Theories Of Environmental Psychology Research Articles

Impact of Households’ Future Orientation and Values on Their Willingness to Install Solar Photovoltaic Systems

Solar energy is increasing in popularity as a renewable energy source, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Even though many governments promote solar energy by giving various incentives, its adoption rate in households is slow. Psychological factors have been relatively overlooked in solar adoption, despite the importance of social and economic factors. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how psychological determinants impact households’ willingness to install solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. This study focusses on the future orientation and personal values (biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic values) of households’ and their willingness to install solar PV systems. The research draws from three environmental psychology theories: values orientation theory, value beliefs and norms theory, and the theory of planned behaviour to construct an integrative theoretical model. A survey involving 179 respondents in Australia was conducted and analysed applying the PLS-SEM technique. Findings revealed that future orientation and values are significant predictors of household willingness to install solar PV systems. Further, findings showed that attitude and perceived behavioural control play a significant role in installing solar. The findings will assist policymakers and solar companies in developing lucrative policies and marketing strategies to promote solar PV systems among households.

Harnessing the therapeutic effects of nature for chronic Pain: A role for immersive virtual reality? A narrative review.

There is a growing interest in the relationship between nature and pain relief. Evidence from environmental psychology, neuroscience and physiology-based studies point towards analgesic effects of nature being mediated through various cognitive, affective and/or autonomic factors. Being able to harness these therapeutic effects using immersive virtual reality (VR) could help to optimize and improve accessibility of nature-based environments as part of chronic pain management plans. In this narrative review, we present evidence supporting a new theoretical framework for nature-based analgesia and suggest ways for applying this through immersive VR. We provide an overview of the evidence on (1) the therapeutic effects of nature on pain, (2) environmental psychology theory that underpins the health benefits of nature, (3) key mechanistic evidence from nature neuroimaging and physiology-based studies, (4) previous studies that have used VR-based nature in pain research and (5) how to design effective VR interventions that can be used to integrate nature into immersive 360 environments. We have demonstrated how environmental psychology, neuroscience and physiology-based research can be used to form a novel theoretical framework for nature-based analgesia. Using this framework, we identify how key aspects of nature can act as analgesic and how this can be harnessed using immersive VR. Through developing this theoretical framework, we have provided a foundation on which to guide future experimental and clinical studies as well as helping to improve the accessibility of nature for chronic pain patients through immersive VR technologies. This review article summarizes key multidisciplinary evidence to help understand how nature exerts beneficial effects on pain processing. The use of this theoretical framework alongside advances in immersive VR technologies provides a springboard for future research and can be used to help develop new nature-based therapeutics using VR.

Influence of Hotel Design on Guest Experience and Satisfaction in Kenya

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the influence of hotel design on guest experience and satisfaction in Kenya. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low-cost advantage as compared to field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The study indicated that aesthetic appeal, functionality, and comfort of hotel interiors significantly contribute to guest satisfaction. Elements such as room layout, furniture design, lighting, and color schemes can create a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere, enhancing the perceived quality of the stay. Additionally, common areas like lobbies, restaurants, and recreational facilities also impact guests' first impressions and ongoing experiences. The design must cater to diverse guest needs, offering both communal and private spaces that facilitate social interactions and personal relaxation. Moreover, incorporating local culture and unique design elements can provide a memorable and authentic experience, further boosting guest satisfaction. Sustainable and eco-friendly design practices are increasingly valued by guests, reflecting their growing environmental consciousness. Overall, a well-thought-out hotel design can significantly enhance guest experience, leading to higher satisfaction, repeat visits, and positive reviews, which are vital for the hotel's success in a competitive market. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: Environmental psychology theory, services cape theory and expectancy-disconfirmation theory may be used to anchor future studies on assessing the influence of hotel design on guest experience and satisfaction in Kenya. Hotels should prioritize investing in visually appealing and unique design elements, especially in common areas like lobbies. Policymakers should encourage and incentivize sustainable design practices in the hospitality industry.

