scholarly journals Distance makes the mind grow broader: an overview of psychological distance studies in the environmental and health domains

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk M. Griffioen ◽  
Jannette Van Beek ◽  
Simone N. Lindhout ◽  
Michel J. J. Handgraaf

Environmental and health issues are two of the most pressing issues society faces today. People often view both environmental and health issues as psychologically distant: they believe that the problems will occur in the future, to other people, in other places and that the exact outcomes are uncertain. This paper provides an overview of studies that have investigated how the different psychological distance dimensions (viz., temporal, spatial, social and hypothetical) influence perceptions, intentions, and decision making in the environmental and health domains. This overview suggests that psychological distance indeed matters in both domains. There are indications that threat perceptions are mostly heightened when communicated or perceived as being psychologically close. However, the studies also show that a mere increase in perceived threat does not necessarily alter intentions or behavior. Moreover, with regard to the effects of psychological distance, there are neither clear differences between the environmental and the health domain nor between the four psychological distance dimensions. We discuss possible moderators that may explain the range of findings. Finally, we conclude with discussing the current stance of the literature and discuss specific research topics that are yet to be studied. As environmental and health behavior involve more than just one decision or one behavior, we suggest, for example, that future studies should investigate how psychological distance influences not only the target behavior, but related behavior as well.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract This workshop is dedicated on SDGs in the focus of environmental and health issues, as very important and actual topic. One of the characteristics of today's societies is the significant availability of modern technologies. Over 5 billion (about 67%) people have a cellphone today. More than 4.5 billion people worldwide use the Internet, close to 60% of the total population. At the same time, one third of the people in the world does not have access to safe drinking water and half of the population does not have access to safe sanitation. The WHO at UN warns of severe inequalities in access to water and hygiene. Air, essential to life, is a leading risk due to ubiquitous pollution and contributes to the global disease burden (7 million deaths per year). Air pollution is a consequence of traffic and industry, but also of demographic trends and other human activities. Food availability reflects global inequality, famine eradication being one of the SDGs. The WHO warns of the urgency. As technology progresses, social inequality grows, the gap widens, and the environment continues to suffer. Furthermore, the social environment in societies is “ruffled” and does not appear to be beneficial toward well-being. New inequalities are emerging in the availability of technology, climate change, education. The achievement reports on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also point out to the need of reviewing individual indicators. According to the Sustainable Development Agenda, one of the goals is to reduce inequalities, and environmental health is faced by several specific goals. The Global Burden of Disease is the most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide. It is the product of a global research collaborative and quantifies the impact of hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors in countries around the world. This workshop will also discuss Urban Health as a Complex System in the light of SDGs. Climate Change, Public Health impacts and the role of the new digital technologies is also important topic which is contributing to SDG3, improving health, to SDG4, allowing to provide distance health education at relatively low cost and to SDG 13, by reducing the CO2 footprint. Community Engagement can both empower vulnerable populations (so reducing inequalities) and identify the prior environmental issues to be addressed. The aim was to search for public health programs using Community Engagement tools in healthy environment building towards achievement of SDGs. Key messages Health professionals are involved in the overall process of transformation necessary to achieve the SDGs. Health professionals should be proactive and contribute to the transformation leading to better health for the environment, and thus for the human population.


Author(s):  
Amanda Hart

The topic of my research is informal recycling with a focus on developing nations. Scavengers are considered people who sort through garbage but not through an organization. There is a negative stigma that is associated with this type of lifestyle. The discussion will explore the benefits of organized informal recycling programs in countries such as Brazil and Nigeria. When informal recycling becomes organized jobs are created allowing for more residents to become employed. Some of the benefits of informal recycling include reducing the volume of waste, the life span of disposal sites is increased as well it helps reduce the amount of methane produced. These programs also allow for certain materials to be discovered which can easily be reused. For example, there are metals that can be sorted through and ultimately sold to companies. Another example would be the organics from the garbage are used in order to support pig farms. This decreases the cost of production for the pig farmers, which allows them a larger profit margin. Also, social, economic, environmental and health issues will be discussed in further detail. Finally, terms will be defined to allow a better understanding of the informal recycling world and how it operates.


