Psychology

For many centuries, people from diverse cultures debated on the origin of humanity. Many scientists around the world point to Africa as the place where humanity originated. Others claim that human beings simultaneously appeared in different parts of the world at the same time when human beings appeared in Africa. Whatever has been proven as true, it is indisputable that the human race was born of nature and was supported by their natural environment.

With the advent of the industrial revolution brought about by technological innovations, human beings have gradually alienated themselves with the environment. Advancement in technology has caused gradual degradation of nature that sustains all forms of life. The adverse effects of development became a threat to the lives that created it. These threats include drastic environmental changes brought about by climate change, new breeds of viruses that impinge on humanitys health and safety, depleting fossil fuels, polluted air and water, and growing population, among others. In their pursuit to endless desires, human beings forgot the intrinsic and deep connections of human lives to that of the environment.

With the generally ill-effects of environmental destruction to all forms of life, people nowadays are gradually awakened to their responsibility in protecting the health of the planet. Human beings have realized that the quality of life is always linked to the quality of the environment and its natural resources. With this growing concern for the holistic wellness of the Earth, people are no longer contented with mere rhetoric and baseless speculations about the real state of the Earth. This growing concern for the person-and-environment relationship gave rise to the emergence of the Environmental Psychology.

Environmental Psychology as defined by Veitch and Arkkelin (1995) is
... a multidisciplinary behavioural science, both basic and applied in orientation,
whose foci are the systematic interrelationships between the physical and social
environment and individual human behavior and experiences (p. 4).

Environmental Psychology concerns itself with the scientific inquiry into the reciprocal relationship of all life forms to their natural environment. It is a discipline whose roots are closely intertwined with other fields of study that tackles the complexities of life and environment such as, biology, chemistry, geology, geography, physics, economics, philosophy, sociology and even history and engineering. Environmental Psychology gives emphasis on the interrelatedness of the physical environment that influences peoples behavior, as well as peoples behaviours that affects the environment, on both passive and active ways.

The development of the Environmental Psychology as a discipline has been influenced by historical events as well as theories outside the sphere of psychology. According to Veitch and Arkkelin (1995), some of these theories are very broad in scope whereas others are more focused some are lacking in empirical basis and others are more data-based (p. 16). Therefore, there is no such thing as a grand theory that would explain the environment-human behaviour relationship. Aside from the current perspective on environmental psychology, such as geographical determinism, ecological biology, behaviourism, and Gestalt psychology, there are also these so called mini-theories that have been successful in conceptualizing the relationship between organisms or life forms and their environment.  These mini-theories include arousal theory, the stimulus load theory, the behavioural constraint theory, the adaptation level theory, the environmental stress theory, and the ecological theory. Veitch and Arkkelin (1995) noted that

Each of the theory is able to handle specific circumstances. The ecological theory is more useful in dealing with group behaviour, whereas the stimulus load theory focus on the individual level of analysis. The stress theory finds its greatest utility at the psycho  physiological level, and the adaptation level theory is useful for accounting for individual differences (p. 17-18).

In a more detail, the arousal theory, the stimulus load theory, the behavioural constraint theory, the adaptation level theory, the environmental stress theory, and the ecological theory have their own focus that offers different perspectives in explaining phenomenon occurring between organisms and the environment. Arousal theory focuses on the influence of arousal from the external environment on behaviour or performance of an organism. The stimulus load theory gives emphasis on the limited capacity of human beings to process information. When people receive too many inputs that are beyond their capacity, people tend to ignore excess inputs. These would explain the responses of organisms to environmental stimulations. The behaviour constraint theory emphasizes the influence of the environment to the behaviour of its inhabitants. This theory states that the environment in which all forms of life thrive can impose limits on their behaviour. The adaptation-level theory takes up the idea that emotions and behaviours are affected by the amount of stimulations from the environment. The environmental-Stress theory on the other hand, emphasizes that organism-environment interactions are being influenced by the mediating functions of physiology, emotion and cognition. It explains that the environmental features causes stress on organisms when they impinge on the organisms optimal level of resistance. Finally, the ecological theory emphasizes the notion of fitness between the organism and its environment. This theory explains that the environment is designed to accommodate certain behaviours of organisms. These behaviours are the result of the compatibility to the setting.

As one of the fields of sciences, the environmental psychology is highly dependent on researches to guarantee the disciplines acceptability and reliability. Research is vital in this field as this gives validity to the human-environment relationship that environmental psychology is focusing into. Research enables practitioners to discover and prove facts, build theories and promote scientific understanding of the phenomenon that occurs between life forms and their environment. Therefore, research is an important component of this field.