Environmental Psychology

Environmental Psychology

Almost fifty years ago, it was discovered that architects wanted to provide a better environment for mental patients, and to do this they turned to psychologists for direction. Meeting with psychologists, architects found that learning and better understanding the cognitive and social behaviors of humans and how this would help them build a better structure around the patients. While expanding the knowledge that the architects were receiving, they began to use this in other areas such as color patterns, the arrangement of furniture, and even to design parks, finally to introduce what we know as environmental psychology.

Self explanatory, environmental psychology is the relationship between people and their environment or surroundings. Environmental psychology can be used in many fields of study, for example, rebuilding a community. Rebuilding a community or even a city is a very deep thought and planning process.

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Contemplation

English: WWF Camp in Tuscany. All the year childre...

The builders can lean on environmental psychologists to help them in planning the lay out and rebuild of the community as well as help architects understand how people are affected by specific arrangements or design choices. Many disciplines are drawn from environmental psychology, such as sociology and history, anthropology, architecture, and even urban design; this is to make sure that there are no gaps between a human being and their environment.

There are a many theoretical approaches in the field of environmental psychology, to name one, ecological psychology. Ecological psychology was brought to light by the works of Roger G. Barker and J.J. Gibson, both of these men considered it extremely important to learn human behavior within different or specific environments. Basically, Gibson and Barker discovered that it was almost impossible to come up with theories on the humans' behavior without knowing and understanding the environment...