Environmental psychology Flashcards
why is understanding human behaviour important for conservation
1) humans are the ones which have caused a lot of conservation problems and have created the need for conservation
2) conservation itself is a human activity which requires human participation, resources and enthusiasm to be successful
therefore finding a way to engage the public will aid efforts
what should conservation aim for
avoid extinction
maintaining biodiversity
retain ecosystem services
retaining or creating natural environments
what did Rust et al 2021 find in her research about what the UK country side should look like
after showing public 10 photos of different scenes and asking which ones they preferred they found that the public prefer diverse agricultural landscapes with livestock and trees
preferences differed based on socio-demographic variables such a gender, income and education
how can the results found from Rust et al 2021 be used to help understand environmental psychology
it is important to consider that public perception over what something is supposed to look like and that differences in perception need to be taken into account
define a shifting baseline
a change to how a system is measured, usually against previous reference points which themselves may represent significant changes from an even earlier state of the system
e.g. biomass involved in 250,000 blue whales which existed in the 1900’s compared to the 1-2% we now have, a lower baseline presented in this generation and is now what people think it should be
how do shifting baselines affect conservation
can lead to
- misinterpretations of chnages in species abundance as for every generation they have a lower baseline
- misinterpretations of how abundant species ‘should be’ in an ecosystem
- makes it harder to know what an ecosystem is supposed to look like
what is meant by the term discounting in terms of conservation
it is the idea that individuals value consuming resources now over future consumption, they would rather delay the cost even if the future cost is higher
this leads to overconsumption
what is meant by the term ‘tragedy of the commons’
the idea that if everyone has access to a shared common resource they are likely to take more than they really need as a saftey net= a good evolutionary strategy but causes environmental problems
what environmental problems could result from tragedy of the commons way of thinking
- over harvesting
- over fishing
= all contributes to pollution e.g. most only take a small amount of the resource but as a collective we take more than what is sustainable
what are some solutions to the tragedy of the commons way of thinking
1) large-scale inter-governmental agreements on resource use
2) granting ownership of a local resource to a community such as reef fisheries, so they feel like they need to sustain it in order to gain more income
3) creating national pride e.g. giant panda in China or the red kite in wales
what are the key points to consider when thinking about environmental psychology
1) hard to know what conservation should aim for as peoples perceptions are different
2) shifting baselines mean people may not even realise species are in decline etc
3) discounting and tragedy of the commons leads to over consumption and the pollution of shared resources
what is meant by learned helplessness
constantly giving people a bad message about conservation can discourage people and make them think they cant help
need to present problems with solutions to engage public and provide conservation optimism e.g. comic relief raised over 1 billion pounds by presenting solutions
