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Relations Between Psychology and Geography
Abstract
The special issue of Environment and Behavior, "Relations Between Environmental Psychology and Allied Fields," edited by Seymour Wapner (1995) contained seven articles exploring the links between environmental psychology and other subfields of psychology. The articles examined how environmental psychology with its emphasis on context "may serve to integrate psychology as a whole, and to bridge the gap between the interests of professionally orientated and academic psychologists" (Wapner 1995, p. 5). This article expands on this theme by exploring and summarizing the links between psychology and the allied field of human geography. It is suggested that an integrative framework needs to be adopted to capture the ways that these two disciplines, (and others such as planning and anthropology), have become complementary, and by doing so have provided a broader theoretical conceptualization of environment and behavior interactions.
... In humanistic geography, spatial knowledge is linked to people's perception about the physical environment, and their products contain information about its location, which can simplify and order complex human-land relationships (Schmidt & Redish, 2013). In this context, the exploration of textual spatial knowledge expression, geospatial data mining and knowledge discovery (Koperski & Han, 1995) has the potential to explain travel behaviour (Weston & Handy, 2004) and housing choices (Kitchin, Blades, & Golledge, 1997). The formation of the overall geographical pattern of listings is accompanied by individual spatial behavioural decision-making and spatial cognition (Musolino & Mariotti, 2020). ...
This study explores the location choices of Airbnb from the hosts' perspective. Drawing on accommodation location models, cognitive maps and advertising place references, hosts' location choices and spatial advertising hotspots are discovered. 136,000 pieces of Airbnb listing data and Airbnb titles in 18 Chinese cities are used to explain the relationship between Airbnb and hosts' place references. Toponymy mining methods and GIS mapping results confirm the existence of a common expression logic in Airbnb locations. Airbnb titles frequently provide the general characteristics of the location and the relevance to spatial attractions, which are oriented to recreation and travel, subjected to effects from multiple groups, and informed by four trends for urban functional zones. The study extends the Tourist-Historic City model into sharing accommodation research through multiple cases and utilizes Airbnb titles data to uncover host-oriented location choices in the context of Airbnb, it reveals the pragmatism features of Airbnb.
... At this time, the cognitive map is no longer limited to the map attributes in geographical space, but also emphasizes the graphical expression of individuals' knowledge and understanding of specific fields [12], [13] is a feasible technical means to acquire tacit knowledge [14]. Cognitive maps affect the decision-making process behind choices and behaviors, including housing selection [15], crime location selection [16], country or city's visiting behavior and consumption behavior [17]. And cognitive maps are used in environmental design [18], [19], Map Making [20], GIS Computer Interface and Database [21], [22], human behavior modeling pedestrian movement behavior [23], simulation [24], organizational strategy modeling [25], investment analysis [26], political decisionmaking [27] and critical success factor modeling [28]. ...
Cognitive map is a comprehensive research field of many disciplines, such as psychology, geography, computer science and sociology. This multidisciplinary synthesis actually reflects the complexity of the cognitive map itself, which until now has lacked a unified conceptual definition because of its complexity. The literature on cognitive maps is increasing year by year, but there are few bibliometric studies on cognitive maps. In order to fill this gap, this paper uses literature relations and visualization tool VOSviewer software to systematically review, cluster, country, author cooperation and keyword analysis of cognitive map documentation data in different fields, to understand the study hotspots and development situation of cognitive maps in different disciplines. This research found that the number of documents published in the past five years (2018-2022) increased the most, with nearly a third of the total number of studies published. Cognitive maps mainly focused on four research areas: computer science, engineering electrical electronic, geography, neuroscience and psychology. This study draws its scientific overview through bibliometrics, explores the global profile, theme change and frontier trend of cognitive map research results, and provides the direction and way for future research.
... The "sex-positive" perspective employs a social model to highlight social barriers and emphasizes the equal rights of PLWD. Social environments are another source of discourse representation on disability, closely connected to psychology (Kitchin et al., 1997). Inaccessibility and how the built environment is designed by/for non-disabled individuals dictate how disabled people are being presented in an unfriendly manner. ...
