COURSE NOTES: Social

	Based on the course PSY/SOC 301, taught at The Sage Colleges by Prof. Susan Cloninger. This class uses the following textbook, which provides the chapter organization that you see on the menu on the left side of this page: Myers, D. (2005). Social Psychology (8th ed.) New York: McGraw Hill.

Chapter 16: 

Social Psychology and the Sustainable Future

WHAT IS THE GLOBAL CRISIS AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?

Overshooting the Earth's Carrying Capacity

World population will increase

• replacement levels: 2.1 children per woman
• higher growth in poorer countries
• poverty, malnutrition, illness

Economic growth is increasing consumption

• over 6 billion people now
• cars; global warming; deforestation; extinctions
• industrialized countries are greatest consumers
• "Everyone's consuming like today's Americans and Canadians would require the natural resources of three earths." (Myers, 2005, p. 644)

Enabling Sustainable Lifestyles

Increasing efficiency and productivity

Reducing consumption

• public policies (consumption taxes/rewards)

THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF MATERIALISM AND SIMPLICITY

Increased Materialism

• Values of college students

Wealth and Well-Being

Are rich countries happier?

• yes, but only up to about $8,000 GNP per person

Are rich people happier?

• In poor countries, yes; in richer ones, not much.

Does economic growth improve human morale?

• Studies suggest "no."

Why Materialism Fails to Satisfy

The adaptation-level phenomenon

• "Feelings of success and failure, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, are relative to prior achievements." (Myers, 2005, p. 655)

Social comparison

• Upward comparison results in a feeling of relative deprivation.
• Objective circumstances are less important than subjective.
• Persian proverb: "I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

HOW CAN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY HELP TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE?

Adjusting Adaptations and Comparisons

Postmaterialist Attitudes and Behavior

Research on enhancing quality of life

• close, supportive relationships
• faith communities
• positive traits (optimism, self-esteem, perceived control, extraversion)
• "flow" (absorption in an activity)

"Those things that make for the genuinely good life--close relationships, a hope-filled faith, positive traits, engaging activity--are enduringly sustainable." (Myers, 2005, p. 660)

[MYERS'S] PERSONAL POSTSCRIPT: HOW DOES ONE LIVE RESPONSIBLY IN THE MODERN WORLD?

• APA Division 34: Population and Environmental Psychology
  http://www.apa.org/about/division/div34.html

Back to Top

Some images are from "Holy Cow! 250,000 Graphics", by Macmillan Digital Publishing USA.