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Psychology's role in the conserving society

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Abstract

Because the earth's natural resources are finite and are growing increasingly more difficult to exploit, energy and resource conservation will soon become essential to our way of life. Psychologists and other social scientists can help in that transition, and recently they have begun to do relevant research in several areas: environmental pollution, recycling and solid wastes, reducing litter, and energy usage and conservation. Research approaches that have been used include studies of environmental and energy attitudes, behavioral research, social interaction studies, community conservation programs, and large-scale consumer research. More work is especially needed on the topics of transportation energy use, industrial and commercial energy conservation, and community action campaigns. Research efforts should increasingly utilize measures of actual behavior and actual energy usage, long-term longitudinal approaches, realistic field settings, and costeffective procedures. In addition to doing research, psychologists can contribute to the advent of the conserving society through program evaluation studies, proposals for innovation, dissemination of validated scientific knowledge, and offering policy advice.

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  1. Claremont Graduate School, USA

    Stuart Oskamp

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Revision of a paper delivered as the presidential address to the Division of Population and Environmental Psychology at the American Psychological Association meeting in Los Angeles, August 1981. Portions of this paper are adapted from a chapter in a book by the author entitledApplied Social Psychology, copyright by Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984. Thanks are expressed to Catherine Cameron, Robert Keith, and numerous other colleagues who have offered comments and suggestions.

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Oskamp, S. Psychology's role in the conserving society. Popul Environ 6, 255–293 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01363890

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