Environmental-Community Psychology in the Disaster Research: The Importance of Social-Spatial Connections

The psychosocial literature in the context of socio-natural disasters mainly focuses on the psychological consequences of the affected people, while ignoring the psychosocial environmental factors. Here, we emphasize the relevance of community environmental psychology to analyze the subjective aspects of the relationship with the place and the community relations of the localities affected by disasters. Therefore, we propose a conceptual framework of the categories of community psychology and environmental psychology, which are related to the study of the social spatial connection in what we call socio-natural disasters. This view is illustrated by the results of a study using a hybrid approach that describes how people living in communities affected by earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in four locations in Chile. In a non-probabilistic convenience sample (n = 628), the responses to the scale of location attachment, location identity, residence satisfaction, community awareness and citizen participation were analyzed, as well as the narration of 17 focus groups (n = 117) on the meaning of public space construction. The conclusion is that the combination of environmental and community psychology expands the understanding of the elements of power and territorial disputes, and highlights the psychosocial defects in post disaster reconstruction solutions.