Climate Change: What Psychology Can Offer in Terms of Insights and Solutions (original) (raw)

Psychology's contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change

American …, 2011

Global climate change poses one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in this century. This article, which introduces the American Psychologist special issue on global climate change, follows from the report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change. In this article, we place psychological dimensions of climate change within the broader context of human dimensions of climate change by addressing (a) human causes of, consequences of,

The Implications of Psychological Limitations for the Ethics of Climate Change

Most philosophers and psychologists who have explored the psychology of climate change have focused only on motivational issues—getting people to act on what morality requires of them. This is misleading, however, because there are other psychological processes directed not at motivation but rather our ability to grasp the implications of climate change in a general way—what Stephen Gardiner has called the ‘grasping problem’. Taking the grasping problem as my departure point, I draw two conclusions from the relevant psychological literature: 1) ethicists and policy makers should focus less on changing individuals’ behaviors and more on changing policy; and 2) even though solutions to climate change must come at the level of policy, progress on this front will be limited by incompatible moral norms.

The Critical Challenge of Climate Change for Psychology

European Psychologist, 2014

For many societies, the prime political strategy for mitigating climate change has been to improve the efficiency of technology (e.g., cars, light bulbs, and refrigerators). However, World Bank data suggest that the per-capita energy consumption of societies is leveling off rather than falling. Thus, all efficiency gains are apparently eaten up by rebound. In our psychological account of this ubiquitous rebound phenomenon, we argue that individual consumption is genuinely rational (i.e., benefit-oriented) and grounded in an unlimited number of personal ends (i.e., goals and desires). Behavior and technology – the latter as an amplifier of individual behavior – are means for satisfying personal ends. Predictably, any gains in efficiency as evidenced by savings of time and/or money will be reinvested in further as-yet-unmet personal ends of individuals. Consequently, rebound is the norm and not the exception. The challenge to psychologists is thus, as we argue in this article, to moti...

Psychology and Climate change: Beliefs, Impacts, and Human contributions

A surge of psychological research on or related to global climate change has occurred since 2006. This chapter reviews research on beliefs about climate change and educational efforts to address these beliefs, impacts of climate change and adaptation to and in preparation for these impacts, and human contributions to climate change and ways to encourage mitigation behaviors. More specifically the chapter describes: 1) characteristics of and changes over time in beliefs about global climate change, who holds these beliefs, and psychological sources of these beliefs; 2) psychological, interpersonal, and intergroup impacts of global climate change, the role of appraisals in the impacts, and vulnerability, resilience and social justice issues related to adapting to the impacts are considered; and 3) behaviors that contribute to and mitigate climate change, psychological processes that predict these behaviors, and methods to encourage mitigation behaviors based upon research on social influence processes and systems theory.

Changing Climates: Integrating Psychological Perspectives on Climate Change

PCSR Conference report, 2011

This engaging one-day conference was a landmark in that it marked the launch of an Alliance now called the Climate Psychology Alliance (see the Alliance Mission Statement on page 17 of this bulletin). The event was opened by Judith Anderson, current Chair of PCSR. This was followed by an introduction from Paul Hoggett, Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of West of England. Clive Hamilton, public academic, Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (a joint centre of the Australian National University, Charles Sturt University and the University of Melbourne) and visiting academic, University of Oxford, then gave a keynote address.

How Can Psychology Contribute to Climate Change Governance? A Systematic Review

Sustainability

The urgency to reply to climate change requires a governance perspective that connects multiple societal levels and sectors and involves a plurality of actors. Psychologists should take an important role in addressing the ongoing climate crisis, together with other practitioners, scholars, policymakers and citizens. This systematic review aims to show the contribution psychology has offered in the governance of climate change, illustrating how psychological scholarship is positioned in the interdisciplinary discourse on climate governance and the way psychological constructs and theories are implemented. Following the PRISMA guidelines, two electronic databases (APA PsycInfo and Scopus) were screened, and 52 publications meeting the eligibility criteria were included and thoroughly analysed. The literature at the intersection between climate governance and governance is relatively scarce, yet it covers different domains and scales of analysis. Psychological contributions are always ...

The Perils of Explaining Climate Inaction in Terms of Psychological Barriers

Journal of Social Issues, 2019

As awareness of climate change and its consequences increases, many have asked, "Why aren't people taking action?" Some psychologists have provided an answer that we describe as a "psychological barriers explanation" (PBE). The PBE suggests that human nature is limited in ways that create psychological barriers to taking action on climate change. Taking a critical social psychology approach (e.g., Adams, 2014), we offer a critique of the PBE, arguing that locating the causes of inaction at the psychological level promotes a misrepresentation of human nature as static and disconnected from context. Barriers to environmental action certainly exist, and most if not all involve psychological processes. However, locating the barrier itself at the psychological level ignores the complex interplay between psychological tendencies, social relations, and social structures. We consider the ways in which psychological responses to climate change are contingent upon social-structural context, with particular attention to the ways unequal distributions of power have allowed elites to block climate action, in part by using their power to influence societal beliefs and norms. In conclusion, we suggest that psychologists interested in climate (in)action expand their scope beyond individual consumer behaviors to include psychological questions that challenge existing power relations and raise the possibility of transformative social change. Rising sea levels, increasingly extreme natural disasters, the loss of biodiversity, food shortages and an ever-growing amount of human displacement are but a