... We say back into conversation because it is important to recall earlier work at the nexus of cognitive psychology and geography on environmental perception and environmental behaviour (including navigational wayfinding) dating back many decades (e.g. Downs & Stea, 1977; and see Kitchin et al., 1997 for a review). Seeking to revive and advance that interdisciplinary field in the mid-1990s, Kitchin (1996) not only summarized established/accumulated critiques of behavioural geographers -for their "dehumanizing" schemata that humanistic geographers considered gave insufficient room to human agency, and largely ignored the social and cultural contexts in which individual spatial decision-makers operated (Ley, 1981) -but also showed how geographers had sought to respond to such limitations through "transactional" approaches to peopleenvironment relations. ...
Recent work in several fields of psychology has advanced understanding of how humans imaginatively construct, simulate and (pre-)feel the future. These advances have not yet been substantively engaged in social and cultural geography. In this paper, we identify, review and begin to draw together scholarship in human geography and several subfields of psychology on the ways in which people imagine and navigate towards the future. The most influential existing work on the future in geography has concerned powerful institutional and discursive depictions of threatening times-to-come. In contrast, psychological and neuroscientific work on cognitive processes involved in prospection extends possibilities for a human geographical approach to the future considering how people relate to discursive imaginaries and spatial environments. Reinvigoration of the human geography-psychology nexus can further critical understanding of the spatialities through which futures are imaginatively formed and felt by individuals, and are thereby brought into the realm of political and social possibility.
... At the end of the last century, collaborations with environmental psychologists (Kitchin et al., 1997) and the shift of paradigm in cognitive science have led geographers to partly abandon the study of the what and where to dedicate more attention to the how and why (Golledge, 2002). This change of perspective have prompted a more explicit study of cognitive processes and internal representations of space. ...
Spatial cognition is fundamental to the behaviour and activity of humans in urban space. Humans perceive their environments with systematic biases and errors, and act upon these perceptions, which in turn form urban patterns of activity. These perceptions are influenced by a multitude of factors, many of them relating to the static urban form. Yet much of geographic analysis ignores the influence of urban form, instead referring most commonly to the Euclidean arrangement of space. In this paper, we propose a novel spatial modelling framework for estimating cognitive distance in urban space. This framework is constructed from a wealth of research describing the effect of environmental factors on distance estimation, and produces a quantitative estimate of the effect based on standard GIS data. Unlike other cost measures, the cognitive distance estimate integrates systematically observed distortions and biases in spatial cognition. As a proof-of-concept, the framework is implemented for 26 cities worldwide using open data, producing a novel comparative measure of ‘cognitive accessibility’. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential of this approach in analysing and modelling urban systems, and outlines areas for further research.
... resonances from within psychological geographies include Tuan's discussions on the embodied nature of cultural experience (1971) and Walmsley and Lewis's contribution (1984) on how environments are inhabited and the influence of this on behaviour. Kitchin et al. (1997) were more explicit in their approach to integrate psychology into human geography through outlining the complementary tenets within both fields -such as the environment-behaviour interaction -and positing potential research fields, such as the interactions between environmental, societal and cultural influences on cognition and human agency. ...
Beachgoing experiences are highly desirable among international tourists visiting Australia. Beach use has been popularised in the contemporary Australian imaginary influencing how locals behave at the beach and setting an example to visitors. Many of the behaviours that Australian beach users’ display can be classed as risky. How and why tourists enact certain risky behaviours in their attempts to comply with beach going norms in Australia is not well known. The imagined beachgoing psyche of tourists describes a disconnection between pre-conceptions about risk at the beach and the reality of actual risks and hazards. The pursuit of thrill and risk while on holiday work to reconcile tourist attitudes about their often safety-averse behaviours, helping to explain why beach safety is often ignored, accidentally and purposefully. The influence of other social phenomena, such as the amplification of risk, interactive risk and group norms, contribute to tourists’ beach behaviours in Australia. Beachgoer questionnaires and interview testimonies triangulated results using a mixed-method-research approach that identifies the mechanisms that lead to an incoherence between understandings of danger and safe behaviours, which were specific to the socio-spatial context of the Australian beach space. There is much ambiguity in the nature of the Australian beach holiday, where the tourist beachgoer can choose between behaviours of escape (to relax) and excite (to take risks). This can lead to the conflation of these contrasting, yet spatially connected, pursuits.
