Idea 4: Environmental Psychology

Environmental Psychology

Environment

–noun

1.  the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings; milieu.

2.  Ecology . the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time.

3.  the social and cultural forces that shape the life of a person or a population.

4.  Computers . the hardware or software configuration, or the mode of operation, of a computer system: In a time-sharing environment, transactions are processed as they occur.

5.  an indoor or outdoor setting that is characterized by the presence of environmental art  that is itself designed to be site-specific.

Environmental psychology is the relationship between people and their surroundings. .   Most studies relating to environmental psychology contains the examination between the environment and how that environment can affect its inhabitants.   The word environment is broadly defined and divided up as social environments, nature environments and built environments.  With my project I feel that I will be mostly working with preferred environments, were people seek out places they feel comfortable and confidant and a place were they can be engaged with the space. 

This semester I want to study women in their environment. I want to explore and capture women on film in the environment that has the most meaning to them and reflects the chaos or calmness of their everyday life. I want to use the snapshot camera to help capture the present but have the photo reflect a past era showing that times have changed but realistically haven’t that much.

Quotes

“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.”-- D.E. Alexander

“After all, as several scientists have pointed out, it is indisputable that environmental problems are social issues: They are caused by human behaviour, and they affect human lives. What is not clear, however, is the role that psychology can play in addressing the environmental situation.”-- Pelletier

Articles:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rdeyoung/envtpsych.html

http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=112&sid=e53cbeb5-2656-4545-a145-e1d38284559b%40sessionmgr113&vid=4

Annotated bibliography

D.E. Alexander and R. W. Fairbridge.   Environmental Psychology. 25 December 2010.  <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rdeyoung/envtpsych.html>.

This article was about environmental psychology and how it examines the relationship between humans and environments. 

Pelletier, Luc Karine Lavergne and Elizabeth Sharp.  Environmental Psychology and Sustainability: Comments on Topics Important for our Future.  Canadian Psychology, November 2008. <http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=112&sid=e53cbeb5-2656-4545-a145-e1d38284559b%40sessionmgr113&vid=4>.

This article is about the importance of psychology for the study of sustainability issues.  This article looks back over the past 20 years, looking at special issues on human behavior and the environmental problems and their consequences for our quality of life.