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psychology for sustainability
Psychology for sustainable behaviour – The Initiative for Psychology and Environmental Conservation [Initiative Psychologie im Umweltschutz e.V. (IPU)] Why is Psychology vital for a movement towards sustainability?
Karen Hamann and Veronika Thomas are both active members of the IPU and looking forward to extending this network all over the world. Besides doing their masters in psychology, they work on how to get people involved into sustainable behaviour. Currently Karen is about to publish a guide of applied psychology for environmental activists, which will help to understand, consider and overcome barriers of sustainable behaviour. Veronika is working on a card game, which encourages people to act sustainable by its playful/gamish character (see “small steps”).
It is not sufficient to approach the eco logical, economical and social challenges by providing only technical and political solu tions. Environmental problems are man made and therefore can only be changed and prevented through human behaviour. Measures and perspectives are necessary, that consider individual persons as a collec tive cause of ecological, economical and social problems and include the human being into their planning and implementa tion. Psychology, as the science of human thinking, feeling and behaviour, their causes and consequences, can substantially contri bute to environmental protection. Environ mental Psychology uses psychological theories and models to understand human behaviour concerning the environment and the interdependency between both. What‘s the IPU? The IPU is a non-profit Organisation,found ed in 1993, whose 300 members are mostly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Our aim is to promote environmentalism and sustainability by psychological means as well as to maintain and foster a network of environmental psychology in order to
support the exchange of knowledge, expe rience and information material – among scientists and between scientists and practitioners. Every six months we organize a conference to give space for theoretical and practical education and exchange on different topics. The latest two conference themes were for example “science of sustain ability without limits – multidisciplinarity in science and studies as a perspective for ecological-psychologists-to-be” or “support ing civil societal engagement for sustain ability – an occupational perspective for students of social sciences” in may 2014. In collaboration with universities we imple ment further projects towards educating actors for sustainability such as environ mentalist groups and projects and the dispersion and support of environmental issues. Additionally, we collect and provide scientific information on environmen tal psychology and offer expert help on sustainability issues. To spread sustainable behaviour by giving psychological advice to practitioners, a guide of applied psycho logy for environmental activists will be published in 2015. Most of the following information is taken from its rough drafts. For further information visit our website on http://ipu-ev.de/?q=info. A brief outline of psychological knowledge on sustainability We see sustainability as a behavioural prin ciple concerning the conservation of natural resources and the support of social equity.
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Psychology mainly addresses sustainable behaviour on an indivi dual level. Positive psychology, the science of positive experiences, characteristics and individual resilience, reject the “fix-what’s wrong”-approach. Rather, they follow the “build-what’s-strong”concept. This shift from pathogeneses to salutogeneses supports a healthy and pro-environmental approach of the individual. Several interventions of positive psychology help to identify and support the use of individual strengths, balance life and thereby prevent psychic and physic illness and maintain well-being. But it is not sufficient to focus only on the individual alone. According to the systemic approach, people act in interdepen dence with systems. The social-ecological model of context by Sameroff (2010) shows an exemplary systemic embedding of children and adolescents (see figure 1). The individual is not only integrated in the system of family, peers, school and community but also in the geopolitical context and should therefore never be considered as an isolated actor. In the face of sustainability, individuals are influenced by and influencing their natural and social environment.

Figure: Social-ecological model of Sameroff (2010)
by K aren Hamann and Veronika Thomas
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psychology for sustainability
Figure: Integrative influence model of pro-environmental everyday behaviour by Matthies (2005)
The integrative influence model of proenvironmental everyday behaviour by Matthies (2005) helps to understand the mechanisms behind individual behaviour (see figure 2). It is a mixture of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Norm Acti vation Model - two behavioural models that are effectively implemented in psycho logical science. According to the model by Matthies, sustainable human behaviour depends on the personal ecological norm, social norms and the (behavioural) costs associated with it. They constitute our behavioural motivation and are weighted up against each other in an evaluative pro cess which finally results in a behavioural intention. This consideration process, the personal ecological norm, as well as the transition from behavioural intention to actual behaviour can be influenced by behavioural habits. The personal ecological norms in turn originate from the individual awareness of environmental problems, our own abilities and our responsibility to act pro-environmentally.
All factors of this model can be utilized to facilitate pro-sustainable behaviour. An awareness of the environmental problem can be developed by providing knowledge about the problem. At best, information should be attention-raising, of personal re levance and combined with other strategies fostering pro-environmental behaviour. Awareness of responsibility originates in the consciousness, that one’s actions have positive or negative consequences for the environment. It can be enforced by cogni tive dissonance – a state in which the actual self is compared to the ideal self. If you feel responsible for waste reduction but never theless buy food in plastic packaging you will feel an internal tension. As a result, you can either adjust the behaviour to your beliefs and start avoiding packaging or adjust the beliefs to your behaviour and tell yourself that your behaviour does not make a difference. This is especially the case, if you do not see any realistic behavioural option.