Modeling User Intentions for Electric Vehicle Adoption in Thailand: Incorporating Multilayer Preference Heterogeneity

Background: The automotive industry is pivotal in advancing sustainability, with electric vehicles (EVs) essential for reducing emissions and promoting cleaner transport. This study examines the determinants of EV adoption intentions in Thailand, integrating demographic and psychographic factors from Environmental psychology and innovation diffusion theory; Methods: Data from a structured questionnaire, administered to 4003 respondents at gas stations with EV charging facilities across Thailand, were analyzed using a Correlated Mixed-Ordered Probit Model with Heterogeneity in Means (CMOPMHM); Results: Findings indicate that younger adults, particularly those aged 25–34 years old and 45–54 years old, are more likely to adopt EVs, whereas conventional or hybrid vehicle owners are less inclined. Rural residency or travel also hinders adoption. Individuals with strong environmental values and openness to new technologies are more likely to adopt EVs; Conclusions: The proposed model quantified the relative importance of these factors and uncovered heterogeneity in user preferences, offering reliable and valuable insights for policymakers, EV manufacturers, and researchers. The study suggests targeted policies and enhanced charging infrastructure, especially in rural areas, and recommends leveraging environmental values and trialability through communication campaigns and test drive events. These insights can guide the development of targeted incentives, infrastructure expansion, communication strategies, and trialability programs to effectively promote wider EV adoption in Thailand and similar markets.

Penerapan Bentuk Dinamis Dalam Membangun Suasana Pada Ruang Tunggu RSUD Pandega Pangandaran

The interior design of hospital waiting rooms plays a crucial role in providing comfort and reducing stress for patients and visitors. In a medical environment, the psychological and physical factors of waiting room design can significantly impact the overall user experience. This study aims to explore and implement dynamic design forms in the waiting room of RSUD Pandega Pangandaran to enhance user experience quality. The methodology employed in this research includes field observations to understand the existing conditions, in-depth interviews with users to identify their needs and preferences, and a comprehensive literature review on dynamic interior design, ergonomic principles, and environmental psychology theories. The findings of the study indicate that the use of dynamic forms, combined with soothing color elements, optimal natural and artificial lighting, and ergonomic and flexible furniture arrangements, can significantly improve the comfort and satisfaction of waiting room users. This study emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach in designing hospital waiting rooms that not only focuses on aesthetics but also on functional and psychological aspects to create a more humane environment that supports the healing process

Unveiling the e-Servicescape of ChatGPT: Exploring User Psychology and Engagement in AI-Powered Chatbot Experiences.

This study explores the psychological motivations that drive ChatGPT users to embrace and sustain the use of such technology based on the fundamental notion of the environmental psychology theory, including servicescapes. To do so, this study delves into the influence of ChatGPT's e-servicescapes on users' emotional states and intention to engage with ChatGPT for decision-making processes. This study conducted an online survey among ChatGPT users in the United States. Structural equation modeling revealed that negative emotions were significantly influenced by various e-servicescape sub-dimensions, including security, visual appeal, entertainment value, originality of design, and social factors. Positive emotions, on the other hand, were influenced by factors such as visual appeal, customization, interactivity, and relevance of information. Both positive and negative emotions significantly affected user satisfaction, which, in turn, shaped their behavioral intention to engage with ChatGPT. This study contributes to the understanding of digital environmental psychology and chatbots by extending the notion of e-servicescapes to the context of AI-based services. It underscores the significance of e-servicescapes in shaping user experiences and provides valuable insights for business scholars and marketing practitioners.

