Methodology in Environmental Psychology

Methods in Environmental Psychology Does environmental psychology need unique methodology? Environmental psychology uses methodology drawn from a variety of different disciplines and areas of psychology: Clinical psychology Social psychology Perception Sociology Epidemiology Geography Architecture

Projective techniques Methods Projective techniques Rationale Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Cognitive mapping (developed by Kevin Lynch, geographer) Social schemata, figure placement, dolls, cutouts etc.

Observational techniques Methods Observational techniques Behaviour mapping Ecological psychology (Roger Barker) Self-observational techniques (time budgets, diaries, etc.)

Ecological Psychology (Roger Barker) Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis Behaviour Settings Staffing Theory Overstaffed Setting Understaffed Setting

Methods Unobtrusive measurement Rationale Triangulation: using different types of measures to see if the same relationship is obtained with both reactive and nonreactive measures. If several imperfect measures provide the same result, then there is confidence that the relationship really exists and is not an artifact of the measurement process. By using both reactive and nonreactive measures, one can estimate the distortion caused by reactivity.

Types of Unobtrusive (nonreactive) Measures Erosion: the wearing away of a substance Accretion: the depositing of a substance (e.g., litter, fingerprints,) Archival data: any sort of recorded information (e.g., government records, cartoons, photographs, newspaper articles, public health data, etc.) “Hardware” assisted observations (e.g., hodometer in art gallery study)

Methods Experimental methods (importance of random assignment of subjects to treatment conditions) Laboratory Field