What is travel psychology, exactly?
Is it the science of why we book the trip? What happens to us while we’re away? Who we are when we come home? Or is it something bigger than all three — and a discipline that most people have never heard of?
In this episode of The Places We Become, travel psychologist Dr. Katie Blake, PhD lays out the field from the ground up — what travel psychology actually studies, where it came from, and why understanding it can change the way you travel for the rest of your life. Drawing on environmental psychology, cognitive science, and social psychology, this episode walks through the three-phase arc every trip moves through and why so much of what happens to you while traveling follows patterns science has already mapped out.
In this episode of The Places We Become, I share:
The real definition of travel psychology — and how it’s different from tourism studies and travel therapy, two fields people often confuse it with
The three-phase psychological arc of every trip: anticipation, immersion, and the return home — and why the return is often the phase that decides whether anything actually changes
What happens to identity when you’re away from the roles and expectations of home, and why so many travelers say they feel more like themselves the farther they get from it
The psychology behind travel anxiety and culture shock — and why neither one is a sign that your trip is going wrong
What the research says about wanderlust, and whether the urge to travel might be a stable personality trait rather than a passing mood
Why post-travel blues are so common, and what they can actually tell you if you’re willing to listen to them
If you’ve ever wondered why travel affects you the way it does — or what’s actually happening in your mind the moment you land somewhere new — this episode is for you.
Read the companion piece: This episode pairs with an article I wrote called What Is Travel Psychology? The Complete Guide to the Science of Why We Travel for The Journal of Travel Psychology. If the episode raised more questions than it answered, which I hope it did, the article goes further into the research.
Research discussed: Contact hypothesis and cross-cultural empathy (Gordon Allport, 1954). The push-pull framework of travel motivation. Research on openness to experience and novelty-seeking as it relates to wanderlust. Studies on post-travel blues and re-entry psychology.
Share Your Story!
What made you fall in love with travel psychology or how did you discover it for the first time? Was it a single trip? A moment of culture shock? A return home that felt harder than you expected? Share your story for a chance to be featured on a future episode of The Places We Become.
Stay Connected
Subscribe to The Places We Become: A Travel Psychologie Podcast hosted by Dr. Katie Blake.
Join Psychologie on Substack for essays and research on travel psychology, identity, and intentional living.
Follow Dr. Katie Blake at the intersection of psychology and travel.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.