Ahead of its time

The psychological aspects of climate change and environmental degradation are apparent everywhere today. But half a century ago, the University of Surrey took a step far ahead of its time by setting up the world's first MSc in Environmental Psychology. Over 400 students later, we celebrate our 50th anniversary, with the opportunity to look back at the growth of environmental psychology from its educational birthplace in Surrey.

What is environmental psychology?

When speaking on the need to rebuild after the bombing of the Houses of Parliament during WWII, Winston Churchill articulated the importance of human interactions with their surroundings: 'We shape our buildings and after that they shape us'. Environmental psychology examines these people-environment interactions – the psychological processes involved in individual or collective engagements with different types of places. Environmental psychology investigates everything from the corner of a room, and details of heating, lighting and acoustics in buildings, to responses, use and attitudes towards Earth and its natural resources. In this way, environmental psychology introduced a physical dimension to psychological research and practice.

Environmental psychology draws on, and contributes to, virtually every area of psychology.  Examples include: cognitive psychology for understanding wayfinding in cities and buildings; social psychology for making sense of, and designing, collaborative or individual spaces; developmental psychology when studying children's environments; or forensic psychology when understanding place-based criminal behaviour. It is also interdisciplinary, with geography, architecture, landscape, planning, sociology, and environmental sciences having significant impacts on the development of the field, as well as drawing on its insights.

Currently, undergraduate students at around ten UK Universities, including Surrey, can study an environmental psychology module. In fact, The Psychologist's own editor Jon Sutton learnt about environmental psychology by taking the very first undergraduate module in the subject, taught by Christopher Spencer at the University of Sheffield. Furthermore, students from any UK university can enter the annual Jonathan Sime Award for the best undergraduate dissertation in the field of people-environment relationships. Each year excellent applications are received from a wide range of UK Universities. This prestigious award was set up and named in honour of one of the first cohort students from the MSc Environmental Psychology.  

1970's – In the beginning…

The first MSc in Environmental Psychology in the world was established in 1973 at the University of Surrey by David Canter. At that time, the only other environmental psychology course was a PhD at City University New York (CUNY). Today, Surrey remains the only such Master's course in the UK and still one of very few internationally. Many of its graduates went on to PhD studies at Surrey and elsewhere, becoming major contributors to the evolving interdisciplinary area.

The first Head of the Department of Psychology was Terence Lee, one of the first UK psychologists to see the potential application of psychology to the problems of urban planning and the environment. Lee attracted to Surrey some of the principal UK environmental psychologists of the day, making it the 'headquarters' of the discipline in the UK.

Back in the 1970s environmental psychology primarily focused on how people relate to and make sense of their everyday physical built environment. Thus, in the early days the area was known in the UK as architectural psychology, and the first 'journal' was the Architectural Psychology Newsletter. From the beginning, though, it was recognised that the physical environment does not have any simple direct influence on human actions. Operating in an early constructionist psychology, Lee (1973) suggested that people actively construct and make sense of their world through conceptual maps. Developing Bartlett's concepts of schemas, he believed socio-spatial schemata not only provided an insight into people's inner representations of space and place, but these in turn provided templates for the design of urban spaces. Canter (1977) contributed theoretically, with his 'Theory of Place' providing a framework for people-environment relationships.

'Environmental Psychology is inevitably real-world oriented, addressing issues of interest to people outside of academic psychology. I established the MSc to provide a motor to drive the development of an applicable psychology, connecting with the built and natural surroundings. Little did I know how significant that development was to become,' says Professor Canter.

Unusually for a psychology department, from the earliest days of Environmental Psychology, staff members conducted consultancy and research projects for industry, commerce, and government, on many aspects of building design and the planning process. The group's applied psychology research directly influenced regulations and engineering firms, such as Ian Griffiths' work with the Government's Building Research Establishment (BRE) on the thermal environment and noise annoyance (Canter, 1996). Peter Stringer (1974) explored the way people think about and structure their conceptions of the environment drawing on 'relational' approaches in social psychology and personal construct theory. This was taken up by his PhD student, David Uzzell, who applied this approach to public participation in urban planning.

Prominent graduates of the MSc Environmental Psychology course in the 1970s include Daniel Iacofano and Susan Goltsman, who met during their time at Surrey. They bonded over their shared passion about children's play environments and together established MIG with Robin Moore, and built up an urban planning and design company in 14 USA locations. Another prominent Surrey alumna is Linda Groat who went on to become Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan, introducing place theory and environmental meaning into architectural design.

