At the end of 19, although experimental psychology is still in an immature stage, some academic leaders such as Fechner and Feng Te have begun to emphasize the importance of physical stimulation in cognitive research. At the same time, there is a similar situation in sociological research, and there have been many studies involving the harsh living environment in London. Later, some research on urban life by the Institute of Ergonomics of the University of Chicago showed that social-natural variables are of great significance in explaining problems related to the quality of life. Natural factors (such as climate, temperature, altitude or land area, etc.). ) is a classic research object, and W. Hellpach of Germany involved these contents in his pioneering research in the first decade of the 20th century. The development of Gestalt School has made a qualitative leap in using the whole concept to explain the thinking mode of behavior. Two followers of Gestalt School-Egon Brunswick and Lei Wen-played a decisive role in the development of this field. Kreswick put forward the term environmental psychology in 1943, and emphasized the important role of individual subjective initiative in constructing the perception of the environment in his "Breivik lens" model. Lei Wen emphasized the importance of people's internal description of the external environment in order to walk freely in the "living space". More importantly, his influence on Barker gave him a prototype worth pondering when he was looking for the origin of establishing environmental psychology.
In 1930s, Hawthorne's working group of Chicago West Electronics Company conducted a very famous classic research in the field of psychology. This study investigates the influence of factory lighting and other environmental layout on people's behavior. Although the research results were mainly the focus of interest of experts studying labor and organizational psychology at that time, they attracted the interest of social science researchers related to environmental layout in later research. For example, during the reconstruction period after World War II, Britain conducted a lot of research through questionnaires. These studies have successfully influenced the legal standards of how to build houses in order to make better use of natural light sources.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, many scholars who established a framework for the development of environmental psychology appeared one after another. 1947, Barker and Wright established a research station in the field of psychology in the midwest, which gave rise to another nickname of environmental psychology called ecological psychology. At the same time, tolman's research on cognitive maps has been further developed, which can be reflected in the research done by H. Osmond, a town planner, on how to enhance or reduce the interaction between two subjects living in the same room by placing furniture. During this period, E.T. Hall published his book "Significant Language", describing the use of space in different cultures. Sommer defined his research idea as "interpersonal space". In Europe, Terrence Lee published his doctoral thesis in "Suburban Studies" of Cambridge University. These studies are at the crossroads of yes or no environmental psychology, because they all lead the research in the field of environmental psychology to a stronger basic work in the period to be introduced below. ( 1960 - 1980)
During this period, environmental psychology was consolidated and regarded as an advanced discipline with its own position in the field of psychology. A series of events in real society and social sciences, especially in the United States, have promoted the development of environmental psychology as a whole. From this, I realize that there are various social problems in many social groups, which lead people to hate urban life and yearn for rural life. On the other hand, the "relevance crisis" of social psychology research has promoted research outside the laboratory, led to the development of field research, made research methods closer to reality, and moved to the forefront interdisciplinary.
It is not difficult to see that the United States had the following major milestones in the 1960s: (a) The first international symposium on psychology and psychiatry was held in 196 1 in Utah; (b) Published a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues edited by Kates and Wohlwill; (c) The first meeting of Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) was held in c) 1968 in North Carolina; (d) 1969, the first scientific magazine Environment and Behavior with the theme of environmental psychology was founded; (e) In E1970, the first book "Environmental Psychology: Man and His Natural Environment" was published by Proshyan, Ittel and rivlin. From 65438 to 0963, the British Psychological Society sponsored various symposiums on this topic. At this stage, as it was said at that time, environmental psychology is more about the psychology of built environment or architecture than the current environmental psychology.
A landmark research in this period was conducted after the failure of the P-I (Pruitt-Igoe) project in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. When a controversial article by Yancey in 197 1 was published in the forum of American Psychological Association, Rainwater published some important findings of the factory in 1966. P-I project is a large-scale public housing construction project from 1955 to 1956. This project plans to build 43 buildings with a height of 1 1. This development plan is specially designed to improve the housing conditions of about 2,500 poor families living in three-story buildings in urban areas. The building of this development project won the design award of public housing group, but
Paradoxically, the development project was soon declared uninhabitable and the plan had to be completely abandoned. The problem is not its structural defects, but the behavior that residents begin to show. The extent to which residents intentionally damage buildings is the main reason for destroying the plan. The research on the reasons for the failure of this plan finally shows that there are so many destructive behaviors because the society lacks control over the space when these architectural designs are put forward. But the level of social control that needs to be achieved has already appeared as early as their previous residence. Incidentally, the research on the behavior and motivation behind sabotage has developed to a very deep level (Levy~Leboyer, 1984).
On the basis of this work, many studies show that a large number of experiences of public housing residents who are afraid of criminal acts can be directly attributed to architectural design. On the contrary, slums and slums, which seem to develop at will without any sanitary standards or minimum comfort, provide a compact social network development system with its own spatial layout effect and provide residents with a certain degree of security. This social cohesion, which shows the development characteristics of cities and buildings, promotes the understanding of social control. Many studies show that the fear and danger experience of residents in public buildings is inversely proportional to the extensive social network in their communities.
According to Sommer (1997), the term "environmental psychology" was not fixed until 1973, and included some other terms, such as the construction of psychology, the relationship between man and environment, and ecological psychology. In 1970s, the American Psychological Association established its 34th chapter, named "Population and Environmental Psychology". From 65438 to 0973, the University of Surrey began to take environmental psychology as a postgraduate course. ( 1980—2000)
In 1980s and 1990s, great progress was made in environmental psychology. Regular comprehensive articles are compiled into the Yearbook of Psychology, and the most important discoveries in this field are recorded about every four years.
Three great events happened in the 1980s. 198 1 year, The Journal of Environmental Psychology was published in Britain. Together with the Journal of Environment and Behavior, it has become two authoritative academic research journals in this research field. Another milestone of great significance is the publication of the series "Human Behavior and Environment: Theory and Research Progress". 1987 later published a series of Environment, Behavior and Design Psychology. The third event was the publication of the Handbook of Environmental Psychology edited by tao qi and Altman in 1987.
From that moment on, environmental psychology may have been regarded as a fixed research field, an academic theme of many universities in the world, and a science with its own expression, which is more or less recognized by people who use it in practice.
At the end of the 20th century, "green" and ecology became the most attractive topics (Pol, 1993). When environmental psychology appeared in this new research direction and exerted considerable influence, the middle class in western society began to pay great attention to these social movements. Psychological-environmental research focuses on investigating people's values and attitudes towards the environment and analyzing the relationship between these values and attitudes and environmental protection behavior. The so-called "new environmental paradigm" reflects a new belief and values related to protection and environment. A survey result that can often be obtained is that people who have high scores on environmental concern in the crowd have not shown corresponding reuse or energy-saving behavior. One possible explanation for this contradiction is that the understanding of environmental values has many different dimensions: on the one hand, it is self-centered or human-centered; On the other hand, it is the tendency of eco-centrism. Both of these tendencies affirm the great value of the environment, but their motives are different: the former affirms the value of the environment because it contributes to human beings and meets human needs; The latter affirms the value of the environment from a transcendental perspective, rather than looking at its value in a utilitarian way.