This document discusses how social psychology can help enable a more sustainable future. It addresses issues like overconsumption, population growth, and environmental destruction. It presents technologies that can reduce energy usage and notes that controlling consumption is also important. While increased materialism and wealth do not necessarily correlate with well-being, sustainable living and simple lifestyles can promote happiness. Social comparison and adaptation affect how additional wealth impacts satisfaction. Overall, non-material factors like relationships and community are more important to well-being than economic growth.

1. Social Psychology
and
The Sustainable Future

2.  An Environmental Call to Action
 Enabling Sustainable Living
 The Social Psychology of
Materialism and Wealth

3.  Overshooting the earth’s carrying capacity

4.  Global warming
◦ Climate change
◦ Environmental
destruction
 Destruction of
ecosystems by human
exploitation
 Exploding population
and increasing
consumption

8. New Technologies
Reducing Consumption

9.  One component in a sustainable living is improved
eco-technologies.
 THEN
 Refrigerators were high in
energy consumption
 Incandescent Light bulbs
 Printed Letters/catalogs
 Cars before produced the
twentieth pollution
 NOW
 Refrigerators today consume
half the energy
 Energy-Saving Flourescent
lights
 E-mail/E-commerce
 Hybrid cars- conserve gasoline
by using electric power cell

10.  FUTURE (possible technologies)
 Diodes that emit light for 20years without bulbs
 Ultrasound washing machine – no water used
 Reusable and Compostable Plastics
 Cars running on fuel cells that combine hydrogen
and oxygen and produce water exhaust
 Lightweight materials stronger than steel
 Roofs and road that also serves as Solar energy
collector

11.  Second component of a sustainable future is the
control of consumption
 Family Planning- population growth decelerated
 Public Policies that harness the motivating power
of incentives
 Robert Frank (1999) proposed “ Tax people not on
what they earn, but on what they spend” to reward
achievement while promoting more sustainable
consumption.

13. •Increased Materialism
•Wealth and Well-being
•Materialism fails to satisfy
•Social Comparison,belonging and happiness
•Sustainability and Survival

15. • Does sustainable consumption enable “the good
life”?
• Does being well off produce or atleast correlate
with psychological well-being?
• Would you be happier if you could exchange a
simple lifestyle for one with palatial suroundings,
ski vacation in the Alps or maybe executive-class
travel?
• Would you be happier if you won a sweepstakes
and could choose from: a 40ft yacht, designer
wardrobe, luxury car, or house at an expensive
village?
• Are rich people happier?

16. National Wealth and Well-Being, from 1995 World
Bank Data and the 2000 World Values Survey.
Subjective well-being
index combines happiness
and life satisfaction
(average of percentage
rating themselves as (a)
“Very happy” or “happy”
minus percentage
“unhappy”
and as (b) 7 or above on
10-point life satisfaction
scale minus percentage
rating themselves at 4 or
below.

17.  Social Comparison: Evaluating one’s abilities and
opinions by comparing oneself with others.
– Rising affluence does
not make us happier
because there is always
someone richer.
– As we get wealthier, our
comparison group
changes.
– Yesterday’s luxuries
become tomorrow’s
necessities.

18.  Adaptation-Level Phenomenon: The tendency to
adapt to a given level of stimulation and thus to notice
and react to changes to that level.

19. A shift to posmaterialist values will gain momentum
as peolple, government and corporations take this
steps:
- Face the implications of population and
comsumption growth for population, climate
change and environmental destruction.
- - Realize that materialist values make for less
happy lives.
- - Identify and promote the things in life that
matter more than economic growth.

20.  Money will not buy long-term happiness,
so where does the “good-life” come from?
 Explorations of the good life
 Close, supportive relationships
 Faith communities
 Positive thinking habits
 Flow

22. Elvie C. Tapic
Stephannie T. Ingatan
Terry G. Tercias
Prof. Elsie Bardoquillo