1980's

'There is no physical environment that is not also a social and cultural setting. Likewise, there is no social environment that is not touched in some way by its physical context. While we as psychologists may be interested in the cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects of people's actions, these cannot be considered in isolation from either their social or place-related context,' says Professor David Uzzell.

The Journal of Environmental Psychology, one of the leading academic journals in the field, was established by David Canter and Kenneth Craik in 1980. During the 1980s environmental psychology started to address conservation issues in response to the 1980's oil crisis and societal and government concerns about the siting of nuclear power stations, and disposal of nuclear and chemical waste. Thus, the research focus of the Environmental Psychology Research Group (EPRG; pictured, above) at Surrey expanded from focusing on place, space, architecture and planning to topics in the field of environmental risk and human behaviour in emergencies. This resulted in the place-based research into understanding people's behaviour in fires (e.g. Sime, 1985), including London's King's Cross Fire of 1987 (Donald & Canter, 1992). The place-based understanding of human behaviour in crowd tragedies at football stadiums, such as Heysel and Hillsborough, also contributed to the UK Government's Inquiry into crowd safety and control at sports grounds (Popplewell, 1986) following the Bradford City fire (Canter, Comber, & Uzzell, 1989). Similarly, Ian Donald's work on improving safety in organisations led to the development of interventions to improve safety cultures in industry (Donald & Young, 1996). This research has continued to influence social psychological understandings of human behaviour in terrorist attacks (Drury & Reichter 2010; Wilson, 2000;) and in the countryside from zoonotic diseases (Quine et al., 2011). 

In the 1980s, prominent students who graduated from Surrey's MSc in Environmental Psychology include Clare Twigger-Ross, who went on to work for the UK Environment Agency on the social aspects of flood risk management and continues her environmental psychology work as principal consultant at Eunomia Research and Consulting. Twigger-Ross' paper on place identity (Twigger-Ross & Uzzell, 1996) is the most highly cited paper on place identity after the original key paper by Proshansky, Fabian and Kaminoff (1983). Another star Surrey alumna, Judith Sixsmith, Professor of Health-Related Research at the University of Dundee, became established for her work on the meaning of home, and place-related healthy ageing.

1990's

'Environmental psychology is such a fascinating and important field, but its importance and impact can still be undervalued. Everything human beings do, they do in a physical setting and these settings have a huge impact on our experiences, behaviour and wellbeing. At the same time almost all our activities affect our physical environment in some way. Understanding, critically assessing, challenging and improving people-environment interactions is central to our work,' says Professor Birgitta Gatersleben.

By the 1990s, climate change and sustainable behaviour became important areas of research for the MSc and the EPRG, which was now headed by the UK's first Professor of Environmental Psychology, David Uzzell. Indeed, research into this area was recognised by the Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), who invited Uzzell to challenge current economic approaches to behaviour change in response to climate change in 1990, the first such paper by a psychologist in the UK (Uzzell, 1990). Sustainable development research was enhanced at Surrey with the arrival of Birgitta Gatersleben (current leader of the EPRG), who initially examined transport-generated air pollution and sustainable transport (Gatersleben & Uzzell, 2007). Impressively, the group now has a 30+ year history of research into the psychology of pro-environmental behaviour change, sustainable transport, and sustainable consumption and production.

In the 1990s, prominent graduates of Surrey's MSc Environmental Psychology course included Patrick Devine-Wright, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter, who identified place attachment as a key motivation for understanding people's objections to energy transitions; Ferdinando Fornara, Associate Professor in Social and Environmental Psychology at the University of Cagliari, Italy, who is an expert in the impact of urban environmental quality on residents' health and wellbeing; and Tony Craig, Head of the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences department at the James Hutton Institute, whose current work includes agent-based models of social simulation and transitioning to a circular economy.

2000's

'Environmental psychology has never been as urgently needed as it is today,' says Dr Eleanor Ratcliffe. 'There is growing awareness that, for humans to survive and thrive, we must find ways to better relate to the physical world around us. This will involve applying knowledge from environmental psychology to highlight and support connections between planetary, ecological, and human wellbeing. We have no time to waste.'

Throughout the 2000s, sustainable lifestyles continued to be a key focus of environmental psychology research at Surrey, reflecting the worldwide need to understand our role in climate change, its impact on our lives, and widescale biodiversity loss.  The group worked with colleagues in engineering on several large-scale multidisciplinary projects funded by the UK research funding councils (RESOLVE, CUSP, REDUCE), government (SLRG) and the European Commission (BARENERGY).

