1028PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF MAN’S ENVIRONMENT
Man’s interaction with his environment is an integral part of
the science of psychology. Psychology has been defined as
the study of human and animal behavior. Behavior does not
take place in a vacuum. It is conditioned by the environment
in which it occurs.
The relationship between man and his environment is
interactive. Man is not only influenced by his environment;
his behavior may also profoundly affect his environment.
Where psychology can predict behavior for various environ-
ments, it will permit calculation of the impact of behavior on
the environment. To the extent that it has developed proce-
dures for controlling such behavior, it can alter the impact of
human and animal behavior on the environment by changing
that behavior.
Viewed from this perspective, psychology might be
expected to have far reaching impact on any area of environ-
mental concern; indeed, for any area of human concern.
It is not surprising then, to find that much work in psy-
chology is relevant to problems of concern to environmen-
tal scientists and engineers. Problems in almost any area of
environmental study may have roots in psychology. Many
substances whose physiological effects are of concern to
environmentalists first make their effects on organisms
apparent through behavioral indices and tasks studied by
psychologists. Many standards problems have psychologi-
cal aspects. Potable water must be acceptable to the palate,
as well as meeting biological and chemical standards based
on health considerations. It has been shown that existing
ventilation standards for inhabited buildings originated in
part from considerations of odor control. The impact of a
field depends upon its achievements, as well as its domain
of concern, however. One of the aims of this paper will be to
consider the extent to which psychology can accomplish its
aims in areas of environmental interest.
This paper will concern itself first with psychological
studies relevant to man’s physical environment. It will then
go on to consider his psychological and social environment.
These categories are to some extent artificial. The relevant
environment for an organism consists of those aspects of the
physical environment to which it is sensitive. This environ-
ment is not necessarily the same as the physical environment
as measured by physicists or engineers. A colorblind organism
will not respond to variations in the wavelength of light in the
same way as one with color vision, though the physical stimu-
lus is the same in both cases. Psychophysics is the branch of
psychology concerned with the relationship between man’ssensory processes and his physical environment and over one
hundred years of psychophysical research has shown that the
relationship is both subtle and complex. Nevertheless, such
division conforms to some natural boundaries within the fields
of psychology, and of environmental studies, and so it will be
adopted here.THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTThe earliest studies in psychology were concerned with the
relationship between measurements of the physical environ-
ment and perceptual processes. Since one cannot determine
the nature of a percept directly, what was actually measured
were certain observable responses, which were taken to be
indices of these percepts. Although the concept of behav-
iorism was not originally enunciated in connection with
psychophysics, but came later in connection with studies
of learning, it is well to note that problems in all areas of
psychology can be formulated in behavioral terms. In the
author’s opinion, this should always be done. It avoids innu-
merable arguments over concepts and processes if one rec-
ognizes that only the behavior is measurable, and that other
concepts, such as motives, feelings, images, etc., are, from
this point of view, theories developed to facilitate description
of the relationships between the environment and behavior,
however real these constructs may seem in other contexts.Psychological Methods for Environmental StudyPsychological procedures relevant to environmental ques-
tions can be conveniently divided into the following catego-
ries: studies of sensory thresholds and simple perceptual and
psychomotor tasks; behavior in simple learning situations;
more complex-learning and decision tasks; methods for
studying opinion; and evaluation of such complex processes
as emotion and personality changes in response to environ-
mental factors.
Psychophysical Procedures The study of sensory thresh-
olds is one of the oldest areas of psychology, going back
to the work of Weber and Fechner towards the end of the
nineteenth century. Classically, two types of thresholds have
been determined; absolute thresholds and difference thresh-
olds. The absolute limen, or threshold (AL) is the minimum
amount of stimulus energy required to elicit a response;
the difference limen (DL) or threshold, is the minimumC016_012_r03.indd 1028C016_012_r03.indd 1028 11/18/2005 11:03:53 AM11/18/2005 11:03:53 AM