This open access book discusses the contribution of sociology and survey research to climate research. The authors address the questions of which behaviors are of climate relevance, who is engaging in these behaviors, in which contexts do these behaviors occur, and which individual perceptions and values are related to them. Utilizing survey research, the book focuses on the measurement of climate-relevant behaviors with population surveys and develops an instrument that allows a valid estimate of an individual’s GHG emissions with a few core items. While the development of these instruments was based on surveys and qualitative interviews conducted in Austria, the instruments were subsequently tested in a set of 31 European countries, revealing the international relevance of such research. The book also concludes with a brief consideration of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on environmental attitudes, situating the project globally.
This collection of original articles looks at the convergence hypothesis, which asserts that since the Second World War, industrial countries were growing increasingly homogeneous in terms of productivity, technology, and per capita incomes. The book examines patterns displayed by individual industries within countries as well as the aggregate economies, influences that underlie the process of convergence, and the role that convergence has played and promises to play in the future. Contributors include: Moses Abramovitz, Alice M. Amsden, Magnus Blomstrom, David Dollar, Takashi Hikino, Gregory Ingram, William Lazonick, Frank Lichtenberg, Robert E. Lipsey, Angus Maddison, Gavin Wright, and Mario Zejan.
Workplace Psychology: Issues and Application is a compilation of open content for students of Psychology 104: Workplace Psychology at Chemeketa Community College. It is an optional print edition of the OER textbook in use in those classes.
The volume addresses major features in empirical social research from methodological and theoretical perspectives. Prominent researchers discuss central problems in empirical social research in a theory-driven way from political science, sociological or social-psychological points of view. These contributions focus on a renewed discussion of foundations together with innovative and open research questions or interdisciplinary research perspectives.
A multidisciplinary consideration of how effective environmental citizenship can be in achieving sustainability, with theoretical, practical, and ethnographic perspectives.
This is a seminal book for anyone who wants to understand, shape or study the communication surrounding sustainability in their interactions with colleagues, employees, supply chain partners and external stakeholders. It develops essential insights on the basis of an extensive review of relevant theories and research drawn from multiple disciplines. Interview data gathered from organization members who are currently communicating about sustainability in their cities, universities, nongovernmental organizations, small businesses and large for-profit organizations provide valuable insights from a practitioner’s perspective. The interviewees represent organizations such as the Portland Trailblazers, Tyson Foods, the City and County of Denver and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Theory, research and interview comments combine in a reader-friendly way to provide practical insights and stimulate future research.
By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.
The environment, and how humans affect it, is more of a concern now than ever. We are constantly told that halting climate change requires raising awareness, changing attitudes, and finally altering behaviors among the general public-and fast. New information, attitudes, and actions, it is conventionally assumed, will necessarily follow one from the other. But this approach ignores much of what is known about attitudes in general and environmental attitudes specifically-there is a huge gap between what we say and what we do. Solving environmental problems requires a scientific understanding of public attitudes. Like rocks in a swollen river, attitudes often lie beneath the surface-hard to see, and even harder to move or change. In Navigating Environmental Attitudes, Thomas Heberlein helps us read the water and negotiate its hidden obstacles, explaining what attitudes are, how they change and influence behavior. Rather than necessarily trying to change public attitudes, we need to design solutions and policies with them in mind. He illustrates these points by tracing the attitudes of the well-known environmentalist Aldo Leopold, while tying social psychology to real-world behaviors throughout the book. Bringing together theory and practice, Navigating Environmental Attitudes provides a realistic understanding of why and how attitudes matter when it comes to environmental problems; and how, by balancing natural with social science, we can step back from false assumptions and unproductive, frustrating programs to work toward fostering successful, effective environmental action. "With lively prose, inviting stories, and solid science, Heberlein pilots us deftly through the previously uncharted waters of environmental attitudes. It's a voyage anyone interested in environmental issues needs to take." -- Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice "Navigating Environmental Attitudes is a terrific book. Heberlein's authentic voice and the book's organization around stories keeps readers hooked. Wildlife biologists, natural resource managers, conservation biologists - and anyone else trying to solve environmental problems - will learn a lot about attitudes, behaviors, and norms; and the fallacy of the Cognitive Fix." -- Stephen Russell Carpenter, Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison "People who have spent their lives dealing with environmental issues from a broad range of perspectives consistently abide by erroneous assumption that all we need to do to solve environmental problems is to educate the public. I consider it to be the most dangerous of all assumptions in environmental management. In Navigating Environmental Attitudes, Tom Heberlein brings together expertise in social and biophysical sciences to do an important kind of 'science education'-educating eminent scientists about the realities of their interactions with the broader public." --the late Bill Freudenburg, Dehlsen Professor of Environment and Society, University of California, Santa Barbara
Social psychologists have long recognized the possibility that attitudes might differ from one another in terms of their strength, but only recently had the profound implications of this view been explored. Yet because investigators in the area were pursuing interesting but independent programs of research exploring different aspects of strength, there was little articulation of assumptions underlying the work, and little effort to establish a common research agenda. The goals of this book are to highlight these assumptions, to review the discoveries this work has produced, and to suggest directions for future work in the area. The chapter authors include individuals who have made significant contributions to the published literature and represent a diversity of perspectives on the topic. In addition to providing an overview of the broad area of attitude strength, particular chapters deal in depth with specific features of attitudes related to strength and integrate the diverse bodies of relevant theory and empirical evidence. The book will be of interest to graduate students initiating work on attitudes as well as to longstanding scholars in the field. Because of the many potential directions for application of work on attitude strength to amelioration of social problems, the book will be valuable to scholars in various applied disciplines such as political science, marketing, sociology, public opinion, and others studying attitudinal phenomena.
