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Overview of the SiteWHY WE CREATED THIS MANUALThe primary cause of all "environmental problems" is human behavior. These problems are not really problems of the environment, but are the result of a mismatch between the ways in which human beings fulfill their needs and wants and the natural processes that maintain ecological integrity. As experts on human behavior, psychologists have the potential to serve a crucial role in halting our ecologically-destructive trajectory and promoting a sustainable future. One way that psychologists can contribute to a sustainable future is by teaching tomorrow's conservation scientists, policy-makers, and grassroots activists about the fundamental connections between human behavior and the environmental crisis, and between the discipline of psychology and remedies for the crisis; however, the discipline of psychology is currently absent from most undergraduate programs focused on conservation and sustainability. Likewise, environmental issues are not salient in most undergraduate psychology programs. One reason that psychology and undergraduate environmental education have not been well integrated is that people outside of psychology misunderstand the discipline. If the discipline is presumed to be exclusively about distress, disorders, and therapy, its relevance to environmental issues is likely not apparent to the biologists, geographers, political scientists, philosophers, and others who comprise the typical faculty of environmental studies programs. Therefore, it is no surprise that our recent informal sampling of undergraduate environmental studies and environmental science programs in the U.S. revealed that more than half of the environmental studies programs and nearly 90% of the environmental science programs included no psychology at all, as either a requirement or an option for credit. A second reason stems from the lack of a coherent environmental focus within our discipline. Although psychologists have pursued research related to environmental issues for several decades, their work does not fit neatly into a particular subdiscipline and, therefore, is rarely included in the standard undergraduate psychology curriculum. The subdiscipline called "environmental psychology" is not specifically focused on natural environments-- although the literature contains examples of research regarding topics such as cognitive responses to natural settings and textbooks in the field are beginning to address the need to promote environmentally responsible behaviors. A few ecologically concerned researchers grounded in other traditional branches of psychology (primarily behavioral, social, and cognitive) have applied basic theory to behaviors such as energy conservation, recycling, and material consumption for three decades, but this work has not had an officially recognized subdisciplinary label. In the 1990s, holistic thinkers referring to themselves as "ecopsychologists" began exploring the idea that contemporary industrialized urban living erodes the ecologically-connected sense of self with which we are born, leaving us developmentally deprived and psychologically distressed. Some clinicians have incorporated ecopsychological therapies into their practices to foster ecologically-based wellness and sustainable lifestyle choices. Within the last four years, a new label has caught on: Conservation Psychology. It may well prove to be a useful meta-label that will encompass all of the disparate environmentally-related work by psychologists. Like the discipline of conservation biology, conservation psychology is conceived of as psychology with a conservation agenda, i.e., psychology for a sustainable future (Saunders, 2003). It is in the spirit of conservation psychology that we have created this manual and dubbed it "Teaching Psychology for Sustainability." Our purpose is to provide a resource to help instructors begin integrating psychology and environmental issues in their courses. By no means is this an exhaustive compliation of all relevant literature and classroom materials, but it should provide ample inspiration to motivated instructors. The site includes:
Informally, the site represents a "who's who" of instructors and researchers in the area. It is our hope that as more instructors make the links between psychology and sustainability, curricular connections between psychology and environmental education will become more common. We encourage those who are pedagogically inspired by this manual to become vocal advocates and curricular activists in pursuit of that goal. We would like to extend our appreciation to the Instructional Resource Award Task Force of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology for their support of the creation of this resource. We also wish to thank the colleagues listed below for their contributions to this effort.
