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By: Kendall Upton

Professional insights:

Stylianos Syropoulos

Updated: January 22, 2026

Starting a career in environmental psychology

The questions explored by environmental psychologists have changed a lot since this subfield first emerged about 40 years ago. Back then, environmental psychologists mostly looked at how humans interact with their immediate environment—places like their homes, offices or urban areas at large. Now, this subfield has expanded significantly to explore the interactions between humans and our larger natural environment, sparking big questions with even bigger implications as climate change accelerates around the world. 

Environmental psychology is not an official specialty recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA), but it is a niche ripe for research by dedicated individuals that want to improve the relationship humanity has to the world around us.  

What is environmental psychology exactly?

Environmental psychology is a broad subfield of social psychology that investigates the relationship between humans and their environment.  

“Historically, it started as a field that focused on improving the natural and built environment around us to focus on maximizing productivity, life satisfaction and mental wellness in individuals. In that way, it was sort of clinically oriented,” said Stylianos Syropoulos, President-elect for Division 34 of the APA, also known as the Society for Environmental, Population & Conservation Psychology. “But as society sort of went downhill and climate change became a very prominent issue, environmental psychology sort of branched to really start to encompass promoting sustainability and how we can engage and motivate individuals to think, act and behave sustainably.” 

Though environmental psychology has evolved to focus on sustainability and conservation, the field still includes many professionals that are interested in questions surrounding our built environment, like how living in an urban versus rural area affects our mental health and behavior, or how an indoor space’s layout and design affect one’s mood or productivity. These two subfields—looking at the built environment or the natural environment—are generally the main research pathways one can take within the field.  

“These do not necessarily intersect with each other, except for potentially altering the built environment to make sustainable options more possible for individuals. It’s a broad field, and there are people who do specifically one kind of research but there’s also some individuals who overlap across them,” Syropoulos said.

Why is environmental psychology important?

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Although environmental psychology is a relatively small subfield, the work can be massively important for individuals and society as a whole—not to mention the fate of the natural world.  

“Depending on your field, your work can have tremendous implications. As with most of psychological research, I think from a theoretical perspective first and foremost, it helps us understand how people think and behave, and within this field how their specific environment that they live in influences their day-to-day decisions,” Syropoulos said.  

“I think from a theoretical perspective first and foremost—it helps us understand how people think and behave, and within this field how their specific environment that they live in influences their day-to-day decisions.”

“If we focus on those who study built environments, most of our lives are spent in a particular urban, suburban or rural setting, so understanding how that setting influences how we function is pretty influential, especially as a lot of our habitats are becoming more and more urbanized and we’re encroaching on nature.” 

Steps to becoming an environmental psychologist 

Earn a bachelor’s degree.

All psychology professionals need at least a bachelor’s degree to set the foundation for their lengthy academic journey. A bachelor’s degree in psychology is a natural choice for hopeful psychological professionals, and double majoring or minoring in a subject like environmental science can be a fantastic way to set the stage for a career in environmental psychology.

Consider earning a master’s degree.

Most doctoral psychology programs—which you’ll need if you want to get licensed as a psychologist or teach in academia—don’t require that you have a master’s degree to qualify. However, the right non-terminal master’s degree program could give you the chance to study environmental psychology in more depth, or at least allow you to devote some of your research efforts towards what interests you most.  

Earn your doctorate in psychology.

Although environmental psychology PhD programs are limited, students enrolled in a program that doesn’t have an environmental psychology focus can usually apply their interests to their dissertation or other research projects.  

Apply for jobs.

Most of the work done by environmental psychologists does not require you to be licensed, meaning you can start looking for roles after you finish your education. Environmental psychologists can find work in a variety of settings, including for government agencies, nonprofit organizations, in academia, as a consultant for various organizations and more. If you intend to work directly with patients, however, then you’ll need to get licensed as a psychologist which requires a doctoral degree in clinical or counseling psychology, thousands of hours of supervised clinical practice and passing the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP).

