Table Of ContentENVIRONMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
ENVIRONMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
A Psycho-social Introduction
Mirilia Bonnes and
Gianfranco Secchiaroli
translated by
Claire Montagna
SAGE Publications
London · Thousand Oaks · New Delhi
English translation © Sage Publications 1995
First published in English 1995
Originally published in Italian as Psicologia Ambientale
© La Nuova Italia Scientifica, Rome 1992
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Contents
Preface viii
Part I The Origin and Theoretical Roots of Environmental
Psychology 1
1 The Origin of Environmental Psychology 1
The main 'founding stages' of environmental psychology 1
The origin of the field: the importance of external factors 3
The interest of the architectural field and architectural
psychology 3
The interest of the geographic field and behavioural
geography 11
The ecological-naturalistic field, environmental problems
and the UNESCO MAB (Man and Biosphere)
programme 14
2 Environmental Psychology and Psychological Tradition 20
The spatio-physical environment in the psychological
tradition and the 'ecological demand' 20
The spatio-physical environment in the tradition of the
psychology of perception 22
From the Gestalt school to the 'New Look' schools 22
Brunswik's probabilistic theory: the 'lens model' 25
Gibson's ecological theory 28
The transactional school 33
The spatio-physical environment in the tradition of social
psychology 38
Kurt Lewin and psychological ecology 38
Field theory and psychological ecology 38
The 'channel theory' and the psychology of the
'gatekeeper' 42
Roger Barker et al.'s ecological psychology 45
The Oskaloosa observation station 45
The behaviour setting and the theory of
'undermanning' 47
Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological approach 53
vi Contents
Part II Directions of Present-Day Environmental Psychology 59
3 Characterization of the Field 59
Emergence of the field and its characteristics 59
Attention to the spatio-physical characteristics of the
environment 60
Methodological characteristics 60
Social relevance 61
Interdisciplinary orientation 62
Definition of the field of interest 63
The spatio-physical environment in present-day
environmental psychology: identifying the paradigm 68
4 Main Research Topics 73
The spatio-physical dimension of behaviour 78
Behaviour as response to the physical characteristics of
the environment 79
Spatial behaviour 83
Personal space 84
Territoriality 87
Privacy 93
Behaviours, disturbing environmental features,
environmental stress 96
Light, noise, temperature 97
Environmental stress 101
Processes of environmental evaluation and knowledge 108
Environmental evaluation 110
Personality and environment 111
Environmental attitudes 114
The evaluation of environmental qualities 122
Knowing the environment 132
Environmental perception 132
The 'cognitive map' as a response to the spatial
organization of the physical environment 137
The cognition/representation of socio-physical
environments 143
5 Paradigms and Psycho-social Constructs in Present-Day
Environmental Psychology 149
Plurality and convergence of paradigms 149
Main psycho-social constructs 152
Person-environment transactions 152
The transactional-contextual perspective 152
Person-environment transactions 157
From behaviour setting to place 161
Contents vii
Tlace-specific' behaviour and the phenomenological
contributions to place 161
Revision of behaviour setting in the direction of place 167
Place according to David Canter 170
Social representations of place 174
Social imageability, place-dependence and social
representations of place 174
Social representations of place in the urban
environment: some research results 180
Place identity 186
Place identity as cognitive system and its functions 188
The social dimension of place identity 189
From intra-place to multi-place 192
References 198
Index 221
Preface
The purpose of this book is to outline a psycho-social introduction to the
field of environmental psychology, which has developed over the past
twenty years and is now well-established at the international level (see
Stokols and Altman, 1987).
This volume points out that environmental psychology is first of all a
frontier field in psychological research aimed at collaborating with other
fields, both disciplinary and technical, involved in organizing, changing
and managing the human physical environment, such as architecture,
geography, ecological natural sciences (biological and physical), economy,
law, etc.
The first aim of the book is to bring the specific demands existing
outside psychology within the psychological tradition. In particular, it is
pointed out that many of the main questions environmental psychology is
trying to answer today have a long tradition of research in psychology.
Special reference is made to two main theoretical traditions: the psych-
ology of perception-cognition, on the one hand, and social psychology, on
the other.
It is emphasized that this second tradition seems to provide the most
appropriate conceptual and methodological tools for the development of
environmental psychology and for bringing psychological research into
the 'real world' so often indicated as one of the major objectives of
environmental psychology.
It is also pointed out that environmental psychology has been moving
towards the psycho-social perspective since its inception. This perspective
is also indicated as the most appropriate one for enabling environmental
psychology not only to answer 'external questions', but also to become a
theoretically relevant reference point within the psychological field for
overcoming the misleading opposition between 'basic research' and
'applied research'.
This volume gives an informative picture of the main working themes of
environmental psychology today and investigates the psychological
tradition to discover how this new domain of psychological research can
develop with both external and internal relevance, finally putting into
practice the well-known Lewinian intention of carrying out research that is
at the same time 'theoretically meaningful and socially useful.
PART I
THE ORIGIN AND THEORETICAL
ROOTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
1
The Origin of Environmental Psychology
The main 'founding stages' of environmental psychology
A new area developed within the field of psychology at the end of the
1950s, and during the 1960s which was termed 'environmental psychology'
in the United States. Definition of this new field of psychological research
proceeded with some effort; initial interest in the physical characteristics of
the environment (Proshansky et al., 1979) developed into the larger issue
of 'the interface between human behaviour and the sociophysical environ-
ment' (Stokols, 1978; Stokols and Altman, 1987) (see pp. 63-8).
Many factors, originating in many different countries, contributed to the
emergence of this area of study. However, from the very beginning,
environmental psychology (e.p.) found its homeland in the United States
due to the many and systematic initiatives taken there which were aimed at
its foundation and development.
One of the most important initiatives was taken in 1958 with the
formation of a research group by William Ittelson and Harold Proshansky
at the City University of New York. Financial support came from the
United States National Institute of Mental Health. The purpose of this
group was to study how the spatial/architectural setting of a psychiatric
hospital can affect patients' behaviour. One of the first works produced by
the group was entitled 'Some Factors Influencing the Design and Function
of Psychiatric Facilities' (Ittelson, 1960). Ittelson also introduced the term
'environmental psychology' for the first time in New York in 1964 at the
Conference of the American Hospital Association on hospital planning.
His presentation was entitled 'Environmental Psychology and Architec-
tural Planning'.
Over the next eight or nine years, the group continued to work in this
