The Ecological Self The Self Beyond the Self
To experience our place in the world gives us an expanded sense of who we are. The holistic approach to environmental problems suggests that ordinary perception of ourselves as isolated beings encapsulated in separate skins is misleading and dangerous. To successfully address environmental problems requires that we also recognize our ecological selves, a term first coined by Arne Naess 1985 . Naess argued, as have many after him Cohen, 1993 Conn, 1991 Hillman amp Ventura, 1992 Keepin, 1992...
Key Concepts
Boomster versus Doomster perspectives Carrying capacity cultural vs. biological Cultural evolution Environmental problems deforestation, global warming, overpopulation, ozone hole, overconsumption, water pollution, resource depletion, species extinction Evolutionary perspective Exponential growth Green Revolution Impact Population x Affluence x Technology Psychological processes behaviors, feelings, reactions, thoughts, values, worldviews Western worldview World Scientists' Warning to Humanity...
Green Consumerism
In line with past research Mainieri, Barnett, Valdero, Unipan, amp Oskamp, 1997 , we define buying green as purchasing and consuming products that are benign toward the environment e.g., products with postconsumer recycled materials, with minimal or reusable packaging, and made from biodegradable ingredients . As one would expect, people who have stronger pro-environmental beliefs about the importance of buying green are more likely to buy products boasting environmental claims. Once again,...
Attribution Theory Making Up Meaning
Worldviews are a coherent picture of reality, and one example of our attempt to figure out the world. Other attempts at making meaning give rise to explanations for other people's behaviors. Social psychologists call the act of creating explanations for behavior the attribution process. We rarely see the social world strictly in terms of overt behaviors. Instead, we are continuously attributing those behaviors to our constructed explanations. He smiles when he is hiking in the wilderness...
Conclusions Qlw
From a social psychological perspective, environmentally relevant behavior is a function of a complex interaction of social influences. Norms and roles affect our choices by influencing what we think of as appropriate behavior in any given situation. When choices become more difficult, we try to reduce dissonance by justifying our actions. We explain our own behavior by attributing it to various features of the situation, but we are more likely to attribute other people's behavior to their...
Environmental Toxins as Stressors
Toxic chemicals and their fumes are physical stressors, as they can directly cause symptoms such as hyperventilation, nausea and vomiting, and in severe poisoning cases, convulsions, unconsciousness, and death Nadakavukaren, 2000 Weiss, 1997 . Toxins Eire also considered environmental stressors, because they are present in environments where we live and work. Pollution, industrial chemicals, and consumer products are forms of environmental stressors. In fact, the medical profession adopted the...
The Computer Revolution
It is probably not overstating things to say that the creation of the computer revolutionized the field of cognitive psychology. Originating in military research and development, computers quickly emerged as a principal tool for processing information. By 1948, computers were compared to human brains in terms of their apparently similar operations Hunt, 1993 , and the metaphor of the brain as a computer had instant appeal. Both seem to depend on digital events the firing of a neuron and the...
The Difficulty of Freud
It is ironic that Freud, who was trained as a physician, and only tan-gentially regarded as a psychologist by most academic psychologists, is often regarded by the public as one of psychology's most well-known figures. Because of Freud's work, our popular culture has become psychologized His ideas are common household terms, even if they are not well understood. Before Freud, we in the West had no notion of neurosis, of the unconscious, of defenses, of psychotherapy, or of clinical psychology....
Legislative Issues
As Weiss and Landrigan 2000 pointed out, more than 80,000 chemicals are registered with the EPA, and less than one quarter 23 of the chemicals produced or imported annually have been tested for effects on human development. Because of lack of testing, we are told that the evidence regarding toxicity is inconclusive, and the chemicals are deemed innocent until proven guilty. This practice contrasts with the Precautionary Principle, where decision makers act conservatively to prevent harm to...
Norms Altruism and Justice
Personal norms guide our sense of right and wrong. We feel guilty when we break them, as Deborah does when she fails to bring her shopping bag to the grocery store or her personal cup to the coffee Individual Feedback Group Feedback A Information O Plea Only X Control_ FIG. 3.2. Enhancing group norms through feedback sustains recycling. From Schultz, P. W. 1998 . Changing behavior with normative feedback interventions. In Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 2 1 , p. 30. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc....
Laboratory Confirmation Group Effects in Social Dilemma Games
If Gestalt principles apply to environmental issues, we ought to see people behave in more environmentally appropriate ways when they are reminded of their group membership. Individuals who act from pure self-interest would be more likely to deplete a resource base than those who realize their behavior affects the well-being of the group. In general, research with social dilemma games supports this principle. Remember from chapter 4 that laboratory research has validated Hardin's notion of the...
