Topic 11 - Getting Psyched for Sustainability

Question 1

agency

Answer 1

choosing, planning and executing situation-relevant behaviour

Question 2

compassion

Answer 2

noticing, feeling and responding to others’ suffering arising from sense of connectedness

Question 3

purpose

Answer 3

striving toward meaningful activity

Question 4

resilience

Answer 4

recovering from, coping with, or developing new strategies for resisting adversity

Question 5

Transition towns

Answer 5

communities (neighborhoods, city blocks, and just about any other organized group) where people are
collaborating to realize the dream of a sustainable

Question 6

Sustainable Society Index

Answer 6

developed to evaluate 151 countries’ performance in terms of
personal development (health conditions, education, gender equality),
environmental health
(air, water, land quality),
societal balance (governance, employment, income distribution),
resource use (waste recycling, renewable energy, and water sources),
and overall sustainable world measures (forest area, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, ecological footprint, and international cooperation)

Question 7

green economy

Answer 7

based on ecologically responsible services, manufacturing, and commerce

Question 8

burnout

Answer 8

the psychological state in which people become physically and emotionally exhausted, feel detached from others, and experience an eroded sense
of accomplishment

Question 9

proactive coping

Answer 9

consists of anticipating and preparing for a stressful event before it occurs

Question 10

social support

Answer 10

comes from other people in a variety of ways: It can be emotional (empathy), instrumental (practical help), informational (advice), or esteem building (praise); ultimately, it can provide a reassuring sense of belonging

Question 11

humor

Answer 11

related to lower stress and less burnout because laughter eases tension, shared jokes create a sense of camaraderie, and having an appreciation for life’s little absurdities can keep us looking on the bright side

Question 12

civility

Answer 12

treating each other with courtesy and respect

Question 13

5 evolutionary tendencies and strategies

Answer 13

acting in self interest - emphasise benefits to person and family
seeking relative status - encourage friendly competition
imitating others - communicate norms for desired behaviour
focusing on the present - emphasise today’s consequences
ignoring the imperceptible - making the invisible visible

Question 14

Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM)

Answer 14

learning about specific barriers that prevent people from changing behaviour and designing psychology-based interventions that minimize or reduce these impediments

Question 15

Steps in Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM)

Answer 15

select behaviour to promote
identify benefits and barriers to behavioural change
design program
pilot test & finetune program
roll out & evaluate program

Question 16

mission statement

Answer 16

concisely expresses a group’s purpose and aspirations

Question 17

vision statements

Answer 17

tend to be future-oriented descriptions of the essential

goals or injunctive norms of a group

Question 18

bases of power

Answer 18

legitimate 
reward
coercive
expert
referent

Question 19

legitimate power

Answer 19

holds a job or a role which authorises influence on others

Question 20

reward power

Answer 20

can provide rewarding outcomes

Question 21

coercive power

Answer 21

can provide punishing outcomes

Question 22

expert power

Answer 22

has a reputation for developing and maintaining knowledge

Question 23

referent power

Answer 23

has earned the respect and admiration of others

Question 24

community block leaders

Answer 24

well-respected community members who already engage in a target behavior

Question 25

transformational leaders

Answer 25

people who can get people to refocus, reprioritize, work at tasks above and beyond the call of duty, and feel good about it at the same time

Question 26

political advocacy

Answer 26

Changing the infrastructure of our daily lives by designing contexts, processes, and products differently

Question 27

diffusion of innovation

Answer 27

the flow of ideas from their inception to adoption throughout a social system

Question 28

innovator

Answer 28

they get the ball rolling with a useful idea, process, solution or object.

typically bold and imaginative people have relevant technical expertise, and are comfortable with novelty, risk, and uncertainty

tend to be able to absorb financial consequences of failure

are often socially connected to other innovators, but are considered a bit deviant by the average Joe

initiate movement within the system and influence the next phase of the process

not likely to generate extensive diffusion

can also be skilled and prolific communicators; in this
case, social diffusion tends to progress more quickly

Question 29

early adopters

Answer 29

enthusiastic support for the idea and facilitate “contagion” by inviting their networks to join in

like to try new things and have a knack for
recognizing which inventions or strategies are likely to be successful, helping them develop a reputation as reliable sources of information

tend to be more integral to the system than innovators so they can easily spread the word

Question 30

opinion leaders

Answer 30

who are highly connected and often operate at the centre of communication networks

informal use of expert and referent power, opinion leaders have the most influence on diffusion, through word-of-mouth and modeling

having too many connections tends to bog down the diffusion

Question 31

early majority

Answer 31

Within the mainstream, the early majority actively seeks new information and has rich social networks

Question 32

late majority

Answer 32

ds to enter the fray only when there is little risk and when they perceive peer pressure to do so