Social Responsibility & Environmentalism

Question 1

What is social responsibility?

Answer 1

• an ethical or ideological theory that an entity wether it is a government, corporation, organisatoin or inidv has a responsibilit to society
• responsibility can be neg in that it = a responsib to refrain from acting or ot can be +ve meaning there is a responsib to act or be more complex

Question 2

What is climate change?

Answer 2

• A whole science - climate science = the study of regional and global climate as a system
• Driven by a need to understand how our climate = changing
• One way causality between the total greenhouse gasses & the annual global mean surface temp anomalies since 1850

Question 3

What changes are dangerous to climate changes?

Answer 3

• Melting sea ice
• Sea level rise
• North Atlantic drift shutdown
• Tropical forest fries
• Extreme temps

Question 4

What impacats human and natural systems?

Answer 4

• coasts and oceans
• ecosystems
• fresh water
• human health
• agriculture and food security

Question 5

What is an example of impacts on humans and natural systemee?

Answer 5

Floods in Bangladesh
- May 2022 - displaced nearly 4 mil ppl

Question 6

What is environmentalism?

Answer 6

A social movement that seeks to influence the political process by lobbying, activism and education nin order to protect natural resources and ecosystems

Psychology has a historical interest in the env but o ne that has evolved over time

Question 7

1970s - environemntal psychology - Berman, Jonides & Kaplan 2008

Answer 7

• concerns about pollution
• emergence of natured related topics e.g. - how spending time in nature restores ppls ability to pay attention and cope w stresss

Question 8

1990s - eco psychologists - what did they argue?

Answer 8

That modern living erodes people’s connection to nature, leabing them developmentally deprived and psychologically distressed (Roszak, 1992)

Question 9

Modern day - conservation psychology Clayton & Saunders 2012)

Answer 9

• Interactive r/s between humans and the rest of the nature
• Focus on applying psycholgical theory and research to enhance conservation of natural resource

Question 10

What is conservation psych about - Koger & Scott 2016

Answer 10

1. Env problems = acc behav problems
2. Whats bad for the planet is bad for human health &
   well being
3. What’s good for the planet = good for human health
   & wellbeing
4. Relevance & Timeliness of integrating psych and
   sustainability
5. Psych = moral imperative to solve contemp social
   problems

Question 11

Whats bad for the planet = bad for human health & well being =

Answer 11

Global warming = recognised as the biggest global health threat of 21st cent

  = Chemical pollutants linked to birth defects, developmental / intellectual disabilities, parkinsons disease, various forms of cancer, immunosupression & reproductive abnormalities

Epidemic prevelance of MH challenges such as depression, anxiety and substance use / abuse = linked ot materialistic values and resource overconsumption

Question 12

Whats good for planet = good for human health & well being =

Answer 12

‘Sustainable’ practices including exp in natural settings = promote healthy child dev, subjective well being & other measures of health promo and reduced stress

• e.g : air qual, physical activity and social cohesion

Question 13

Relevance & timeliness of integrating psychology & sustainability?

Answer 13

Psychologists = increasingly applying their experise to env issues

• The APA has called for psychologists to become mpre involved in addressing lcimate change

Question 14

Psychology has a moral imperative to solve contemorary social problem - how?

Answer 14

We have a shared responisb. to help create a more sustainable society (Harre, 2011)

Question 15

What concepts and theories from psych help us improve things?

Answer 15

Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS)

Question 16

What is SBS?

Answer 16

• involves a gradual change in the accepted norms for the condition of the natural env due to lack of exp, memory and or knowledge of its past cond

AKA environmental generational amnesia

Question 17

What are the consequences of SBS?

Answer 17

An increased societal tolerance for progressivr environemntal degradtaion, including declining wildlife, loss of natural baitats & increasing pollution

Alters people’s expectations as to what is worth protecting, state of the natural env

Setting inapprropriate targets for env conserv, restoration and managment programs

Question 18

can SBS be overcame?

Answer 18

• Restoration of the nat env: eductaion
• Reduce the extinction of experience; more data

Question 19

The role od emotion - norgaard

Answer 19

• Public apathy on global warming has been identied as significant concern by env sociologists
• Emotions can be a source of info and an impetus for social action
• The desire to avoid unpleasent emotions and need for emotion managment can also prevent social movement participation
• “collective avoiding” as the social organisation of denial

Question 20

Helplessness v solutions - Lin 2022

Answer 20

• Research consistently shows that media are the publics primary info source ab risks and crises
• Trad climate change journalism fails to empower audiences to press for collective policy solutions

Question 21

Solutions focused messaging

Answer 21

• The social cog theory of mass communuication suggests that vicarious exp increase individuals self efficacy
• mas media influences perceived self efficacy by modelling human beh

Question 22

Their & Lin (2022) Research

Answer 22

352 students = randomly allocated to read either a problem orientated news report or solutions focused article

Solution stories were +ly associated w perceived beh control = mediated support for collective action for climate change adaptation

Question 23

Thinking ‘psychologicsally’

Answer 23

• Areas related to memory and perception {cog}
• Role of emotions (guilt, helplessness, fear and identit)
  {cog & social}
• Concepts such as self efficaccy, percieved beh control
  {beh}
• ‘Framing’ of solutions {social}

Question 24

Additional Theoretical Perspectives - Availability Heuristic

Answer 24

Tversky & Kahnman 1973 = ppl overestimate the liklehoof and frequency of things or events that come easily to mind bc they = available in memory

Question 25

Additional Theoretical Perspectives - Anchoring and Adjustment

Answer 25

Tversky & Kahnman 1974 = people’s judgments = adjusted in relation to implicit refernce points ( anchors)

  - Radical activism in general may be an extreme position on the activism spectrum = helps to make less radical positions seem more mod

Question 26

Additional Theoretical Perspectives - The coincidence effect

Answer 26

• Judgment bias in which 2 items that perspectives match on a single dimension but = diff on another dimension are perceived as more similar to each other than two items that = only modestly diff on both dimensions

Question 26

Terror Managment Theory (Dickinson, 2009)

Answer 26

model that aims to explain how people protect themselves against concers ab death