A critical approach to environmental psychology in Italy

The historical and cultural situation in which environmental psychology has developed in Italy is described. Although this field raises great interest in scientific circles, it has not reached the same stage of development as in other countries. The causes of this include the following: the distrust of idealistic philosophy, the complexity of theoretical approaches and the scepticism from the long-established tradition of Italian culture, the growing bureaucracy of the Italian university system, the network of economic and political interests behind the environmental issue.Some theoretical implications attributed to this disciplinary choice are then outlined: the character of applied science, the references to the field, the lack of compatibility with behaviourist and materialistic schools, the risks of public participation, and the inclination towards idealism and reformism.Finally, a short survey is made of the most intensively studied areas of research: the image of the city, the subjective quality of the environment, hazard perception, the development of environmental cognition in the child, the images of unknown lands in historical documents, and the psycho-social and anthropological implications of environmental perception.