Environmental Psychology

Abstract

AbstractThis review of environmental psychology looks to the past, present, and future of this growing and important area of psychology. The environment, far from being a silent witness to human actions, is an integral part of the plot. The interdisciplinary origins and applied emphasis of environmental psychology have both conspired to prevent a straightforward and uncontentious definition of the discipline. Recent definitions adopt an inclusive, holistic, and transactional perspective on people‐environment relations. Various theories have been developed in environmental psychology: arousal theory, environmental load, adaptation level theory within a behaviorist and determinist paradigm; control, stress adaptation, behavioral elasticity, cognitive mapping, and environmental evaluation within an interactionist paradigm; and behavior settings, affordance theory, and theories of place, place identity, and place attachment within transactionalism. Environmental psychology deals with people's homes, the workplaces and leisure settings, the visual impact of buildings, the negative effects of cities, the restorative role of nature, and environmental attitudes and sustainable behavior. The issues at the forefront of the political and environmental agenda at the beginning of the twenty‐first century—human rights, well‐being and quality of life, globalization, and sustainability—need to be addressed and tackled by environmental psychologists in a way that incorporates both cross‐cultural and temporal dimensions.