SUBJECT

Environmental psychology

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master

Faculty of Education and Psychology

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2 Semester

Spring semester

Aim of the course:

According to the basic principle of environmental psychology, humans and their environments are in mutual transactional relationship: human psychological processes (e.g., course of work or leadership) cannot be understood without their environmental context and, inversely, physical settings (e.g., offices, schools etc.) cannot be described without psychological mechanisms taking place in them. In the course, considering environmental psychological theory so called socio-physical environments are studied in research and practice. In socio-physical settings, psychological processes are analysed along person-environment (no)fit. 

In the course, the students are introduced to environmental psychological approach and basic phenomena using transactional terms. Through the analyses of practical and theoretical examples they will be able to unfold complex deeper patterns of human behaviour in person-environment interrelation.

Learning outcome, competences

knowledge:

• understanding person-environment transaction
• understanding socio-physical context
• knowledge of basic transactional analytic methods

attitude:

• based on transactional viewpoint the students are able to understand human behavior in a new way
• they are able to design interventions based on person-environment systems

skills:

• students are able to analyze person.environment transactions
• are able to study and design socio-physical contexts
• are able to manege effective transdisciplinary communication with other professionals working in the actual socio-physical settings, e.g., engineers, designers (physical environment), teachers, physicians, human experts (human context)

Content of the course

Topics of the course

• Spatial and objective turn is social sciences
• Relation between humans and environment: psychological approach
• Instrumental and spiritual person-environment relation
• Person-environment fit: theory and practice
• Tranzactional methods for analysis of person-environment interraltionship
• Contextual analysis of socio-physical settings: workplaces, schools, places of health promotion
• Inclusive socio-physical context

Learning activities, learning methods

Evaluation of outcomes

Learning requirements, mode of evaluation, criteria of evaluation:

requirements

• frontal lectures with practices in every class (theory is built based on a practical example or the practice is from a theory)

mode of evaluation:

• mandatory: 1. written test and creative essay, 2. practical mini research/reports, case study, 3. oral and written presentation of literature.
• criteria of evaluation:
• Test/essay 30 points (15 tests, 2 creative task/essay), final class or in exam term
• Mini research / case study 30 points: study in groups in a topic defined based on literture
• Oral and written presentation of English literature: 20 points
• Active partipation in discussions: 10-10 points

Max. 100 points

Min: 50 points

86-100: 5

70-85: 4

56-70: 3

41-55: 2

1-40: 1

Compulsory reading list

• Gifford, R. (2015) (Ed.), Research methods for environmental psychology (pp. 137–161). Chicester: Wiley Blackwell
• Valentín, J. & Gamez, L. (2010) (Eds.), Environmental psychology: New developments. New York, Nova Science Publishers

Recommended reading list

• Bechtel, R. B. & Churchman, A. (2002) (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (pp. 427–442). New York: Wiley & Sons