What Does an Environmental Psychologist Do?

Environmental psychology is a field of applied social psychology that studies the relationship between the environment and human psychology and behavior, also known as human ecology or ecological psychology. The reason why environmental psychology has become an applied research field of social psychology is that social psychology studies the behavior of people in the social environment. From the perspective of systems theory, the natural environment and the social environment are unified. A significant impact on behavior. Although research on the environment has long attracted people's attention, environmental psychology as a discipline has been around since the 1960s.

Environmental psychology

Environmental psychology is a study of the relationship between the environment and human psychology and behavior

In the last years of the Field Research Station of Chinese and Western Psychology, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, a certain research field of environmental psychology began to emerge, and many psychologists gradually got used to identifying themselves as environmental psychologists. . Proschiski (1987) observed that many factors contributed to the differentiation of psychology from environmental psychology during this period. For example, for increasingly urgent social issues such as human rights issues, environmental issues and women's movements, researchers have turned to social psychology to address these socially disturbing issues. Unfortunately, the effects of these attempts are not obvious. Social psychologists, who have always relied on artificial laboratory research, have responded to a series of

Humans can only survive when they interact properly with the environment. You must learn to recognize the value and location of the different objects encountered in the environment. These objects (such as predators, companions, food, shelters, and dangers) are located in different places, so you must have cognitive and physical skills to travel between these places to avoid or approach these objects. According to research, images of the environment are constructed from past experience, and then these images are evoked and examined to plan the sight. These plans not only help us move around the environment, but also profoundly affect our emotional experience in the environment and the messages we can recall when we leave. In short, the ability to successfully anticipate the next step has been an important key to survival in evolutionary history. And this ability relies entirely on the ability to correctly store information about the physical environment. Spatial memory enables us to live in a world beyond the senses of today. Some scholars have pointed out that finding a way in the environment is a fairly complex activity. It involves planning, decision making, and message processing, all of which rely on the mental capacity to understand and manipulate the environment. This ability is often called spatial cognitive ability.

Lttelson pointed out that the individual is part of the perception system, and it is sometimes difficult to separate the individual from the environment in the process of perception, and that perception is determined by what the individual does in the environment. Perception is also a trade-off between speed and correctness. Perception is the core of environmental behavior, because it is the source of all environmental information. The environment stimulates the senses and provides individuals with more information than they can effectively process. Perception is different from sensation, it can be said to be the result of personal filtering process. However, they are all goals in the process of perception. Psychological perceptual representation systems help to soften this necessary transaction, that is, the ability to discern acceptable objects when perspective points or rough sensory messages change. For example, if you are driving past a farm, any large dark object moving in the distance may quickly be identified as a cow,

Before the 1970s, research in environmental psychology was still blank. Since the 1970s, a large number of psychological studies on environmental issues have emerged, and related academic journals, organizations, and personnel have also gradually developed. Environmental psychological research has achieved some results. But it should also be acknowledged that the previous research on environmental psychology is more focused on

The main purpose of environmental psychology research is to enable workers to master and improve operating methods with positive emotions and skilled techniques, to prevent production accidents and improve work efficiency; to follow human psychological activities in human-machine information transmission law. Give full play to people's subjective initiative and creativity, and avoid monotonous, nervous, anxious and other environmental discomforts. The practical significance of carrying out research on environmental psychology is very obvious. The needs of society are the main driving force for its vigorous development in recent years.

Environmental pollution and depletion of the earth's resources are the most pressing issues in the next decade. Environmental psychologists are investigating ways in which environmental behavior can be disrupted. So far, it seems that education alone is useless, suggesting that it can be effective only in limited circumstances to strengthen his basic behavioral modeling, but it may be expensive and difficult to implement.

It's just about understanding the aesthetics of the environment, such as littering and malicious destruction. The problem of pollution and resource management is more complicated because it involves other economic and social factors. Nevertheless, the problems of air and water pollution and depletion of resources are seriously threatening the health of humans and the planet and must be addressed as soon as possible. Efforts to curb air pollution have focused on urban air pollution caused by automobile exhaust and industrial waste. Research on energy issues has focused on individual behaviors such as recycling and saving energy.

Many environments are already very obvious, and its most obvious feature is the aesthetic problems caused by garbage and malicious damage. The sprawling population in the city constitutes a scene of destruction, and the natural environment is stepped up. The corruption of the old city ruins all beauty. Landscape pollution caused by garbage and malicious destruction is an unavoidable problem. Although government-related units are concerned about this issue, they do not have well-planned policies and systems to solve the problem. For the first few hundred years after the founding of the United States, the purpose of land management was only to promote the development of public land. National parks were not established until 1916 AD, and laws were passed for protection and conservation only at the end of the 21st century. The tension between economic development and environmental protection is a difficult issue of our time. Land use and resource development are more aesthetic issues. For example, a large number of felled trees will not only damage the landscape, but also damage the soil and pollute water resources, leading to a greenhouse effect climate around the world.

Carbon monoxide is the main component of automobile exhaust, and it is related to decreased attention and learning ability. Other abilities impaired by carbon monoxide include time judgment, reaction time, dexterity and alertness of the hand. Noise is a problem in many modern countries and a common complaint among urban residents. It is estimated that more than 300,000 Americans suffer from hearing loss each year due to noise, and surveys by businesses and communities have also shown that chronic exposure to noise can have adverse physical and psychological effects. Another serious problem is the damage to the ozone layer caused by chlorofluorocarbons. CFCs are propellants for refrigerants and sprayers in air conditioners and refrigerators. They are also used in the manufacture of polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride in industry. When CFCs diffuse into the atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet radiation, they will accelerate the decomposition of ozone into oxygen. A NASA report in 1988 shows that the ozone layer reduction rate in the world is about 5%. The destruction of the ozone layer will eventually lead to skin and eye cancer, cataracts, immune system disorders, smog, and damage to crops and aquatic plants. The rupture of the ozone layer also causes the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect will be exacerbated by the heavy use of petroleum and the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide not only captures thermal energy, but also causes the world's temperature to rise. At present, it is known that the melting speed of the ice caps in the north and south poles has reached an alarming level. If the greenhouse effect continues, the earth's climate will be greatly changed, the coast will be flooded, and a vast desert will appear.

Behavioral technology means science, art, skills, or crafts that are important to human behavior. The purpose of behavioral technology and the environment is to increase environmental protection behaviors, such as recycling, cleaning up garbage, saving energy, and reducing environmental damage. According to scholars' research, this technology can be divided into three categories: environmental education, reminder and reinforcement technology. The use of environmental education and reminders is often a so-called ex ante prevention strategy because they are used to promote or prevent behavior before it occurs. Post hoc strategies are fortified as a result, so that the target behavior leads to a pleasant or unpleasant event. Generally speaking, research results show that ex post strategies are more effective, and environmental education is the worst, and it is worthy of further research and discussion.