Vortragende:
MMag. Dr.Lisbeth Weitensfelder,
Zentrum für Public Health
Abteilung für Umwelthygiene und Umweltmedizin

Titel des Vortrags:
"The role of environmental psychology in environmental health: Introduction and current projects"

Abstract: The environment does not only affect our physical health, but also our mental one, including cognitive functioning and well-being. Linkages between environment and mental health exist via direct and indirect pathways, then often moderated via physical health. Thus, environmental psychology represents an important discipline in overall environmental health research. While one part of environmental psychology focuses on environmental consequences on the human mind, the other part deals with human behavior in their environment – with the latter being especially important in terms of the climate crisis, which can lead to feelings of anxiety, helplessness or insecurity. The presentation will start with a short overview regarding the research field and afterwards focus on two current projects that are both connected to climate change research: One study (KoFokKs) investigates consequences of climate change communication and their possible potential for climate mitigation behavior, another study (PICoKK_PP) will focus on climate anxiety and related coping mechanisms in psychiatric vs. non-psychiatric patients.