Course Title: Environmental Psychology
Course Code: BEH332
Recommended Study Year*: 2nd/ 3rd year
No. of Credits/Term: 3
Mode of Tuition: Tutorial approach
Class Contact Hours: 3 hours per week
Instructors: Kevin H C Cheng
Brief Course Description: Environmental Psychology can be best summarized
as an interdisciplinary science that focuses (at the micro and the macro levels)
on the interplay between the environment and the people who occupies the
environment. This course requires students to understand how environmental
psychology can assist various stakes holders – including design professionals
(such as architects, interior designers, and urban planners) – to improve the
overall human environment. For instance, on a civic scale, efforts towards
improving pedestrian landscapes can increase older persons’ mobility. Color
schemes in hospitals can enhance well-being of patients and professional
health workers.
Equally important, this course will examine a) how people perceive the
environment, b) how people represent or think about the environment, and c)
how do the environment influences human behavior and cognition? Finally, to
say the least, we will study social psychological topics – topics that require at
least two people – such as personal space, territoriality, crowding and how
they affect human psychology.
Aims:
To examine the inter-relationship between human psychology, values and
preferences, the behaviours associated with them, and the resulting impacts
on the natural environment.
Learning Outcomes: This course should enable you to apply psychological
theories – broadly defined to include attitudes, values and ethics – to the
relationships between humans and the natural environment. By integrating
these theories with environmental politics and policy, you should develop an
understanding of how human psychology, preferences and values, as well as
resulting behaviour, aids or hinders solutions to environmental pollution and
natural resource problems. You should develop an awareness of how your
own thoughts and actions impact the environment (and vice versa), and you
may also acquire greater environmental concern.
Indicative Content:
Main Themes
Relevant Readings
Accounts of Human in their
environment
Bell et al., (2000), Ch. 1 & 4; Frost
(2003); Bonnes et al., 2003
Urban Development
 Personal Space and Territoriality;
Effects of High Density and Crowding;
Effects of Urban Life on the City
Bell et al., (2000), Ch. 8, 9 & 10
Dwellers
 Pollution: Noise, Toxic Hazards, &
Pollution
Bell et al., (2000), Ch. 5, 6 & 7
Architectural Design


Design in Residential and
Institutional Environments
Ecological model of aging;
Attachment theory; Identity
theory
Conservation & Sustainability
Bell et al., (2000), Ch. 12;
Wister (1989); Bonnes et al.,
2003; Carp & Carp (1984);
Kahana (1982); Lawton &
Nahemov (1973)
Gardner (1996), Ch. 3 & 4; Kaiser
et al., 1999; Bell et al., (2000), Ch.
14; Bonnes et al., 2003
Teaching Method: There are one 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial
per week. In tutorials, students are asked to give presentations and
comment on each other’s presentations. Students are required to
attend all tutorial classes. Grades will be deducted if fall to do so.
Measurement of Learning Outcomes:
Assessments
1. Reflection Paper: 10%
2. Environmental Journal: 20%
3. Field Trip Project: 40%
4. Final Examination: 30%
1. Reflection Paper (DUE 5th Feb)
Write a brief environmental autobiography. The objective of this paper
is to have you reflect on places that have been very important to you,
and the impact that those places have had on your life. Please
consider how past experiences in certain places (it can be any kind of
place) have shaped the person you are today. Going back to
childhood, briefly discuss earliest and/or fondest memories of a place
that has been influential to you, and consider how those places have
impacted the way in which you view the world. Move through
childhood until the present and discuss current influential places.
Reflect upon what makes the place so meaningful, including the
experiences you had in them. Also consider how these places have
contributed to the individual you currently are and are attempting to
become.
This paper is meant to be a brief (1-2 pages) account of influential
places in your life, with the objective of reflection on the interactions
between humans and the environment. It is meant to set the stage for
understanding this relationship throughout the course. It will not be
graded; rather, you will receive full credit for the assignment if you turn it
in, and you will receive no credit if you fail to do so.
