Methodology in Environmental Psychology: Problems and Issues

Abstract

Environmental psychology is an emerging interdisciplinary, problem-oriented field concerned with the interrelations among physical settings and human behavior and experience. The field is further defined in terms of the complexity of the events involved, the historical nature of space in relation to human behavior, and the cultural, social, and organizational definitions of physical settings. The properties of these problem areas as well as the inchoate nature of the field indicate that exploratory-descriptive studies in real-life settings should be undertaken. The measurement problem involves not just the validity of the measurement instruments, but also their “phenomenon legitimacy,” that is, the extent to which the properties of the response system of the instrument are consistent with those of the phenomenon under study. This concept is demonstrated in the use of conventional questionnaire-interview and observational techniques in environmental research. Questionnaire-interviews may not have “legitimacy” in such research if used to measure attitudes and values which do not exist or which have been formed in ways that the respondents are either unaware of or cannot verbalize. Similar methodological problems are involved in the use of conventional observational instruments. Finally, the severe limitations of the laboratory paradigm in light of the nature and present development of environmental psychology as a field of inquiry are pointed out.