CHAPTER ONE: NATURE, FUNCTION AND MODELS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field focused on the interplay between human’s actions or behaviors and their surroundings. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments and informational environment. Ingredients of the definition i) Interdicplinary-involves the combining of two or more academic fields into one single discipline ii) The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components: Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation , microorganism, soils, atmosphere, natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear cut boundaries, such as air, water, climate as well as energy, radiations, electric charges and magnetism not originating from human activity. iii) The social environment of an individual, also called social context or milieu, is the culture that s/he was educated and/or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts