ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE URBAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ON HUMAN MENTAL HEALTH

Authors

  • Wang Chen Centre for Building, Construction & Tropical Architecture Faculty of Built Environment UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
  • Suzaini M. Zaid Centre for Building, Construction & Tropical Architecture Faculty of Built Environment UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
  • Nurhanisah Nazarali Centre for Building, Construction & Tropical Architecture Faculty of Built Environment UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v14i5.190

Keywords:

Psychology, urban behaviour, urban psychology, mental health, urbanization

Abstract

Growing urban population has increased environmental demands and also affects human health. As the global population becomes more urbanized, there is a concern that it will negatively affect not just physical health, but also mental health. Mental health can be categorized and studied through many different approaches, such as psychology, psychiatry, clinical and sociology. This paper aims to highlight the comparison of mental health of rural and urban dwellers, in terms of environmental psychology (EP) through the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). A survey questionnaire was distributed to respondents in Petaling Jaya to represent the urban area, and Pontian to represent the rural area. The survey questionnaire was analysed using one-way ANOVA analysis, and suggests a relationship between behaviour and age, but also in relation to ‘living area’ influence that suggests urbanization affects a person’s environmental psychology. The findings suggest that urban dwellers are more prone to certain personality traits that can be detrimental to a person’s mental health.

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Published

2016-11-10

How to Cite

Chen, W., M. Zaid, S., & Nazarali, N. (2016). ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE URBAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ON HUMAN MENTAL HEALTH. PLANNING MALAYSIA, 14(5). https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v14i5.190

Issue

No. 5 (2016): Special Issue V, 2016

Section

Article

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eISSN: 0128-0945 © Year. The Authors. Published for Malaysia Institute of Planners. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

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