KEY QUESTIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (ONLINE) - 2025/6

Module Overview

The module introduces you to some of the key questions that currently guide research and practice in environmental psychology. The course addresses issues around global and local environmental problems facing our world today. It provides an insight into the psychology of environment-behaviour issues focusing on built (residential, work and public) and natural environments. The main focus of the course will be to provide an insight into the research and theory development to date and to familiarise you with the practical and multidisciplinary nature of the field. By the end of the course you should have an advanced understanding of the nature and scope of some of the principal theoretical and methodological developments in this area of research and an understanding of the application of psychological theory and concepts to an important area of everyday life.

Module provider

SOL - Psychology

Module Leader

BORNIOLI Anna (Psychology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

The module largely addresses two topics in environment-behaviour research:

1. Architectural psychology and environmental design. This includes topics such as environmental aesthetics, restorative environments, nature and health, and environmental stress.


2. The psychology of sustainable development. This includes topics such as: understanding pro-environmental behaviours, attitudes and values, and environmental risk.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate:
Assessment 1: Presentation - analysing an existing environment

• Your ability to analyse physical environments using environmental psychology methods.


• Your knowledge of environmental psychology theories and research evidence in a global context.


• Your ability to consider the practical impact of research.


• Your ability to formulate a coherent argument for an academic and non-academic audience.


• Your ability to provide practical solutions to environmental problems based on environmental psychology theories and evidence.

Assessment 2: MCQ

• Your knowledge of environmental psychology theories, methods and research evidence.

The assessments will also allow you to demonstrate key employability skills, specifically their ability to present clear, coherent and concise arguments to an audience. The presentation assesses students ability to present a persuasive, evidence-based verbal argument; and to integrate theory with evidence in a practical context


Formative assessment and feedback
You will participate in regular interactive discussions within synchronous sessions that involve group-level or individual formative feedback (e.g., on your understanding of a topic or their ability to critically evaluate a theory).

Formative Feedback will also be provided through weekly online quizzes and guided learning activities, designed to monitor develop learning from the lectures and tutorials

Module aims

• Provide you as a students with an understanding of the major theoretical formulations and models in environmental psychology, in order to facilitate a conceptual underpinning to their approach to research and practice
• Support you in developing critical thinking and evidence-based arguments
• Engage you in review of environmental psychology evidence drawn from global contexts
• Provide you with a knowledge of individual, organisational and social aspects of approaches to environmental psychology

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Give you familiarity with environmental psychology theory and evidence in a global context.


• Provide you with the foundational knowledge to enable them to describe key theories in environmental psychology.


• Support you in developing the critical thinking skills to evaluate different theoretical perspectives and evidence.


• Provide you with the resourcefulness to critically discuss the implications of key findings relating to environmental psychology in applied contexts.


• Provide you with a foundational understanding of key psychological research methods used within the field.


• Enable you to develop, demonstrate and apply communication skills through presentation and writing.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Recorded lectures delivering core content, to develop your understanding of key theories and evidence.


• Synchronous online sessions that includes interactive discussions about theories/issues introduced in lectures and reading and provide support and feedback on the coursework assessment.


• Guided learning activities each week to develop your skills in reading and critically analysing journal articles, identifying research questions, evaluating different cognitive research techniques and argument development.


• Formative quizzes each week to support and guide students’ learning and understanding of topics.


• Independent study, comprised of: reading is provided each week, typically including a textbook chapter or core paper each week, consolidate learning and prepare for assessments.


• Edex Canvas will be a key resource for supplementary materials and discussions. Using this platform will further develop digital capabilities.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: PSYM170

Other information

The school/department of Psychology is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

Resourcefulness and resilience: You are required to apply their knowledge of the environment to Assignment 1 (presentation) in order to evaluate different spaces in relation to environmental psychology theory. This involves being resourceful and using the environment as an evidence base.

Global and Cultural Capabilities: You are encouraged to consider evidence from a global context in their learning about environmental psychology, and to critically consider how biases in science may have informed which theories and evidence are most prominent in environmental psychology.

Employability: The learning aims and assessments are designed to develop your employability skills. The assignments involve a recorded presentation.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.