Jump to content

Climate psychology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Climate psychology is a field that aims to further our understanding of our psychological processes' relationship to the climate and our environment. It aims to study both how the climate can impact our own thoughts and behaviors, as well as how our thoughts and behaviors impact the climate. This field often focuses on climate change, both in our reaction to it and how our behaviors can be changed in order to minimize the impact humanity has on the climate. These behavior changes include: engaging with the public about climate change, contributing at a personal, communal, cultural and political level by supporting effective change through activists, scientists, and policy makers, and finally nurturing psychological resilience to the destructive impacts climate change creates now and in the future.[1][2]

Climate psychology includes many subfields and focuses including: the effects of climate change on mental health, the psychological impact of climate change, the psychological explanation of climate inaction, and climate change denial. Climate psychology is a sub-discipline of environmental psychology.

History

[edit]

The origins of climate psychology can be traced back to the work of psychoanalyst Harold Searles and his work on the unconscious factors that influence the estrangement of people from the rest of nature. It has also been strongly related to the field of Ecopsychology, as Sigmund Freud tied the interests of the ego to the natural world.[3] Due to the increase in society-wide acceptance of the dangers of climate change, there has been greater interest in understanding the psychological processes underlying the resistance to taking appropriate action, and in particular, the phenomenon of climate change denial.[4] More recently, a literature base by climate psychologists has started to focus on the powerful emotions associated with climate change and planetary-wide biodiversity loss.[5]

Academic discipline

[edit]

Climate psychology is a trans-disciplinary approach to research and practice. It focuses on the society-wide reluctance to take appropriate action in relation to the escalating threat of climate change. It seems the problem as requiring a deeper approach, that examines our resistance to knowing and acting, rather than seeing it as an “information deficit” to be treated by cognitive or behavioral approaches. It stresses the significance of human emotions, identities and cultural assumptions. Furthermore, it acknowledges the human subject as nested within their social and ecological context.

In order to meet its aims and develop its approach, climate psychology draws on a broad range of perspectives, including: literature, philosophy, world religions, the arts, humanities and systems thinking.[6] The core of the approach is based on various psychotherapeutic traditions and psycho-social studies, allowing climate psychologists to understand the unconscious or unacknowledged emotions and processes influencing people’s thoughts, motivations and behaviors. This applies especially to these processes that manifest in the broader context of the wider society and culture.

As of 2020, the discipline of climate psychology had grown to include many subfields. This is in response to the spread of, what has recently been called, climate anxiety, which is a manifestation of the decades-old understanding of eco-anxiety. Climate psychologists are working with the United Nations, national and local governments, with corporations, NGOs, and individuals.[7][8][9]

Climate scientists protesting in 2016 against cuts to funding for climate change research

Climate psychology in practice

[edit]

In recent years, climate psychologists are facilitating support groups for activists, particularly those active in the support of pro-environmental behaviors across society.[10] Climate psychologists have also engaged directly with climate activists, and even engaged in climate activism themselves. For example, in August 2022, scientists and their colleagues came together to protest rebellion outside of the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy in London. During this time, as shown on the news, many climate scientists were having mental breakdowns and showing extreme signs of emotional turmoil and anguish. Climate psychologists over the years have watched not only scientists go through this environmental change, seeing how it has negatively impacted millions. They support groups through behavioral practices and studies to help obtain precise data and comprehension from person to person within these activist groups.[11]

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reports that roughly 971 million individuals are residing in regions with moderate to high exposure to climate hazards due to industrial development, environmental exploitation, and excessive consumerism, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and South Asia regions. In response to the issues and difficulties resulting from climate change, the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) is actively providing psychological aid during natural disasters and catastrophic events. In addition, psychologists around the globe encourage networking and connections to maintain knowledge exchange and create a community of climate action proponents to assure that all individuals have access to the aid and amenities needed in areas currently under pressure from the ongoing climate crisis.[12]

Climate and Mental Health

[edit]

The climate can have various impacts on mental health. For example, increased temperature can be linked to a worsening of a variety of mental health issues such as aggression, anxiety, dementia, mood, and suicide.[13][14] The worsening of these symptoms can lead to increases in crime rates and hospital admissions rates during heat waves.[15][16] The increased prevalence of natural disasters can also cause mental distress which can cause PTSD in many patients, which is a pressing concern for some climate psychologists.[17][18][19] Natural disasters have also been linked to acute stress disorder, drug abuse disorder, and depression in some people.[20][21]

Climate change may also result in socioeconomic impacts; the associated economic hardship can negatively impact mental health, leading to stress and depression.[22][23] Workers often face worse conditions due to climate change leading to increased risk of injury.[24] The negative impacts on physical health can then lead to decreases in mental health as well.[25] Workers may then become demoralized and lose interest in their work as a result of worsened mental health.[26] These socioeconomic impacts can also lead to disproportionate impacts on minorities and repressed groups within a society. For example women are often disproportionately impacted compared to men in the aftermath of a natural disaster.[27][28][29]

