WAKE-UP CALL
Welcome to the July 2009 Wake-Up Call, Awake’s monthly newsletter for research and news about behaviour change for sustainability.
To view this newsletter as a webpage, click here
In this edition of Wake-up Call…
·
Feature Article – Don’t Give Up
·
Upcoming Workshops – Cultivating Sustainability in New
Zealand, August 2009
·
Interesting Article of the Month – Overcoming the Social and
Psychological Barriers to Green Building
·
60 seconds with… Daniel Mackey from
Fairtrade Labelling
·
Exercise of the Month – Approaches to Behaviour Change
·
Notice - Website and Email Problems Last
Monday
Feature Article – Don’t Give Up
If
an animal feels a sense of failure every time it tries to help itself, pretty soon
it gives up, even when presented with future opportunities to progress. This is the conclusion from the studies which
gave rise to the term “learned
helplessness”. In these studies,
dogs were given mild electric shocks (back in the 60’s, rules around ethical
treatment of animals were more liberal!), with no chance to escape them. When they were later given the opportunity to
escape the shocks by jumping over a low fence, most had become so conditioned
to be helpless that they stayed put.
It
is common to hear people say “what’s the use, the problem is too big for any of
us to solve”, in response to big environmental issues such as climate change.
Is this an example of learned helplessness developing in society in response to
environmental challenges? Looking at some of the key indicators of learned
helplessness may help us recognise if this is the case, and how we might
support people and groups who have developed it.
According
to Stipek,
learned helplessness is "not trying as a consequence of a belief that
rewards are not contingent upon one's behaviour". It is based on 3 key beliefs
1.
Internal blaming - "It's my fault"
2.
Global distortion - "It will affect everything I
do"
3.
Stability generalization - "It will last
forever"
If
we were to view these beliefs in relation to climate change, it is easy to see
how they would be developed in a sizeable percentage of the population.
“It’s
my fault” is a natural consequence of being told that everything we do releases
greenhouse gas, and that our very existence is destroying the planet – pretty
hard to argue with that one.
“It
will affect everything I do” is also being increasingly emphasised in reports
about climate change. Add peak oil,
resource depletion and drought, and it is easy to make the leap that life as we
know it is in serious peril.
Finally,
the idea that “it will last forever” is virtually unquestionable. A consistent theme of every dire prediction
about the future of the planet is that the changes we are witnessing are
irreversible.
So
it is a fairly safe bet that the conditions for learned helplessness do exist
with regard to climate change, and probably
environmental issues as a whole. The
likely effects of this are varied.
Although there is some
evidence to suggest that worrying about climate change is causing some
people to become depressed, this is at the more serious end of the range of
possible outcomes of learned helplessness.
It is more likely that the condition will impact on the way in which
people behave in relation to the environment – they will give up trying to
change.
There
is plenty of evidence that inaction with relation to environmental issues is
based on the sense that we have no control, in other words, that we are
helpless. A study by Allen and Ferrand was one of a
number which showed a strong relationship between the sense of control we feel,
and our actions with relation to the environment.
The
feeling of having no control is one of the major reasons why communicating the
dire consequences of climate change needs to be considered carefully. People like to feel in control of their
lives, and if they feel overwhelmed by the information they are receiving, they
are likely to feel helpless and switch off.
A leading researcher in this area, Stephen
Kaplan, comments that “many who appear
uninterested in environmental issues, may distance themselves to avoid pain,
not because environmental issues are of no concern to them”.
Changing
our routines and comfortable habits often requires considerable personal
resources. Habits, for instance, develop
to reduce the need for us to make new decisions each time we encounter a
situation, thus freeing up mental resources for other things. If we are feeling overwhelmed and helpless by
the challenges we face, we are less likely to feel strong enough to go outside
our comfort zone and try a new behaviour which we may perceive as untested or
less convenient.
In
clinical settings, learned helplessness is often addressed through Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy, which helps to identify and challenge beliefs which are
holding negative emotions in place.
Although the context in which most environmental behaviour change
advocates operate is vastly different, it is useful to be aware of the
potential for learned helplessness, and to adapt our approach to minimise it’s likelihood of developing.
1.
In communications, remember to include positive steps
which people can take to address the problems.
Not just as a token afterthought, but as the main call to action.
2.
Provide tangible support for people to take action. Rather than just saying “this is what you
should do”, an approach which guides and supports people to make change is more
likely to succeed.
3.
Along with individual actions, provide examples of the way
in which collective actions can address the big environmental challenges, to
foster a sense of hope that the problems are surmountable.
4.
Provide reinforcement for changes which have been made, in
order to build on people’s sense of power and control over their lives.
