A Systematization of the National Studies in Environmental Psychology

Abstract

Environmental Psychology (PA) is a discipline that studies the interrelation between person-environment, from the perspective that both are inserted in a system of mutual influence. With the objective of presenting a data systematization of studies in Environmental Psychology in the national context, this study carried out an analysis of the scientific production of articles related to the theme, available in SciELO, Pepsic, Indexpsi, VHL, LILACS databases. We used the descriptors person, environment and environmental psychology, selected according to the Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS). From the national sample of 29 scientific articles, it was verified that the person-environment relationship in its origins adopted an individualistic perspective, focused on the psychological effects that the environment caused in the people. Subsequently, the person-environment was studied in an interactionist perspective, in which both are separate units and have a cause-and-effect relationship. From a more current view, the person and environment are seen inserted in an interrelated system, in which both define and modify each other. It was possible to identify that the current ontology is materialist, anthropology is transactionalist and agent and epistemology is interactionist and constructivist. It was verified that there are two main characteristics in the PA: construction of scientific knowledge from the multi-method and interdisciplinary approach. For future researches is suggested to incorporate cultural issues into human-environment investigations, owing to the way it influences worldviews and urban and private constructions.