Kirsten Uitdewilligen, 2025
Environmental Psychology
Lecture 1, dinsdag 11 maart 2025
Environmental psychology studies relationships between people and the environment
from the perspective of the individual mind.
History of environmental psychology.
- Until the 17th century, philosophy was an all-inclusive endeavor.
o With the invention of the experimental method, the natural sciences and
philosophy fell apart.
- Social sciences took off in the 18th century.
o First branch was economy, started with Adam Smith.
o Sociology was coined in 1835, with Auguste Comte.
- Psychology was founded in the late 19th century.
o Founding fathers: James & Wundt.
Distinctive features of psychology:
- Individual being as the unit of analysis.
- Psychometrics as methods (a set of procedures that are designed to tap into
individual thought).
- Distinctive set of theories.
Initial phase: explorative, ‘anything goes.’
Behaviorism: as mind cannot be directly observed, only behaviour should be addressed.
Stimulus – response.
Cognitive paradigm: turning back to mind, computer as metaphor.
Stimulus – rule-based processing – response.
Now: more attention to meaning and emotion.
Stimulus – meaning/emotion – processing – response.
The emergence of environmental psychology was driven by practical questions.
- How to provide decent housing and facilities to the public?
- How to achieve landscape quality?
- How to increase environmentally significant behaviour?
Environmental psychology as an interdisciplinary endeavor.
- Practical questions are dealing with reality, and reality does not mind about
disciplines.
- Focused on the level of the individual, but taking group phenomena into account.
Studied in 2 directions: what the environment does with people, and what people do
with the environment.
, Kirsten Uitdewilligen, 2025
Dual systems theory.
System work 1: automatically – implicit and automatic subconscious processing.
- Advantages:
o Operates quickly
o Does not require focused attention
o Great for routine jobs
- Disadvantages:
o Cannot handle complex problems
o Works with simple templates
o Is prone to undetected biases and
error
System work 2: effortful – explicit and effortful
conscious processing.
- Advantages:
o Allows reflection
o Can weigh pros and cons
o Can handle logic and formal reasoning
o Can apply abstract models to new situations
- Disadvantages:
o Slow
o Requires lots of energy and attention
o Resources easily depleted
o System 2 is lazy
Variety of methods.
Case study: rich description of specific group of people in a specific context.
- Advantage: comprehensiveness, exploring new subjects.
- Disadvantage: hard to generalize to general population.
Correlational study: questionnaire amongst a large number of people.
- Advantage: generalizability, relationships between phenomena.
- Disadvantage: no cause-effect relationships.
Experimental study: one variable is manipulated and the effect on another variable is
measured.
- Advantage: confidence about cause-and-effect relationships.
- Disadvantage: validity outside of the experimental setting is sometimes
questionable.
Lecture 2, donderdag 13 maart 2025
System 1: automatic, implicit, and subconscious mode of mental processing.
Nature: evolutionary perspective
Nurture: cultural perspective
Environmental Psychology
Lecture 1, dinsdag 11 maart 2025
Environmental psychology studies relationships between people and the environment
from the perspective of the individual mind.
History of environmental psychology.
- Until the 17th century, philosophy was an all-inclusive endeavor.
o With the invention of the experimental method, the natural sciences and
philosophy fell apart.
- Social sciences took off in the 18th century.
o First branch was economy, started with Adam Smith.
o Sociology was coined in 1835, with Auguste Comte.
- Psychology was founded in the late 19th century.
o Founding fathers: James & Wundt.
Distinctive features of psychology:
- Individual being as the unit of analysis.
- Psychometrics as methods (a set of procedures that are designed to tap into
individual thought).
- Distinctive set of theories.
Initial phase: explorative, ‘anything goes.’
Behaviorism: as mind cannot be directly observed, only behaviour should be addressed.
Stimulus – response.
Cognitive paradigm: turning back to mind, computer as metaphor.
Stimulus – rule-based processing – response.
Now: more attention to meaning and emotion.
Stimulus – meaning/emotion – processing – response.
The emergence of environmental psychology was driven by practical questions.
- How to provide decent housing and facilities to the public?
- How to achieve landscape quality?
- How to increase environmentally significant behaviour?
Environmental psychology as an interdisciplinary endeavor.
- Practical questions are dealing with reality, and reality does not mind about
disciplines.
- Focused on the level of the individual, but taking group phenomena into account.
Studied in 2 directions: what the environment does with people, and what people do
with the environment.
, Kirsten Uitdewilligen, 2025
Dual systems theory.
System work 1: automatically – implicit and automatic subconscious processing.
- Advantages:
o Operates quickly
o Does not require focused attention
o Great for routine jobs
- Disadvantages:
o Cannot handle complex problems
o Works with simple templates
o Is prone to undetected biases and
error
System work 2: effortful – explicit and effortful
conscious processing.
- Advantages:
o Allows reflection
o Can weigh pros and cons
o Can handle logic and formal reasoning
o Can apply abstract models to new situations
- Disadvantages:
o Slow
o Requires lots of energy and attention
o Resources easily depleted
o System 2 is lazy
Variety of methods.
Case study: rich description of specific group of people in a specific context.
- Advantage: comprehensiveness, exploring new subjects.
- Disadvantage: hard to generalize to general population.
Correlational study: questionnaire amongst a large number of people.
- Advantage: generalizability, relationships between phenomena.
- Disadvantage: no cause-effect relationships.
Experimental study: one variable is manipulated and the effect on another variable is
measured.
- Advantage: confidence about cause-and-effect relationships.
- Disadvantage: validity outside of the experimental setting is sometimes
questionable.
Lecture 2, donderdag 13 maart 2025
System 1: automatic, implicit, and subconscious mode of mental processing.
Nature: evolutionary perspective
Nurture: cultural perspective
