The Nature of the Relationship between Geography and Psychology

Samhita K, and Gopukumar Kumarpillai

National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

The places where people live vary considerably in terms of their social, economic, political, climatic, and physical characteristics.

This is the first Indian study to focus on the interlink between geography and psychology.

The objectives of this research are to

1. Investigate the manner in which geographical locations and geography in general shape human behaviour, and
2. Study the inter-relatedness between geography and psychology.

The study utilized an open-ended survey comprising two questions. The sample size is 15, consisting of 11 females and 4 males with an age range of 23 to 49 years, and mean age of 32.53 years. The educational qualification of the sample ranges from Bachelor educated to Doctoral educated. The nationalities of the participants include Indian, Saudi Arabian, Ukrainian, and American.

The participants responded to the questions either online or face-to-face. Qualitative data analysis, and content analysis were performed to discover the common themes that emerged from the data.

The results indicate that:

1. The type of location, its culture, and environment greatly influence behaviour,
2. Nature is therapeutic, and
3. A majority of the participants believe that geography and psychology are interrelated.

The findings reiterate the need of a healthy geographical environment for healthy psychological well-being, echoing the need to be a ‘citizen geographer’. The current study finds its applications in nature therapy, counselling, ergonomics, engineering psychology, architecture, eco-psychology, behavioral geography, cognitive geography, environmental psychology, and environmental science.