POCSUS: Psychology of Climate change and Sustainability

POCSUS is a part of CESSS (Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science). The group contains of researchers in psychology who are interested in, and conduct research about, sustainability issues from a psychological perspective. We take our starting point in the UN sustainability goals in which different sustainability challenges such as climate change, health issues, and education are seen as intertwined. Besides research we are also interested in including sustainability issues in the psychology education at Örebro University.

Research that we are interested in includes the following themes:
Many of the most pressing sustainability problems, such as climate change and pollution, are anchored in people’s lifestyles and behaviors. To achieve a more sustainable society it, therefore, becomes important to understand these behaviors and everyday choices (consumption, transportation choices, energy saving, pollution of watercourses etc.) and psychological knowledge could play an important role in this regard.

Since a problem like climate change will not be solved at an individual level it is also important to promote transformative learning that could help people to become active and critical citizens in the process of transforming our society in a more sustainable direction. We are, for instance, interested in what role emotions play in this kind of learning and how to promote anticipatory competencies.

How do children and adults cope with different sustainability problems and related emotions? How do the coping strategies used relate to diverse aspects of psychological well-being and civic engagement? What are the existential implications of these risks and problems and how do people create hope and meaning in this context?

We have competence both in using quantitative methods, in the form of cross-sectional and longitudinal survey studies and experiments, as well as qualitative methods in the form of interview studies and analyses of written material.

Research assistent Kalle Kallio Strand is also a particpant in this research group.

Examples of projects that we are involved in are:

To trust or not to trust? Youth's attitudes, emotions, and trust in climate change science (Financed by Forte)

What role does climate change worry play in young people’s life and learning processes? A longitudinal study (Financed by VR)