Community Environmental Psychology

Abstract

Research in community and environmental psychology emphasizes the powerful role of the everyday social settings where individuals live, work, and learn in shaping human development and behavior. The historical roots of research on social settings trace to Lewin's field theory and Barker's ecological psychology. Social settings can be described in terms of three underlying sets of social climate dimensions: relationship dimensions, personal growth or goal-oriented dimensions, and system maintenance and change dimensions. Relationship dimensions assess the quality of personal relationships in a setting; personal growth or goal-orientation dimensions tap the directions in which an environment encourages personal change and development; system maintenance and change dimensions measure how orderly and organized a setting is and how much control is maintained. Research findings on social settings may be organized according to four social ecological principles: environmental press, setting interdependencies, matching models, and a transactional view. Environmental press and setting interdependencies describe how social settings affect behavior. Matching models and a transactional view describe the dynamic interplay between individuals and social settings.