The Role of Emotions in Our Judgment of Risk
Emotion, also known as affect, can contribute to the judgment of risk, primarily as it influences the availability of certain memories. We are more likely to recall emotionally charged events than more mundane ones. When a hazard evokes feelings of dread e.g., cancer , it will be perceived as posing a greater risk than less dreaded events, such as traffic accidents Slovic, Finucane, Peters, amp MacGregor, 2002 . Slovic and colleagues referred to this process as the affect heuristic, where...
overconsumption
Embracing an ethic of care could help us critically address overcon-sumption, a pivotal source point for most other dangerous planetary problems. In the West, consumer culture is facilitated in part by applied social psychologists who go to work in the advertising industry, designing messages to persuade their audiences to buy products they otherwise would not purchase. As the chairman of President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers once said, the American economy's ultimate purpose is...
The Rationality of Irrational Behavior
From the outside, explaining away the end of the world or a higher energy bill all looks pretty irrational, as does a lot of other behavior social psychologists have observed in the laboratory. The frequency and ease with which social psychologists have been able to induce il logical behavior has led Aronson 1994 to conclude that people who do crazy things are not necessarily crazy p. 9 . Instead of attributing our behavior to personal characteristics of the individual, social psychologists...
Putting It Together Using Psychology to Build a Sustainable World
One day fairly soon we will all go belly up like guppies in a neglected fishbowl. I suggest an epitaph for the whole planet . We could have saved it, but we were too darn cheap and lazy. Kurt Vonnegut 1990, as quoted by Mack, 1992, p. 246 J. n this book we have described the seriousness of our environmental problems and tried to show how psychology can help us solve them. That assumes, of course, that our human civilization is worth saving, and that we could save it if we really want to. As the...
The Basis and Basics of Freuds Theory
Because Freud's writing filled 24 volumes produced over a 50-year career Strachey amp Freud, 1964 , his work is impossible to thoroughly describe in one chapter. Nonetheless, there are three main principles to Freud's thought that underlie the many particular concepts and case studies comprising the bulk of his writing. If you grasp these three principles, you will have a good foundation from which to apply Freudian thought to ecological issues 1. Much of our behavior is a result of unconscious...
Critique of Freud and Psychoanalysis
Much of Freud's theory about specific sexual functions, symbolic expressions, and therapeutic interventions has been reworked or abandoned by psychoanalysts who followed him. The importance of Freud's contribution has been matched by the vehemence with which his ideas have been attacked. As psychologists who are basically more appreciative than critical of his views, we are often impressed by the hostility with which his ideas are criticized and we wonder about the defense mechanisms that might...
Object Relations Theory ReExperiencing the Mother
Examining some of the features of object relations theory ORT will help us understand how our deepest attitudes toward the environment can be shaped by our earliest experiences with our caretaker. ORT helps us think about why some people care so passionately about the condition of our ecosystem, the well-being of other species, future generations, and other people in far-off lands, while other people seem to be oblivious. ORT explains how we come to experience our sense of self in relation to...
Who Cares About the Environment
It's worth noting that interest in environmental problems is not randomly distributed across the population. Demographic variables show predictable association with environmental concern. A few decades ago, environmental sociologists Van Liere and Dunlap 1980 showed that environmental concern is more prevalent among people with more education and in higher social classes. There are at least two possible explanations for a relation between class and attitude a Education could enhance...
Classical Conditioning
A contemporary example of classical conditioning is the public fear about nuclear accidents. News reports of the Chernobyl accident, and footage from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, depict horrendous suffering that people endured from radiation sickness. In this case, radiation is an unconditioned stimulus US , and images associated with the effects of radiation conditioned stimuli, CS produce conditioned responses CR of anxiety and concern in viewers. These emotional...
Applying Gestalt Psychology
Why don't we see our embedded relationship with fellow human beings and the ecosystem more consistently One answer comes from Gestalt therapy, a form of group and individual psychotherapy that became popular in the 1970s and is still widely practiced in the United States and Britain today. Gestalt therapy was founded by Frederick Fritz Perls 1893-1970 Perls, 1969, 1971, 1978 , who was trained as a psychiatrist, and worked as a clinician. We can understand Perls' work as a synthesis of Gestalt...
Conclusions Bmh
Our behavior exists in a feedback loop where our actions change the environment and in turn the environment changes our actions. A clean delineation between self and environment is arbitrary and artificial. Consider the example of a shy person who does not produce socially appropriate behaviors of smiling, making eye contact, or initiating conversation. Because these behaviors are not produced, they are not rewarded by others. In turn, others are not reinforced for their social behaviors toward...
Psychological Reactions Boomsters Versus Doomsters
Most people are familiar with the outlines to these problems, but reactions to confronting them are a psychological issue that is rarely addressed. As you read the previous material, did you feel some inkling of fear or despair Did you scan the material, thinking to yourself that you already knew it Did you find yourself growing irritated or frustrated Were you feeling overwhelmed Or did you wonder what any of this has to do with you These reactions are important because they mediate how we...