Residential Psychology

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Residential psychology deals with the psychological criteria for a human-friendly living environment as well as with the effect of this living environment on human behavior , feeling , thinking and acting as well as on the mental health of the individual as a whole. The concept of the living environment includes both the interior and the building including open spaces as well as the entire adaptable living environment - i.e. all areas that can be viewed together as the living space of an individual. In addition, the apartment-related perception space also plays a not insignificant role - i.e. everything that is commonly referred to as a “view”.

Overall, residential psychology is therefore of high practical relevance when it comes to planning and designing apartments , buildings and settlements .

Technical assignment

On the one hand, residential psychology is a branch of environmental psychology (also: ecological psychology ), as it deals with the interactions between people and their home-related environment .

On the other hand, borrowed residential psychology likewise many aspects from different branches of psychology : for example, the psychology of perception , including color psychology , the developmental psychology , social psychology , the cognitive , biological and humanistic psychology and many others. However, it focuses on the relevance for the quality of living, the human quality of stay in living environments. In this respect, it shows a stronger practical target orientation - in the direction of people's needs related to their homes as well as the humane planning and design of living environments.

And thirdly, residential psychology also has a clear interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary character with many cross-connections to residential physiology or building biology and housing theory, so that there is a discussion in specialist circles as to whether residential psychology should not already be seen as an independent discipline and (similar to building biology ) represents a bridge science between housing and the human sciences . From the point of view of housing construction practice, an interdisciplinary link makes sense, since the key concepts of quality of life and satisfaction with housing can also only be captured in an interdisciplinary manner. Michael Andritzky and Gert Selle already took a similar approach when they published their two volumes on " Learning Area Living " in 1979 , in which they linked psychological, sociological and planning-related topics.

It should also be mentioned that there is a large overlap between architectural psychology and residential psychology. While the former focuses more on the effect of buildings or spatial structures on people, the latter places greater emphasis on human living needs.

history

Residential psychology is a relatively young science . In 1987, Antje Flade, in particular, set the first major milestone towards establishing it as a separate science with "Living - psychologically considered" . This was followed in the 1990s by works by Rotraut Walden, who formulated psychological guidelines for human-friendly housing planning in their publication " Lebendiges Wohnen ", among others, and by Hans Joachim Harloff et al., Who with " Psychology of Housing and Settlement Construction " provided an impetus for better Wants to give cooperation between psychologists and planners. Harald Deinsberger, on the other hand, tried in 2007 in his " Psycho-Logic of Housing Structures " to link the areas of housing psychology and housing theory more closely in order to be able to draw concrete conclusions for planning practice. With the concept of salutogenic or pathogenic factors, u. a. Herbert Reichl has recently focused on the psychological health aspects of residential construction.

Practical meaning

The high practical relevance extends over the entire human living space, starting with the design and furnishing of interiors, the conception of buildings, settlements, rural and urban living quarters, the design of the living environment, etc. The importance of the Residential psychology is gradually increasing.

In addition, many findings from residential psychology are in some cases relevant wherever people (have to) stay for a long time, e.g. B .: hospitals , sanatoriums , homes , accommodation buildings of all kinds, but also office - and workrooms or childcare facilities etc.

Main topics of residential psychology

In basic research , she primarily tries to get to the bottom of the interdependencies between people and their living environment. For example, she investigates the following questions: How do the home and living environment affect the development of people, especially children? How do the spatial structures influence the way people live together? How does the respective setting shape people's behavior? What influence does the sensory perception space have with regard to the current state of mind? Etc.

If it goes one step further in the direction of possible applications, the following questions are at the center: How can a human-friendly living space be defined in psychological terms? What does quality of life or quality of life mean in the context of housing and how can this be increased? Which living needs should a living environment be able to meet? u. v. a. m.

In addition to dealing with these general human foundations, a second application-oriented trend can be observed, which goes in the direction of individual personality counseling and which also often categorizes itself under the heading of residential psychology. It goes i. d. Usually about style and design issues as well as questions of congruence or incongruence between individual personality and living space design. This means that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate this from classic furnishing advice or it occurs in combination with the same.

Literature (German)

  • M. Andritzky, G. Selle (Ed.): Learning area living. Volume 1 and 2, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1979, ISBN 3-499-17247-X .
  • Harald Deinsberger, The Psycho-Logic of Housing Structures. The relationship between man, home and environment and its systemic basis , BoD Verlag, Norderstedt / Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-9057-6 .
  • Harald Deinsberger-Deinsweger: Habitat for people - housing psychology and humane housing theory. Part 1: The humane living space . Pabst Science Publishers, Lengerich, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95853-225-0
  • F. Dieckmann, A. Flade, R. Schuemer, G. Ströhlein, R. Walden, Psychology and the built environment. Institut Wohnen und Umwelt, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-932074-23-8 .
  • Antje Flade, Walter Roth: Living - viewed psychologically. Verlag Hans Huber, Bern 1987, ISBN 3-456-81553-0 .
  • Etienne Grandjean: Living Physiology. Basics of healthy living. Artemis & Winkler Verlag, Zurich 1989.
  • Hans Joachim Harloff (ed.): Psychology of housing and settlement construction. Verlag for applied psychology, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-87844-056-1 .
  • Jürgen Hellbrück, Manfred Fischer: Environmental Psychology. Hogrefe Verlag for Psychology, Göttingen / Bern 1999, ISBN 3-8017-0621-4 .
  • Lenelies Kruse, Carl F. Graumann, Ernst D. Lantermann (eds.): Ecological psychology. Psychologie Verlags Union, Weinheim 1996, ISBN 3-621-27328-X .
  • Peter G. Richter (Ed.): Architectural Psychology. Pabst Science Publishers, Lengenrich Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89967-643-2 .
  • Rotraut Walden : Living living. Development of psychological guidelines on quality of living. P. Lang Verlag, Frankfurt 1993, ISBN 3-631-46421-5 .
  • Andreas Jüttemann (ed.): Urban psychology: manual as a planning basis. Pabst Science Publishers, Lengerich 2018

Literature selection (English)

  • Robert Gifford: Environmental Psychology. Principles and Practice. Fourth Edition, Optimal Books, Colville WA 2007, ISBN 978-0-9688543-0-3 .
  • Bell PA, Fisher JD, Baum A., Greene TE: Environmental Psychology. Fifth Edition, Publ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah / New Jersey / London 2001, ISBN 0-8058-6088-6 .
  • C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein et al .: A Pattern Language. Towns - Buildings - Construction. Oxford University Press, New York 1977.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Andritzky, G. Selle (ed.): Learning area living. Volume 1 and 2, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1979.
  2. ↑ Antje Flade, Walter Roth: Living - considered psychologically. Publisher Hans Huber, Bern 1987.
  3. ↑ Rotraud Walden: Living living. Development of psychological guidelines on quality of living. P. Lang Verlag, Frankfurt 1993.
  4. ↑ Hans Joachim Harloff (ed.): Psychology of housing and settlement construction. Verlag for applied psychology, Göttingen 1993.
  5. ↑ Harald Deinsberger: The Psycho-Logic of Housing Structures. The human-home-environment relationship and its systemic basis. BoD Verlag, Norderstedt / Hamburg 2007.
  6. ↑ Herbert Reichl. Residential psychology in practice - fields of application as the basis of salutogenic living environments . In: PIO 2/2015 Shaping the Environment (pp. 182–188). Ed .: BÖP, Vienna
  7. ↑ Harald Deinsberger-Deinsweger: Habitat for people - housing psychology and humane housing theory. Part 1: The humane living space . Pabst Science Publishers, Lengerich 2016