I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Environmental Psychology

2. Course Prefix & Number:
PSYC 1425

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

4. Course Description:

This course investigates the psychology of environmental problems as an interdisciplinary blend of psychology and environmental science by viewing current environmental issues through eight major psychological approach lenses. This course facilitates student understanding of how human consciousness and behavior contribute to, and result from, environmental threats. Learners will investigate how humans can choose to live in a manner that will ensure a sustainable future and how humanity is related to nature in terms of global interdependence, as well as how agriculturists can produce food sources to sustain a growing global population. Students who are interested in their roles as stewards of the preservation of nature for future generations can explore how psychology and the environment are interrelated. Learners will create individualized self-control projects (Behavior Change Plans) based on the seven aspects of personal lifestyle that most significantly impact the environment. They will describe how they can alter their daily lifestyles to live more responsible, sustainable, and conscious lives.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

Reading College Level CLC or Reading College Level

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

Metro State University, PSYC 387 Environmental Psychology, 4 credits
Vermillion Community College, 2575 Environmental Psychology, 3 credits

III. Course Purpose

1. Program-Applicable Courses – This course is required for the following program(s):

 

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:

• Goal 5 – History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Goal 10 – People and the Environment

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Analyze and follow a sequence of operations	Create an individualized self-control project based on the seven aspects of personal lifestyles that most significantly impact the environment.
Apply ethical principles in decision-making	Consider ethical principles and values when interpreting, discussing, and reflecting on environmental issues, course materials, and personal experiences.
Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and environments	Discuss and compare topics of diversity central to understanding the connections between environmental psychology, culture(s), and diversity.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Identify and apply alternative explanatory systems of theories (MnTC Goal 5);
• Identify and communicate alternative explanations for contemporary social issues (MnTC Goal 5);
• Define environmental psychology and the psychological principles, theories, and methodologies pertinent to issues of psychology, the environment, and sustainability (MnTC Goal 5);
• Understand how environmental psychology meets the criteria of science (MnTC Goal 5);
• Describe behavior and mental processes empirically (MnTC Goal 5);
• Distinguish behavior from inferences about behavior (MnTC Goal 5);
• Describe the key areas of the major schools of thought of psychology and how they pertain to environmental psychology (MnTC Goal 5);
• Discuss controversies and current issues as they relate to environmental psychology (MnTC Goal 5);
• Explain the basic structure and function of various natural ecosystems and of human adaptive strategies within those systems (MnTC Goal 10);
• Evaluate, critically, environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems, and institutions (MnTC Goal 10);
• Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems (MnTC Goal 10);
• Articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues (MnTC Goal 10);
• Discern patterns and interrelationships of bio-physical and socio-cultural systems (MnTC Goal 10);
• Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges (MnTC Goal 10);
• Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures (MnTC Goal 5); and
• Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories (MnTC Goal 5).

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. What on earth are we doing?
• Psychology as an environmental science
• The nature of the problem
• Biology’s bottom line: carrying capacity
• Climate change
• Other resource issues
• Psychological reactions to environmental threats
• The psychology of overconsumption
• Cultural versus biological carrying capacity
• Conclusions
2. The nature of Western thought
• The intellectual roots of the DSP and psychology
• The Western view of nature
• Assumption 1: nature is composed of inert, physical elements
• Assumption 2: nature can and should be controlled
• Assumption 3: individual human beings seek private economic gain
• Assumption 4: we must progress
• The nature of nonindustrialized thought
• Conclusions
3. Psychoanalytic psychology: becoming conscious of the unconscious
• The influence of Freud
• The basis and basics of Freud’s Theory
• Critique of Freud and psychoanalysis
• Object Relations Theory: re-experiencing the mother
• Excessive early demands
• Attention withdrawn too early
• Using Freud’s ideas
• The psychoanalysis of environmentalists
• Conclusions
4. Social psychology: under the influence of others
• Norms
• Social norms
• Personal norms
• Identity
• Personal norms and environmental justice
• Altruism, morality, and the values beliefs
• Norms theory
• Theory of planned behavior
• Cognitive dissonance theory
• Comparison of models linking behavior to attitudes
• Who cares about the environment?
• The social psychology of materialism
• The unhappy results of materialism
• Materialism and the economy
• Conclusions
5. Behavioral psychology: contingency management
• Operant conditioning
• Antecedent strategies: changing the SDs
• Consequence strategies: changing the SRs
• Behavioral self-control
• Limitations of the behavioral approach
• Forgoing freedom
• Conclusions
6. Neuropsychology of toxic exposures
• Toxic exposures
• Neurodevelopment
• Neurodevelopmental disabilities
• Cognitive and attentional impairments
• Autism
• Behavioral and motor problems
• Psychosocial and psychiatric disorders
• Toxic effects in adults
• Accelerated aging
• Parkinson’s disease
• Reproductive abnormalities
• Establishing cause and effect: a research nightmare
• Legislative issues
• The costs of neurotoxins
• Building the perfect beast: the irony of pesticides
• Behavioral solutions
• Conclusions
7. Cognitive psychology: information processing
• Information processing models
• The computer revolution
• The constraints of GIGO
• Additional constraints on information
• Processing
• Framing effects
• Using cognitive psychology to solve environmental problems
• Risk assessment: whose quantification problem is it?
• The role of emotions in judgment of risk
• Retaining a voice
• Conclusions
8. Health and the psychology of environmental stress
• Stress
• Physiology of the stress response
• Psychological components of the stress response
• Stress-associated health risks
• Stress-associated behavioral disorders
• Stress-associated psychological disorders
• Stressful environments
• Urban living
• Noise pollution
• Climate change, weather, and air pollution
• Environmental toxins
• Why do people choose stressful behaviors and environments?
• Solution approaches: strategies for reducing stress
• Restorative environments
• Wilderness therapy
• Green urban planning
• Green buildings
• Conclusions
9. Developmental psychology: growing healthy children in nature
• Indoor children
• Benefits of nature
• Cognitive development and reasoning skills
• Moral development
• Mental health
• Children and animals
• Fostering pro-environmental behaviors in children
• Environmental education
• Conclusions
10. Holistic approaches: Gestalt and Ecopsychology
• Gestalt psychology
• Laboratory confirmation: group effects in social dilemma games
• Gestalt therapy
• Mindfulness
• The ecological self: the self beyond the self
• Ecopsychology
• Evaluating ecopsychology: the measurement problem
• Biodiversity from an ecopsychological perspective
• Emotional dimensions of ecopsychology
• The ecopsychology of place
• Conclusions
11. Putting it together: using psychology to build a sustainable world
• Comparing the approaches: psychological insights
• Visualize an ecologically healthy world
• Work with big ideas and small steps
• Think circle instead of line
• Less is more
• Practice conscious consumption
• Act on personal and political levels, especially local community participation
• Conclusions
• The cost of inaction