Slow wins: Patience, perseverance and behavior change.

It is easy to despair at the unsustainability of human behavior; however, such despair may come from taking too narrow and pessimistic a view of human nature. Behavior change does happen but durable change happens only slowly. What is unnerving is that our environmental problems are urgent, perhaps accelerating. This might give rise to intolerance for the slow-change notion suggested in this article. But, in fact, the opposite response is needed from us. The transition we face must be done well the first time with the changes made durable; it is unlikely we will get a second chance.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88161/1/De_Young,_R._(2011)_Slow_wins,_Patience,_perseverance_and_behavior_change._Carbon_Management,_2(6),_607-611.pd

The role of psychology in preparing for lean times: The behavioral context of energy descent.

A one-time era of vast energy and natural resources allowed modern civilization to emerge and flourish. This gift of abundant resources supported the building of industrial society’s urban settlements and infrastructure. The material richness also supported the creation of a consumerist society now characterized by a massive global flow of goods and services. None of this can be sustained indefinitely since, despite how vast those resources were, they were never limitless.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136086/1/De Young, R. (2017) The role of psychology in preparing for lean times, in Columbus, A. M. (Ed.) Advances in Psychology Research 116 (Pp. 207-212).pdfDescription of De Young, R. (2017) The role of psychology in preparing for lean times, in Columbus, A. M. (Ed.) Advances in Psychology Research 116 (Pp. 207-212).pdf : Main articl

Localization: Motivating transition with a conservation aesthetic

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86728/1/De_Young_(25_October_2011)_Localization_-_Motivating_Transition.pd

Localization: Small experiments for the coming downshift

The circumstances being faced are urgent, some global, many overwhelming. It would seem that only large responses will suffice. But this is a version of the homeopathic delusion (Berry 2011): here that only large solutions can respond to large problems. The notion of small experiments is a counter argument. It points out the benefit and efficacy of small scale efforts, of having modest expectations and of understanding the fact that humans are native and highly-motivated problem-solvers.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100254/1/De_Young_(24_October_2013)_Localization_-_Small_experiments_for_the_coming_downshift.pd

Satisfaction from conservation activities in North America

Published online: 24 August 2009One must avoid equating quality-of-life and sense of well-being with economic standard of living. It turns out that the North American public is concerned about intangible as well as tangible sources of well-being. In fact, a shift towards deriving one's well-being from intangible sources would seem an adaptive response to a world facing deep energy and material descent and the same time it deals with the consequences of past climate disruption. Despite the common-sense nature of the findings reported here, their application as a coping strategy is often overlooked. Clearly, human well-being can be increased in many non-economic ways. Due to the plurality of human satisfaction, people have the potential to improve their quality of life even if they have difficulty growing, or even maintaining, their economic status. For this potential to be realized, however, people must be able to become involved in their environment: they must be able to take actions to explore and to experiment, on a daily basis. They must, in short, experience the environment as supportive of their concern to participate and avoid wastefulness. Fortunately, our settlements can be designed and managed in ways that enhance environmental supportiveness. In fact, prefiguring supportive environments may be vital to easing our transition to an energy and material-constrained existence.Partial funding for this research was provided by the University of Michigan Office of Energy Research (Project No. 65).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83773/1/De_Young_(1985)_Satisfaction_from_conservation_activities_in_North_America,_EC,_12,_3,_259-260.pd

Environmental psychology

Environmental psychology examines the interrelationship between environments and human behavior. The field defines the term ‘environment’ very broadly to include all that is natural on the planet as well as social settings, built environments, learning environments, local settings, and informational environments. When solving problems that involve human-environment interactions, whether they are global or local, one must have a model of human nature that predicts the environmental conditions under which humans will behave in a decent and creative manner. With such a model one can design, manage, protect or restore environments that enhance reasonable behavior, predict what the likely outcome will be when these conditions are not met, and diagnose problem situations. The field develops such a model of human nature while retaining a broad and inherently multidisciplinary focus. It explores such dissimilar issues as common property resource management, way-finding in complex settings, the effect of environmental stress on human performance, the characteristics of restorative environments, human information processing, and the promotion of durable conservation behavior and durable living. The field of environmental psychology recognizes the need to be problem-oriented, using, as needed, the theories and methods of related disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology and ecology. The field founded the Environmental Design Research Association, publishes in numerous journals including Environmental and Behavior and the Journal of Environmental Psychology, and has been reviewed several times in the Annual Review of Psychology.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83771/1/De_Young_(1999)_Environmental_psychology,_EES_(223-224).pd

Some psychological aspects of recycling: The structure of conservation satisfactions

This article focuses on intrinsic satisfactions derived from the recycling of household solid waste materials. Data from 107 respondents to a mail-back questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis and analysis of variance. The results indicate that people derive a series of separate and distinct satisfactions from both recycling and reusing materials. The satisfactions were quite specific, involving, for example, frugality and participation. These findings suggest that our understanding of why people bother to conserve resources may be improved by investigating the personal satisfactions derived from environmental stewardship behavior.The University of Michigan Office of Energy Research (Project No. 65)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83861/1/De_Young_(1986)_Some_psychological_aspects_of_recycling,_E&B,_18,_4,_435-449.pd

