Unit 1 Section 1: Environmental Psychology: The Nature and Scope

Vocabulary terms and foundational concepts covering the history, research methods, and core scope of environmental psychology.

Environmental Psychology

The study of transactions between individuals and their physical settings, wherein individuals change the environment and their behavior and experiences are changed by the environment.

Representative Design

The principle advocated by Egon Brunswik proposing that research designs should incorporate a broad array of environmental stimuli representative of the real world rather than narrow, artificial stimuli.

Lens Model

A conceptual framework developed by Egon Brunswik used to understand how individuals perceive and comprehend physical environments.

Action Research

A research approach founded by Kurt Lewin designed to directly link scientific investigation with real social change and problem-solving.

Psychological Ecology

The original term proposed by Kurt Lewin for the line of inquiry giving active consideration to the molar physical environment in relation to human behavior.

Behavior Settings

Small ecological units enclosing everyday human behavior, comprising both social rules and physical-spatial elements (e.g., classrooms, sports events, restaurants), identified and studied by Roger Barker and Herbert Wright.

Ecological Psychology

The research domain established by Roger Barker and Herbert Wright that investigated human ecology and identifiable behavior settings across communities.

Field Experiment

An experimental research design conducted in a real-world setting where causal conclusions can be drawn because key influences are controlled through random assignment and scientific methods, conferring automatic external validity.

Quasi-experimental Design

A research compromise between field studies and true experiments that approximates experimental conditions but lacks certain criteria, such as experimenter control over variables or random assignment of participants.

Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)

The largest environment-behavior organization, established in 1968, which has held annual conferences since 1969.

International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS)

An international environment-behavior organization that originated in the late 1960s and was formally established in 1981.

Three Dimensions of Environmental Psychology

The spatial framework of human activity encompassing persons (e.g., age, personality, culture), psychological processes (e.g., exploring, learning, socializing), and places (e.g., home, work, parks), sometimes examined along a fourth dimension of time.

Three Levels of Inquiry

The organizational hierarchy of environmental psychology consisting of fundamental psychological processes (perception, cognition, personality), the management of social space (personal space, crowding, privacy, territoriality), and complex everyday physical settings (workplaces, urban places, nature, sustainability).