Health Behavior and Planetary Health

Abstract

Abstract. Health and environmental psychology have long been walking side by side. These two disciplines of psychology have imported and applied common psychological frameworks and each of them developed specific theories and methodologies. At a time when humankind faces tremendous challenges ahead (climate change, global warming, ocean sickness, the reemergence of infections pandemics), environmental health is more and more a crucial domain of research. Both environmental psychology and health psychology need to be engaged in environmental health issues in order to enhance planetary health. Environmental psychology traditional fields of research provide understanding about how natural or constructed environments impact human identity, attitudes, and behaviors (more recently, environmental psychology is also investing in determinants of pro-environmental behaviors). On the other hand, health psychology has an extensive comprehensive framework about how to promote healthy habits (i.e., automatically activated behaviors). We live in a global and extremely complex and interconnected world, which promotes syndemic phenomena (several interactive epidemics sharing common etiological factors), also resulting in accelerated depletion of natural resources. This current scenario might justify the development of an Environmental Health Psychology discipline, joining together tools from both environmental psychology and health psychology in a synergic and strategic way.

Addressing the climate crisis: An action plan for psychologists (summary).

“…Psychologists may also work to prevent such conditions by implementing school and community programs to build people’s socioemotional skills, resilience, and empowerment (Doppelt, 2016; Everett et al, 2020; Ntontis et al, 2020). In addition, psychologists can help people manage the psychological and behavioral aspects of physical health conditions that can arise from climate (Santos et al, 2021).…”

Spillover Beliefs between Health and Pro-Environmental Behaviours

“…However, research on planetary health spillover, meaning between health behaviours and PEB, is currently lacking. Given the compelling interest in targeting health and PEB together (Inauen et al, 2021;Maibach et al, 2010;Nisbet & Gick, 2008;Santos et al, 2021), a better understanding of spillover across these two domains could significantly improve the simultaneous promotion of individual and environmental health. To the best of our knowledge, no study has yet investigated such crossdisciplinary forms of spillover nor their potential predictors.…”