Research on Range of Appropriate Spatial Scale of Underground Commercial Street Based on Psychological Perception Evaluation

Developing and utilizing underground space is a vital direction for urban growth. Underground commercial streets, as a significant component of underground space accommodating extensive human social activities, consequently necessitate the creation of human-scale spaces. In the evolution of urban design development towards more significant, more terrific refinement, applying architectural theories and excessively subjective designs has resulted in a deficient human-centered design and a disordered spatial environment. This study merges environmental psychology and architectural theory to determine the appropriate length of spatial scale. Two experiments focusing on spatial perception evaluation were conducted using a virtual experimental platform that featured varying dimensions of spatial scale combinations. These quantified combinations were correlated with the perception evaluation, and a regression analysis was employed to identify appropriate scale ranges, which were superimposed with the range of length selection. Finally, the optimal length and scale combination for underground commercial street spaces was established, providing a reference for the human-centered design of these environments.

The Impact of Public Art Installations on Urban Recreation Spaces

Purpose: This study sought to examine the impact of public art installations on urban recreation sports. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to public art installations on urban recreation sports. Preliminary empirical review revealed that public art installations significantly enhanced the aesthetic appeal, social cohesion, cultural vibrancy, and economic vitality of urban recreation spaces. Through a comprehensive analysis of literature and empirical studies, it was found that artworks such as sculptures, murals, and interactive installations transformed urban environments into dynamic and engaging settings, fostering a sense of place and community identity. Moreover, public art installations promoted social interaction, community engagement, and economic activity, attracting visitors and stimulating commercial development. The study emphasized the importance of sustainable and inclusive approaches to public art planning and programming to maximize its positive impact on urban environments. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Environmental Psychology theory, Placemaking theory and Cultural Ecosysem Services theory may be used to anchor future studies on public art installations. The study suggested further research to deepen theoretical understanding and interdisciplinary frameworks for analyzing the role of public art. Practical implications included integrating public art into placemaking strategies, prioritizing community engagement, and adopting sustainable practices. Policy recommendations called for supportive frameworks, resource allocation, and awareness-building efforts to promote the social, cultural, and economic benefits of public art. Additionally, the study emphasized the importance of evaluation, community capacity building, and professional development to strengthen the implementation and impact of public art initiatives in urban recreation spaces.

Natural landscape performance: Environmental restorativeness and its influence on tourist behavior

AbstractThis study uses environmental psychology theory to explore creative natural landscape performance (NLP), a form of tourism performing arts that combines natural beauty and cultural resources. Tourists who had experienced an NLP during the previous 2 years were surveyed, and 408 valid responses were collected through this online survey. The findings indicate that the natural setting of NLPs possesses the key characteristics of restorative environments. Further, the five dimensions of a restorative environment positively affect favorable emotions (i.e., happy, excited, relaxed) in the order of compatibility, being away, fascination, scope, and coherence of the performance. Positive emotions have a positive and substantial influence on the quality of the experience and its perceived flow. Additionally, quality of experience and perceived flow has direct and positive impacts on loyalty. Therefore, this study suggests utilizing and improving natural environments' restorative qualities to enhance NLPs for tourists and foster destination loyalty based on this.

Environmental Design of Psychological Counseling Room Based on Environmental Psychology Theory

The fierce competition in modern society has brought great pressure on people, resulting in increasingly serious mental health problems. Due to the relatively late development of psychological counseling services in China, the construction of psychological counseling rooms is still in its infancy, and there are few achievements in studying psychological counseling rooms from the perspective of environmental psychology. Environmental psychology is a discipline that studies the relationship between man and the environment, and it pays attention to the influence of the environment on man's psychology, behavior, and cognition. In the field of psychological counseling, the application of environmental psychology theory is of great significance to improve the effect of psychological counseling. Based on environmental psychology, this paper discusses the importance of the environmental design of a psychological consultation room. By analyzing the space layout, privacy protection, atmosphere building, science and technology integration, green elements, and barrier-free design, this paper puts forward a design scheme for a psychological consultation room that is more in line with humanistic needs. This scheme aims to create a comfortable, safe, and efficient psychological counseling environment for visitors and improve the effect of psychological counseling.

Impact of Biophilic Design on Supporting Metacognitive Thinking in Early Childhood in Childcare Centers

It is widely known how modern life from activities, games, and technologies has consumed children’s lives and attention, distracting them from the natural environment and its benefits. Moreover, although childcare centers are nowadays considered one of the primary environments where children spend most of their time, a child-nature connection is not much considered in their designs, giving more attention to technologies and artificial life. Environmental psychology theories declare that children are greatly affected by the surrounding physical environments, emphasizing nature as the richest environment that can feed their cognition and enhance their thinking skills, creativity, and development. A wealth of research studied the effect of nature-connected environments through biophilic design on children’s physical and psychological developmental aspects (226,975 articles since 2000). However, less concern is given to the cognitive development aspect (only 18.75% of the total), with a gap in terms of metacognition as a kind of high-order thinking. Metacognition enhances children's behavior and high-order thinking skills such as reflective thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the role of biophilic design in supporting metacognition in young children by conducting a multidisciplinary study that addresses the four theories Biophilic, Attention Restoration, Froebel’s theory, and Metacognition. The aim of this paper was achieved, firstly, by conducting a structured literature review in a multidisciplinary approach in Architectural, Environmental Psychology, Educational, and Cognitive Psychology fields using academic databases such as Elsevier, Scopus, Research Gate, and Academia. Secondly, analyzing the gathered data and the interrelations between the previously mentioned four selected theories. This paper’s findings show three conclusions; firstly, a restorative environment supports metacognition by stimulating reflective thinking and developing skills. Secondly, biophilic design’s attributes fulfill the factors for creating a restorative environment. Thirdly, specific metacognitive skills are supported by certain biophilic attributes. This paper revisits the design criteria for childcare centers providing a framework and a guideline abstracted from the biophilic approach for supporting children’s development and metacognition.

Exploring mechanisms affecting environmental risk coping behaviors: evidence from China.

Environmental risk issues pose athreat to human life and well-being. In order to reduce environmental risks, environmental risk response strategies have become increasingly vital. As the group most affected by environmental risks, the public environmental risk coping behaviors affect the effectiveness of environmental risk management. However, the public adoption of such behaviors mainly depends on their willingness. Therefore, the key to effective governance lies in guiding the public to voluntarily adopt appropriate environmental risk coping behaviors. The theory of environmental psychology provides relevant references for this. The internal psychological motivations of the public (including attitudes and subjective normsetc.) affect their choices of environmental risk behavior. The main purpose of this research is to explore the determinants underlying environmental risk coping behaviors using extending the theory of planned behavior by additional constructs (trust, risk perception, interaction satisfaction). The research applies aquestionnaire survey method to collect data from the public living in the vicinity of two locations in China-an industrial area and a waste incineration plant in a Chinese city. The result of SEM shows that the public's trust in governments has a positive influence on the intention to collaborate, while the public's trust in the government and enterprises is negatively correlated with their intention to engage in confrontational behavior. Also, there is a positive correlation between confrontational intention and confrontational behavior, while theintention to cooperate may not necessarily result in collaborative behavior. Risk perception is not related to trust and theintention to collaborate, but it positively affects theintention to confront. The reason for the public to willingly take collaborative actions is not because they have perceived ahigh level of risk, and the public's high trust in the government can enhance their intention to take collaborative actions. It is thus clear that government credibility plays an important guiding role in public risk responsive behavior. The research findings provide policy recommendations for guiding public environmental risk coping behavior.

Visual Aesthetic Quotient: Establishing the Effects of Computational Aesthetic Measures for Servicescape Design

Visual aesthetics play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining customers in service environments. Building on theories of environmental psychology, this study introduces a novel and comprehensive aesthetic measure for evaluating servicescape design, which is called as the “visual aesthetic quotient” (VAQ). This measure is presented as the ratio of the dimensions of order and complexity in servicescape's visual design, and it aims to provide an objective and holistic approach of servicescape design evaluation. In addition, we introduce and validate a pioneering method for quantifying order and complexity objectively using algorithmic models applied to servicescape images. We investigated and established the influence of the VAQ on the perceived attractiveness of servicescapes, developing its role further in this context. The entire approach was comprehensively and rigorously examined using four studies (social media analytics, eye-tracking, a field experiment, and an experimental design), contributing to conceptual advancement and empirical testing. This study provides a novel, computational, objective, and holistic aesthetic measure for effective servicescape design management by validating computational aesthetic measures and establishing their role in influencing servicescape attractiveness; testing the mediation of processing fluency and pleasure; and examining the moderating effects of service context.

