Environmental Psychology (Psychology 361)

ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYCH 361)Marymount Manhattan College, Spring 2009 & Spring 2010

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to offer participants an introduction to the history and scope of Environmental Psychology. Notable classical and contemporary environmental research is reviewed from a “New York School” perspective — a perspective that takes a multi-disciplinary approach to Environmental Psychology by incorporating elements of psychology, anthropology, sociology, human geography, urban planing, architecture, and computer science.

Themed Reading Modules

  • Foundations of Environmental Psychology
  • Perception, Experience, and the Environment
  • Place Identity and Environmental Consciousness
  • Public Space and Public Culture
  • The Urban Life Space
  • The Informational Life Space
  • Children, Youth, and the Environment
  • Producing Nature and Naturalizing Production
  • Freedom and Control in Environmental Design
  • Environmental Psychology: Past, Present, and Future

Course Structure
Participants are encouraged, through class discussions and assigned projects, to situate the theories and practices of Environmental Psychology within current events and personal experiences. Each project is developed in stages through a course blog where participants receive feedback from myself as well as their classmates. Projects designed for this course include:

  • Reading Reviews that take a low-stakes writing approach;
  • an Environmental Autobiography multi-media presentation that situate the concepts of place identity and environmental consciousness within personal experiences;
  • an Individual Research Project that focuses on a specific place-based problem or question and explores that problem from a psycho-social perspective;
  • and a group Wikipedia Project where the class, as a whole, conducts collaborative research to improve the “Environmental Psychology” Wikipedia entry.