ENV431E

Environmental psychology

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

Dr Peter Cock

6 or 8 points
* 2 hours per week
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: none

Objectives These are to address (1) personal alienation from nature; (2) how alienation can be healed to become a mutually enriching natural connection.

Synopsis There are three dimensions of environmental education `educating about the environment, in the environment, for the environmental' (Robottom, 1987). This course explores our place in nature from the perspective of being in nature for our well-being. Recognition of our dependency on nature for our psychological and spiritual well-being is seen as a requisite to caring for nature in a holistic way. The course experimentally works at the edge of thought and practice for western socialised individuals. The course draws on the experience of the first peoples of the world, the hunter-gatherers, particularly in Australia and America. It examines how their experience with nature can reveal to us - the possibility of a mutually enriching relationship between western socialised humans and Gaia. The work of deep ecology, ecofeminism, creation spirituality and Jungian psychology will be drawn from to explore the conceptual and practical potential to draw on different environments as a source of psychological insight and well-being. The course examines ways to reconstruct our connections with Gaia to become partners for mutual regeneration and to experience nature as kin. The course will examine the effect on our psyche of the built environment compared with natural environments. How do I interact with the particular places I inhabit? How am I personally affected by this environment? We will compare the psycho-social effects of being in a square room, a high-rise building and a concrete street, with that of experiencing a forest and being by the ocean. To what extent do we become different individuals in different environments? The course will involve a bi-weekly class to explore the connections between the literature and our own environmental psychology; two weekend field trips, one to the mountains and one to the sea. There will also be exercises to be undertaken in the suburban and urban environment.

Assessment (6 points - 1998 students) Research report (2000 words): 35%
* Book review (500 words): 10%
* A journal: 20%
* Three practical reports (500 words each): 35%
Assessment (8 points - pre-1998 students) Written (4000 words): 50%
* Seminars and exercises: 50%

Prescribed texts

Chatwin B The songlines Pan Books, 1988

Recommended texts

Roszak T The voice of the earth Simon and Schuster, 1992
Suzuki D and Knudtson P Wisdom of our elders Allen and Unwin, 1992