Environmental psychology: concept, tasks and problems

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Environmental psychology is a direction of psychological science, founded in 1911 by the author of the book "Geopsychics" V. Gelpakh, who studied geopsychic and bioclimatic phenomena and their influence on people. In his opinion, the landscape, weather, air humidity, flowers, etc. influence the mental state of a person. We will talk more about this section in this article.

Ecopsychology priorities

Even in the last century, G. Proshansky developed three main priorities of environmental psychology: natural, civilizational and cultural ways of interaction between man and nature. They regulate behavior and social interaction.

In other words, ecopsychology is the psychology of our environment. There are two understandings of this science:

• the impact of the environment on the individual and society as a whole;
• the impact of ecopsychology on the living space around us - as a separatetaken housing, and the planet as a whole.

Subsections of Ecopsychology

One of the many concepts of environmental psychology is the psychotype. It means the psychological system of living space, reflecting the necessary minimum requirements for the environment.

Several subsections can be attributed to ecopsychology:

• climate psychology - the impact of climate on the psychological state of a person;
• housing psychology - operation and use of housing, its impact on the psyche;
• psychology of architecture - determination of the functions of buildings and structures and their impact on the psyche;
• psychology of the city and landscape - the correct organization of artificial gardening from the point of view of psychology;
• psychological analysis of work and leisure;
• correct organization of the extreme living environment from the point of view of psychology;
• art psychology - the study of art objects in the context of psychology.

What exactly does ecopsychology study

Ecology and psychology are quite broad concepts, their connection is very multifaceted. Based on the basis of various psychological knowledge and conducting various studies on the impact of ecology, architecture and production (ergonomics), housing on the human psyche, environmental psychology is developing and accumulating experience and material that is very useful for society.

This most interesting science deals with the direct study of environmental consciousness, in particular, the study of the peculiarities of society's perception of the environment. The subject of environmental psychology is alsois a study of the motivation of environmental behavior in the context of harm or benefit, and the psychological consequences of environmental problems, for example, mental disorders, rising crime rates.

It is because of the coverage of the most important social problems that ecopsychology has become an integral part of applied psychology.

Problems of Ecopsychology

All kinds of research in environmental pedagogy and psychology are more relevant than ever in our time, because overcoming the environmental crisis requires solving the following problems:

• identifying the features of human perception of the environment and its negative factors affecting the psyche;
• identifying the psychological motives of people who are both responsible and irresponsible towards the environment;
• analysis of the consequences of the ecological crisis from the point of view of psychology and psychosomatics;
• development of propaganda for environmental protection, as well as ways to convey to society the real environmental situation in the world.

The development of all kinds of environmental and technical projects that directly or indirectly affect the environment should be subject to detailed analysis and professional expertise.

Diversity of views on ecopsychology

Some scientists say that ecopsychology studies the relationship of a person with the environment. Others argue that ecopsychology studies the interaction of the human psyche with a variable environment. Still others believe that ecopsychology studiesthe connection between the material environment of the environment and the individual.

D. Gold coined the term environment. This is the most comprehensive and complete set of both physical and socio-cultural circumstances and conditions that make up the human environment. In ecopsychology, there are a number of unresolved issues that are associated with human perception of the environment, as well as adaptation and behavior in it, accompanied by all sorts of emotional and volitional processes. Gold argues that a person mainly interacts with the environment through such phenomena of the psychology of environmental consciousness as perception and cognition.

Cognitiveness and Perception

Cognition is one of the processes of the psyche that helps people receive, store, interpret and use information. Cognitiveness includes such processes as sensation, discrimination, memorization, imagination, reasoning, making important decisions. All these concepts are based on human behavior and life experience.

The concept of perception is narrower. It means a holistic reflection of situations, objects and events that occur when various external factors act on receptor stimuli. With the help of perception, a direct-sensory orientation in the environment occurs. With the help of perception, a person translates various sensory indicators into ordered information.

Domestic Ecopsychology

In domestic pedagogy, many attempts are being made to understand environmental problems in psychology, to highlight its motives and functions. S. D. Deryabo and V. A. Yasvin share subjects of study and concepts. These scholars distinguish ecopsychology, psychological ecology, and environmental psychology.

In domestic psychology, all these disciplines are fundamentally separated.

For example, environmental psychology studies the interaction between man and the environment, and psychological ecology studies the impact of various environmental factors on a person. The task of environmental psychology is to analyze the interaction between nature and man, and environmental psychology explores nature as an environment. Psychological ecology studies nature as an environmental factor, while ecopsychology studies it as a separate world, i.e. as a collection of certain objects of nature, considered in their uniqueness.

Subject and tasks of environmental psychology

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that at the moment there is no unambiguous and undeniable approach to the direct definition of the essence and tasks of ecopsychology, which causes certain problems and questions in concretizing the subject of its study. According to Russian psychologists S. D. Deryabo and V. A. Yasvin, the main subject of study of ecopsychology is public ecological consciousness, which is considered in the socio-genetic, functional and ontogenetic aspects.

According to the above-mentioned authors, the main areas of research in ecopsychology are the study of psycho-ecological consciousness in general, the study of the diversity of objective and subjective attitudes towards the environment, a detailed analysis of various strategies and various technologies for human interaction with the environment