What being an environmental psychologist is all about

Your role as an environmental psychologist can vary immensely depending on the kinds of research questions you’re interested in and the setting you want to work in.  

“There are broad subfields of environmental psychology. Some of the more prominent ones are sustainability and climate change and getting people to think, act and behave in a way that can be beneficial for protecting and conserving the environment,” Syropoulos said. “Then there are individuals who do research on the built environment and understanding how certain choices that architects and the government make influence our day-to-day activities, physical activities, life satisfaction, mental wellness, etcetera.” 

This can range from broader questions about how dark an area is or how many green spaces an urban area has and how that affects behavior, or it can get much more specific, Syropoulos explained. For example, someone might study how certain colors or the presence of certain objects in an office setting influence people’s performance.  

Consider just a few examples of some of the questions environmental psychologists are exploring to get a sense for the possibilities in this field: 

• How can we increase people’s engagement with climate change issues and encourage people to behave more sustainably? 
• What are the benefits (and drawbacks) of virtual reality (VR) nature experiences? 
• How does listening to nature sounds impact our mind and body, and can it be used as a stress reduction tool? 
• How do equipment-based versus naturalized outdoor playgrounds affect children’s activity levels, movements and play experience? 
• How does a room’s layout and architecture affect students’ performance on tests? 
• What are the effects of increasing the amount of daylight in indoor environments? 
• How can menu design impact our food choices, and can it affect our likelihood of selecting vegetarian dishes? 
• Does gardening contribute to healthier cognitive aging? 
• Is there a way to predict who is most at risk for experiencing climate change anxiety? 
• How does individual and national wealth affect peoples’ perception of climate change threats? 

Getting licensed  

Environmental psychology tends to be more of a research-based field rather than a clinical, patient-focused one, but there are some overlaps. Climate change anxiety, for example—which is defined by physiological stress caused by climate change that goes beyond just worrying about the impacts of climate change—has become a topic of interest for environmental and clinical psychologists alike.  

“There’s a need for integrating environmental psychology with clinical and counseling psychology to help these individuals deal with these stressors, so I would say [environmental psychology] is not primarily clinical, but it intersects.” 

But because it’s a research-focused field, many environmental psychologists are not actually licensed psychologists, though there are some exceptions. If you’re someone who wants to work directly with patients treating mental health disorders, then getting licensed is necessary. 

If that’s the case for you, then you must satisfy three main components if they want to get licensed: 

• Earn a doctoral degree in psychology 
• Complete several thousand hours of supervised clinical practice, as determined by each state 
• Pass the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) 

States may set additional licensure requirements, but these are the primary elements everywhere. 

Factors that impact salary 

What you could earn as an environmental psychologist is influenced by a myriad of factors, including your education level, location and years of experience. For example, early-career professionals unsurprisingly tend to make less than their more experienced counterparts. 

According to the most recent salary data from the APA’s Center for Workforce Studies, the sector you work in and the type of position you hold could also have a major impact on your earning potential. In 2017, they reported that the median annual salary for management positions was $121,000, followed by research ($96,500), professional services ($81,000) and teaching ($67,000).  

When it came to work sectors, they reported that psychologists in the business and industry sector had the highest median annual wages at $100,000. This was followed by the government ($92,000), self-employed psychologists ($83,000), public educational institutions ($73,000) and private educational institutions ($71,000).  

Job growth and demand 

The BLS estimates that the employment of psychologists will grow 4.3% through 2034, a little faster than the average across all occupations. Environmental and climate psychologists might find even more opportunities as the demand for climate change solutions continues to rise. They might be called upon to answer some of our most pressing questions about how we can use psychological principles to enact lasting environmental change and get people motivated to protect our planet.  

In terms of demand, environmental psychologists may find more job opportunities in California, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin and New York, as these are the states that the BLS cites as having the highest employment levels of psychologists in the “All Other” category.