Author(s):  
Devi Venashinee Muruges

Indian psychology lays enormous importance on the research of religious experiences and the expansion of approaches by which to accomplish them. In addition to that, it also provides understanding of the different states of consciousness. Hence, it is undeniable that Indian psychology will be able to make a definite therapeutic contribution to many psychological problems. For mental health practitioners dealing with Hinduism, there are teachings within various texts that directly strengthen counseling and mental services. Some of the examples include perceiving the conscious and the unconsciousness aspects of the mind, utilizing meditation to support people with mental health issues, yoga exercises to curb anxiety and stress, and many others. Therefore, this chapter intends to elucidate the application of Hinduism in therapy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Sophie Callens ◽  
Bart Meuleman ◽  
Valentová Marie

In this article, we study how attitudes toward the integration of immigrants (multiculturalism and assimilation) are formed through the interplay between immigration-related threat perceptions, intergroup contacts, and the different migratory backgrounds of residents in a host country. The analysis is conducted using Multiple Group Structural Equation Modeling on data from the 2008 Luxembourg European Values Study. Our findings indicate that stronger perceptions of threat are related to more support for assimilation among all residents and to less support for multiculturalism among native residents and culturally close immigrants. More contact with natives is associated with more support for assimilation among culturally close immigrants and with more threat perceptions among culturally distant immigrants.


First Monday ◽  
2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuwei Lin

The following commentary is part of First Monday's Special Issue #2: Open Source. This paper briefly summarises the current research on the free/libre open source software (FLOSS) communities and discusses the deficiency of a body of FLOSS research done from the sociological perspective. Since Eric Raymond's famous 'Cathedral and Bazaar' that depicts a harmoniously cooperative community/bazaar that engages 'hackers' to develop and advocate FLOSS, many other successors have adopted a similar utopian-like perspective to understand the FLOSS development and organisation processes within and across communities. However, I argue that such a view, partially valid in explaining the FLOSS development, not only ignores the diversity of population and their different articulations, interpretation on and performances towards developing FLOSS, but also neglects the different environments and contexts where FLOSS is deployed, developed and implemented. A sociological point of view is vital in that it helps understand the dynamics emerging from the heterogeneity of the FLOSS social world and allows us to see different roles played by diverse actors and various environments and contexts where FLOSS evolves differently. This paper concludes with a list of suggested research topics for future studies.


2022 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jianzu Wu ◽  
Kunxin Zhang

This article examines the policy implementation literature using a text mining technique, known as a structural topic model (STM), to conduct a comprehensive analysis of 547 articles published by 11 major journals between 2000 and 2019. The subject analyzed was the policy implementation literature, and the search included titles, keywords, and abstracts. The application of the STM not only allowed us to provide snapshots of different research topics and variation across covariates but also let us track the evolution and influence of topics over time. Examining the policy implementation literature has contributed to the understanding of public policy areas; the authors also provided recommendations for future studies in policy implementation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin D. Chochinov

This project explores how podcasting could be developed as a strategy for narrative self-representation as a means of exploring the broader sociocultural context of specific health issues such as HIV I AIDS or methamphetamine addiction. The aim of the project is to understand how podcasting can be used to aid health agencies in determining the social context of behaviors that in turn can inform strategic communication programs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 154-157
Author(s):  
Ayushi Sunil Lohi ◽  
Gaurav Sawarkar

The COVID-19 is causing many changes in the daily lives of people around the world, but some things can be done to maintain a healthy lifestyle in these difficult times by taking a proper diet during COVID pandemic. It is difficult to follow any of the physical activities during the lockdown period, as successfully as before. This inertia may lead to indigestion and related health issues. The proper diet planning is an utmost aspect which includes the food habits, nutrition, wholesome diet, low calory diet healthy diet, Easily digested diet and the schedule of food. Dietary measures include various things like the type of diet, time to consume, the interval between two food, intake of food, nutrition values, proper calory intake. āyurveda prescribes food regime as a part of the treatment. The crucial concept of āyurveda regarding the type of diet is in the form of sattvic, rajasic and tāmasik food that helps a person maintain the physical equilibrium to sustain and manage good health in critical conditions like COVID-19. Sleep is an essential component of healthy living. There is a strong relationship between the gut and the mind. Proper sleep is vital to digest the food and enhances immunity in the lockdown period. Scheduling of the diet and its management plays a significant role in good health. Thus, administration of diet is the leading factor during COVID-19 pandemic.


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