The City and its Influence on Human Psychology
The urban influences in life will undoubtedly define the future of the human species due to the interaction between humans and urban areas. With people migrating from rural to city spaces, life has ultimately changed into a new perspective, and the effect and toll it took on human psychology are evident. But the interesting fact is that even with the love and attraction towards cities, people tend to be captivated by certain areas more than the rest. And this leads to the abandonment of other areas, even if it is a part of the city. This constant intervention and conception define the importance of humans to the definition of a city or urban area and the influence of the cities on its inhabitants, that is, the humans.
The Impact of Urban Life on Human Behavior
Cities flourished due to the urban form and human behaviour concerning the built environment around them. The social life and the impact of its lifestyle can be further noted in the study of how cities can significantly affect humans without even realising it. Public spaces are highly focused on increasing the expectancy of humans to inhabit depending on the various factors it provides. In short, the design of these built environments heavily signifies the well-being of humans. The changes and the way the city modifies itself affect human psychology. For instance, a crowded public space can significantly cause more distress to the human mind than one that could be pleasant and quiet.
Moreover, urban life can be tiring, and how humans perceive them would later influence how their moods and behaviours change. With the constant demand in progress and evolving on its own, urban form can be challenging for the humans living there. These cities specify the lifestyle one leads, and there is no going back from this ever-improving or depleting factor of life. Therefore urban form can only be studied with the inclusion of physical elements and multiple cultural connotations that is the basis of the history of a particular city and its characteristics.
Factors of Cities That Affect Human Psychology
Certain factors contributed by the urban areas can result from the mood shift in humans. Most of the time, this could be a lack of interest, tiredness, and physical and mental fatigue. The human brain fully develops at a certain age, and human psychology can constantly be affected by the environmental changes around them. Productivity is an element of the city, which could stimulate people’s constant need for a busy life. Therefore urban designs should be met with a conscious and sensible approach that could positively affect lives by providing enough visual complexity to help the public’s physical and mental health.
Urban life is also plagued with digital technology, and even if a street has been analysed, people hardly look at each other anymore. This is because the population in the cities is consumed by technology, and one barely has time for the other. Rising factors like these in the cities and the type of lifestyle can harm humans in the long run without a turnback. The question is whether one should abandon city life and pursue a change. But cities are so involved with human lives that it is nearly impossible to achieve this in the future.
Importance of the Public Spaces in Cities
Social activities in public spaces influence human psychology. These activities can be necessary or optional social activities. The social activity that is necessary takes place with little effect on the surroundings and the quality of the physical environment. At the same time, optional activities depend on the mood and behaviour of the people. These various social activities of gathering together and meeting people can be meaningful for the positive development of human perspectives. With walkable streets and other public infrastructure, these social and physical bases of the community can highly improve city life and decrease its negative impact on humans.
Urban public spaces are incredibly prominent in the cities. With proper observations and precautions, urban design can be implemented where the cities influence the people positively rather than the current percentage of adverse outcomes. Urban environments can significantly affect the growth of children and human psychology. This defines the overall harnessing of the human perception of the physical form of cities as the basis for good urban design. This example can be derived from the book, The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch, where he takes three cities, Boston, New Jersey, and Los Angeles, to prove that a mental map can be made from the memories and perceptions of the people living there and how it differs from each other.
Conclusion
Technology is a factor that blends with the other factors by which the cities influence human behaviours. The street designs, along with public spaces, not only change the city but also are elements that play in the influence of a city in a person’s day-to-day life. The constant stress and anxiety of a busy life can further cause distress to people. But with effective urban design and practical implementation, specific changes and improvements can be expected in the future by urban planners. A city is a place of attraction where the crowd gathers, and it offers a vibrant and exciting life affecting human psychology in many ways. However, the negative impacts could be eliminated in various ways to gain a positive influence on the cities on humans, and hopefully, it will be improved and come true to an extent in the near future.
References
1. Demidov, A. (2021). Human psychology in the cities. Journal of Community Psychology, [online] 50(2). Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353763119_Human_psychology_in_the_cities
[Accessed 8 Jan. 2023].
2. Hass, T. (2020). Urban Form and Human Behavior in Context of Livable Cities and their Public Realms. Scholarly Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, [online] 3(4). Available at: https://lupinepublishers.com/psychology-behavioral-science-journal/fulltext/urban-form-and-human-behavior-in-context-of-livable-cities-and-their-public-realms.ID.000167.php [Accessed 8 Jan. 2023].
