Summary + Lectures - Environmental Psychology (6464EL34Y_2324_S1)

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)