1 SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS Fall 2010 Discipline: Psychology SEMS 2500-501: Environmental Psychology (section 1) SEMS 2500-502: Environmental Psychology (section 2) Lower Division Faculty Name: Richard D. Barnes Pre-requisites : Introduction to Psychology or permission of the instructor COURSE DESCRIPTION This course explores the interaction of humans with the designed physical environment, and the relationships between architectural design and human behavior in a cultural context. Topics include environmental perception and cognition, personal space, privacy, territoriality, and crowding, as well as the application of psychology in the design of residential, commercial, educational and public settings. Emphasis is placed on theories of environment-behavior relationships and on examining similarities and differences in architecture and environmental design in the cultures we visit. There also will be discussion of the effects of natural environments on humans and the role of human behavior in environmentally sustainability. COURSE OBJECTIVES This course has two goals. First, through this course students will gain an understanding and critical appreciation for research on people’s interactions with environments. Throughout the course we will be examining laboratory and field research on environmental cognition, personal space and crowding, and the effects of physical stress in the environment. The success of any environment depends upon an interaction between the physical characteristics of the environment, social organization and norms in the setting, and characteristics of the people who use the environment. This three-way relationship will serve as a framework for understanding of the effects of environments on people in the cultures we visit. An additional goal of the course is to explore through readings and direct experience how people's behavior in environments can be studied. We will look at methods used by environmental psychologists to study human environments, and we will collect information about people's use of environments through hands-on exercises and a semester-long project. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AUTHOR: Robert Gifford TITLE: Environmental Psychology: Principles and practice PUBLISHER: Optimal Books ISBN #: 978-0-9688543-1-0 DATE/EDITION: 2007 / Fourth Edition COST: $88.00 to $176.28 new, or $75.90 to $155.00 used (Amazon)