Dissertations and Theses
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Steven Tuber
Second Advisor
Lissa Weinstein
Third Advisor
Diana Puñales
Keywords
Adolescence, Climate Change, Object Relations, Defense Mechanisms, Attachment
Abstract
Climate change poses a potentially unique generational crisis, as it threatens the viability of the very world that the current adolescent generation stands to inherit. While some studies have begun to appreciate the specific experience of adolescents as it pertains to climate change, they attend to young people’s behavior or self-reported feelings. The present study aims to employ psychoanalytic constructs, with attention to the unconscious determinants of psychic life and behavior, in an empirical examination of this topic, and to introduce a level of sensitivity to the vicissitudes of the adolescent period that have not previously been addressed in the literature on young peoples’ reactions to climate change. With a sample of 15 late adolescents in New York City, through self-report, projective measures, and a brief interview, the associations among participants’ psychological functioning and reactions to prompts about climate change were explored. While the limited quantitative findings demonstrated some of the anticipated relations among facets of the participants’ psychological functioning but not others, qualitative thematic analysis indicated that these adolescents experienced a range of characteristic reactions to climate change. Importantly, there was evidence that more adaptive psychological functioning was associated with expressions of self-efficacy in reaction to climate change, whereas less adaptive psychological functioning was more often associated with either dismissive or overwhelmed reactions to climate change. The findings indicate the potential utility of psychodynamic psychotherapy for supporting adolescents through this vulnerable phase, and offer reflections on climate change as one of the many significant changes to the ecological, technological, and cultural landscapes that are influencing the current processes of adolescent development.
Recommended Citation
Routhier, Emma, "An Exploration of the Relation Between Psychological Functioning and Reactions to Global Climate Change for Late Adolescents in New York City" (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1108