Due to the impacts of climate change on mental health, psychologists and social workers have begun to take climate into account when assessing patients. This includes reaching out to the community and applying psychological principals to decrease climate change and to address climate anxiety in clinical sessions.[10][30]Psychologists may council patients with climate related anxiety and attempt to shift those anxieties into positive changes.[31]

Psycho-analytical approaches

[edit]

Psycho-analytical approaches are approaches based on the ideas of Sigmund Freud.[1] They focus on how people respond to anxiety, a response which in turn may trigger psychological defense mechanisms. The psychological defenses triggered will often define how that person then reacts to climate change. Climate psychologists use this to explain reactions such as climate change denial, apathy, and inaction in towards climate change.[32]

Psychologists consider how coping responses can be adaptive or maladaptive,[33] and climate psychologists use environmental impact of a behavior to determine the adaptivity of the response. For example, climate psychologists might ask if responses promote positive psychological adjustment and stimulate appropriate and proportional pro-environmental action, or do they serve to justify the individual in their inaction and allow them to refrain from the necessary, radical changes?[34]

Psycho-social approaches

[edit]

A psycho-social approach to Climate psychology examines the interplay between internal, psychological factors and external, sociocultural factors- such as values, beliefs, and norms- in people’s responses to climate change.[35][36] Furthermore, it offers a distinctive qualitative methodology for understanding the lived experience of research subjects, which has been adopted by researchers seeking to investigate how climate change and environmental destruction are experienced by different groups across society.[37][5] In this case, ‘lived experience’ refers to the feelings, thoughts and imaginations and the meaning frames which both affect and are effected by those experiences.

Coping responses to impending climate destabilization are psycho-social phenomena, culturally sanctioned and maintained by social norms and structures, not simply isolated psychological processes.[4] For example, modern mass consumerism is dictated by the needs of a globalized, deregulated economy, yet it is one of the driving forces of climate change.[38] It has been suggested that this “culture of un-care” performs an ideological function, insulating consumers from experiencing too much anxiety and moral disquiet.[39][40]

Cultural mechanisms also support ways of down-regulating the powerful feelings that would otherwise be elicited by the awareness of potential threats. These include strong, embedded cultural assumptions such as entitlement, exceptionalism, and faith in progress.[41][34] Entitlement is the belief that certain groups or species deserve more than others and is embedded in the unequal relations governing developed and developing human societies.[42] Exceptionalism is the idea that one’s species, nation, ethnic group or individual self is special and therefore absolved from the rules that apply to others, giving license to breach natural limits of resource consumption. Faith in progress, a key element of post-industrial ideology, results in a conviction that science and technology can solve every problem, therefore encouraging wishful thinking and false optimism.[43][44]

Many people perceive unfairness in how they are affected by Climate change. This is often caused by the wealth inequality correlated with climate change. In other words, those who experience more inequality also experience worse impacts from climate change.[45] Lack of fairness is then perpetuated as many wealthier people have a disproportionate negative impact on the environment due to the direct correlation between wealth and a person's carbon footprint.[46] This perceived lack of fairness can then lead to increased radicalization of a person's belief's about climate change according to psycho-social models of political radicalization.[47]

