ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY – SHORT OVERVIEW
LECTURE 1: SETTING THE SCENE
LECTURE 1 ARTICLES
1. Dragons, Mules, And Honeybees: Barriers, Carriers, And Unwitting Enablers Of Climate Change Action
(Gifford, 2013)
2. Environmental Psychology Matters (Gifford, 2014)
3. A Room With A Cue: Personality Judgments Based On Offices And Bedrooms. (Gosling, Mannarelli, Morris,
2002)
4. The Tragedy Of The Commons. The Population Problem Has No Technical Solution; It Requires A
Fundamental Extension In Morality (Hardin, 1968)
1. DRAGONS, MULES, AND HONEYBEES: BARRIERS, CARRIERS, AND UNWITTING ENABLERS OF CLIMATE
CHANGE ACTION (GIFFORD, 2013)
RESEARCH QUESTION: What are psychological dragons of inaction that impede green behaviors?
OUTCOMES: 7 genera each with multiple species of barriers to pro-environmental behavior.
7 families of “Dragons of inaction” know them and come up with own examples!!!
1. Limited cognition: discounting time and place bound risk, plain ignorance, habituation, uncertainty you
just don’t know
2. Ideologies: religious, technological, free market
3. Other people: anti-environmental examples create norm social norms, social environment
4. Sunk costs: e.g., car ownership, habits in general
5. Disbelief, distrust, denial
6. Risks: a manifold (functional, physical, financial, social, psychological, temporal)
7. Limited behavior (symbolic behavior, rebound effects)
Most common dragons:
Limited cognition (lack of perceived control)
system justification
conflicting goals and aspirations (sunk costs)
influence of other people.
3 main dragon factors:
1. Ideologies and belief in the free-market system
2. Discredence (disbelief and distrust) and other people
3. Limited cognition
Mules: carry heavy loads of responsibility as they take major steps to mitigate climate change
Honeybees: help the environment, but without intending to do so.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS (GIFFORD, 2014)
OUTCOMES
Environmental psychology: transactions between individuals and their built and natural environments.
- Including: behaviors that inhibit or foster sustainable choices
Online transactions are coming under increasing research attention.
Every aspect of human existence occurs in one environment or another.
Transactions with and within them have important consequences both for people and their natural + built
worlds.
,3. A ROOM WITH A CUE: PERSONALITY JUDGMENTS BASED ON OFFICES AND BEDROOMS. (GOSLING,
MANNARELLI, MORRIS, 2002)
RESEARCH QUESTION: Can we deduce personality from the interior of a room?
4 Research Questions:
1. Consensus: Do Observers Agree About Individuals’ Personalities on the Basis
Testing: examining degree to which observers formed similar impressions on basis of work and living
spaces.
2. Accuracy: Are Observers’ Impressions Correct?
Testing by: comparing observers’ ratings with criterion ratings from self- and peer reports of occupants.
3. Cue Utilization and Cue Validity: Which Cues in Personal Environments Do Observers Use to Form Their
Impressions, and Which Cues Are Valid?
Testing by: comparing pattern of cue-utilization correlations with cue-validity correlations for each trait.
4. Stereotype Use: How Do Stereotypes Used by Observers Affect Consensus and Accuracy?
Tested whether perceived sex and race differences for given trait matched actual sex and race
differences.
METHODS
Observer ratings based on offices or bedrooms were compared with self- and peer ratings of occupants and
with physical features of the environments.
Data collection: 3 sources
1. Occupants’ real personality: Aggregate of occupants and close peers’ ratings on personality measure (FFM)
2. Characteristics of room: Team of coders assessing 43 environmental features (neatness, number of books)
3. Observer judgments: Personality ratings based on examination of occupants’ environments
Brunswik lens model elements in the environment can serve as a kind of lens through which observers
indirectly perceive underlying constructs describe lens model !
Cue utilization: link between the observable cue (organized desk) and observer’s judgment
(conscientiousness).
- Cues that the observer uses
Cue validity: link between the observable cue and the occupant’s actual level of the underlying construct
- Cues that are good predictors of a certain trait
If both of these links are intact, then observer judgments should converge with underlying construct being
observed and result in observer accuracy When good cues are used, trait inferences will be more accurate
,Cue types (good if you know these types!) Examples in exam (own examples)
Mechanisms Linking Individuals to the Environments 2 categories
1. identity claims
a) Self-Directed: symbolic statements for own benefit, intended to reinforce their self-views.
