Coping with climate change
Theme: Well-being in social and societal contexts
Type of research: mixed-method
Description:
Climate change is one of the most worrying issues mankind has ever faced, according to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2018). More and more people share these worries, and some even develop a so-called ‘climate depression’. However, there are also people who are hopeful and optimistic, believing that we can limit or solve problems with climate change (Marlon et al., 2019). Yet, it remains unclear why people differ in their emotional reactions and coping strategies with regards to climate change (Bouman et al., 2020). Even more, it is difficult to distinguish to what extent climate-relevant emotions are constructive (e.g. mobilizing personal climate actions) or become destructive (e.g. developing climate depression, anxiety) (Parmentier et al., 2024).
The assignment is flexible and open for students to develop their own research questions, exploring determinants of climate-relevant emotions. For example, research questions can focus on relationships between emotional reactions to climate change, mental health issues (e.g., climate depression), coping strategies and personal climate actions. Also the role of communication styles (e.g. optimistic/hopeful versus negative/warning news articles or advertisements) could be investigated.
The assignment may involve conducting a quantitative survey using scales or conducting interviews to get a better understanding of relationships between determinants.