The problem of environmental change, especially environmental change that results directly from human behavior, is among the more serious problems we face as individuals, as a nation, and as a species. Believing that there are many significant opportunities and challenges for work by applied psychologists in the area of environmental change, the author decided to write this book. He stimulates thinking on the topic of detrimental environmental change, especially on the question of how research psychologists can help to address the problem. In addition to reporting environmentally relevant psychological research, the author identifies the most pressing questions from an environmental point of view.
Psychology and the Natural Environmental Change; focuses on ways in which human behavior contributes to the problem; deals with the assessment and change of attitudes and with studies of change of behavior; proposes on ways in which psychological research might contribute to the objective of making technology and its products more environmentally benign; introduces topics, such as consumption, risk assessment, cost-benefit, tradeoff analyses, competition, cooperation, negotiation, and policymaking; and touches briefly on several other subjects that relate to the objective of protecting the environment.