For
a community to be engaged and empowered to change, people need to feel, at an
individual level, that they have some power to influence the future – otherwise
they may just roll over and accept the pain.
WANT TO USE THIS
ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with
it:
Awake provides psychology-based
services to support the development of sustainable behaviour in individuals,
groups and organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au
for more info
Upcoming
Workshops – Cultivating Sustainability in New Zealand
Spaces are filling quick for the
Cultivating Sustainability workshops in
Dates and locations are as follows
·
·
·
·
Napier, Fri August 21st
·
·
These are public workshops with all welcome to
attend.
Cost: For-profits
$250pp
Not-for-profit/Government $200pp
Individuals/Community Groups $120pp
More information and online
registration, can be found at www.awake.com.au/cultivating.html
To enquire about any of the workshops above, email info@awake.com.au
Cultivating
Sustainability is a 1-day workshop which provides sustainability advocates with
insights, models and practical tools to support their behaviour change
efforts. Anybody who has taken on the
challenge of influencing others to live and work more sustainably will find
this workshop a valuable addition to their skills.
For more information about the Cultivating Sustainability
workshop, see www.awake.com.au/cultivating.html
Interesting
Article of the Month –
Overcoming the Social and Psychological Barriers to Green Building
Where?
Overcoming the Social and Psychological Barriers to
By Andrew J. Hoffman and Rebecca Henn
Organization
Environment 2008; Vol 21; 390-419
What is it about?
This is an in-depth essay on the barriers to acceptance of
green buildings, at an individual, organisational and institutional level. After reviewing the barriers, the authors
provide advice for overcoming them and encouraging the uptake of green
building.
What did they find?
Rather than a single piece of research, this article
reviews numerous studies to draw conclusions.
Among the more interesting barriers identified are those relating to
individual barriers to green building acceptance, such as “overdiscounting the
future” – where our construction decisions vastly underestimate the
significance of savings which can be achieved by greening our homes – and
“ego-centrism” – where we make decisions which we consider to be fair, but in
fact are contrary to a sustainable environment.
There are also some startling findings about the ignorance of
environmental issues in the general public (cited from research undertaken in
2005).
What can we take from this?
Anybody interested in promoting the uptake of green buildings
will find this a useful guide on a number of angles, from marketing green
homes, through to developing an organisational culture which is conducive to
acceptance of sustainability principles.
60 Seconds with….. Daniel Mackey from Fairtrade Labelling
What first got you focused on sustainability?
A fundamental value of what is
right and just. I didn’t know what I
wanted to do for a living, so I went to uni and studied trade etc. I guess it was just a general dissatisfaction
with the world of work which took me down this path.
What is the sustainable choice you have recently made of which you are most proud?
Maintaining
ethical awareness in purchasing decisions. Where possible, buying
Fairtrade or local products. I’ll go the extra mile to find an ethical product.
What is a less sustainable choice that you are not so proud of?
Occasionally I daydream in the
shower and realise I’ve spent longer in there than I intended.
Exercise of the Month –
Approaches to Behaviour Change
The work by Kaplan, cited above, distinguishes
between 3 approaches to behaviour change
1. Telling people what
to do
2. Asking them what they
want to do
3. Helping people
understand the issues and inviting them to explore possible solutions
Kaplan argues that #1 is most often
employed, #2 is used to encourage participation, but that #3 has the most
promise for supporting people to get involved in change.
This month’s exercise invites you
to look at some of the behaviour change efforts around us, and try to identify
which of the approaches above are being used.
1. Pick a behaviour
change message or communication related to environmental sustainability that
you have been exposed to. (e.g. water saving, energy saving, taking public
transport)
2. Try to identify which
of the approaches above was used. Were
you told what to do? Were you asked what you wanted to do? Were you supported to explore solutions?
3. Did it work? Did you
change your behaviour? What could have
made that approach more effective?
When I tried this, the water
savings program I looked at was quite good at linking the big picture to
individual actions, and provided a variety of possible solutions.
The efforts to encourage public
transport, however, seemed to fit more into category #1, with limited attention
to supporting people to work out an alternative to the car which suits them.
What did you find?
The exercise of the month provides a tool to help you get engaged, inspired, aware and in action around sustainability. Feel free to use it on your own, with a friend, or in your work. If you do use it with others, please tell them where you got it!
The
web host used by Awake experienced a fault last Monday 27th July, which meant
the Awake website and all emails were out of action
all day. If you tried to access the
website, or had email bounced back, please accept my apologies and try again – all
is working fine now. Thanks
About Awake
Awake provides psychology-based services to support the development of sustainable behaviour in individuals, groups and organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au for more info
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