HOW YOU CAN USE THIS SITEResources are organized according to traditional subdisciplines of psychology, but many of the topics, activities, and multimedia resources could have application in a variety of classes, so we encourage instructors to explore the site. Each subdiscipline page includes the following content areas:
Throughout the pages you will see blue links to web resources and PDFs. All links will open a second browser window so you won't have to backtrack to the original page. Some of the content on this site comes from the contributors listed below. All contributions are credited. Uncredited resources are our own. Our goal was to offer a sampling and so we welcome suggestions for additions and revisions. We also invite feedback; if you use any of our resources, please let us know how it went. Submit suggestions, questions, and comments to britain@teachgreenpsych.com. To access the subdiscipline pages, the compendium of syllabi, and the comprehensive bibliography, go to the "Introduction to the Instructor Resources," by clicking INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES in the menu on the left side of this page.
SOME GENERAL RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTEDIn recent years there have been several books, special journal issues, and review articles dedicated to the discussion of links between psychology and environmental issues. Some general introductions to the role of psychology in promoting sustainability include: Koger, S. & Scott, B. A. (2007). Psychology and environmental sustainability:
Clayton, S. & Brook, A. (2005). Can psychology help save the world? A model for
Winter, D. D., & Koger, S. M. (2004). The psychology of environmental
Nickerson, R. S. (2003). Psychology and environmental change. Mahwah, NJ:
Bonnes, M., Lee, T., & Bonaiuto, M. (Eds.). (2003). Psychological theories for
Saunders, C. D., & Myers, O. E. (Eds.). (2003). Exploring the potential of
Schmuck, P., & Vlek, C. (2003). Psychologists can do much to support
Schmuck, P., & Schultz, W. P. (Eds.). (2002). Psychology of sustainable
Kurz, T. (2002). The psychology of environmentally sustainable behavior:
Gardner, G.T., & Stern, P.C. (2002). Environmental problems and human
Vining, J., & Ebreo, A. (2002). Emerging theoretical and methodological
Werner, C. M. (1999). Psychological perspectives on sustainability. In E.
Stern, P. C. (1992). Psychological dimensions of global environmental
Several issues of the Journal of Social Issues, listed here in reverse chronological order, have focused on environmental issues:
The American Psychologist, 2000, 55(5), section on Psychology in the Public Forum includes articles on psychology's role in promoting sustainability by Stuart Oskamp, George Howard, Deborah DuNann Winter, Paul Stern, and Doug McKenzie-Mohr. [Click here for PDF of article titles] Volume 41(2), 2001 of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology is a special issue on ecopsychology with articles by Jeremy Yunt, Ruth Richards, Linda Riebel, Mark Pilisuk, and James Kuhn. [Click here for PDF of article titles] Volume 26(1-3), 1998, of the journal Humanistic Psychologist is a special issue on ecopsychology, edited by Elizabeth Roberts. It includes articles by Roberts, Laura Sewall, Mitchell Thomashow, Sarah Conn, Allen Kanner, Carl Anthony & Renee Soule, Theo Horesh, Crystal Feral, Mary Gomes, Chris Hoffman, Steven Foster, John David, Matthew Day, and Ralph Metzner [Click here for PDF of articles] Volume 15(3), 1995, of the Journal of Environmental Psychology is a special issue on "Green psychology" edited by Robert Gifford. It includes articles by Stephen Kaplan, Lawrence Axelrod & Peter Suedfeld, Carol Werner, Alexander Grob, Anders Biel & Tommy Gärling, and Joseph Reser. [Click here for PDF of articles] The April, 2001 issue of APA’s Monitor on Psychology, 32(4) contains a collection of articles by Rebecca Clay on the "Greening of psychology: Psychologists' burgeoning work in the field of eco-friendly behaviors." Topics include the psychological benefits of natural spaces, behavioral research on encouraging environmentally friendly behavior, human dimensions of forest management, environmentally related community service by psychologists, the greening of the American Psychological Association, and consumerism. Click here to view this issue. The July/August, 2005 issue of Monitor on Psychology, 36(7) includes an article by Jamie Chamberlin about conservation psychology called "A closer look at Division 34: The call of the wild." Click here to view article. In 2001, Division 34 of the American Psychological Association devoted an issue of its Population and Environment Bulletin to the topic of conservation psychology. Click here to view a PDF of this issue.
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