psychology for sustainability
Another way of promoting sustainable be haviour is to raise awareness of one’s own abilities. Especially in the sustainability movement, it is important that you feel like your own behaviour leads to pro-environ mental consequence and changes. Small goals which are concrete and realistic to be achieved usually result in success and maintain the overall motivation to behave sustainable. Other effective means to sup port awareness of one’s own abilities are feedback, knowledge about behavioural options, training of competences and the facilitation of the behaviour by contextual changes, i.e. new policies. In addition to our personal ecological norm, social norms relevantly influence our behaviour. Social norms are rules shared by many people that guide the individual be haviour without using judicial structures. What do my parents think about recycling? Do other college students also spare meat? The opinion and behaviour of other people influences us in many ways. Thus, it is crucial to highlight pro-environmental opi nions and behaviours of others and avoid mentioning environmentally destructive ones. Furthermore, social support is a key resource for sustainable action. Moreover, (behavioural) costs and benefits of certain behaviour enhance or inhibit its realization. People strive to minimize ex pected negative consequences as behavi oural costs (e.g. discomfort) and monetary costs and maximize expected positive con sequences. Incentives can help to make environmental behaviour more attractive
by increasing the positive consequences associated with it. However, one has to be careful with incentives, since they can back fire when their implementation ends – and consequently lead to no long-term beha vioural changes. A more positively psycho logical way is to use individual passions and make sustainable behaviour as comfortable and fun as possible. As an overall example, you can be aware of the ecological problems associated with animal production, understand the respon sibility as well as the impact you have as a consumer by buying or not buying animal products. Your personal ecological norm is therefore high. But what about social norms? Do the people who are impor tant for you care about animal production and eat vegetarian food? How do your friends react if you start a vegetarian diet? And what about (behavioural) costs? Are vegetarian meals available in local restau rants? And anyway, do you like the taste of vegetarian meals? All of these motivational questions and many more have an influence on your behavioural decision to eat or not to eat meat. As psychologists, we try to see the human being as a whole with the en tire mixture of motivations one is driven by. That’s why psychological knowledge on environmental behaviour can provide good advice for environmental activists on how to promote sustainability. Together we can create a sustainable world – our contribu tion is to support sustainable behaviours and thinking patterns by providing the means to spread them!
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Literature: Initiative Psychology im Umweltschutz e.V. (work in progress). Handbuch der angewandten Psychologie für UmweltschützerInnen. Matthies, E. (2005). Wie können PsychologInnen ihr Wissen besser an die PraktikerIn bringen? Vorschlag eines neuen integratives Einflussschemas umweltbewussten Alltagshandelns. Umweltpsychologie, 9, 62-81. Sameroff, A. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child development, 81(1), 6-22. Further literature recommendation: Bamberg, S. (2013). Changing environmentally harmful behaviors: A stage model of self-regulated behavioural change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 34, 151-159. Harré, N. (2011). Psychology for a Better World. Auckland Department of Psychology, University of Auckland. Retrievable from http://www.psych. auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-staff/ academic-staff/niki-harre/downloadthe-book.html Published papers on environmental psychology: http://ipu-ev.de/?q=node/32
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empowering methodologies
A new way of Interaction between Science and Citizenry - promoting the use of Empowering Methodologies amongst young researchers
I care about understanding. I wish that people understand each other and themselves and their interconnectedness with everything around them. Because this recognition enables us to make better choices – choices that promote happiness and harmony, and that are more effective in the long run. That is why I have chosen my profession as a Facilitator for Sustainable Co-creation. With innovative, creative conversation and reflection techniques, I support people in entering a continuous process of understanding and deepening their understanding. I do this work with people individually, in randomly assembled workshop groups, and in existing teams. All in all I understand my work as a contribution to the Great Turning from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society. For I envision a cultural shift towards individual and community development that is mutually supportive, so that everybody‘s full potential may unfold. Kontakt: ana.adzersen@methalog.org Website: www.methalog.org
Universities pride themselves on teaching people how to think. Meaning that they confer more analytical, efficient and convin cing ways of thought and expression onto their students. By demanding the develop ment and demonstration of these kinds of thinking abilities, university studies tend to neglect the importance of developing other kinds of knowledge, e.g. the capacity to relate to others. The ideal-typical university student may approach a potential community or orga nisation with a research proposal, a fancy power point and a theoretically derived questionnaire. Depending on the setting and the research topic, this may be ap propriate. It is an efficient and possibly impressive way of presenting oneself and extracting knowledge from the „research object“. However, the knowledge produced in this way is often unrelated to the live lihoods and work processes of the com munity or organisation. Consequently the research results are less likely to contri bute to resolving the problems faced by those that have been researched about. In response to this, scientific methodologies are being invented that purposely integrate and give attention to the aspect of how to relate and interact with communities or organisations that a scientist wants to study. In this vein, „Empowering Methodologies“ was born as a project when a group of PhD
students from the global South recognised that what they were missing in their acade mic work was hope. They were participating in a workshop organised by the Youth Future Project e.V. and the Right Livelihood College in Bonn in autumn of 2013. The parallel Youth Future Conference had brought together youth from all around Europe with a strong will to be active and engage. The conference was fully geared towards empowering these young people to realise their dreams of a better common future. This was also reflected in the way in which the conference was run, especially in the strong attention given to create an atmosphere and manifold opportunities for people to relate to each other in meaningful and long-lasting ways. This experience made the PhD students, who in their daily lives were strongly immer sed in the rational and structured environ ment of Western knowledge production, recognise the significance of hope for their work. Hope as in the certainty that some thing is significant, independently from its result. And hope they found in the empower ing way in which the conference was organised, strongly relying on participatory, interactive methods. The group of students realised that what they needed was scienti fic approaches that throughout the research process supported the studied communities in developing the livelihoods for themselves which sustain a healthy environment and make them flourish socially and economic ally in their own specific way.