A Bio-Social Approach to Environmental Psychology and Problems of Stress

Abstract

Wohlwill (1970) identified three main interactions between man and environment: (1) behaviour necessarily occurs in some particular environmental context, which imposes major constraints on the range of behaviours permissible in it; (2) certain qualities of the environment, such as under or over stimulation, crowding, severity of climate etc., may exert generalized effects on broader systems of response within the individual; (3) behaviour is in a variety of ways, instigated by and directed at particular attributes and characteristics of the physical environment. “Environmental Psychology”, being concerned with environment-behaviour relationships neglects to study the adaptive relationships which exist between the environment, the social system and behaviour. The Bio-social approach by Dawson (1969. 1977a) better clarifies these issues, studying man as a bio-social organism within a bio-social eco-system. “Bio-social Psychology” is defined as the way in which adaptation to different biological environments results in the development of adaptive socialization processes, which influence particular habits of perceptual inference, personality traits, cognitive processes and psychological skills. The present paper describes the basic bio-social concepts of this approach. An analysis is also made of applications of the Bio-social approach to Environmental psychology. A review is also made of environmental stresses in modern life.