Third-party funded projects until 2005
- " Psychological Justice analysis and mediation of conflicts: An intercultural comparison using the example of local environmental conflicts"
Funded by:
DFG cooperation project with the CSIRO (Perth, Australia)
Management:
Prof. Dr. E. Kals
Project content:
For the mediation of a local political conflict, competing standpoints and willingness to act were reconstructed by contrasting the influence of justice motives and self-interest. It is expected that - in contrast to the statements of rational choice models - action in local conflicts is not only motivated by interests but also by justice. The experimentally varied feedback on these results to the community (information brochure, workshop) should lead to a greater willingness for constructive conflict resolution and become a new element of mediation procedures. A comparison with the results of a parallel Australian study by Dr. Geoff Syme (CSIRO, Perth) served to uncover cultural similarities and differences and was made possible by favorable framework conditions. Further empirical studies on peer mediation in schools were carried out in connection with the project.
- "Development and testing of intervention-relevant individual and organizational psychological actor models to promote environmentally sound action in three regional action contexts"
Funded by:
DFG, Collaborative Research Center "Environment and Region" at the University of Trier
Management:
Prof. Dr. L. Montada, Prof. Dr. E. Kals
Project content:
The own model for explaining environment-related behavior was specified for the following groups of actors: for decision-makers and stakeholders of regional transport policy, for actors in trade and industry as well as for actors involved in ecologically and socially innovative versus conventional building projects (builders, craftsmen, architects). The theoretically developed actor models were then empirically tested for all three groups of actors in order to derive and empirically test intervention and mediation strategies to promote environmentally sound decision-making and action.
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"Assumption of responsibility in local commons"
Funded by:
DFG, continuation project in the DFG priority program "Global Environmental Change"
Management:
Prof. Dr. E. Kals, Prof. Dr. L. Montada
Project content:
Based on the hypothesis-conform findings in the previous project ("Traffic-related willingness to engage"), the local commons was further investigated. The heavily polluted air quality in the Trier area served as an example. To explain the willingness to act with consequences for local air quality, the core constructs of one's own environmental protection model and other goals relating to both the common good and the individual were recorded. At the same time, the validity and limits of rational choice models were tested in comparison to the individual's own model, which is based on the common good.
- "Transport-related willingness to engage in different concepts of the commons"
Funded by:
DFG, continuation project in the DFG priority program "Global Environmental Change"
Management:
Prof. Dr. E. Kals, Prof. Dr. L. Montada
Project content:
Using the example of car traffic, it was shown that local conceptions of commons lead to more sensitive responsibility- and justice-related judgments as well as to higher environmentally protective decisions. To this end, an experimental questionnaire study was carried out in which the constructs refer to general car traffic and thus to locally unlimited commons and to car traffic in locally limited commons in the sense of a city or a small district.
- School project: "Conception and evaluation of school measures to promote environmentally conscious attitudes and behavior in children and young people"
Funded by:
Cooperation project with the State Institute for Teacher Training and Further Education in Saarburg; in-kind grant from the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Fund and state funding from the State Institute for Teacher Training and Further Education
Management:
Prof. Dr. E. Kals
Project content:
The aim of the project was the scientific conception, implementation and evaluation of intervention programs to promote environmentally conscious attitudes and decisions of children and young people through school lessons. Using the example of species protection and water pollution, the project investigated the extent to which the teaching of extracurricular learning and nature experiences promotes the assumption of responsibility for the protection of nature more strongly than traditional school lessons. A total of four complex longitudinal studies (28 school classes; N = 563) were carried out at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary level. The project was the first time that condition-analytical knowledge was used in school lessons.