Attitudes to Climate Change within Psychology Teaching

Exploring student attitudes to including teaching content on climate change within Post-Graduate Psychology programmes

Department: Charlie Waller Institute

Supervised by: Emma-Jayne Conway

The Placement Project

There is an increasing acknowledgement within society that climate change is happening, with literature suggesting that people hold a variety of opinions, ranging from scepticism to activism. Research from Lawrance et al. (2022) cites that “The climate emergency is a mental health emergency and threatens progress to improve mental health and wellbeing in all contexts”. The recently published ‘Climate Change and Student Mental Health Report’ (Student Minds, 2023) found that 34% of students learnt about sustainability, the environment and climate change in their course, which falls short of the 53% who said they would like to see this included in the curricula. This aligns with the University of Reading’s strategy of making education for sustainable development (ESD) a key component in the design of programmes in every subject. This project aims to specifically explore student attitudes to including climate change within Post-Graduate Psychology programmes. Whilst this may highlight student’s personal feelings about climate change and mental health, it is hypothesised that students will also reflect on how this manifests in their clinical work with clients in NHS mental health settings. This study therefore has the potential to contribute to the evidence base on climate change and mental health from the perspective of the student and the clinician. This may subsequently allow for recommendations to both HEIs and NHS mental health services. Furthermore, key principles may be identified that could be transferred to other subjects outside of the Psychology discipline.

Tasks

This placement will involve the student engaging in: 1. Recruitment of participants, namely students studying Post-Graduate Psychology courses (weeks 1-2). 2. Data collection: This will involve conducting 20-minute semi-structured interviews with participants (weeks 2-3). 3. Analysis: This is a qualitative project which will use thematic analysis (weeks 4-5). 4. Project report write-up (weeks 5-6).

Skills, knowledge and experience required

The student should have some knowledge of the literature on climate change and the University’s strategy for embedding education for sustainable development into the curriculum. The student should also have good communication skills and some experience of data collection (qualitative experienced is desirable).

Skills which will be developed during the placement

The student will develop skills in a) advertisements for participant recruitment, b) good quality data collection and data entry, c) the student will receive training in how to conduct thematic analysis, and d) develop report writing skills.

Place of Work

Online – meetings to be held via MS Teams

Hours of Work

9am - 5pm (Monday to Friday)

Approximate Start and End Dates (not fixed)

Monday 17 June 2024 - Friday 02 August 2024

How to Apply

The deadline to apply for this project is 5pm on Friday 5th April 2024. To make an application, please go to the following link and complete the application form: https://forms.office.com/e/pMgea0dAHv. To find this project in the application form, please filter ‘school of project applying to’ and select School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences