This book has been written as a text for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students in the burgeoning field of study that has come to be called environment and behavior. It is appropriate for courses in environmental psychology, social ecology, ecological psychology, and community psychology when the community is conceptualized from an ecological viewpoint. In addition, the book may be used in design courses oriented toward an appreciation of the interaction between architecture and human behavior. The book presents a thorough explication of a perspective or viewpoint in approaching the study of environment and behavior, which has tended to be underemphasized in past work in this area. The dynamic perspective focuses on the active role people play in dealing with environmental challenges. Its investigative interest is in the processes that mediate the effects of environment on behavior, especially the positive and adaptive ways in which people cope with the environment. The accent is on the creative, complex, yet subtle character of these environmental processes.
