans:

➢ Since the early 1990s the scope of environmental psychology has broadened to include the
study of methods to promote pro environmental behaviors so that the detrimental impacts
of people on the physical environment may be significantly reduced (Stem 1992).
Extending a conceptual framework proposed by Russell and Ward (1982), a possible
integration of this new research focus in environmental psychology with the traditional
ones may be achieved.
➢ Forced or unforced choice of the environment has psychological consequences for the
person. At the same time these choices have impacts on the environment, frequently
negative when they are aggregated across many people. Sometimes there are regulatory
feedback loops, such as when, for instance, crowding in an environment reaches intolerable
levels.
Qno4) What does future hold for environmental psychology?

There are few reasons to believe that the current environmental problems of pollution and resource
overuse will soon be solved. It is more likely that demand will increase on environmental
psychology to contribute to solutions. Acceptance of new sustainable technologies such as zero-
emission vehicles is one salient research focus in the future. One may also see more collaboration
with economists, political scientists, and sociologists in developing effective methods for
promoting pro environmental behaviors .The design of intelligent buildings with many
automatically performed functions poses new research tasks in the immediate future. Although
these new features are basically of benefit to users, people may still react negatively because of
loss of perceived control. Also, automatic control may not always work so users must know how
to take over.

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Name: Amna Amir

Roll No: BENV-18-02

➢ Those that involuntarily, even distractingly, command human notice, and

Perception and cognitive maps:

How to cope up with it:

The field of environment psychology is committed to enhancing citizen involvement in

Impacts of the Environment on Humans:

Impacts on the Environment by Humans:

Qno4) What does future hold for environmental psychology?

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