- cultural symbols (poster of Martin Luther King, university memorabilia)
- personal meaning (pebble collected from a favorite beach).
b) Other-Directed: display symbols to make statements about how they would like to be regarded
- Poster of Martin Luther King, university memorabilia) intentionally communicate attitudes to others.
similar environmental manifestations may overlap, but reflect distinct motivations.
2. behavioral residue
c) Interior Behavioral Residue: physical traces of activities conducted in the environment.
- Cues reflect past behaviors and anticipated behaviors (drawings on the ground, unopened bottle of wine)
d) Exterior Behavioral Residue: residue of behaviors performed entirely outside of immediate surroundings
- Snowboard and a ski pass, parachuting equipment, program opera and plane ticket
distinction between interior and exterior behavioral residue emphasizes the breadth of information that is
available in a personal space, extending to behavior occurring beyond four walls.
4 mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, not always clear to observers which mechanisms are responsible
for which cues.
OUTCOMES
1. personal environments elicit similar impressions from independent observers (consensus)
- Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion strongest agreement
- Emotional Stability and Agreeableness least agreement.
2. observer impressions show some accuracy
- Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion strongest accuracy
- Agreeableness and Emotional Stability little accuracy
3. observers rely on valid cues in the rooms to form impressions of occupants
- Conscientiousness, Openness
- Extraversion to lesser extent,
- not Agreeableness and Emotional Stability.
4. sex and race stereotypes partially mediate observer consensus and accuracy
- Agreeableness and Emotional Stability
Conclusion
observer who briefly examined an individual’s living or working environment will form impressions that are
remarkably consistent with other observers’ impressions. Furthermore, these impressions are often accurate
, 4. THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS. THE POPULATION PROBLEM HAS NO TECHNICAL SOLUTION; IT REQUIRES
A FUNDAMENTAL EXTENSION IN MORALITY (HARDIN, 1968)
READ IT WITH CARE Critically read end of paper
Environmental problems are problems of overpopulation
No solution because people are selfish and go for their own profit
Tragedy of Freedom in a Commons Each pursuing his own best interest freedom in a commons bring ruin
to all
Pollution consequence of population
How to legislate temperance (matigheid)? through the mediation of administrative law
Freedom to breed is intolerable will bring ruin to all
Conscience is self-eliminating mistake to think to control breeding in long run by an appeal to conscience
restrain for the general good by means of conscience
Mutual coercion mutually agreed upon
Mutual coercion mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected
We institute and support taxes and other coercive devices to escape the horror of the commons
Recognition of necessity
The commons, if justifiable at all, is justifiable only under conditions of low-population density
As the human population has increased, the commons has had to be abandoned
Every new enclosure of the commons involves the infringement of somebody’s personal liberty
Most important aspect of necessity is abandoning of the commons in breeding
role of education to reveal to all the necessity of abandoning freedom to breed only so, can we put
an end to this aspect of the tragedy of the commons
Statements
Population growth has to be controlled.
Overpopulation has no technical solution requires a fundamental extension in morality
Relying on conscience is self-eliminating
Mutual coercion that is mutually agreed upon produces responsibility (force people to have fewer babies)
Freedom in a commons is a tragedy to all (“solve it by force”)
In a resource dilemma, also referred to as the Tragedy of the Commons, group members share a renewable
resource and every member can decide how much to take from that resource
However, if everyone behaves greedily, then the resource will be exhausted and everybody suffers (e.g.,
exploitation of fishing grounds and metropolitan air pollution through motorized transport)
Tragedy of the commons is an economic problem where the individual consumes a resource at the expense
of society. If an individual acts in their best interest, it can result in harmful over-consumption to the
detriment of all result in under-investment and total depletion of a shared resource.
Tragedy of the commons: a small pasture is shared by multiple herders. Although the herders all want
everyone’s grazing to be limited, each herder realizes that if he adds just a few extra cattle to the pasture,
he will gain a net personal benefit, while the costs are shared among all the herders. The result is an
unintended tragedy: Most people increase their grazing, thereby destroying the commons.
LECTURE (ARTICLES)
