Recent ecological developments and in particular the risks of climate change have led to the emergence of new scientific challenges and fields. One field that has gained momentum over the past decades is environmental psychology. Researching and analyzing environmental phenomena it faces the challenges of connecting conceptual problems, the interdisciplinary use of languages and definitions, different understandings and the use of different methodologies, and the scientific explanation of such phenomena. This paper reflects on the challenges and also the opportunities for establishing a sustainable future from a psychological point of view. The topics addressed are a selection of criteria for adapting to changing environments, perspectives on how to harvest insights from different fields of scientific endeavor and ideas how to make use of the necessary interdisciplinarity. Furthermore, questions are raised concerning personal identity, cultural and spiritual values, the ethical aspects of decision‐making in a changing world, and the conceptual challenges facing sustainable ecological development.

We suggest a novel analysis method called the one-to-many dynamic functional connectivity analysis to detect the adaptation of dynamics in a local brain network depending on mental states with a single case study. We collected fMRI BOLD signals from a blind subject whom with advanced ability in episodic memory retrieval while the subject was resting and retrieving a morning routine which is a type of autobiographical episodic memory. The default mode network is known for its high activation in these mental states. By applying the principal components analysis to the partial correlations of a brain region in the default mode network, which are correlations of the brain region to the rest of the network, we compared how congruent first or second principal components of the partial correlations of the brain region the default mode network in the two mental states. Our results showed that the adaption of the dynamics in the default mode network in the two mental states could be well depicted when the partial correlations of the posterior cingulate cortex are considered. Specifically, the correlation of the posterior cingulate cortex and the right parahippocampal cortex contributed mostly to the adaptation of the partial correlations of the posterior cingulate cortex for this single subject case.