References

  1. ^ a b "Pursuing a Career in Climate and Environmental Psychology". www.apa.org. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
  2. ^ "What is Climate Psychology?". www.climatepsychologyalliance.org. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
  3. ^ Arnout, Boshra A. (2023-01-01). "An epidemiological study of mental health problems related to climate change: A procedural framework for mental health system workers". Work. 75 (3): 813–835. doi:10.3233/WOR-220040. ISSN 1051-9815. PMID 36710698.
  4. ^ a b Norgaard, K. M. (2011). Living in denial: Climate change, emotions, and everyday life. MIT Press.
  5. ^ a b Hoggett, Paul (2019-06-01). Climate Psychology: On Indifference to Disaster. Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-11741-2.
  6. ^ Climate Psychology Alliance, Handbook. "Climate Psychology". Climate Psychology Alliance. Archived from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  7. ^ Pihkala Panu (2020). "Anxiety and the Ecological Crisis: An Analysis of Eco-Anxiety and Climate Anxiety". Sustainability. 12 (19): 7836. doi:10.3390/su12197836. hdl:10138/348821.
  8. ^ Zara Abrams (1 January 2020). "Increasing action on climate change". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  9. ^ Doherty TJ, Clayton S (2011). "The Psychological Impacts of Global Climate Change". American Psychologist. 66 (4): 265–76. doi:10.1037/a0023141. PMID 21553952.
  10. ^ a b Gurtner, Lilla M.; Moser, Stephanie (2024-03-01). "The where, how, and who of mitigating climate change: A targeted research agenda for psychology". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 94: 102250. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102250. ISSN 0272-4944.
  11. ^ Gawrych, Magdalena, and Justyna Holka-Pokorska. “Mental Health Issues Related to Climate Change in Poland - Polish Psychologists’ and Psychotherapists’ Perspective.” Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy 24.2 (2021): 47–53. Web.
  12. ^ Climate Action and Global Psychology - Researchgate. Nov. 2022, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brian-Dixon-2/publication/365098936_Climate_Action_and_Global_Psychology/links/6364fd562f4bca7fd0301b85/Climate-Action-and-Global-Psychology.pdf.
  13. ^ Kim, Satbyul Estella; Kim, Yoonhee; Hashizume, Masahiro; Honda, Yasushi; Kazutaka, Oka; Hijioka, Yasuaki; Kim, Ho (2023-06-30). "Positive Association of Aggression with Ambient Temperature". The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 96 (2): 189–196. doi:10.59249/RXZX5728. ISSN 0044-0086. PMC 10303254. PMID 37396982.
  14. ^ Thompson, R.; Hornigold, R.; Page, L.; Waite, T. (2018-08-01). "Associations between high ambient temperatures and heat waves with mental health outcomes: a systematic review". Public Health. Special issue on Health and high temperatures. 161: 171–191. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2018.06.008. ISSN 0033-3506. PMID 30007545.
  15. ^ Cohn, Ellen G.; Rotton, James; Peterson, Amy G.; Tarr, Deborah B. (2004). "Temperature, City Size, and the Southern Subculture of Violence: Support for Social Escape/Avoidance (SEA) Theory 1". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 34 (8): 1652–1674. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02792.x. ISSN 0021-9029.
  16. ^ Berry, Helen Louise; Bowen, Kathryn; Kjellstrom, Tord (2010). "Climate change and mental health: a causal pathways framework". International Journal of Public Health. 55 (2): 123–132. doi:10.1007/s00038-009-0112-0. ISSN 1661-8564. PMID 20033251.
  17. ^ DeSalvo, Karen B.; Hyre, Amanda D.; Ompad, Danielle C.; Menke, Andy; Tynes, L. Lee; Muntner, Paul (2007). "Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in a New Orleans workforce following Hurricane Katrina". Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. 84 (2): 142–152. doi:10.1007/s11524-006-9147-1. ISSN 1099-3460. PMC 2231633. PMID 17226081.
  18. ^ McMillen, Curtis; North, Carol; Mosley, Muriel; Smith, Elizabeth (2002). "Untangling the psychiatric comorbidity of posttraumatic stress disorder in a sample of flood survivors". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 43 (6): 478–485. doi:10.1053/comp.2002.34632. ISSN 0010-440X. PMID 12439837.
  19. ^ "The Rising Cost of Natural Hazards". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. 2005-03-30. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
  20. ^ Keya, Tahmina A; Leela, Anthony; Habib, Nasrin; Rashid, Mamunur; Bakthavatchalam, Pugazhandhi (2023). "Mental Health Disorders Due to Disaster Exposure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis". Cureus. 15 (4): e37031. doi:10.7759/cureus.37031. ISSN 2168-8184. PMC 10153020. PMID 37143625.
  21. ^ North, Carol S. (2014). "Current research and recent breakthroughs on the mental health effects of disasters". Current Psychiatry Reports. 16 (10): 481. doi:10.1007/s11920-014-0481-9. ISSN 1535-1645. PMID 25138235.
  22. ^ De Silva, Mary J.; McKenzie, Kwame; Harpham, Trudy; Huttly, Sharon R. A. (2005). "Social capital and mental illness: a systematic review". Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 59 (8): 619–627. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.029678. ISSN 0143-005X. PMC 1733100. PMID 16020636.
  23. ^ Bosello, Francesco; Roson, Roberto; Tol, Richard S. J. (2006-06-25). "Economy-wide estimates of the implications of climate change: Human health". Ecological Economics. 58 (3): 579–591. Bibcode:2006EcoEc..58..579B. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.07.032. hdl:10419/74106. ISSN 0921-8009.
