Environmental Psychology

A variety of theoretical approaches to person-environment psychology has been developed over the years, representing a rich range of intellectual perspectives. This second edition links the past and present and looks toward the future in reviewing new directions and perspectives in person-environment psychology. Stated differently, the main thrust of this volume is to present contemporary models and perspectives that make some sensible predictions concerning the individual and the environment using the person-environment relationship. Within a person-environment framework, these models and perspectives are concerned with how people tend to influence environments and how environments reciprocally tend to influence people. Thus, this second edition presents new directions in person-environment psychology and the implications for theory, research, and application.

A revision of Winter's Ecological Psychology (1996), this book applies psychological theory and research to environmental problems. After outlining current environmental difficulties, the authors demonstrate how 6 major approaches in psychology (social psychological, psychoanalytic, behavioral, physiological, cognitive, and holistic) can be applied to environmental problems. The authors demonstrate why it is critical to address environmental threats now, and offer ideas on how psychological principles can contribute to building a sustainable culture. Personal examples engage the reader and provide suggestions for changing behavior and political structures. Reorganized and updated throughout, the second edition features a new chapter on neuropsychological and health issues and a list of key concepts in each chapter. Cartoons and humorous analogies add a light touch to the book's serious message. Written for psychology and environmental studies students, the book is an excellent teaching tool in courses on environmental, conservation, or ecological issues, found in departments of psychology, sociology, environmental science, and biology. It also appeals to anyone interested in psychology's potential contributions to mounting ecological difficulties.

Deborah Du Nann Winter is a professor of psychology at Whitman College.

How do some people come to care about nature and others don't? In Loving Nature , Kay Milton explores the idea of environmentalism as a distinct perspective on the world and tests the limits of anthropology against other disciplines, particularly psychology. Milton proposes a model of how we relate to the world in general and to nature in particular. Focusing on the role of emotion in shaping our experience and motivation, she develops a concept of sacredness in describing what we come to value. For environmentalists, anthropologists and those fascinated by psychology, this will make a thought-provoking read.

Challenging Freud's assumption that an individual first develops intrapsychically and is only later confronted with the demands of external reality, Carolyn Saari posits that human beings initially construct a picture of their immediate environment and then construct their identities within that environment. The Environment is an argument in three parts. Part 1 discusses psychoanalytic and developmental theory, showing that while such theory has assumed the existence of an environment, it has taken for granted and therefore left unexamined its role in human development. Michel Foucault's theory of social control provides the framework for Part 2, which examines psychotherapy's capacity either to liberate or to repress the client. Part 3 relates the practical benefits and broader implications of an inclusion of environmental considerations in the practice of psychotherapy.

Ranging from the distribution of older populations on a national scale to the meaning of specific local places and settings to older individuals, this study spans a range of research and international perspectives on the subject.

While the dream of moving to a small town in a beautiful rural area is common among many Americans, that dream often turns into a nightmare for those who decide to follow it. More than half of the people who move to small towns in recreational places will move away in less than five years, and their rapid successive moves are often marked by anger and frustration as they encounter the realities of poor job possibilities, an impersonal life, and a deteriorating natural environment. Jobes describes the experiences of newcomers, and oldtimers, to Bozeman, Montana, a small Rocky Mountain town Jobes has observed and researched since the early 1970s. Through interviews and observations, Jobes has found that newcomers arrive with unrealistic illusions about life in a small town and that life in such places is simultaneously complex and dynamic.