HEN629 Ecopsychology II: Communication of environmental issues with the public

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2013
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Jan Krajhanzl, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Bohuslav Binka, Ph.D.
Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Dana Pantůčková
Supplier department: Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
each odd Thursday 8:00–11:40 M117
Prerequisites
The course is designed for students, who are interested in environmental communication and public education, who can read in english, who like to create, analyse, debate, play and work intensively during the course to learn how to reach the widest possible public with environmental protection issues.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Students:
1. Know a specifity of environmental communication.
2. Are oriented in a recent research and in a discussion in the field of environmental communication.
3. Can prepare public education campaign supporting environmental behavior change or branding of environmental NGOs.
4. Know, where to find more resources for study and work.
Syllabus
  • 1. How to communicate environmental issues to the public? Psychological difficulties of environmental communication. Preparation of the campaign. Choosing the objectives. Ethical considerations.
  • 2. How to identify a target group? Persona. Segmentation. Positioning. Research methods.
  • 3. How people think and make decisions in environmental protection? Elaboration Likelihood Model. Priming. The theory of social reasoning. Fear and defense mechanisms. Inoculation theory.
  • 4. How to deepen environmental attitudes? Intrinsic value. Problem Awareness. Subjective/social norm. Moral norm. Self-efficacy, locus of control. Environmental conflicts.
  • 5. How to strengthen the relationship between environmental organizations and the public? Image of ecologists in the Czech Republic.
  • 6. How to promote environmental behavior change? Strategy to support proenvironmental behavior. Applied behavioral analysis. Community-based Social Marketing. Nudge.
  • 7.Final presentation of seminar projects
Literature
    recommended literature
  • • TYSON, Ben; Hurd, Mercedes. Social Marketing Environmental Issues. New York, Bloomington : iUniverse, 2009.
  • • KRAJHANZL, Jan, ZAHRADNÍKOVÁ, Šárka, RUT, Ondřej. Možnosti spolupráce s veřejností (nejen) při ochraně životního prostředí [online]. Zelený kruh, 2010. [cit. 2012-04-22]. Dostupný z .
  • • Futerra Sustainability Communications. Sizzle : The New Climate Message [online]. 2010 [cit. 2012-04-22]. Dostupné z .
  • • RANDALL, Rosemary. Loss and Climate Change: The Cost of the Parallel Narratives. Ecopsychology. 2009, September.
Teaching methods
Teamwork, problem tasks solving, lectures and presentations, examples of good and bad practices, discussion, individual readings and homework, sharing of experiences.
Assessment methods
Active participation, Successful completion of the seminar group project.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2013, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2013/HEN629