  24. ^ Gamble, Janet L.; Balbus, John (2016). "9 Populations of Concern" (PDF). U.S. Global Change Research Program.
  25. ^ Prince, Martin; Patel, Vikram; Saxena, Shekhar; Maj, Mario; Maselko, Joanna; Phillips, Michael R; Rahman, Atif (2007). "No health without mental health". The Lancet. 370 (9590): 859–877. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)61238-0. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 17804063.
  26. ^ Hollifield, Michael; Fullilove, Mindy Thompson; Hobfoll, Stevan E. (2011), Weissbecker, Inka (ed.), "Climate Change Refugees", Climate Change and Human Well-Being: Global Challenges and Opportunities, New York, NY: Springer, pp. 135–162, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9742-5_8, ISBN 978-1-4419-9742-5, retrieved 2024-10-11
  27. ^ "Psychological responses to drought in northeastern Brazil | Revista Interamericana de Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology". The Interamerican Journal of Psychology. 2017-08-17.
  28. ^ Curran, Sara R.; Garip, Filiz; Chung, Chang Y.; Tangchonlatip, Kanchana (2005). "Gendered Migrant Social Capital: Evidence from Thailand". Social Forces; A Scientific Medium of Social Study and Interpretation. 84 (1): 225–255. doi:10.1353/sof.2005.0094. ISSN 0037-7732. PMC 4819979. PMID 27053819.
  29. ^ Padhy, Susanta Kumar; Sarkar, Sidharth; Panigrahi, Mahima; Paul, Surender (2015). "Mental health effects of climate change". Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 19 (1): 3–7. doi:10.4103/0019-5278.156997. ISSN 0973-2284. PMC 4446935. PMID 26023264.
  30. ^ Ramdani, Jaka; Gunawan, Budhi; Darwis, Rudi Saprudin (2022-07-28). "The Contribution of Green Social Workers in Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change in Indonesia". JPPM (Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat). 9 (1): 50–60. doi:10.21831/jppm.v9i1.49822. ISSN 2477-2992.
  31. ^ Dodds, Joseph (2021). "The psychology of climate anxiety". BJPsych Bulletin. 45 (4): 222–226. doi:10.1192/bjb.2021.18. ISSN 2056-4694. PMC 8499625. PMID 34006345.
  32. ^ Dodds, Joseph (2021). "The psychology of climate anxiety". BJPsych Bulletin. 45 (4): 222–226. doi:10.1192/bjb.2021.18. ISSN 2056-4694. PMC 8499625. PMID 34006345.
  33. ^ Taylor S. (2020). Anxiety disorders, climate change, and the challenges ahead: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of anxiety disorders, 76, 102313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102313
  34. ^ a b Andrews & Hoggett (2019) Facing up to ecological crisis: A psychosocial perspective from climate psychology. In Foster, J. (ed.) Facing Up To Climate Reality: Honesty, Disaster & Hope. London: Green House Publishing.
  35. ^ Hollway, W. & Jefferson, T. (2013) Doing Qualitative Research Differently: A Psychosocial Approach. London: Sage.
  36. ^ Crompton, T. & Kasser, T. (2009) Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity. Godalming: WWF-UK.
  37. ^ Lertzman, R. (2015). Environmental melancholia: Psychoanalytic dimensions of engagement. Routledge.
  38. ^ Grant L. K. (2011). Can we consume our way out of climate change? A call for analysis. The Behavior analyst, 34(2), 245–266. doi:10.1007/BF03392256
  39. ^ "5 June 2014. 'TED style' talk given at the annual conference of the American Psychoanalytic Association. - Sally Weintrobe". www.sallyweintrobe.com. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  40. ^ Weintrobe, Sally (2019-09-05), "The Climate Crisis", Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalytic Political Theory, Routledge, pp. 417–428, doi:10.4324/9781315524771-34, ISBN 978-1-315-52477-1, S2CID 210572297, retrieved 2020-09-18
  41. ^ Weintrobe, S. (2013) The Difficult Problem of Anxiety When Thinking About Climate Change. In Weintraub, S. (ed.) Engaging with Climate Change: psychoanalytic and interdisciplinary perspectives. London: Routledge
  42. ^ Orange, Donna M. (2016-09-13). Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis, and Radical Ethics. doi:10.4324/9781315647906. ISBN 9781315647906.
  43. ^ Foster, John (2014-08-07). After Sustainability. doi:10.4324/9781315888576. ISBN 9781315888576.
  44. ^ Dewandre, Nicole (2011), "The Sustainability Concept: Can We Stand Between Catastrophism and Denial?", European Research on Sustainable Development, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 29–34, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-19202-9_4, ISBN 978-3-642-19201-2, retrieved 2020-09-18
  45. ^ Cevik, Serhan; Jalles, João Tovar (2023-03-01). "For whom the bell tolls: Climate change and income inequality". Energy Policy. 174: 113475. Bibcode:2023EnPol.17413475C. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113475. hdl:10400.5/27930. ISSN 0301-4215.
  46. ^ "The world's top 1% of emitters produce over 1000 times more CO2 than the bottom 1% – Analysis". IEA. 2023-02-22. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
  47. ^ Cevik, Serhan; Jalles, João Tovar (2023-03-01). "For whom the bell tolls: Climate change and income inequality". Energy Policy. 174: 113475. Bibcode:2023EnPol.17413475C. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113475. hdl:10400.5/27930. ISSN 0301-4215.
[edit]
Retrieved from "http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Climate_psychology&oldid=1260085988"