Social Responsibility & Environmentalism Flashcards
What is social responsibility?
- 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
What is climate change?
- 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
What changes are dangerous to climate changes?
- Melting sea ice
- Sea level rise
- North Atlantic drift shutdown
- Tropical forest fries
- Extreme temps
What impacats human and natural systems?
- coasts and oceans
- ecosystems
- fresh water
- human health
- agriculture and food security
What is an example of impacts on humans and natural systemee?
Floods in Bangladesh
- May 2022 - displaced nearly 4 mil ppl
What is environmentalism?
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
1970s - environemntal psychology - Berman, Jonides & Kaplan 2008
- 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
1990s - eco psychologists - what did they argue?
That modern living erodes people’s connection to nature, leabing them developmentally deprived and psychologically distressed (Roszak, 1992)
Modern day - conservation psychology Clayton & Saunders 2012)
- Interactive r/s between humans and the rest of the nature
- Focus on applying psycholgical theory and research to enhance conservation of natural resource
What is conservation psych about - Koger & Scott 2016
- Env problems = acc behav problems
- Whats bad for the planet is bad for human health &
well being - What’s good for the planet = good for human health
& wellbeing - Relevance & Timeliness of integrating psych and
sustainability - Psych = moral imperative to solve contemp social
problems
Whats bad for the planet = bad for human health & well being =
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
Whats good for planet = good for human health & well being =
‘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
Relevance & timeliness of integrating psychology & sustainability?
Psychologists = increasingly applying their experise to env issues
- The APA has called for psychologists to become mpre involved in addressing lcimate change
Psychology has a moral imperative to solve contemorary social problem - how?
We have a shared responisb. to help create a more sustainable society (Harre, 2011)
What concepts and theories from psych help us improve things?
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS)
What is SBS?
- 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
What are the consequences of SBS?
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
can SBS be overcame?
- Restoration of the nat env: eductaion
- Reduce the extinction of experience; more data
The role od emotion - norgaard
- 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
Helplessness v solutions - Lin 2022
- 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
Solutions focused messaging
- 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
Their & Lin (2022) Research
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
Thinking ‘psychologicsally’
- 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}
Additional Theoretical Perspectives - Availability Heuristic
Tversky & Kahnman 1973 = ppl overestimate the liklehoof and frequency of things or events that come easily to mind bc they = available in memory
Additional Theoretical Perspectives - Anchoring and Adjustment
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
Additional Theoretical Perspectives - The coincidence effect
- 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
Terror Managment Theory (Dickinson, 2009)
model that aims to explain how people protect themselves against concers ab death
