Environmental Psychology

'The Relevancy of psychology on environmental issues has generally been overemphasiesed by environmentalists and scholars. Discuss'

Introduction
There are far reaching consequences of destroying environment. This has seen different sectors of the economy joining the band wagon of those seeking to prescribe the solution. Ecopsychology and environmental psychology have been publicised as major contributors to the understanding and solving environmental problems. These fields are relevant and can help us solve the very real problems of environmental degradation and devastation. The purpose of this write up is to discuss some of the ways environmental psychology and Ecopsychology can respond to environmental problems and how they can understand and support sustainable and effective action.  
Definition of Terms
Smith (1998) defines psychology as the scientific study of behaviour and underlying mental processes.
According to Wordnetweb an environmentalist is someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution.
Wordnetweb defines a scholar as a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines.
Main Discussion
According to Mascia et al (2003) postulate that conversation interventions are the product of human decision making processes and require changes in human behaviour to succeed. In other words, environmental problems are function of human behaviours, and human behavioural changes will be necessary in order to address them. Psychology not only is relevant to conversation initiatives, but is among the relevant disciplines as the one most devoted study of human behaviour and behavioural interventions.
The core mission of the study of psychology is that of understanding human behaviour and promoting human welfare. Hence the involvement of psychologists in environmental issues gives them the opportunity to further this mission. To understand human behaviour, we need to... [continues]

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