Science Lecture Series Welcomes Environmental Psychologist 

Posted Jan 15, 2025

In 2024, Ohio experienced an unprecedented drought. Parts of the state were so dry that the USDA designated 22 Ohio counties as natural disaster areas on Sept. 4, 2024. Not only did the drought impact agriculture, but burn bans were put in place to avoid wildfires like California is currently experiencing.  

This kind of news can cause constant anxiety and hurt individuals’ mental health. How is this impacting me? Is there anything I can do? What kind of world will future generations inherit? That’s where the field of environmental psychology comes in.  

The George W. and Mildred K. White Science Lecture Series at Otterbein University is excited to present a lecture by conservation psychologist Dr. Susan Clayton at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30, in Riley Auditorium at the Battelle Fine Arts Center. Reserve your tickets for this free, public lecture here.  

The lecture, Psychology and Climate Change, will discuss how psychological research and expertise can help us to understand our reactions to climate change and encourage more positive responses. This talk will review several ways in which psychological research and expertise can help us to understand reactions to climate change and encourage more positive responses. Clayton will discuss how to better understand the ways in which people perceive the risks of climate change, the ways in which climate change threatens psychological well-being and undermines social justice, and how behavioral interventions can be used to encourage adaptive responses. 

About the Speaker: Susan Clayton, Ph.D., is the Whitmore-Williams Professor and Chair of Psychology at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Her research examines people’s relationship with the natural environment, how it is socially constructed, and how climate change affects mental health and well-being. She is author or editor of six books, including Identity and the Natural Environment, Conservation Psychology, and Psychology and Climate Change, and is currently the editor of the Cambridge Elements series in Applied Social Psychology. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the International Association of Applied Psychology, she was a lead author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

Check out some of Clayton’s interviews: 

About the Series: Established in 1987, the George W. and Mildred K. White Science Lecture Series at Otterbein University sponsors annual scientific seminars that bring national leaders in science and technology to campus to share their insights about the future of scientific endeavor. Past speakers have included Dr. Robert Grubbs, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry; Dr. Tina Henkin, 2006 winner of the National Academies of Science Pfizer Prize; Dr. Steven Pinker, Harvard professor and renowned experimental psychologist; Dr. Andrea Ghez, an international expert in observational astrophysics; Dr. Sean B. Carroll, a leading voice of evolutionary science in the U.S.; animal behaviorist Dr. Steve Nowicki; and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. William D. Phillips.  

For more information, visit www.otterbein.edu/sciencelectureseries