Psychology and Environmental Change

by Nickerson, Raymond S.

• ISBN13: 9780805840971
• ISBN10: 0805840974
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This book stimulates thinking on the topic of detrimental environmental change and how research psychologists can help to address the problem. In addition to reporting environmentally relevant psychological research, the author identifies the most pressing questions from an environmental point of view. Psychology and Environmental Change: *focuses on ways in which human behavior contributes to the problem; *deals with the assessment and change of attitudes and with studies of change of behavior; *proposes ways in which psychological research can contribute to making technology and its products more environmentally benign; and *introduces topics such as consumption, risk assessment, cost-benefit and tradeoff analyses, competition, negotiation, and policymaking, and how they relate to the objective of protecting the environment.

Author Biography

Dr. Raymond S. Nickerson is a Research Professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Environmental Psychology	p. 1
Behavior as a Cause of Environmental Change	p. 6
Challenges for Applied Psychology	p. 9
Plan of the Book	p. 10
The Problem	p. 12
Global Warming	p. 13
Acid Rain	p. 22
Air Pollution and Urban Smog	p. 24
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion	p. 27
Water Contamination and Depletion	p. 29
Deforestation	p. 31
Desertification	p. 32
Wetland Loss	p. 34
Decreasing Biodiversity	p. 35
Waste	p. 38
Toxic and Radioactive Waste	p. 39
Contamination from Industrial Accidents	p. 41
Natural Disasters	p. 42
Interdependence of Aspects	p. 43
Urgency of the Problem	p. 44
Behavior as a Cause of Environmental Change	p. 47
Inefficient Use of Energy	p. 49
Over Reliance on Fossil Fuels	p. 51
Over Reliance on Inefficient Transportation	p. 52
Inefficient Use of Water	p. 52
Burning of Tropical Forests	p. 53
Practice of Nonsustainable Agriculture	p. 54
Nonsustainable Harvesting of Forests and Forest Products	p. 55
Overutilization of Other Natural Resources	p. 56
Destruction of Habitat	p. 57
Use of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)	p. 57
Unnecessary Release of Toxic Materials	p. 58
Business Decisions	p. 58
Unnecessary Waste Generation	p. 59
Improper Waste Disposal	p. 59
Excessive Consumption	p. 61
Failure to Consider Long-Term and Indirect Costs and Benefits	p. 63
Failure to Maintain and Repair	p. 64
Failure to Recycle	p. 64
Failure to Design for Maintainability, Repairability, Recyclability and Disposability	p. 65
Failure to Limit Population Growth	p. 66
Attitude Assessment and Change	p. 72
Attitude Assessment	p. 73
Measuring the Perceived Value of Environmental Resources	p. 76
Assessing Environmental Quality	p. 78
Attitudes Toward Animals	p. 81
Beliefs and Attitudes as Determinants of Behavior	p. 84
Effecting Changes in Attitudes	p. 88
Changing Behavior	p. 91
Increasing Energy-Conserving Behavior	p. 93
Conserving Energy in Transportation	p. 96
Increasing Recycling	p. 98
Reducing Waste Production	p. 100
Antilittering Campaigns	p. 101
Education and Persuasion in Behavior Change	p. 102
Importance of Choice and Sense of Control	p. 106
Importance of Commitment	p. 106
Importance of Information Feedback	p. 108
Peer Pressure and Social Norms	p. 111
Change Versus Effective Lasting Change	p. 112
Remaining Questions Regarding Human Behavior and Environmental Change	p. 114
What Motivates Environmentally Beneficial Behavior?	p. 115
Technology Enhancement	p. 118
Increasing the Efficiency of Energy Use	p. 120
Developing Cleaner Means of Energy Production	p. 123
Increasing the Efficiency of Water Use	p. 126
Improving Mass Transportation Facilities	p. 127
Improving the Technology of Recycling	p. 129
Radioactive Waste Treatment and Cleanup Technologies	p. 130
Accident Prevention and Amelioration	p. 131
Human Factors of Farming and Food Production	p. 132
Approaches to the Harvesting of Renewable Forest Products	p. 133
Rethinking the Nature and Purposes of Work	p. 134
Developing Marketable Environmentally Clean Technology	p. 135
Promoting the Idea of Industrial Ecosystems	p. 136
Substituting Resource-Light for Resource-Heavy Technologies	p. 137
Information Technology	p. 138
Electronic Documents	p. 140
Teleconferencing	p. 144
Telecommuting	p. 145
Development of Virtual-Reality Technology	p. 146
Artifact Design and Evaluation	p. 148
Designing for Longevity, Recyclability and Disposability	p. 148
Product Evaluation from an Environmental Perspective	p. 149
Database Design and Information Access	p. 151
Model Development and Evaluation	p. 153
Tools for Interdisciplinary and International Collaboration and Cooperation	p. 156
Consumption, Consumerism, and Environmental Economics	p. 159
Consumer Behavior	p. 159
Fashion, Style, and Resource Utilization	p. 162
Advertising	p. 162
Alternative Ways of Satisfying Needs and Desires	p. 163
Consumer Education Generally	p. 164
The Media and Public Opinion	p. 166
Environmental Protection and Economic Development	p. 168
Risk and the Psychology of Prevention	p. 172
Risk Assessment	p. 172
Problems in Quantifying Risk	p. 174
Expert Versus Lay Perceptions of Risk	p. 174
Limitations of Expert Opinion	p. 177
Fallibility of Predictive Behavior	p. 178
Communication of Risk	p. 179
Human Response to Risk	p. 180
The Psychology of Prevention	p. 184
Cost-Benefit and Tradeoff Analyses	p. 185
Cost-Benefit Analyses	p. 185
The Difficulty of Quantifying Costs	p. 186
The Difficulty of Quantifying Benefits	p. 189
The Controversial Nature of Cost-Benefit Analysis	p. 192
Ethics Versus Economics in Cost-Benefit Analysis	p. 194
Tradeoff Analyses	p. 197
Competition, Cooperation, Negotiation and Policymaking	p. 203
The Nature of Social Dilemmas	p. 203
Dealing With Social Dilemmas	p. 205
Social Dilemma Research	p. 208
Negotiation and Conflict Resolution	p. 209
Policy Formulation and Decision Making	p. 211
Concluding Comments	p. 215
References	p. 223
Author Index	p. 289
Subject Index	p. 313
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