General Definition

🔗 / Article

The scientific study of the transactions and interrelationships between people and their physical surroundings.

My Favourite Definitions

Just as there’s a connection between one’s mind and their body, there is also a reciprocal connection between one’s mind and their environment.

The study of how our surroundings influence our thoughts and behaviours.

The study of how we shape our built and natural environments and how they shape us.

Mind-body connection

🔗 / University of Minnesota Article

The mind-body connection explores how our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or negatively affect our biological functioning. In other words, our minds can affect how healthy our bodies are.

On the other hand, what we do with our physical body (what we eat, how much we exercise, even our posture) can impact our mental state (again positively or negatively). This results in a complex interrelationship between our minds and bodies.

Mind-environment connection

Similar to the mind-body connection, the mind-environment connection explores how our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes influence how we interact with our surroundings and how our surroundings can reciprocally impact us.

Scope of Environment

On a basic level, environment should include the built and natural spaces that surround us. A strong argument could be made that environment should also include the objects within these spaces. But, does it also include the people who surround us? Or, perhaps even the active scenarios that unfold around us?

Is there a logical way to draw boundaries between situational, environmental, and human factors?

Stanley Milgram’s Shock Study

🔗 / Milgram Experiment

When considering Stanley Milgram’s (in)famous shock study, I struggle knowing whether or not it would be appropriate to categorise some of the social and situational variables under an environmental label as well. How would one correctly answer the question “what are the environmental factors in Milgram’s shock study which influenced the degree to which participants obeyed authority?”

On the most obvious environment-related level, the lab, that this study took place in, clearly falls into the realm of what should be considered the environment.

But what about the social factors, like the authoritative figure in the lab coat sternly giving orders? The fact that he was in the participants’ environment surely had a major impact on the pressure they faced. Should he be considered a part of their environment? One could argue that he acted as social pressure, as opposed to environmental pressure. But, I wonder if this study would have had the same results if the man in the lab coat was in another room giving orders to the participants over the phone. In other words, the man in the lab coat may inherently add to the social pressure, but I would argue that the moment he was introduced into the participants’ immediate surroundings did he also add to the environmental pressure.

Similar to the debate around social variables, I wonder what would be the best way to take into consideration situational or contextual factors? For example, the fact that this was an academic experiment, where participants could regard themselves as not ultimately culpable for their actions, could potentially reveal that the reason for their obedience was because they felt a sense of diffusion of responsibility. In other words, the way that they interpreted the context of their environment likely influenced their thoughts and behaviours. So, should the concept of environment stop at what we directly perceive through our senses, or can it also include the way we internalise our environments?

Environment Equation

It’s become clear to me that there will inevitably be some overlap between environmental, situational, and social factors. In the end, my plan is to think of the environment as any property within a defined space + the context in which it resides.

Self Driving Car Analogy

Environmental psychologists are like self-driving cars. They scan their surroundings and label everything with a score of its likelihood for impact.

Psycho-Spatial Tools

How to use our spaces as tools to augment our mental fitness.

Psycho-Spatial Influence

How our surroundings influence our thoughts and behaviours.

Journal of Environmental Psychology

“The Journal of Environmental Psychology is the premier journal in the field, serving individuals in a wide range of disciplines who have an interest in the scientific study of the transactions and interrelationships between people and their surroundings (including built, social, natural and virtual environments, the use and abuse of nature and natural resources, and sustainability-related behaviour).”