Psychologists Go Green?

Yes, psychologists are starting to go green here in Australia. The latest edition of InPsych (the Australian Psychological Society news magazine) has a special edition on "Psychology's response to climate change". Available here http://www.psychology.org.au/publications/inpsych/highlights2008/  

If you are interested, the "Australian Psychology Society response to the climate change challenge" by Dr Susie Burke MAPS is available here http://www.psychology.org.au/inpsych/aps_challenge/  

There are also a few other articles that may be of interest to the group.   An interesting article by Professor David Uzzell (Professor of Environmental Psychology at University of Surry) on "challenging assumptions in the psychology of climate change".    He challenges 4 assumptions that are often made:   1. Everyone experiences similar barriers to acting sustainably   2. The young are most supportive of pro-environmental actions 3. Recycling has a positive image 4. Children will change their parents' attitudes and behaviours   Well worth a read and available at http://www.psychology.org.au/inpsych/challenging_assumptions/  

  There is also an article called "Environmental psychology: An endangered species?" by Associate Professor Joseph Reser FAPS   available at http://www.psychology.org.au/inpsych/aps_challenge/    

Peter Jennings
Environmental Management

Some folks here might be interested in the Conservation Psychology website and listserve: www.conservationpsychology.org/ Under "Links" the site lists the CP and other listserves, but the link to the CP listserve is not currently working. I believe you can subscribe to the listserve by sending a "subscribe" message to [email protected]. The USA Today article is about the APA conference, which I assume is mostly academics talking to other academics. That's all well and good, but it's hard to imagine how they are going to have any real-world impact if they just hang out and talk to each other. (No offense to any academics here!) It would be great to see more collaboration and cross-pollination between "practitioners" (who seem to dominate the FSB community) and academics (who seem to dominate the CP community). Of course, Doug is one of the heroes trying to bridge the gap, but we need a lot more of that. Perhaps we "practitioners" also need to do a better job of reaching out to the academic community?

I agree that there needs to be much more cross-pollination. I'm a social psychologist who has all but left the field for a career in energy efficiency, but my hope is to serve as a bridge between the two worlds. I was happy to see a good mix of folks at the ACEEE Summer Study (http://aceee.org/conf/08ss/08ssindex.htm) last week, including academics, nonprofits, consultants, utilities, and government. However, I do think there can be more involvement of academia at such conferences. Unfortunately I think the tenure process promotes the insular nature of most academic fields. The reality is that in order to achieve tenure, researchers need to publish in highly-ranked theoretical journals within their field, rather than applied journals outside of their field. Practitioners are highly unlikely to pick up an academic journal. It is also true that academics don't often attend conferences outside of their immediate field. And the practitioners aren't likely to attend academic conferences either. Perhaps what is needed are more attempts by organizations such as ACEEE that aim to get everyone together to discuss a common topic from an interdisciplinary and multi-level perspective.

Donna Whitsett

Postdoctoral Research Associate,
University of Washington
Research Analyst, Energy Market Innovations
http://www.emiconsulting.com/

The energy efficiency industry is trying to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners. Last year industry folks organized a new conference - Behavior, Energy & Climate Change Conference. At this event those of us involved in promoting energy efficiency and energy conservation are hoping to learn from behavioral scientists and others. (More info on this conference at http://piee.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/htm/Behavior/becc_conference.php.)

Kathy Kuntz

Director - Energy Programs
Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation
[email protected]
608-249-9322 x 278