... Jack [26] investigates the significance of children's place attachments for the development of their identity, security and sense of belonging. Golledge and co-workers [27][28][29] worked for many years to bridge the two disciplines but with limited success-beyond their own scholarly work. Although a "spatial turn" has been diagnosed for other social sciences like sociology and the humanities [30], places are predominantly seen as the sites of social relations [24] by acting as open articulations of connections [31]. ...
Around the globe, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are well established in the daily workflow of authorities, businesses and non-profit organisations. GIS can effectively handle spatial entities and offer sophisticated analysis and modelling functions to deal with space. Only a small fraction of the literature in Geographic Information Science—or GIScience in short—has advanced the development of place, addressing entities with an ambiguous boundary and relying more on the human or social attributes of a location rather than on crisp geographic boundaries. While the GIScience developments support the establishment of the digital humanities, GISs were never designed to handle subjective or vague data. We, an international group of authors, juxtapose place and space in English language and in several other languages and discuss potential consequences for Geoinformatics and GIScience. In particular, we address the question of whether linguistic and cultural settings play a role in the perception of place. We report on some facts revealed by this multi-language and multi-cultural dialogue, and what particular aspects of place we were able to discern regarding the few languages addressed.
... Perceptions of risks have been analyzed as correlates of personal values, worldviews, and other culturally rooted cognitive processes at the individual level, but geographically based factors and, specifically, social vulnerability have received less attention, perhaps due to a lack of data availability at various spatial and geographic units and/or because relevant social-psychological theories of environmental attitudes and risk perceptions tend to focus on individuals rather than geographic areas as their units of analysis. Yet, individuallevel values are often embedded in geographically specific contexts and connected to locally relevant phenomena, such as cultural milieu, history, economic vibrancy, and patterns of integration or segregation, among other factors (Guagnano and Markee 1995;Kitchin et al. 1997;Lorenzoni and Pidgeon 2006;Shwom et al. 2008;Hamilton and Keim 2009;Hamilton et al. 2010;Safford et al. 2012;Sampson 2012;Chuang et al. 2013;Hamilton and Safford 2015). ...
Vulnerability and resilience to extreme weather hazards are a function of diverse physical, social, and psychological factors. Previous research has focused on individual factors that influence public perceptions of hazards, such as politics, ideology, and cultural worldviews, as well as on socioeconomic and demographic factors that affect geographically based vulnerability, environmental justice, and community resilience. Few studies have investigated individual socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences in public risk perceptions of the health hazards associated with extreme heat events, which are now increasing due to climate change. This study uses multilevel statistical modeling to investigate individual- and geographic-level (e.g., census tract level and regional) social, economic, and biophysical influences on public perceptions of the adverse health impacts associated with heat waves. Political orientation and climate change beliefs are the strongest predictors of heat wave health risk perceptions; household income also has a relatively strong and consistent effect. Contextual socioeconomic vulnerability, measured with a social vulnerability index at the census tract level, also significantly affects heat wave risk perceptions. The strong influence of political orientation and climate beliefs on perceptions of adverse health impacts from heat waves suggests that ideological predispositions can increase vulnerability to climate change.
This study explores the location choices of Airbnb from the hosts' perspective. Drawing on accommodation location models, cognitive maps and advertising place references, hosts' location choices and spatial advertising hotspots are discovered. 136,000 pieces of Airbnb listing data and Airbnb titles in 18 Chinese cities are used to explain the relationship between Airbnb and hosts' place references. Toponymy mining methods and GIS mapping results confirm the existence of a common expression logic in Airbnb locations. Airbnb titles frequently provide the general characteristics of the location and the relevance to spatial attractions, which are oriented to recreation and travel, subjected to effects from multiple groups, and informed by four trends for urban functional zones. The study extends the Tourist-Historic City model into sharing accommodation research through multiple cases and utilizes Airbnb titles data to uncover host-oriented location choices in the context of Airbnb, it reveals the pragmatism features of Airbnb. Below is the 50day free access:
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hQ3d_oIs6D8Il
Książka zawiera zbiór artykułów omawiających problemy współzależności formy i przestrzeni życia w świadmości użytkowników i projektantów środowiska architektonicznego.
