History of Environmental Psychology
Environmental psychology is concerned with the interaction of people with their built and
natural environments. Psychophysicists in the late 19th century extensively explored the notion
that factors in the environment can influence people, and behaviorists, human factors scholars,
and ergonomics researchers advanced the notion in the 20th century. The first documented use of
the term “environmental psychology” is dated to a 1964 paper, “Environmental Psychology and
Architectural Planning,” presented by psychologist William H. Ittelson at an American Hospital
Association Conference on Hospital Planning in New York. Ittelson and others were interested
in whether aspects of hospital design (e.g., private rooms vs. wards, bright vs. subdued wall
colors, seating that forced facing others across tables vs. seating against walls that allowed
distancing from others) could impact therapeutic outcomes in psychiatric and medical hospitals.
Thus, the first books on environmental psychology (Ittelson, Proshansky, and Rivlin’s 1970
Environmental Psychology and Ittelson, Proshansky, Rivlin, and Winkel’s 1974 An Introduction
to Environmental Psychology) emphasized the built environment and potential beneficial
outcomes of alternative designs. Other social scientists explored similar concepts, such as
sociologist John Zeisel in his 1975 Sociology and Architectural Design. At the same time, other
psychologists studied whether aspects of an entire community could make a difference in
behavior (e.g., Roger Barker’s 1968 Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying
the Environment of Human Behavior), and still others examined the interplay between the built
environment and social interaction (e.g., Robert Sommer’s 1969 Personal Space and 1972
Design Awareness; Irwin Altman’s 1975 The Environment and Social Behavior).
In 1970 the first Earth Day emphasized human interaction with the natural environment
and how some practices can damage that environment and alternative practices can preserve it.
Spawned by alarming evidence of damage to the natural environment (e.g., Rachel Carson’s
1962 Silent Spring) and earlier naturalists’ (e.g., John Muir, Aldo Leopold) calls for an ethic of
preservation, the environmental movement gained momentum and environmental psychology
embraced and incorporated components of it. Two of the early mergers of the built and natural
emphases were represented by Kenneth Craik and Erwin Zube’s 1976 Perceiving Environmental
Quality, and by Paul Bell, Jeffrey Fisher, and Ross Loomis’s 1978 Environmental Psychology.
Today, a course in environmental psychology can incorporate material that is applicable
to either the built or natural environment, or to both. Other labels have also emerged that
instructors might incorporate in the course. Barker’s (e.g., 1968, 1990) ecological psychology
involves a special set of principles (e.g., the behavior setting, staffing) and methods (e.g., field
observation) to study how communities or aspects of communities influence social interaction
and outcomes. Conservation psychology is a movement that emphasizes the use of
psychological principles to encourage conservation and preservation of natural resources (see
http://www.conservationpsychology.org). Ecopsychology is a movement that emphasizes
therapeutic benefits of interacting with nature (see http://www.ecopsychology.org).
References
Altman, I. (1975). The environment and social behavior. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Bell, P. A., Fisher, J. D., & Loomis, R. J. (1978). Environmental psychology. Philadelphia: W.B.
Saunders.
Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Craik, K. H., & Zube, E. H. (1976). Perceiving environmental quality: Research and
applications. New York: Plenum.
Ittelson, W. H. (1964). Environmental psychology and architectural planning. Paper presented
at the American Hospital Association Conference on Hospital Planning, New York.
Ittelson, W. H., Proshansky, H. M., Rivlin, L. G., & Winkel, G. H. (1974). An introduction to
environmental psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Proshansky, H. M., Ittelson, W. H., & Rivlin, L. G., (Eds.) (1970). Environmental psychology:
Man and his physical setting. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Sommer, R. (1969). Personal space. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Sommer, R. (1972). Design awareness. San Francisco: Rinehart Press.
Zeisel, J. (1975). Sociology and architectural design. Social Science Frontiers (6). New York:
Russell Sage Foundation.