Human Behavior and Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is a necessity for all countries worldwide, and it is strongly related to human quality of life. Given that sustainability problems largely result from human-environment interactions, social and behavioral research is developing as a necessary complement to natural-science and technological studies of environmental problems. To demonstrate this, the various authors address key theoretical, methodological and policy-making questions about the behavioral dimensions of environmental sustainability. Successively considered are the appreciation of environmental risk, citizens’ annoyance from environmental noise, the evaluation of urban environmental quality, the restorative significance of nature experiences, fundamental behavioral processes and environmental motivations, and unsustainable-behavior change and the roles of technology therein. The usefulness of multidisciplinary research is emphasized. Finally explicated is psychology’s drive and potential for analyzing and supporting environmental sustainability as a long-term human social and economic interest. INTRODUCTION
Human Behavior and Environmental Sustainability: Problems, Driving Forces, and Research Topics 1
Charles Vlek and Linda Steg

ENVIRONMENTAT RISK STRESS, ANDA NOYANCE
Judgmental Discounting and Environmental Risk Perception: Dimensional Similarities, Domain Differe ses, and Implications for Sustainability 21
Alexander Gattig and Laurie Heralickx

Annoyance Caused by Environmental Noise: Elements for Evidence-Based Noise Policies 41
Henk M.E. Miedema

EVALUATION OF URBAD ENVIRONMENT AND NATURE EXPERIENCES
Inhabitants' and Experts' Assessments of Environmental Quality for Urban Sustainability 59
Mirilia Bonnes, David Uzzell, Giuseppe Carrus, and Tanika Kelay

Preference for Nature in Urbanized Societies: Stress, Restoration, and the Pursuit of Sustainability 79
Agnes E. van den Berg, Terry Hartig, and Henk Staats

BEHAVIORAL PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENTAL MOTIVATIONS
Simulating Human Behavior for Understanding and Managing Environmental Resource Use 97
Wander Jager and Hans Joachim Mosler

Normative, Gain and Hedonic Goal Frames Guiding Environmental Behavior 117
Siegwart Lindenberg and Linda Steg

ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR CHANGE AND TECHNOLOGY
Travel Demand Management Targeting Reduced Private Car Use: Effectiveness, Public Acceptability and Political Feasibility 139
lommy Garling and Geertje Schuitema

Technology's Four Roles in Understanding Individuals Conservation of Natural Resources 155
Cees J. H. Midden, Florian G. Kaiser, and L. Teddy Mc Colley

MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND THE PECURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Practice and Outcomes of Multidisciplinary Research for Environmental Sustainability 175
Anton J. M. Schoot Uiterkamp and Charles Kek

Environmental Psychology and Sustainable Development: Expansion, Maturation, and Challenges 199
Robert Gifford

2006 SPSSI PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Introduction to Maybeth Shin sPSt Presidential Address
Kay Deaux

Waltzing with a Monster: Bringing Research to Bear on Public Policy 215
Marybeth Shinn

Charles Vlek is professor emeritus of environmental psychology and decision research at the University of Groningen (NL). He is one of the founders of the European Research Conference on Subjective Probability, Utility and Decision Making (SPUDM). He co-organized the Dutch Societal Discussion on Energy Policy (1982/3) and participated in the Dutch Commission for Environmental Impacts Assessment (1986-'96). He has been an editor of Acta Psychologica and is a consulting editor for the Journal of Environmental Psychology. Since 2003 he chairs a national research program on human society and environmental quality.

Linda Steg is lecturer in environmental psychology at the University of Groningen. Her research focuses on measuring, understanding and changing environmentally significant behavior, like household energy use and car use. She is president elect of Division 4 'Environmental Psychology', and treasurer of Division 13 'Traffic and Transportation Psychology' of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). She coordinates the sustainability network of the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS).

Environmental sustainability is a necessity for all countries worldwide, and it is strongly related to human quality of life. Given that sustainability problems largely result from human-environment interactions, social and behavioral research is developing as a necessary complement to natural-science and technological studies of environmental problems. To demonstrate this, the various authors address key theoretical, methodological and policy-making questions about the behavioral dimensions of environmental sustainability. Successively considered are the appreciation of environmental risk, citizens’ annoyance from environmental noise, the evaluation of urban environmental quality, the restorative significance of nature experiences, fundamental behavioral processes and environmental motivations, and unsustainable-behavior change and the roles of technology therein. The usefulness of multidisciplinary research is emphasized. Finally explicated is psychology’s drive and potential for analyzing and supporting environmental sustainability as a long-term human social and economic interest.