2. Environmental Journal (DUE 2nd May)
One of the aims of this course is to develop an awareness of the mutual
relationship between you and the environment, you will be required to
complete an environmental “journal”. The objective of this journal is to
have you incorporate concepts learned in the class to daily life. You
must accumulate at least five (5) examples that illustrate or reflect
concepts of Environmental Psychology; for example, observing the
layout of your home, and how your family utilizes the space;
advertisements that encourage ‘environmentally friendly’ practices; a
letter to the editor complaining about construction noise in Central.
Remember, you can be as broad as possible in your range of examples.
You can cut out articles, take pictures, and write reflections to illustrate
your example. The journals will be due on the last lecture date. Submit
in hardcopy.
3. Field Trip Project (DUE on 21st April)
a) Report (choose only one of the following) (10%)
i) In what ways can urban space be defined beyond the limits of
physical dimensions? Look for the Fibre exhibit. Record video footage
that illustrate Toyo ITO’s notion of urban space – e.g., the flow of the
dynamic city. [500 words + video]
ii) Find the exhibition room for the New Academic Building of
Lingnan University. Discuss the functions of the courtyard design. [500
words]
iii) The special economic region of Macao has made a valuable
bid on preserving local heritages. What lessons can we (Hongkongers)
learn from their achievements?
iv) What is the foldable culture in HK? Why is this culture more
prominent in HK? Give 3 foldable items known to the Hong Kong living
space?
b) Exhibition (choose only one of the following) (30%)
i) Using the principals of environmental psychology, reassemble the
essential elements of the street market at Central’s Gage, Peel and
Graham Street. Illustrate this with photos of the street market
environment.
ii) Describe your tour of the Central police station and prison. Where
did you visited? What are the contents in each site? Record and
describe what you saw? Do this in the courtyard near the exit at Old
Bailey Street. Return to the entrance and then start taking photos.
Moderate each photo in terms of subjective importance.
Textbooks
Bell, P. A., Greene, T. C., Fisher, J. D., & Baum, A., Environmental
Psychology, 5th Ed., Wadsworth/Thompson, 2000.
Relevant Readings1
Bechtel, R. B. & Churchman, A. (2002). Handbook of environmental
psychology. New York: J. Wiley & Sons.
Bonnes, M., Lee, T., & Bonaiuto, M. (2003). Psychological theories for
environmental issues. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Carp, F. M., & Carp, A. (1984). A complimentary/congruence model of
well-being or mental health for the community elderly. In. I. Altman, M. P.
Lawton, & J. Wohlwill (Eds.), Human behaviour and the environment:
The elderly and the physical environment, pp.279-336. New York:
Plenum Press.
Clayton, S. & Opotow, S. (2003). Identity and the natural environment:
the psychological significance of nature. London: MIT Press.
Frost, (2003). Toxic Emotions at Work (Chapter 1 & 2).
Kahana, E. (1982). A congruence model of person-environment
interaction. In M. P. Lawton, P. G. Windley, & T. O. Byerts (Eds.), Aging
and the environment: Theoretical approaches, pp. 97-121. New York:
Springer.
Kaiser, F. G., Wolfing, S., & Fuhrer, U. Environmental attitude and
ecological behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology 19
(1999): 1-19.
Lawton, M. P. & Nahemow, L. (1973). An ecological theory of adaptive
behaviour and aging. In C. Eisdorfer and M. P. Lawton (Eds.), The
Psychology of Adult Development and Aging, pp. 657-667. Washington:
American Psychological Association.
Sundstrom, E., Bell, P. A., Busby, P. L., & Asmus, C. (1996). Environmental
Psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 485-512.
Wister, A. V. (1989). Environmental adaptation by persons in their later
life. Research on aging, 11, 267-291.
1
References in italic are in Lingnan Library’s Close Reserves