The model involves unfolding preference ratio judgements. It assumes that the individual and choice alternatives may be represented in a geometrical space and that the coordinates defining the individual and the alternatives follow a normal probability distribution. A preference structure may then be derived from the distances between the alternatives and an individual's ideal point. The model is compared with a nonmetric MDS algorithm and a logit model in the context of the evaluation of residential alternatives. The results of their analyses indicated that their model performed substantially better in evaluating individuals' preferences for residential alternatives than either a nonmetric MDS unfolding model or a binary linear logit model. -from Editors
One goal of cartographic research is to improve the usefulness of maps. To do so, we must consider the process of spatial knowledge acquisition, the role of maps in that process, and the content of cognitive representations derived. Research from psychology, geography, and other disciplines related to these issues is reviewed. This review is used to suggest potential new directions for research with particular attention to spatial problem solving and geographic instruction. A classroom experiment related to these issues is then described. The experiment highlights some of the implications that a concern for the process of spatial knowledge acquisition will have on questions and methods of cartographic research as well as on the use of maps in geographic instruction. It also provides evidence of independent but interrelated verbal and spatial components of regional images that can be altered by directed map work.
Behavioral geography seeks to understand the relationship behavior has to the molar physical environment through the study of mediating psychological processes such as perception, cognition, appraisals, and decision making. Thus, behavioral geography has adopted the same goal as environmental psychology. The aim of this book is to give state-of-the-art reviews of several different areas of research on the behavior-environment interfaces within which both psychologists and geographers are actively involved. By asking both a geographer and a psychologist to contribute a review of each research area, answers are provided to the question of what each discipline contributes towards the understanding of the many behavior-environment interfaces. Chapters 2 to 11, constituting Part 1 of the book, review research on the basic component processes in the behavior-environment interaction of acquiring, judging, and appraising information. Chapters 12 to 17, assembled in Part II, review research on the basic component processes entailed by behavior-environment interactions in several of their real-world contexts such as choices of residential, retail, and recreational environments. -from Editors
This paper focuses upon the personal geography of a group of school children aged between 6 and 11. Its objectives are to examine whether gender influences a child's awareness of place and ability to represent space. Images of the home area are elicited by free-recall mapping. The analysis considers both the quantitative accretion of spatial knowledge and the qualitative structural changes associated with the internalisation of environmental information. The different ways in which boys and girls come into contact with the environment seem to have important implications for the development of their cognitive abilities. From a young age boys show a much broader understanding of space, mentioning places much further away from their homes than girls. Their maps are more complex in form showing a good grasp of spatial relationships. Both in terms of cartographic competence and map accuracy, strong gender related differences are apparent, suggesting that boys by the age of 11 have already achieved a higher level of spatial competence. -Author
Psychological research on risk perception is the focus of this chapter, originated in empirical studies of probability assessment, utility assessment, and decision making processes. A major development in this area has been the discovery of a set of mental strategies, or heuristics, that people employ in order to make sense out of an uncertain world. The chapter addresses the social amplification of risk. The research described in this chapter has implications for social impact analysis that transcend the conflicts and concerns surrounding the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. The study of socioeconomic impacts at Yucca Mountain has demonstrated that the so-called “standard effects” of large engineering projects on local employment, housing, and transportation have the potential to be dwarfed by the "special effects" of risk perception and stigma.
This chapter describes the psychological contributions to the study of decision making in housing markets. The first psychological studies of decision making relied heavily on normative decision models, using them as a point of departure for measuring subjective utilities and probabilities in choice situations. This chapter discusses the research project and this project focused on how people's residential choices are related to their beliefs about how housing options may lead to the attainment of personally important values or goals. This project is denoted as the RCBVS (Residential Choices and Belief Value Structures) project. In addition, some distinctions in current psychological research on human decision making are briefly addressed. The chapter also investigates how the predictability of actual-world choices is counteracted by external constraints which prevent the decision maker from implementing his or her preferences. Predictions are perhaps often easier made on a group level from relations between objective housing attributes and actual choices in the market, implying that psychological data are not used.