Transitioning to a New Normal: How Ecopsychology Can Help Society Prepare for the Harder Times Ahead

However vast were the resources used to create industrial civilization, they were never limitless. Biophysical constraints, always a part of human existence, could be ignored for these past few centuries, a one-time era of resource abundance. This is no longer possible. Many of the challenges we face can be traced to our centuries long consumption and construction binge and, soon, to its abrupt culmination. Climate disruption, a consequence of our rapacious use of fossil fuels, is intensifying. The amount of available net energy (the energy available to society after deducting energy used during extraction and production) was massive at first, misleading us with the false prospect of endless growth. False because, easily unnoticed, net energy has been on a relentless decline. We are approaching the day when net energy becomes insufficient for maintaining, let alone building out, modern society. Technological innovation, to which we attribute much of our success, cannot create energy or natural resources, and our industrial prowess cannot negate the laws of thermodynamics. Thus, while our ingenuity can slow the approach of a resource-limited future, it will not fundamentally change that outcome. Soon we will leave behind the techno-fantasy of a world without limits giving us a life without want. We will all, of necessity, accept that biophysical limits are a defining characteristic of life. Such acceptance is long overdue but hard for us, hard because it demands profoundly different worldviews and patterns of living. Yet acceptance is but the first step and not nearly as hard as what comes next. The depth and duration of the required transition is unprecedented. Adapting well to a drawn-out decline in resource availability is not something with which we are familiar. Prefiguring our response could ease the transition and psychology can help this process.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102020/1/De Young (2013) Transitioning to the new normal, Ecopsychology 5, 237-239.pd

Expanding and Evaluating Motives for Environmentally Responsible Behavior

Part of a special issue on Psychology of Promoting Environmentalism: New Ways to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior.This article contends that while striving to promote environmentally responsible behavior, we have focused attention too narrowly on just two classes of motives. There is a need to expand the range of motives available to practitioners and to provide a framework within which motives can be evaluated for both their immediate and long-term effectiveness. The article then examines a strategy for promoting environmentally responsible behavior that has significant potential. This strategy is based on a particular form of motivation called intrinsic satisfaction. Nine studies are reviewed that have outlined the structure of intrinsic satisfaction. A key theme discussed is the human inclination for competence. This fundamental human concern is shown to have both a general form and a resource-specific version.Partially funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation (96-34311A-WER).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83703/1/De_Young,_R._(2000)_Expanding_and_Evaluating_Motives_for_Environmentally_Responsible_Behavior,_JSI,_56,_3,_509-526.pd

Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs: Using the Biodiversity-Health Relationship to Help Citizens Self-Initiate Sustainability Behaviour

Highlights: (1) Resource limits and climate disruption have created a new biophysical context characterized by a long, drawn-out descent, (2) An initial aspect of this will be an unexpected decline in surplus energy, (3) The result is a new behavioral context that the social sciences are only slowly coming to understand, (4) One major challenge is that the environmental behaviors needed later this century cannot be fully known in advance, yet we must somehow begin to plan for them now, (5) Attentional vitality and psychological equipoise are essential for the envisioning and behavioral planning needed now, and the behavior change that follows, (6) Clusters of behavior must be adopted; the past focus on serial and incremental change will not suffice, and (7) By understanding the conditions under which human envision and plan, conditions can be created whereby citizens become behavioral entrepreneurs.Techno-industrial societies face biophysical limits and the consequences of disrupting Earth’s ecosystems. This creates a new behavioural context with an unmistakable demand: Citizens of such societies must turn from seeking new resources to crafting new living patterns that function well within finite ecosystems. This coming transition is inevitable, but our response is not preordained. Indeed, given the complex, multi-decade-long context, the required pro-environmental behaviours cannot be fully known in advance. Furthermore, the urgency to respond will necessitate that whole clusters of behaviour be adopted; incremental and serial change will not suffice. Thus, a culture of small experiments must be nurtured. The process of change will seriously tax social, emotional and attentional capacities. Thus, priority is placed on emotional stability and clear-headedness, maintaining social relationships while stressed, pro-actively managing behaviour and a willingness to reskill. These aspects of coping share a common foundation: the maintenance of attentional vitality and psychological well-being. Changes also must occur in how pro-environmental behaviours are promoted. We must move beyond interventions that are expert-driven, modest in request, serial in implementation and short-term in horizon. New interventions must create the conditions under which citizens become behavioural entrepreneurs, themselves creating, managing and sharing successful approaches to behaviour change.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149468/1/De Young, R. (2019) Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs, In Biodiversity & Health in the Face of Climate Change (Pp 295-313) .pdfDescription of De Young, R. (2019) Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs, In Biodiversity & Health in the Face of Climate Change (Pp 295-313) .pdf : Main articl