Environmental Psychology and

Quality of Life.

The uniqueness of this Handbook is that the facts and the links between the
environment and quality of life. We have wanted to show, through the various
contributions, that how environmental psychology knows the notion of quality of
life & how this concept, which is central to this disciplinary field, is at the heart of
substantial research carried out over recent years in the different cultural areas of
Europe, as well as in North and South America.

The different chapters assembled here show how essential it is to

understand the links between the environment and quality of life from the angle
of the psychological and psychosocial processes that are at work. These
contributions also plead in favor of a better consciousness of these levels in the
context of interventions in all aspect of life and the effect of public policies in
general. The Handbook is organized in three main parts, composed in a total of 8
subsections and 30 chapters. The first part deals with People- Environment
Relationships and Quality of Life. After this introductory chapter, the five chapters
that make up the first subsection, Environmental Quality and Well-being, describe
the state of the art of the relationship between the individual, the environment
and quality of life.

Chap. 2 & 3, look at the evolution of the concepts of quality of life, well-
being and happiness. The authors revisit Sprowl’s concepts of shrinking cities,
ecocities, walkability and sustainable mobility, and the socioeconomic dynamics
of globalization, and how these have an impact on the social interactions, living
opportunities and well-being of citizens & the negative aspects environmental
experience that allows individuals to attain psychological and social well-being.
Based on these concepts and research traditions, the authors reflect on the future
of the discipline.

In Chap. 4, the author shows the link between place, appropriation and
sense of place between environmental and social life of the people which is
measured by using qualitative and a quantitative approach. In chap.6 the author
shows the connectedness of well being and the environment.

Linking Research and Design: What’s Missing?, Desprès and Piché analyze
the current state and the future of collaboration between architecture and
environmental psychology in terms of working together to improve living
conditions and thus the quality of life. This first subsection ends with Chap. 5 by Di
Masso, Dixon, and Hernandez: Place Attachment, Sense of Belonging and the
Micropolitics of Place Satisfaction, in which the authors, from different
epistemological backgrounds, revisit research using both a qualitative and a
quantitative approach to one of the most emblematic research topics in
environmental psychology: the link between place, appropriation and sense of
place.

The second subsection deals with the question of restorative environments.

In Chap. 6, Self, Nature andWell-being: a sense of connectedness and Environ-
mental Identity for Quality of Life, Olivos, and Clayton reflect on the relationship
between connectedness with nature, self, and well-being, beginning with the
premise that the environment could be a contributory factor in the development
of a positive identity.in chap. 7 theories positing that the design of certain
environments (residential, school, work) can be restorative, that is to say, they
can favor health and well-being. In chap 8. authors show that physical activity in a
natural setting can have additional positive effects well-being examines the issue
of Ecological Behavior relationships between people and the environment on a
global scale. It begins with Chap. 9 sustainable development and the aim to aims
to improve quality of life with a positive effect on the natural environment and
human needs satisfaction.

It begins with Chap. 9 Sustainable Behavior and Quality of Life, in which

Tapia-Fonllem, Corral-Verdugo, and Fraijo-Sing consider that sustainable
development aims to improve quality of life by ensuring the satisfaction of human
needs and the protection of the natural environment, as well as having positive
psychological consequences for individuals who subscribe to this practice. In
Chap. 10 Life, Kaizer, Kibbe, and Arnold propose a model that questions the link
between sustainable behavior and intrinsic motivation related to the protection
of the environment. Positive Human-Environment Interactions to Improve Quality
of Life, Demarque and Girandola focus on the effect of commitment and
persuasive communication on the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors such
as sorting waste, recycling, and energy-saving, perceived positively and
contributing to the quality of life.

In Chap. 10, Self- determined, Enduring, Ecologically Sustainable Ways of

Life, Kaizer, Kibbe, and Arnold propose a model that questions the link between
sustainable behavior and intrinsic motivation related to the protection of the
environment. In the following chapter, Commitment and Pro-environmental
Behavior: Favoring Positive Human-Environment Interactions to Improve Quality
of Life, Demar- queue and Girandola focus on the effect of commitment and
persuasive communication on the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors such
as sorting waste, recycling, and energy-saving, perceived positively and
contributing to the quality of life. Chapter 12 links pro-environmental attitudes
and behaviors with the psychosocial identity of the individual, through the
theoretical division of quality of life. The pro-environmental attitudes blog to the
person who belongs to a specific group. Chap. 13 the engagement in subsection
ends with Environ- mentally-friendly Behavior will positive and respect the
environment but where the relationship with Environment is not friendly the
Behavior the impact will be negative.

