Conservation psychology

Conservation psychology is the scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world. Rather than a specialty area within psychology itself, it is a growing field for scientists, researchers, and practitioners of all disciplines to come together and better understand the earth and what can be done to preserve it. This network seeks to understand why humans hurt or help the environment and what can be done to change such behavior. The term 'conservation psychology' refers to any fields of psychology that have understandable knowledge about the environment and the effects humans have on the natural world. Conservation psychologists use their abilities in 'greening' psychology and make society ecologically sustainable. The science of conservation psychology is oriented toward environmental sustainability, which includes concerns like the conservation of resources, conservation of ecosystems, and quality of life issues for humans and other species. Conservation psychology is the scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world. Rather than a specialty area within psychology itself, it is a growing field for scientists, researchers, and practitioners of all disciplines to come together and better understand the earth and what can be done to preserve it. This network seeks to understand why humans hurt or help the environment and what can be done to change such behavior. The term 'conservation psychology' refers to any fields of psychology that have understandable knowledge about the environment and the effects humans have on the natural world. Conservation psychologists use their abilities in 'greening' psychology and make society ecologically sustainable. The science of conservation psychology is oriented toward environmental sustainability, which includes concerns like the conservation of resources, conservation of ecosystems, and quality of life issues for humans and other species. One common issue is a lack of understanding of the distinction between conservation psychology and the more-established field of environmental psychology, which is the study of transactions between individuals and all their physical settings, including how people change both the built and the natural environments and how those environments change them. Environmental psychology began in the late 1960s (the first formal program with that name was established at the City University of New York in 1968), and is the term most commonly used around the world. Its definition as including human transactions with both the natural and built environments goes back to its beginnings, as exemplified in these quotes from three 1974 textbooks: 'Environmental psychology is the study of the interrelationship between behavior and the built and natural environment' and '...the natural environment is studied as both a problem area, with respect to environmental degradation, and as a setting for certain recreational and psychological needs', and a third that included a chapter entitled The Natural Environment and Behavior. Conservation psychology, proposed more recently in 2003 and mainly identified with a group of US academics with ties to zoos and environmental studies departments, began with a primary focus on the relations between humans and animals. Introduced in ecology, policy, and biology journals, some have suggested that it should be expanded to try to understand why humans feel the need to help or hurt the environment, along with how to promote conservation efforts. Psychologists from all fields including philosophy, biology, sociology, industrial and organizational, health, and consumer psychology, along with many other subfields like environmental education and conservation biology come together to put their knowledge to practice in educating others to work together and encourage a congruous relationship between humans and the environment around them. These psychologists work together with places such as zoos and aquariums. Zoos and aquariums may seem to only be places of recreation and fun but are actually trying hard to put positive messages out and to educate the public on the homes and needs of the animals that live there. They are trying to find ways to interact and teach the public the consequences of their day to day actions to the animals and the environment rather than simply viewing the animals. Psychologists and sociologists have been visiting workshops and think tanks at the zoos to evaluate if the animals are being viewed and shown to the best of their ability while still giving informative knowledge to the public. What characterizes conservation psychology research is that in addition to descriptive and theoretical analyses, studies will explore how to cause the kinds of changes that lessen the impact of human behavior on the natural environment, and that lead to more sustainable and harmonious relationships. Some of the research being done with respect to conservation is estimating exactly how much land and water resources are being used by each human at this point along with projected future growth. Also important to consider is the partitioning of land for this future growth. Additionally, conservation efforts look at the positive and negative consequences for the biodiversity of plant and animal life after humans have used the land to their advantage. In addition to creating better conceptual models, more applied research is needed to: 1) identify the most promising strategies for fostering ways of caring about nature, 2) find ways to reframe debates and strategically communicate to the existing values that people have, 3) identify the most promising strategies for shifting the societal discourse about human–nature relationships, and 4) measure the success of these applications with respect to the conservation psychology mission. The ultimate success of conservation psychology will be based on whether its research resulted in programs and applications that made a difference with respect to environmental sustainability. We need to be able to measure the effectiveness of the programs in terms of their impact on behavior formation or behavior change, using tools developed by conservation psychologists. Conservation psychology research has broken down the four most important tenets of promoting positive conservation attitudes into 'the four 'I's'. These include: Information, Identity, Institutions, and Incentives. Research has been done in all four categories. Studies have shown that the way in which crises are presented is a key predictor for how people will react to them. When people hear that they personally can help to alleviate a crisis through their conservation efforts, just by simple actions with their personal energy use, they are more likely to conserve. However, if people are told that the other people around them are overusing energy, it increases selfish behavior and causes people to actually consume more. Teaching people about the benefits of conservation, including easy ways to help conserve, is an effective way to inform about and promote more environmentally friendly behavior. Additionally, research has shown that making sure people understand more about the boundaries of land they can help preserve actually improves positive attitudes towards conservation. When people know more about local regions they can help protect, they will care more. Knowing more about the regions includes knowing the extent of the biodiversity in that region, and being sure that the ecosystem will remain healthy and protected. Cost analysis is another important factor. People do not want to take risks on valuable lands, which in places like California, could be worth billions. In general, people like to fit in and identify with their peer social groups. Studies have shown people identify more intimately with close friends and family, which is why conservation campaigns try to directly address the most people. The 'think of the children' argument for conservation follows this logic by offering a group everyone can relate to and feel close to. Studies have also shown that this need to fit in among peer social groups can be reinforced positively or negatively: giving positive feedback on energy bills for conserving in their homes encourages people to continue lower energy use. Examples of negative reinforcement include the use of negative press against companies infamous for heavy pollution.