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What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene

Jessica Mead, Katie Gibbs, Zoe Fisher Orcid Logo, Andrew Kemp Orcid Logo

Frontiers in Psychology, Volume: 14

Swansea University Authors: Jessica Mead, Katie Gibbs, Zoe Fisher Orcid Logo, Andrew Kemp Orcid Logo

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Abstract

The modern world is now living through the Anthropocene (Slaughter, 2012); a “new human” era signifying the impact that human activities have had on the ecosystems within which we live, characterized by distinct ecological change. Anthropogenic climate change is increasing risk and frequency of natu...

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Published in: Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN: 1664-1078
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2023
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62695
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Anthropogenic climate change is increasing risk and frequency of natural disasters, with rising global temperatures leading to more devastating droughts, wildfires, and floods, as well as loss of life and agricultural capacity. The climate crisis is a systemic problem contributing to a multitude of socioeconomic, demographic, and political consequences (Kalwak and Weihgold, 2022) moving us toward what has been described as &#x201C;Hothouse Earth&#x201D; (McGuire, 2022), a phenomenon that cannot be reversed through human intervention once the tipping point is passed (Steffen et al., 2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework (Johnstone et al., 2018) provides a lens through which different responses to climate breakdown including eco-distress, climate trauma and feelings of institutional betrayal may be understood. These are no longer issues that can be understood through traditional models for understanding psychological distress (e.g., the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), but issues tied to wider contextual factors including vested interests of the fossil fuel industry, carbon intense lifestyles, geopolitics and war (Morgan et al., 2022). Developments in psychological science and ecophilosophy highlight an urgent need to foster a sense personal agency for the promotion of planetary wellbeing, rediscovering a sense of purpose and hope, and reconnecting with and cultivating compassion for the natural world, which will require reaching out to those with different personal values (Morgan et al., 2022; Pihkala, 2022). Despite the positive contributions of psychology, including the promotion of climate action (Gulliver et al., 2021), the field has been criticized for focusing on the individual rather than the system (Kern et al., 2020). Our own work (Kemp et al., 2017; Mead et al., 2019, 2021a; Kemp and Fisher, 2022; Wilkie et al., 2022), and the work of others (Kern et al., 2020; Lomas et al., 2021; Lambert et al., 2022), has highlighted how the combination of top-down (e.g., public policy) and bottom-up (i.e., individual behavior change) approaches may be combined to support responses to complex problems. 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spelling 2023-03-08T18:09:32.6618128 v2 62695 2023-02-20 What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene 40bb47059d57e08aa54a5471a393745b Jessica Mead Jessica Mead true false 2d5ef97288dff0cb247d91040afe6c62 Katie Gibbs Katie Gibbs true false b7d5965d35de6f683716c6eb1e82ff81 0000-0001-8150-2499 Zoe Fisher Zoe Fisher true false dfd05900f0e2409d3f67dca227c59a93 0000-0003-1146-3791 Andrew Kemp Andrew Kemp true false 2023-02-20 HPS The modern world is now living through the Anthropocene (Slaughter, 2012); a “new human” era signifying the impact that human activities have had on the ecosystems within which we live, characterized by distinct ecological change. Anthropogenic climate change is increasing risk and frequency of natural disasters, with rising global temperatures leading to more devastating droughts, wildfires, and floods, as well as loss of life and agricultural capacity. The climate crisis is a systemic problem contributing to a multitude of socioeconomic, demographic, and political consequences (Kalwak and Weihgold, 2022) moving us toward what has been described as “Hothouse Earth” (McGuire, 2022), a phenomenon that cannot be reversed through human intervention once the tipping point is passed (Steffen et al., 2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework (Johnstone et al., 2018) provides a lens through which different responses to climate breakdown including eco-distress, climate trauma and feelings of institutional betrayal may be understood. These are no longer issues that can be understood through traditional models for understanding psychological distress (e.g., the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), but issues tied to wider contextual factors including vested interests of the fossil fuel industry, carbon intense lifestyles, geopolitics and war (Morgan et al., 2022). Developments in psychological science and ecophilosophy highlight an urgent need to foster a sense personal agency for the promotion of planetary wellbeing, rediscovering a sense of purpose and hope, and reconnecting with and cultivating compassion for the natural world, which will require reaching out to those with