Psychology for a Better World
is for people who believe it is worth trying to make a world
in which both our species and the ecological systems we are part of can
flourish. The book is based on the latest research in psychology and
is jam packed with action strategies. It offers new ways to think about
how people interact in social settings, why we are tempted to stick with
what we know, and how the same characteristics that currently keep us
hooked into unsustainable practices can be used to move us forward. The
final chapter is a guide to help you analyse what you are doing to
contribute towards a better world, and how you can be more effective
while simultaneously increasing your personal wellbeing.
Listen to Niki’s interview about Psychology for a Better World with Kim Hill on the Radio New Zealand website and her interview with Sustainable Simon on the 95bFM website.
Listen to Niki’s interview about Psychology for a Better World with Kim Hill on the Radio New Zealand website and her interview with Sustainable Simon on the 95bFM website.
About the author
Niki
Harré is an associate professor at the University of Auckland where she
has taught social and community psychology for twelve years. Her recent
research projects have focused on sustainable communities and schools,
positive youth development and political activism. In 2007 Niki edited,
with Quentin Atkinson, the book Carbon Neutral by 2020: How New Zealanders Can Tackle Climate Change. Niki is an active member of the Pt Chevalier Transition Town.
Niki’s homepage and contact details
Niki’s homepage and contact details
Get the book
Order hard copies for $15 each
Download a free PDF copy
Booksellers please email: n.harre@auckland.ac.nz
Order hard copies for $15 each
Download a free PDF copy
Booksellers please email: n.harre@auckland.ac.nz
Niki's Blog about Psychology for a Better World
If you are interested in the ups and downs of publishing and promoting a book, check out my blog.
Reviews
Self-help Guide for Sustainability Advocates
Summarising
fascinating research and insights from social and positive psychology,
Niki persuades us in a personable and convincing way to look more deeply
at our motivations and strategies when advocating for improved social
and environmental conditions. Our intuitive approaches of arguing more
aggressively with our perceived opponents, and telling others how wrong
they are, are often not effective ways to get lasting behavioural
change. Instead Niki provides a wide range of evidence to show that
boosting positive emotions, role modelling, understanding the power and
dynamics of identity and moral context all need to be authentically
applied if we are to be effective change agents. This involves looking
at our own motivations very carefully, which can be uncomfortable, but
which Niki admirably does herself throughout the book. This book
provides an urgently needed example of using sound evidence from the
social sciences, particularly psychology, to engage people more
positively in environmental sustainability. It also has a broader
applicability, providing insights on effective advocacy for other areas
of social change, for instance health promotion.
Hugh Norriss, Mental Health Foundation, New Zealand
Psychology is the study of mind & behaviour and should therefore harbour essential information for anyone interested in how humans may be able to change in order to create a more sustainable society. Alas, little has been done to take full advantage of this and so Niki Harré’s new book is particularly welcome. A key argument of her crisp and lucid discussion is the need to drag environmental issues from the conventional into the moral domain for the next generation. Harré manages to navigate the complexities of moral psychology with admirable ease and insightful purpose – balancing the objective of scientifically informed political advocacy with her own struggles to be the change she wants to see in the world. This book should inspire.
Thomas Suddendorf, Professor, University of Queensland, Australia
A sensational book by a visionary psychologist and thinker. You are a national treasure, Niki. Keep up the inspiration.
Pam Corkery
Congratulations on your fabulous new book which I read, thanks to you, as a free PDF. It is so wonderful to see members of the psychology community applying their knowledge and insights as you do in order to make a positive difference at this dangerous point human history.
John F. Schumaker, Author of In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind
Niki Harré is a highly regarded academic social psychologist and a sustainability advocate. Her book applies the latest psychological research to understand the dilemmas sustainability advocates and activists face and gives sound advice on how to grasp opportunities for change. Her account of the role identity plays in Chapter 4 is simply magnificent! This chapter makes the task of building a workable synthesis look easy. But identity is not only one of the most important human motivators but also one of the most vague and confusing areas of the social sciences. Niki offers a compelling and highly accessible analysis of this difficult territory, putting together in Part One a hugely impressive review of all the relevant work and the latest findings. Part Two is then an original and thoughtful application of the action principles she deduces from the research. Anyone interested in understanding the wellsprings and implications of belonging, action and affiliation must read this chapter.
Margaret Wetherell, Emeritus Professor in Social Psychology at the Open University, UK
Psychology for a Better World is really easy and enjoyable to read and offers so much insight and resources and depth. Thank you so much for putting it in the world, it is a brilliant resource.
Maya Nova, Mindbalance
Psychology for a Better World: Strategies to inspire sustainability is a labour of passion that carries the reader all the way through to the end. It is largely targeting sustainability advocates and those who have strong inclinations towards a more sustainable world. Dr Niki Harré draws on different approaches to sustainability and shows which ones work best and then explains why. As you turn the pages, you will be exposed to a variety of issues and concepts from identity, intention, and morality to copying and the long lasting benefits of positive emotions. It is well researched, accessible, easy to read, and packed with case studies and practical examples. The most important message? If sustainability is to work, it needs to become a way of life. This book tells you how. If you believe in a better world or are flirting with sustainability, this may be the addition your library is waiting for.
