Envrionmental Psychology Article Paper

Environmental Psychology Article Paper

Environmental psychology looks at individuals and the environment as a whole. This is an analysis of the effects of the environment that cause certain behaviors. "While the external environment can in principle be described in physical terms, and while the person's subjective environment can be recognized as a selective, motivated mental construction, it is the interaction of these two that produces behavior.

Article Summary

In October of 2012, only about a week before the Presidential Elections, Hurricane Sandy ripped across the Northeastern part of the United States causing major destruction. Hurricane Sandy, just like many other events has an impact on the field of environmental psychology. Matt Smith, a writer for CNN explains some of the havoc that swept across the Northeast by Sandy. Smith tells readers how massive amounts of water swarmed the streets of Atlantic City, Lower Manhattan, and both sides of Long Island Sound. Sandy also brought fierce winds from Virginia to Cape Cod. At NYU Langone Medical Center roughly 200 patients had to be evacuated to other medical centers. Power lines were knocked down and tree limbs were washed in from offshore.

According to Smith Major Lorenzo Langford of Atlantic City told CNN that "When mother nature sends her wrath your way, we're at her mercy, and so all we can do is stay prayerful and do the best that we can" (Langford, 2012). Many families explained how they could not believe all of the damage and destruction that Hurricane Sandy was causing.

Smith also tells readers some astonishing facts about Hurricane Sandy including how the storm dropped snow in some states which caused a woman in West Virginia to be involved in an accident that took her life. There were also at least eleven people who were killed in incidents such as falling trees and trees crashing down into his or her home. Many residents were evacuated, businesses and schools were closed down, and power was out in many places due to power lines being knocked down. The storm was blamed for more than 2.8 million outages across the Northeast.

Hurricane Sandy and Environmental Psychology

Hurricane Sandy shows us many ways that events such as this can impact the field of environmental psychology. Catastrophes that take place in the environment have an influence on human behaviors. In an incident such as Hurricane Sandy people are pushed out of his or her homes due to conditions that they cannot control. Because businesses were closed down people cannot work, therefore these people lose money. Homes that were crushed by falling trees causes people to be out of a home and then the worry begins about how they are going to gain a new home. This is a big stressor on these people. The people affected by Hurricane Sandy have to work together to restore