different personal values (Morgan et al., 2022; Pihkala, 2022). Despite the positive contributions of psychology, including the promotion of climate action (Gulliver et al., 2021), the field has been criticized for focusing on the individual rather than the system (Kern et al., 2020). Our own work (Kemp et al., 2017; Mead et al., 2019, 2021a; Kemp and Fisher, 2022; Wilkie et al., 2022), and the work of others (Kern et al., 2020; Lomas et al., 2021; Lambert et al., 2022), has highlighted how the combination of top-down (e.g., public policy) and bottom-up (i.e., individual behavior change) approaches may be combined to support responses to complex problems. Our focus in this paper is on the need for population-wide inner development and self-transformation to improve progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), drawing on scientific developments embedded in existential and positive psychology. Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology 14 Frontiers Media SA 1664-1078 Symbiocene, wellbeing, climate action, human suering, connectedness, sustainability, systems approac 17 2 2023 2023-02-17 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1087078 Opinion article COLLEGE NANME Psychology COLLEGE CODE HPS Swansea University 2023-03-08T18:09:32.6618128 2023-02-20T11:41:37.5587367 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Jessica Mead 1 Katie Gibbs 2 Zoe Fisher 0000-0001-8150-2499 3 Andrew Kemp 0000-0003-1146-3791 4 62695__26782__2d85c8c7d8f74a1c9484de46cb21797e.pdf 62695_VoR.pdf 2023-03-08T18:08:21.9989257 Output 178546 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2023 Mead, Gibbs, Fisher and Kemp. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
spellingShingle What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
Jessica Mead
Katie Gibbs
Zoe Fisher
Andrew Kemp
title_short What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
title_full What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
title_fullStr What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
title_full_unstemmed What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
title_sort What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene
author_id_str_mv 40bb47059d57e08aa54a5471a393745b
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author_id_fullname_str_mv 40bb47059d57e08aa54a5471a393745b_***_Jessica Mead
2d5ef97288dff0cb247d91040afe6c62_***_Katie Gibbs
b7d5965d35de6f683716c6eb1e82ff81_***_Zoe Fisher
dfd05900f0e2409d3f67dca227c59a93_***_Andrew Kemp
author Jessica Mead
Katie Gibbs
Zoe Fisher
Andrew Kemp
author2 Jessica Mead
Katie Gibbs
Zoe Fisher
Andrew Kemp
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description The modern world is now living through the Anthropocene (Slaughter, 2012); a “new human” era signifying the impact that human activities have had on the ecosystems within which we live, characterized by distinct ecological change. Anthropogenic climate change is increasing risk and frequency of natural disasters, with rising global temperatures leading to more devastating droughts, wildfires, and floods, as well as loss of life and agricultural capacity. The climate crisis is a systemic problem contributing to a multitude of socioeconomic, demographic, and political consequences (Kalwak and Weihgold, 2022) moving us toward what has been described as “Hothouse Earth” (McGuire, 2022), a phenomenon that cannot be reversed through human intervention once the tipping point is passed (Steffen et al., 2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework (Johnstone et al., 2018) provides a lens through which different responses to climate breakdown including eco-distress, climate trauma and feelings of institutional betrayal may be understood. These are no longer issues that can be understood through traditional models for understanding psychological distress (e.g., the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), but issues tied to wider contextual factors including vested interests of the fossil fuel industry, carbon intense lifestyles, geopolitics and war (Morgan et al., 2022). Developments in psychological science and ecophilosophy highlight an urgent need to foster a sense personal agency for the promotion of planetary wellbeing, rediscovering a sense of purpose and hope, and reconnecting with and cultivating compassion for the natural world, which will require reaching out to those with different personal values (Morgan et al., 2022; Pihkala, 2022). Despite the positive contributions of psychology, including the promotion of climate action (Gulliver et al., 2021), the field has been criticized for focusing on the individual rather than the system (Kern et al., 2020). Our own work (Kemp et al., 2017; Mead et al., 2019, 2021a; Kemp and Fisher, 2022; Wilkie et al., 2022), and the work of others (Kern et al., 2020; Lomas et al., 2021; Lambert et al., 2022), has highlighted how the combination of top-down (e.g., public policy) and bottom-up (i.e., individual behavior change) approaches may be combined to support responses to complex problems. Our focus in this paper is on the need for population-wide inner development and self-transformation to improve progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), drawing on scientific developments embedded in existential and positive psychology.
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