Tomas Pernecky, Ph.D, School of Hospitality and Tourism, AUT University, New Zealand
Hugh Norriss, Mental Health Foundation, New Zealand
Psychology is the study of mind & behaviour and should therefore harbour essential information for anyone interested in how humans may be able to change in order to create a more sustainable society. Alas, little has been done to take full advantage of this and so Niki Harré’s new book is particularly welcome. A key argument of her crisp and lucid discussion is the need to drag environmental issues from the conventional into the moral domain for the next generation. Harré manages to navigate the complexities of moral psychology with admirable ease and insightful purpose – balancing the objective of scientifically informed political advocacy with her own struggles to be the change she wants to see in the world. This book should inspire.
Thomas Suddendorf, Professor, University of Queensland, Australia
A sensational book by a visionary psychologist and thinker. You are a national treasure, Niki. Keep up the inspiration.
Pam Corkery
Congratulations on your fabulous new book which I read, thanks to you, as a free PDF. It is so wonderful to see members of the psychology community applying their knowledge and insights as you do in order to make a positive difference at this dangerous point human history.
John F. Schumaker, Author of In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind
Niki Harré is a highly regarded academic social psychologist and a sustainability advocate. Her book applies the latest psychological research to understand the dilemmas sustainability advocates and activists face and gives sound advice on how to grasp opportunities for change. Her account of the role identity plays in Chapter 4 is simply magnificent! This chapter makes the task of building a workable synthesis look easy. But identity is not only one of the most important human motivators but also one of the most vague and confusing areas of the social sciences. Niki offers a compelling and highly accessible analysis of this difficult territory, putting together in Part One a hugely impressive review of all the relevant work and the latest findings. Part Two is then an original and thoughtful application of the action principles she deduces from the research. Anyone interested in understanding the wellsprings and implications of belonging, action and affiliation must read this chapter.
Margaret Wetherell, Emeritus Professor in Social Psychology at the Open University, UK
Psychology for a Better World is really easy and enjoyable to read and offers so much insight and resources and depth. Thank you so much for putting it in the world, it is a brilliant resource.
Maya Nova, Mindbalance
Psychology for a Better World: Strategies to inspire sustainability is a labour of passion that carries the reader all the way through to the end. It is largely targeting sustainability advocates and those who have strong inclinations towards a more sustainable world. Dr Niki Harré draws on different approaches to sustainability and shows which ones work best and then explains why. As you turn the pages, you will be exposed to a variety of issues and concepts from identity, intention, and morality to copying and the long lasting benefits of positive emotions. It is well researched, accessible, easy to read, and packed with case studies and practical examples. The most important message? If sustainability is to work, it needs to become a way of life. This book tells you how. If you believe in a better world or are flirting with sustainability, this may be the addition your library is waiting for.
Tomas Pernecky, Ph.D, School of Hospitality and Tourism, AUT University, New Zealand
The final chapter of Psychology for a Better World
brings together the strategies for change discussed in the book, and
provides worksheets to enable you to decide where to put your energy.
You can download the worksheets from the link below. Please note that
they are designed to be used in conjunction with the book.
self-help guide worksheets.docx (19 KB WORD)
We have yet to hear of any situation where it wasn't possible to integrate humane education into the classroom - but that doesn't mean it wasn't without some creative and strategic thinking! So whether you're a classroom teacher or community educator, here are 5 of the most useful strategies you can use to help ease the way for bringing humane education into schools:
Humane education activities and lesson plans are just one of the perks we provide in our 
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In fact, the first thing you notice about Original Green is its beauty, its fantastic design: the cover is compelling; the typeface and layout are inviting to the eye and mind; the paper is substantial; there is a beautiful, crisp, color-balanced image on almost every page, most of them apparently taken by Steve himself. I know him to be a superb photographer, so frankly I might even buy the book just for that reason. This is a work that you want to pick up and read, or at least browse. (There are no photo captions, references, or credits, though, and I wish there were. I’m sure I’m not the only reader who would appreciate knowing exactly what I am seeing, which is sometimes but not always apparent from the text.)
‘Original green’ means common-sense things like building with high ceilings, cross-ventilation and shading in warm climates, and building with steep roofs and southern exposure in cool ones. It means using original forms of transportation, such as walking and bicycling, whenever possible, and designing and inhabiting communities that facilitate such self-propulsion. It means growing food nearby, and ‘living local’ as much as possible. It means accepting a wider ‘comfort range’ of temperature; our ancestors, Steve points out, were adaptable and reasonably comfortable within a range of 30 degrees or so Fahrenheit; today people fight over two degrees’ difference in ‘thermostat wars.’ Original green places and buildings have intinsically smaller environmental footprints than conventional buildings and places, especially when lifecycle effects are included, and in many cases even if the conventional ones have the benefit of green technology.
In fact, as I suggested earlier, I don’t think it is essential that a reader agree with a work as long as one is affected by it or, even better, learns something. I certainly don’t agree with all of Owen’s book, for example, and I don’t agree with all of Original Green, either, though I probably agree with close to 90 percent of it. I like being pushed to consider things that I don’t necessarily agree with. 
I don’t think he knew me from Adam at the time so it probably wasn’t personal. But from that moment on I had a red flag handy for this Mouzon guy, and warned several of my colleagues, too. 
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