Automatic generation of virtual architecture using user activities in metaverse

Recently, architectural offices and IT companies have undertaken projects to build and sell cities in metaverses. However, it is considered inefficient to undertake such construction individually, building-by-building, using 3D modeling techniques. Fortunately, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) offers a breakthrough solution. This paper proposes a method of automatic generation of architectural spaces that is based on user activities in a metaverse and that can analyze users' perceptions of such spaces. To this end, in the present study, by referencing the theory of environmental psychology, we constructed a theoretical framework that can quantitatively analyze activities, based on which, we developed a metaverse space. Architectural space images were produced based on grammatical rules, which converted the analysis results into text, as well as a deep-learning-based text-to-image generator. Twenty participants responded to two questionnaires on their perceptions and opinions after participating in the metaverse experience and after receiving the architectural space image. Consequently, we analyzed the users' opinions on the architectural space created using the data they provided. Further, we reviewed the validity of the architectural design of the virtual space created using the proposed approach and explored the possibilities of its future utilization.

The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Paradigm as a Guiding Principle in Environmental Psychology: Comparison of its Usage in Consumer Behavior and Organizational Culture and Leadership Theory

The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm developed by Mehrabian and Russell in 1974 is a guiding principle of environmental psychology theory and transferred from consumer behavior to organizational behavior and leadership studies. The S-O-R model suggests that an organism’s internal feelings or Behavior (person) are caused by the external environment (stimuli). This internal processing of the activation can be conscious or unconscious and includes perceptions and environmental interpretations that influence someone’s feelings. This influence further triggers an emotion that leads to a response and decision-making. The S-O-R paradigm is a leading concept in multiple global management theories and is, therefore, a model mainly developed and used in various research fields. This paper presents an analysis in the form of a scoping literature review of prior and current research dimensions of the S-O-R model in branding and consumer behavior theory. It compares the usage of the model in branding theory to the usage in organizational Behavior and leadership theory. Besides a summary of similarities of the same model used in both research fields, three main differencing correlations and characteristics have been developed and described. The main differencing factors are the motivation and aim of usage of the model itself, the process and relation of the stimuli-organism-reaction stages, and certain moderating variables and influencing factors throughout the decision-making process, such as marketing, branding on the one hand or leadership and organizational culture on the other hand.

대학 캠퍼스 네거티브 공간디자인 특성이 학생들의 스트레스 회복에 미치는 영향

The campus negative space studied in this article is the preferred space for students with high psychological pressure to engage in negative behaviors such as solitude, suicide, or crime. Therefore, this study is based on multiple disciplines such as spatial design, landscape design, environmental psychology, and stress reduction theory to explore the psychological impact of negative campus spatial design characteristics on students. Objective: To analyze the relationship between the impact of psychological stress recovery. A representative Beijing Forestry University (BJFU) in China was selected as the survey venue to conduct a questionnaire survey on students. The questionnaire survey is divided into two parts. The first questionnaire survey aims to extract important design feature elements of negative space as research variables, providing a foundation for the next survey. The second questionnaire survey aims to analyze the impact of the design characteristics of campus negative space on students' psychological stress recovery. The results of regression analysis using SPSS21.0 and AMOS24.0 statistical tools on the collected data show that the naturalness, aesthetics, safety, culture, and spatiality of campus negative space have a statistically significant impact on stress recovery in sequence. Finally, based on the results of this study, design suggestions for the negative space on campus were proposed and compiled into charts. This study not only promotes the development of campus space design in universities, but also provides theoretical reference for the recovery of student stress, which has important research significance.

