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While it is by no means necessary to examine the name of any field of study too closely, I feel I should let you know that our particular field of study today, Environmental Psychology, is known by more than one name: Ecological Psychology, Behavioral Geography, and Architectural Psychology to name but a few. And while to some extent incidental, these various names reflect the nature of the subject itself. You see, this branch of psychology is relatively new, that is to say, the first studies appeared in and around the late 1940’s, and it is quite multidimensional. In other words, rather than occupying its own specialized area, you are just likely to find it mentioned in lectures on everything from marketing to education. To put it quite simply, Environmental Psychology is a highly generalized field.
    So, given that its main concern may be loosely defined as measuring human responses in different contexts and situations, Environmental Psychology comes into play in many areas of our lives. Take this auditorium as an example. An educator would look at this hall as a reflection of certain educational values, meaning that all seats are placed so that I am the focus of attention and very little communication between you, the students, is encouraged by the tiered seating. On the other hand, a designer might focus more on the acoustics of the room and would probably consider how efficiently sound could travel in this design. Likewise in choosing a color, interior designers would consider a color that doesn’t interfere with concentration. However, the environmental psychologist would seek to measure your responses and reactions to each of these things and your overall behavior in this environment. So, you see, all of these points do, in some way, fit under the banner of Environmental Psychology.
    But this branch of psychology can be best applied to the commercial world. Suffice it to say that marketing is awash with lore about consumer reactions to things such as color. Yet as weird as it may sound to suggest that something as seemingly minor as, say, the color green in food wrapping could in fact cause financial ruin for a company, the idea that color can affect the nervous system in some way or another is widely believed. And not without reason ... Indeed, if I claim that red is a color that evokes anger and blue triggers feelings of calmness and relaxation, I’m sure most of you would agree. However, the extent to which this happens can, in some way, discredit the scientific validity of such a claim. Sure, experiments have recorded raised blood pressure in subjects who were in red surroundings and lowered blood pressure for those in a blue environment. However, it is extremely hard to quantify and it seems to be quite subjective. Yet rather than being slowly discredited over time as one might expect, the psychology of color is instead taken very seriously. As if feelings of anger and relaxation weren’t hard enough to measure, further studies have suggested that both red and its close relative, orange, can contribute to a sense of time passing more quickly. As you may imagine, such a claim in the psychological world would take numerous experiments to gain credence.
    So how can such claims be proven? Well, this is really the concern of environmental psychologists. While not really concerned with whether a certain reaction is valid or reasonable, environmental psychologists are very much concerned with measuring how strong the reaction is and as a consequence, how this then affects our lives. So rather than asking 50 people to describe how a certain color makes them feel, which is subject to cultural perceptions as much as to psychological ones, environmental psychologists focus on designing experiments that more accurately test human reactions to color. Since it may be easier to understand by looking at an example, let’s discuss the case study referred to in your textbook, page 57.
    A washing detergent company was about to launch a new powder detergent on the market, but the company wanted to determine how best to package the new product to positively impact the consumer. The designers presented three different packages for testing. The first package was yellow, the second package was blue, and the third was a mixture of the two colors. Although the color scheme on each box was different, the researchers put the same, let me stress that, the same powder in three different boxes. Then they told the users that they were testing the powder itself. After about one week, the researchers interviewed each user to discuss which powder worked best. Well, can anyone predict the outcome? Remember, the key to the experiment is in the color of the boxes. Anyone? No? Well, if you were thinking that the single colored boxes came out worst, you’d be spot on. It was widely believed, sorry ... uh perceived that the yellow powder was too strong, the blue too weak, and the yellow and blue just right. Surprised? Perhaps not! This-on some level-sounds almost logical. However, for marketing purposes, this was all the evidence the company needed. What this tells us about our associations with the colors, well, that was the next task for the environmental psychologists.
P I feel l Should let you know that our particular field of study today; Environmental Psychology, is known by more than one name: Ecological Psychology; Behavioral Geography, and Architectural Psychology to name but a few! And while to some extent incidental, these various names reflect the nature of the subject itself.
What does the professor mean when she says this:
P And while to some extent incidental, these various names reflect the nature of the subject itself