PSYC 170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Normative Social Influence, Positive Illusions, James W. Pennebaker
Document Summary
Social psychology in action 1: using social psychology to achieve a sustainable and happy future. Global warming supply of green house gases that capture heat from the sun humans release co2 when burning fossil fuels exceeds amount earth can absorb naturally. Humans also using up the world"s oil, coal, fresh water and other nonrenewable resources. Root of all these environmental problems is that there are so many of us 7. 2 billion people: three solutions: Hope that improved technology bails us out. People can adopt a more sustainable lifestyle by using fewer of the world"s resources. Rich source of theories about human behavior that people can draw upon to devise solutions to problems. Know how to perform rigorous experimental tests of these solutions to see if they work. Basic research concerned with theoretical issues. Applied research concerned with addressing specific real-world problems: social psychologists are better equipped to study applied problems than researchers in many other disciplines.
