This course deals with the psychological aspects of climate change. Humans play an essential role in both producing and potentially mitigating climate change. The course gives an introduction to theory, research, and methods in the study of human perception and behavior in the field of climate change. It focuses on approaches within psychology that study information processing, judgment and appraisal processes, behavior, and communication.

Knowledge:

The student has advanced research-based knowledge about the following topics:

• Perception of and attitudes towards climate change
• Risk and uncertainty in climate change perceptions
• Environmental behavior
• Environment and well-being
• Climate change communication
• Climate policy support

Skills:

The student

• Can reflect upon and evaluate research questions in this topic area.
• Can devise and evaluate research designs and methods vis à vis research in this topic area.
• Can analyze climate change related issues with relevant concepts from psychology.
• Can present research within the field of climate change and psychology to an academic audience.

General competence:

The student

• Can search, structure, and reflect upon scientific literature in this topic area.
• Can participate in a research team dealing with climate change and psychology.
• Can communicate psychological research in the field of climate change and environment.

The course consists of a mix of teaching methods that complement each other. Traditional lecture-style teaching is accompanied by other teaching methods that allow in-depth and individually centered learning on specific topics, such as seminars and personal supervision.

Specifically, the course will consist of:

- lectures

- seminars based on suggested readings

- group work in which the students will work together on writing a paper on a sub-topic of the course, which will be submitted for assessment at the end of the course.

- an oral presentation of their group paper.

- Individual independent preparation of the course materials and of the group paper.

In the course the following assessment method is used:

A group assignment of a theoretical or empirical written paper (max. 10 pages/4000 words) within one of the sub-topics of the course

For more information, please contact the student advicer/information centre:

Telephone: 55582710

Email: studieveileder.psyfa@uib.no