Many designers today are creating communication materials that encourage individuals to change their behavior related to environmental issues. The problem is that people are often unaware of existing research on effective methods for these communications. For example, environmental psychologists have studied best practices for creating persuasive communications for several decades. During this yearlong master’s thesis project, I conducted my own research studies, exploring how the emotional tone and medium of a communication piece affect a person’s decision to change his or her behavior. My second goal was to connect designers to existing research in the fields of psychology, decision sciences, and persuasive technology. In the end, I created a roadmap to behavior change: a compilation of research from my own studies and existing literature. The roadmap includes observations and practical tips people can use when designing for environmental issues, as well as a set of ethical principles that should be followed when designing for behavior change. I believe that my work will help designers use communication to empower individuals with knowledge, encouraging them to begin and sustain a journey toward positive behavior change.

Thesis (M.C.A.-Res.)--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 34-35.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1993.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1993.

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholm Institute of Education, 1982?. / Bibliography: p. 241-255.

Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education)--Cleveland State University, 2010 / Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 12, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p.191-201). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center

The environmental and climate-related sustainability challenges facing the world today are complex, accelerating and urgent, and they call for change from multiple stake­hol­ders. While govern­ments, busi­nes­ses and other insti­tutions hold a high degree of responsibility for initia­ting and enabling the neces­sary change processes towards sustainable practices, so do also individuals and com­munities. Despite inno­va­tive change projects worldwide much remains to be done. However, making changes is difficult for many people, and even more so in situations characterised by uncertainty. In this study the role of future-oriented ima­gination in motivating changes towards sustainable lifestyles was explored through an experimental intervention design. Test group participants were exposed to a guided imagination of a sustainability scenario in the year 2028, followed by a writing assignment allowing them time to en­ga­ge with how they see their own future life. The control group spent the same amount of time listening to a guided present-day reflection and writing about their current everyday life. Pre- and post-intervention, both groups comp­leted lifestyle question­naires. The pre­-­­inter­­vention ques­tion­naire constituted the baseline assessment against which their post-inter­ven­tion questionnaire results (which was asking both groups to record the lifestyle decisions they thought they would be making in the year 2028 on the same behaviours as in the pre-intervention questionnaire) were compared to check for reported degrees of changes. Besides their expected lifestyle changes, their predicted future personal change and degree of pro-environmental self-identity in the year 2028 was measured. The results show that test group participants, who were exposed to the future-oriented imagination, reported a substantially higher degree of future lifestyle changes and future pro-environ­mental self-identity than the control group, as well as predicting a higher degree of future personal change. Future-oriented imagination seems to be a potent pathway for eliciting future-oriented sustainability enga­ge­ment while avoiding some of the risks of negative spillover. This suggests that future-oriented imagination can play an important role in developing motivation for sustainable lifestyle changes, and that it can be a complement to other psychological drivers for pro-environmental behaviours.

Values have been identified as important factors that guide decision-making and influence preferences in water governance. Comparing the values reflected in water governance decisions with the values held by stakeholders and the general public may inform the debate on the political legitimacy of water governance. The research presented in this PhD thesis draws on multiple research traditions on values, ranging from ecological economics and political ecology to social and environmental psychology, to investigate the value base of water governance in the Upper Paraguay River Basin, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. It first introduces a novel conceptual framework that integrates these various research traditions and suggests that water governance is closely related to the fundamental values, governance-related values, and assigned values of stakeholders and actors in water governance more generally. These different types of values vary in their level of abstractness, as well as in their ‘locus’, i.e. where the valuing person locates them, and are hypothesised to be closely interrelated in a hierarchical structure, with fundamental values being the most abstract type of values. Water governance, in turn, is defined as the synthesis of water policy (the ‘content’ of decisionmaking), water politics (the ‘power play’ between actors) and water polity (the institutional framework). The thesis then proceeds to apply this novel conceptual framework in a case study on stakeholders’ values in the Upper Paraguay River Basin, and investigates the relationship of their values with their preferences regarding the construction of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway through the Pantanal wetland, in the south of Mato Grosso. This water infrastructure project has a long history of conflict attached to it, as it might impact the hydrology and ecology of the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical freshwater wetland and UNESCO biosphere reserve, while at the same time benefitting Mato Grosso’s rapidly growing agribusiness sector by lowering the cost of soybean exports. Based on 24 semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders, it was found that supporters and opponents possess different, clashing ‘value landscapes’ (i.e. groups of related values), which may explain the protracted nature of the conflict around the construction of the waterway, while at the same time highlighting political legitimacy deficits of the project. This research was followed up by a quantitative study with members of the general public (n=1067), which sought to measure and test the assumption that we can empirically identify such clashing value landscapes, and their relationship with preferences for or against the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), statistically significant links between people’s values and their preferences in water governance could indeed be found, as well as between different types of values, which formed two contrasting value landscapes. This suggests that water governance conflicts may in part be explained by the presence of different value landscapes among involved actors, which may include even the most abstract level of fundamental values. The research presented in this thesis thus contributes to interdisciplinary debates on the role of values for water governance from multiple conceptual, as well as methodological perspectives. Additionally, through its application to a concrete case study, it highlights the policy relevance of such research, as addressing conflicts in water governance and examining alternative policy options may require a more explicit consideration of the values of the actors involved.