In the 2000s, prominent environmental psychologists who took the MSc include Evodia Alaterou, Principal at Australian architecture firm Hassell, leading the Design Strategy team with environmental psychology principles to ensure people are at the centre of any built environment project; and Hebba Haddad, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Psychology at the University of East London, who is an expert in travel behaviour, risk perception and communication, and engagement with climate change and air pollution.

2010's

Before retiring in 2017, Uzzell had spent much of the previous 10 years furthering his research on collective approaches to environmental change and protection through his work on environmental labour studies (Rathzel, Stevis & Uzzell, 2021). Gatersleben became course director of the MSc Environmental Psychology and research group. Expansion came with the addition of three new members of staff, each bringing a different area of expertise. Kayleigh Wyles studies psychological factors in relation to threats facing the marine environment, and people's use and experience of this natural setting (Wyles et al., 2017). Chris Jones assesses attitudes and behaviour towards sustainable lifestyles including established and emerging supply and demand side energy management (Jones et al., 2017). Eleanor Ratcliffe expert in psychological restoration in relation to birdsong, place, and memories (Ratcliffe, Gatersleben, Sowden, 2016). Thus, the group and the MSc course reflected discussions on wellbeing in natural and built environments, along with environmental sustainability.

In the 2010s prominent graduates of Surrey's MSc in Environmental Psychology include Lily Bernheimer, author of the book The Shaping of Us: How Everyday Spaces Shape Our Lives, and Clara Weber, now Senior Research Associate at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, investigating inclusive workplace design, privacy and crowding, and place attachment.

2020's – Present times

Environmental psychology at Surrey has continued to expand. Ratcliffe became the MSc course director in 2022, and was joined by two former MSc students, Melissa Marselle and Sarah Payne, returning now as staff members, along with Surrey Senior Future Fellow Anna Bornioli. Together they brought expertise in the mental health benefits of biodiversity (Marselle, Hartig et al., 2021), healthcare environments, public spaces, soundscapes and psychological restoration (Payne & Bruce, 2019), and healthy and active urban places (Bornioli & Subiza Perez, 2021). In 2023, Gatersleben, along with Devine-Wright, secured £6.25 million from the ESRC in support of the Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environmental Social Science (ACCESS) project, which aims to ensure people are at the heart of actions to address climate change and conserve the natural environment.  

The EPRG and subsequently the MSc course now covers the diverse range of environmental psychology topics, including experiences of place, mental health and wellbeing outcomes from built and natural environments, pro-environmental behaviour and behaviour change, accompanied by focussed research interests on nature and wellbeing (e.g. nature engagement during COVID), soundscapes (e.g. Valuing Nature's Soundscapes, Project DeStress), and mobility. Like other environmental psychology groups, sustainability is a key topic in research and teaching, but unlike other groups, Surrey also maintains a strong tradition in architectural psychology. Accordingly, the MSc continues to attract psychologists as well as architects, designers, and planners from across the world with an interest in creating better places for people and the planet.

Continuing the tradition as the 'headquarters' of UK environmental psychology, this September, Surrey hosts the 7th British Environmental Psychology UK (BrEPs) conference. An early incarnation of BrEPs – Environmental Psychology UK (EPUK) – was founded by David Uzzell and Simon Ungar in 1999. Surrey also played a key role in founding and running the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS) with both staff (Canter, Uzzell, Gatersleben, and Payne) and former MSc students (Craig) holding IAPS President, Secretary and/or Treasurer roles across the decades.

The future of environmental psychology

The fields of environmental psychology and wider people-environment interactions have grown over the past 50 years, yet Surrey has continued its pioneering presence and influence on the field. Environmental psychology is well-placed to have major impact on issues relating to sustainable development, nature conservation and pro-environmental behaviour change to help with ongoing climate and biodiversity crises. For example, our subjective responses to thermal comfort, environmental stressors, and emotional connections to place all affect our interactions with, and uptake of, new devices in and around our homes to meet Net Zero goals, such as underfloor heating, ground source heat pumps, and wind farms. Through Melissa Marselle and Sarah Golding's participation, the EPRG is ensuring that environmental psychology is represented and plays a key role in the BPS's Climate Environment Action Coordinating Group.

Finally, as a discipline we need to be able to translate our work into practical applications for transformative change, where it can influence policy and practice, not just at individual level, but also at organisational and national levels. The University of Surrey, its alumni, and prospective students in Environmental Psychology will continue striving in creating impactful research for people and their environments for the next 50 years.

• Find out more about the 50th anniversary event at the University of Surrey.

References

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