Environmental Psychology is now officially recognised by the British Psychological Society
Published on 19 August 2024
“The new section will bring together members and aim to unite and engage the broader environmental psychology community, provide dissemination, networking, and career development opportunities, and position environmental psychology in the UK as a prominent advocate for positive societal and environmental change.” British Psychology Society
What is Environmental Psychology?
Environmental psychology is the scientific study of the reciprocal, transactional relationships that people share with natural and built environments.
What do Environmental Psychologists do?
Environmental Psychologists examine how humans, as individuals or groups, interact with their natural and built environments – understanding how we perceive and experience our environments, their influence on human behaviour and wellbeing, and how we affect the environments around us.
Environmental psychologists investigate a wide range of phenomena. These include questions relating to the built environment, such as understanding the impacts of the physical layout of therapeutic environments, behavioural and emotional consequences of heat, lighting and acoustics in buildings, and the implications for office, school, and hospital design.
Questions relating to the natural environment investigate the exposure, experience and psychological benefits from spending time in nature.
Environmental psychologists also explore the barriers and facilitators to engaging in pro-environmental behaviour, and people’s attitudes, emotions and behaviours towards Earth and its natural resources.
In a fast-changing world of rapid urbanisation, biodiversity loss, climate change, alternative work practices, increasing physical and mental health-issues, and evolving socio-technical systems, there is a need for environmental design decisions and policy formulation to reflect both:
- the role of the physical milieu in personal and social experiences and actions
- the psychological processes influencing the modes of transactions with all forms of physical environment.
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