Public spaces are of great importance for the constitution of the city in many ways, including street beautification, the positive effects for the urban environment like breaking the monotony of the landscape, visual enhancement, etc., and the population like improving quality of life. The production of public space is directly linked to its manner of use by users, so it is essential to understand how they use and behaves in such spaces to enhance the projects of the same. The Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) has been used in several studies and research as a method centered on user needs to improve the design process in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the environment under study to set recommendations, guidelines or proposals projects. In this research, the POE was used to analyze as it has the production and use of public spaces in the city of Arapiraca, Alagoas based the period 2000-2015, during which the city started to invest in the idea of "Metropolis of the Future" based on some socio-economic indicators. Were chosen two cases of built public spaces in this period and used different methods to raise both physical characteristics of the studied environments, as for measures of behavior and user satisfaction. As result of the research, is expected to understand how has given the production and use of public spaces in Arapiraca, seeking to list the positive and negative factors that help in obtaining guidelines for the improvement of these spaces and similar ones. / Os espaços públicos são de grande importância para a constituição da cidade em vários aspectos, entre eles o embelezamento das ruas, os efeitos positivos para o ambiente urbano, tais como quebra da monotonia da paisagem, valorização visual, etc., e para a população, como a melhoria da qualidade de vida. A produção do espaço público tem ligação direta com sua forma de uso pelos usuários, assim, é fundamental entender como o usuário utiliza e se comporta em tais espaços para aprimorar os projetos dos mesmos. A Avaliação Pós-Ocupação (APO) tem sido utilizada em diversos estudos e pesquisas como um método centrado nas necessidades do usuário para melhoria do processo de projeto, buscando identificar os pontos positivos e negativos do ambiente em estudo para definir recomendações, diretrizes ou propostas de projetos. Nesta pesquisa, a APO foi utilizada para analisar como vem ocorrendo a produção e uso dos espaços públicos da cidade de Arapiraca, Alagoas tendo como base o período de 2000 a 2015, período no qual a cidade passa a investir na ideia de "Metrópole do Futuro", baseada em alguns indicadores socioeconômicos. Foram escolhidos dois casos de espaços públicos implantados nesse período e utilizados diferentes métodos tanto para levantar características físicas dos ambientes estudados, quanto para obter medidas de comportamento e satisfação dos usuários. Como resultado da pesquisa, espera-se entender como tem se dado a produção e o uso dos espaços públicos em Arapiraca, buscando elencar os fatores positivos e negativos que auxiliem na obtenção de diretrizes para amelhoria desses espaços e de espaços futuros semelhantes.

LIMA, Francisca Helena Gadelha de. O psicólogo no ambiente do hospital e a afetividade: uma construção de sentidos sobre a morte. 2013. 163f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Psicologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2013. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-11-26T17:07:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2013-DIS-FHGLIMA.pdf: 1683351 bytes, checksum: fe390110d2f093be1a8a735435ff2312 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-11-26T17:29:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2013-DIS-FHGLIMA.pdf: 1683351 bytes, checksum: fe390110d2f093be1a8a735435ff2312 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-26T17:29:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2013-DIS-FHGLIMA.pdf: 1683351 bytes, checksum: fe390110d2f093be1a8a735435ff2312 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / The death is present in the hospitals since the beginning of its creation. Health professionals deal with its presence in their daily routine as a contingency inherent in the health practice. The presented research aimed at understanding the relationship between the psychologist and the hospital environment by building this way about the process of death, taking as reference the affectivity category (emotions and feelings). We adopted the theoretical framework of social and environmental psychology based on cultural-historical approach and affection as possible ways to achieve the complexity of human phenomena. The field of the research was conducted in four public hospitals in the city of Fortaleza with the participation of six psychologists. The instruments used were the affective maps and the interview. The collected data was subjected to content analysis and grouped into three themes: death, therapeutic care and hospital. Four images in the hospital environment were formed through affective maps: contrast, suffering, destruction, pleasantness and inhering. The textual production relates death to the feelings and emotions of the psychologists in the inter-relationship with the hospital environment. The results showed a trend to a more positive estimate of the hospital by the images of pleasantness and belonging, even though the negative estimates of the hospital attended to the contrasting images of destruction and suffering dealing with the death processes. These processes required psychic pain in professional researchers participants. The death, especially in the early stages of development, was the key point to this suffering. / A morte está presente no contexto hospitalar desde os primórdios de sua criação com os profissionais da saúde operacionalizando no seu cotidiano de trabalho a presença da finitude como contingência inerente da prática em saúde. A investigação teve como objetivo compreender a relação do psicólogo com o ambiente hospitalar pela construção de sentidos deste quanto ao processo da morte, tendo como referência a categoria da afetividade (emoções e sentimentos). Adotou-se o referencial teórico da Psicologia Social e Ambiental com base na abordagem histórico-cultural e na afetividade como um caminho possível de atingir a complexidade dos fenômenos humanos. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em quatro hospitais da rede pública estadual de Fortaleza com a participação de seis psicólogas. Os instrumentos aplicados foram os mapas afetivos e a entrevista. Os dados coletados foram submetidos a análise de conteúdo e agrupados em três categorias temáticas, a saber: morte, cuidados terapêuticos e hospital. Foram formados, por meio dos mapas afetivos, as seguintes imagens no ambiente hospitalar: contraste, sofrimento, destruição, agradabilidade e pertencimento. Procurou-se ao longo da produção textual relacionar a morte aos sentimentos e emoções das psicólogas na inter-relação com o ambiente do hospital. Os resultados apontaram para uma tendência a uma estima mais positiva do hospital pelas imagens da agradabilidade e pertencimento, muito embora a estima negativa do hospital tenha estado presente nas imagens de contraste, destruição e sofrimento com os processos de morte, demandando dor psíquica nos profissionais participantes da pesquisa, especialmente a morte da criança e do adolestente.