Sustainability pedagogy: Understanding, exploring and internalizing nature's complexity and coherence.

Online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has affected student academic performance as well as mental, physical, and social wellbeing. During a lockdown at the University of Toronto in Canada (September 2020-April 2021), my students expressed an underlying sense of monotony yet uncertainty. I recalled a contrasting paradox from the teachings of Indigenous Cree on mental wellness in land-based experiences: a sense of stimulation and security that we can liken to variations of Appleton's prospect-refuge theory. I modified my Environmental Science and Pathways to Sustainability course to support stimulation and security through embodied, interactive pedagogy at student-selected individual field sites. My main goals were to (i) support student mental wellness and (ii) provide an alternative to experiential field trips for understanding and connecting with nature as an adaptive complex system. I prompted students with field activities contextualized by a course narrative that purposefully directed attention to nature through intrinsically motivated curiosity, exploration, and discovery; conditions more similar to evolutionary environments of adaptedness than "getting away" in passive retreats. Student weekly field observations and reflections culminated in a post-intervention Reflection Assignment (n = 15) which became the bases of thematic and narrative analysis. Other assignments were added to my evaluation of complexity comprehension. The intervention successfully instilled security and stimulation via purpose-directed attention to different aspects of nature in the same setting followed by periods of knowledge integration. This empowered students with sustainability mindsets indicated by greater self-reported: sense of coherence, change agency, cognitive and affective restoration, nature connectedness, nature relatedness, social connectedness, and pro-environmental values. Assignments demonstrated an understanding of the environment as an adaptive complex system that was not present at the beginning of the course. Some students' self-construct adopted nature and its complexity, empowering them with greater trait resilience. This work speaks to opportunities for merging psychological restoration and analytical curricula by integrating cognitive and sensory meaningfulness in sustainability narratives. It asks scholars to reflect on how we operationalize foundational theories of Environmental Psychology based on ancestral survival conditions and encourages empirical research to consider how sociocultural contexts can direct attention to nature through purposeful inquiry.

Are environmental conditions in the eyes of the beholder? Foreign and local firms in Africa

ABSTRACT International business research has provided substantial empirical evidence that foreign firms investing in countries with adverse environmental conditions may emerge as the main competitors in those countries. Against this backdrop, the dominance of local banks in Nigeria is puzzling. Our exploratory study, designed to investigate this inconsistency, revealed that managers of foreign and local banks perceive Nigeria’s environmental resources differently and, consequently, respond to them with different strategic choices that lead to different performance outcomes. Building on environmental psychology theory, we theorize the mechanisms by which foreignness affects perceptions and the ways in which these perceptions guide strategic choices. The study makes novel contributions to IB theory by blending insights from environmental psychology with theories of international business and employing individual-level analysis to supplement the firm-level analyses that have dominated preceding studies. The research enabled us to shed light on different explanatory variables than those commonly employed in international business research and to explain the puzzle that triggered our interest.

Research on the space design strategy of college classrooms based on positive emotion and learning happiness experience

Traditional education mostly guides students’ learning through teachers’ words and deeds, while ignoring the spatial environment of learning is another kind of subtle education. The experiment was conducted with 66 students, 84 class hours, and 5544 action tracking data. Based on environmental psychology theory and teaching practice, this paper proposes a space design strategy for college classrooms to stimulate positive emotions and learning happiness: the Harkness round table model, which stimulates the willingness to communicate, responds to the flexible layout of different teaching situations and the ablation of classroom boundaries.

Analysis of Residential Space Design Methods for Young People with Depression

Depression has become the primary mental illness faced by young people today. From the academic point of view, the living space design of young people with depression belongs to a kind of humanized space design for special population. The direction of this research is to create an indoor living space suitable for depressed patients through the analysis of the current situation of the depressed youth group, combined with the theories of environmental psychology, space design techniques and so on. The purpose is to enhance the happiness index of young people with depression, so as to realize the innovation of living space design and improve the living environment of them.