Abstract

This chapter reviews environmental psychology’s use of methodologies and the challenges associated with an interdisciplinary field. Research has traditionally preferred quantitative methods, especially in the Global North, using surveys, psychometric developments, and experiments to study the relationship between people and their environments. However, the growing importance of qualitative methods has been recognized, especially in community environmental psychology in Latin America, for the study of underrepresented communities and complex experiences. These approaches, which are less inclined to reflect hegemonic visions, explore the complexity of experiences and meanings through in-depth interviews, observation, text analysis, and spatial methodologies, such as walking interviews and collective mapping. After reviewing some of the most common methods in the field, the final discussion addresses the persistent quantitative–qualitative binarism and the need to overcome a merely technical coexistence and achieve critical reflexivity on the onto-epistemic, ethical, and political implications of each approach. The importance of considering scientific investigative rigor based on epistemic relevance and ethical responsibility is underscored, in addition to the usefulness of methodological triangulation and caution with irreflexive integration of mixed methods. Last, a “methodological imagination” for environmental psychology is proposed, which connects the individual experience with broad social dynamics, inquiring into silenced knowledge and strengthening transdisciplinary approaches and the understanding of concepts like territory and community.