Chapter 12, Pro-environmentalism, Identity Dynamics and Environmental

Quality of Life, links pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors with the
psychosocial identity of the individual, through the theoretical lens of quality of
life. Félonneau and Causse underline here the central role that the environment
plays in the constitution of identity as well as its impact on the consolidation of
pro-environmental attitudes, through the normative influence and expectations
of groups of belonging. Chap. 13 This subsection ends with Environ- mentally-
friendly Behavior will positive and respect the environment but where there is a
negative relationship with Environment Behavior also negative. Can Engagement
in Environmentally- friendly Behavior Increase Well-being? Here, Verhoeven, Steg,
and Bolderdijk discuss thoroughly and critically the relationship between behavior
that respects the environment and wellbeing, by putting forward hypotheses
demonstrating that this relationship can be both positive and negative. in Chap.
14: Urban Design and Quality of Life, analyze those aspects of the design of cities
that might have an effect on the quality of life. They discuss the fact that,
although direct causal relationships between physical space and well-being are
often difficult to establish, the former plays a fundamental role in the
establishment of the latter, a role that must not be ignored. In Chap. 15, the
second in this subsection, The City as an Environment for Urban Experiences and
the Learning of Cultural Practices, Paramo suggests designing the city not only as
a spatial phenomenon but also as a form of socially constructed cultural
expression. This subsection ends with Chap. 16: Adjustments of Acts and
Representations to Urban Space and Psychological Well-being. Here, Ramadier
draws on concepts of social readability of space and socio-cognitive accessibility
to places in order to understand better the adjustments made by individuals to
attain a level of well-being within an urban space. The subsection Residential
Environments focuses on quality of life in the residential environment. The
chapter by Aragones, Amérigo, and Peréz, Residential Satisfaction and Quality of
Life, describes the long and emblematic tradition of research on the theme of
residential satisfaction. In the chapter Spatial Inequalities, Geographically-based
Discrimination and Quality of Life, Fleury-Bahi and Ndobo put into perspective the
question of residential quality of life with problems of residential discrimination
and socio-spatial segregation. This subsection ends with two chapters that
analyze the everyday environments of children and adolescents Depeau, in
Children in Residential Contexts, describes the studies carried out in
environmental psychology and social geography on children’s use of residential
space. Milfont and Denny deal with the use of school and neighborhood spaces by
adolescents in the chapter Everyday Environments and Quality of Life. Positive
School and Neighborhood Environments Influence the Health and Well-being of
Adolescents. This section on everyday environments ends with a subsection on
Work and Institutional

Environments. These spaces give rise to serious questions for society

concerning their quality and adaptability to the needs of users. The first two
chapters present the classic theoretical models in environmental psychology used
to study the quality of life in the workplace. The chapter The Effect of Workplace
Design on Quality of Life and Work by Vischer and Wifi is complemented by that
of Rioux on Comfort at Work: an Indicator of Quality of Life at Work. The
following two chapters deal with the quality of life in institutional contexts,
particularly health institutions. Thus, Devlin and Andrade analyze the existing
literature in environmental psychology on the Quality of the Hospital Experience:
Impact of the Physical Environment to understand the role of the latter on the
quality of life of patients and their families. Fornara and Manca, in the chapter
Healthy Residential Environments for the Elderly, do the same with institutions
specifically dedicated to the elderly, a key issue in an aging world (at least in the
North-Western part of the world). The third and final part of this handbook,
Quality of Life and Environmental Threats, focuses on the potentially harmful
effects of certain environmental features on the quality of life. Thus, the first
subsection, Environmental Stressors, and Risks examine the work on
environmental risks and annoyances. The chapter Environmental Stress by
Gatersleben reviews the research on environmental stress, one of the most
emblematic research traditions in environmental psychology. The following three
chapters deal with one of the topics most currently studied in environmental
psychology: environmental risk evaluation by inhabitants and populations more
or less exposed to risk. Thus, the social representations of natural risks are
analyzed in the chapter: Living in an “At Risk” Environment: the Example of
Coastal Risk by Michel-Guillou and Meur-Ferec. The effect of social and
environmental inequalities on the perception of risk is examined by Navarro in
the chapter Social Inequality and Environmental Risk Perception. Finally, the
perception of industrial risk and the adaptation of populations to these living
conditions are analyzed by Lima and Marques in Chap. 28: Living in Industrial
Areas: Social Impacts, Adaptation, and Mitigation.This last part of the Handbook
ends with a subsection focusing on the planetary environment, a change of scale
that enables the authors to reflect on Global Change, Energy and Emerging Risks.
In Chap. 29, Emergent Risks and Quality of Life, Marchand, Weiss, and Zouhri
question these new risks called “emergent”, which are a source of anxiety for
society and represent a new challenge for decision-makers and users. Next, the
chapter Energy Issues: Psychological Aspects by Lenoir, Devine-Wright, Pinheiro,
and Schweizer-Ries deal with a currently very sensitive topic, related to the
control of energy, new energy sources and their impact on global quality of life.
Finally, Uzzell, Garcia-Mira, and Dumitru discuss Global Challenges for
Environmental Psychology. These authors highlight the contribution that this
discipline makes or should make, to the promotion of necessary changes by
societies in response to substantial environmental problems and their impact on
the quality of life of communities. A number of crucial questions for the discipline
are raised here, not only about globalization, North-South relationships and
dependences in terms of environmental issues, but also about implications for the
development of Environmental Psychology as a discipline.