PSY2507 – Climate, environment and eco-psychology
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
This course provides an introduction to eco-, climate-, and environmental psychology. Human-made climate change is one the greatest challenges of our time. Like other behavioral and social sciences, psychology can play an important role in understanding our reactions and coordinating our responses to this crisis.
As a theoretical basis, students in this course will be introduced to the foundations of eco-, climate-, and environmental psychology. They will learn how widespread psychological response patterns such as climate engagement, climate skepticism, or climate anxiety are, and how they can be understood from a psychological perspective.
The climate crisis also highlights several classic psychological themes, such as the relationship between attitudes and behavior, communication and uncertainty, emotion and cognition, and the interplay between individuals and social systems. Moreover, the climate crisis has a clinical dimension—from psychological health impacts of climate change, to more politically contested "green emotions" such as ecological hope and anger underlying activism to grief, solastalgia, and flight, meat, and oil shame.
Students will be introduced to a range of perspectives—from philosophical theories about the human-nature relationship, including ecopsychology’s ambitious project of reuniting the two, to recent empirical climate research on "nudging" and the effectiveness of various environmentally friendly measures such as self-monitoring of electricity, water, and food consumption, to system-level interventions.
Students will also learn about psychology’s contribution to social change processes aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.
Learning outcome
Knowledge
Upon completing the course, students should be able to:
Describe the various factors that influence individual and collective pro-environmental behavior.
Discuss which individual climate and environmental actions are most effective, and the assumptions that underlie such evaluations.
Explain the prevalence of climate skepticism and climate engagement, and the demographic and psychological factors associated with them.
Analyze new terms—particularly those related to emotions—that have emerged in the wake of the climate and environmental crises.
Reflect on necessary societal developments for addressing the climate and environmental crises, as well as undesirable trends caused by them, and evaluate psychology’s role in these processes.
Account for theories concerning the human-nature relationship.
Present the first- and second-order psychological health impacts of climate and environmental change, both in Norway and globally.
Skills
Upon completing the course, students should be able to:
Apply foundational areas of psychology—such as cognitive, social, cultural, and community psychology—to the concrete applied field of climate and environment.
Critically discuss some of the potentials and limitations of psychology in addressing the climate and environmental crises.
Develop initiatives to promote nature experiences and raise awareness of the effects of local environments in contexts such as therapy, sports, rehabilitation, work, and leisure.
Recommended previous knowledge
It is recommended that students have taken introductory courses in psychology, specifically social and cognitive psychology, or a general introduction to psychology course (e.g., PSY1010 - Innf?ring i metode, PSY1100 - Innf?ring i sosialpsykologi, and/or PSY1300 - Kognitiv psykologi)
Teaching
Teaching is organised into lectures and seminars. Lectures give basic undertanding and will include multiple interactive parts. Seminars will engage students in group work and discussion to elaborate on the lecture content. Participation in three of the four seminars is obligatory in order to ensure effective seminar teaching. Note that participation in lectures is not obligatory but of course an integral part of the teaching. Please do not interpret "not mandatory" as "not necessary".
Mandatory activities are also covered by the rules on cheating - University of Oslo. Signing attendance lists on behalf of others is considered cheating/dishonest behavior. The provision targets both the person who gets others to sign and the person who signs for others, and may result in consequences according to the regulations, including cancellation of the activity/exam and other disciplinary measures.
Examination
The exam consists of a group presentation and an individual essay task. The group presentation part must be passed in order to proceed to the individual task.
Language of examination
The individual essay can be written in English, bokm?l, or nynorsk.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F?is a fail. Read more about?the grading system.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- How to use AI as a student
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.