Writing my Clinical Psychology thesis - request for ideas

Discussion in 'Environmental and Health Professionals Interested' started by x-campbell, Jun 20, 2012.

  1. x-campbell

    x-campbell Group for banned users

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    Hi all,

    So i will be studying my final two year Masters course to become a clinical psychologist next year and i am very keen to write my clinical thesis on topics to do with sustainability awareness , climate change attitudes, the relationships between people and their land and the food they eat, etc etc. At this stage i hope to combine both Quantitative ( statistical) methods as well as qualitative analysis in whatever i choose to write my thesis in.

    At this stage i dont know what i want to do but i do know that i want to integrate my permacultural and simple living passions with my clinical psychology degree. I want to be able to have my professional life informed and influenced by my personal ideals, desires and current way of living in the world. I want to bring ideas that permaculture espouses to the mainstream, firstly by contributing to important research in the area and secondly by using my professional qualification to further what i believe is a better way of living.

    Can anyone suggest a topic?

    Campbell
     
  2. matto

    matto Junior Member

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    Sounds interesting... my suggestion might be the link between growing food and how that might make a person feel secure in their home, life and community...
     
  3. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Have you read 'Find Your Power' by Chris Johnstone? I think you'll find some direction there.
     
  4. x-campbell

    x-campbell Group for banned users

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    I have not read this but will endeavour to track it down. thank you
     
  5. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    So you want to look at attitudes to either
    1 GW
    2 Sustainability
    3 food?
    All sound like a can of worms
    I find the anger and resistance of many to global warming science quite astounding and unexpected but i expect if you scratched the surface of the other topics you would find equally strange and diverse beliefs. What and why people believe stuff is quite a puzzling challenge for any thesis
    A lot is starting to be written about people's attitudes and understanding of science including GW
    https://scienceforums.com/topic/204...y-of-the-international-global-warming-debate/
    Attitudes to land seem culturally driven and would be different, i would expect, in the city, country or other countries/tribes
     
  6. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    G'day Campbell

    Welcome to the PRI Forum.

    Great to have a fellow Masters' candidate on the board.

    My suggestion for a topic: 'Religious affiliation and the practice of permaculture: A comparative analysis of emerging trends in Australia and the USA'

    For an insight into what I might be alluding to, checkout this thread:

    Australia's on top

    In response to the above, there is some reassuring (at least for me) data coming out of the ABS today:

    According to the 2011 Australian Census, 22.30% of the Australian population now identify as having 'no religion', a massive increase up from 18.66% in 2006.

    According the USA Census Bureau, in 2008 only 14.97% of the American (adult) population identified as having 'no religion', a slight increase up from 14.11% in 2001.

    Cheerio, Markos.
     
  7. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    There is no real independent self, aloof from other human beings, inspecting the world, inspecting other people. You are, in fact, connected not just via Facebook and internet, you’re actually quite literally connected by your neurons.” — V S Ramachandran
    https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120606-neurons-that-shaped-civilization


    i noticed an ethnobotany paper from SCU the other day on plant use on Youtube
    Quite clever and original for an ethnobotanist i thought

    Campbell
    this forum has a survey function if you wanted to get some preliminary feedback/ideas
     
  8. x-campbell

    x-campbell Group for banned users

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    Knowing that there is a survey function on this forum may indeed prove very useful, thank you kindly for that.

    In regards to the topic of my thesis, I value being able to use this forum as a sounding board and as a way of planting seeds of wisdom (excuse the pun) in order to get the creative juices flowing.

    I'll keep you updated with how i go.
     
  9. x-campbell

    x-campbell Group for banned users

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  10. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    good program

    it can do your head in wondering why some people dont seem to give a shit
    iv asked a few phycs if they thought there was such a thing as eco depression they all say no ,but perhaps just trying to placate me
    im getting my head read at UNE next month would be glad to give u the results


    take a look at virtual geoff lawton that seems to explain a lot
     
  11. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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  12. Lesley W

    Lesley W Junior Member

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    On the Climate Change attitude front that ABC ratio national link is very interesting. This recent article postulates that a psychological study by Ezra M. Markowitz and Azim F. Shariff released in Nature magazine in March goes a long way to explaining why "climate change does not register, emotionally, as a wrong that demands to be righted". They then hypothesise that the reason a recent Rolling Stone story on the topic went viral was that the world finally has 'someone to blame'. Story with related links can be found here https://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/08/06/3560286.htm

    Other broad ideas:
    The concept of pets as therapy is well accepted. Has anyone ever done a study on gardens as therapy? I wonder what types of health and wellbeing impacts would arise from having people in retirement villages able to garden/grow their own food versus say control group that increased exercise/time outdoors without the gardening/growing to look forward to?

    Other than that, I was thinking the other day about the role permaculture could play in improving the psychological wellbeing of immigrants. In Sydney, an innercity refugee centre has started to offer all kinds of permaculture oriented courses (bee keeping, compost making) and one occasionally sees TV stories of community gardens where even newly-arrived immigrants with poor English are clearly blooming and connecting with their new neighbours.

    On a more topical front, with the reopening of the island detention centres, I'd been wondering how and whether some of the leaders within the permaculture community could offer to help set up permaculture gardens within the centres. Could this in any way improve (at least somewhat, under the circumstances) the mental health outcomes for those who will be confined, knowing how severe the mental health implications of this detention is for them. Would permaculture gardens with some modicum of autonomy and something to look forward to change that in any way? .. food for thought.
     
  13. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

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    I went a step further in a drunken type-off.

    I suggested all refugees be trained in regenerative agriculture, sustainable building and living, with central support like nurseries, earthmoving, health and education etc. They are given plots with extensive Zone 5's, they sell surplus to Central support at market value. They get to live safely and with significant support doing the job that a lot of Australians don't want to do (repairing the land).

    And then I woke up.
     
  14. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Lesley W
    Have a look at Horticultural Therapists Association in Australia and esp. in USA
     
  15. hazelnut

    hazelnut Junior Member

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    Hello X-cambell "group for banned users"

    I am especially interested in Michelangelica's response to your search for an appropriate thesis topic in the light of your connection to "group for banned users". I just found this site through Google searches, Permaculture + invasive plants. From the search results (and my own experience) I have found a sharp division between these two lines of thought--to the point even that "permaculturists" are likely to hold that all plants are native to the earth, so what is the issue? as against the "invasive plant" person's thesis that all introduced plants are invasive.

    Discussion between the two groups has reached an impass, and more than once I have seen members banned from sites because they hold the wrong point of view.

    At the same time, very much government money in the United States at least is being allocated to the fight against "invasive plants", but very little government money is being allocated to building sustainable ecosystems. I would wager in fact that most government people have no idea what a sustainable ecosystem is.

    There is a psychological issue here in that one group has the capability of capturing government funds and public sympathy, while the other view (the one that members on this site share) gets little money and is a very hard concept to relate to public understanding.

    Where is the common ground? Or, is it like an Escher drawing--you either see the figure or the ground, but not both?
     
  16. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Hi hazelnut - as one of the moderators I can assure you that we don't ban people simply because we don't agree with their philosophy about plants. I can't recall the reason in this particular case, but usually it is because of the posting of spam or because of repeated inappropriate behaviour.

    You'll find us a very broadminded bunch.
     
  17. hazelnut

    hazelnut Junior Member

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    Thank you eco4560. What is the point of having a discussion forum if there are not at least two points of view to discuss? So thank you for your response, but I take it this is a dead thread?
     
  18. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    I like that ! my ancesters had to do a similar aprenticeship (ticket of leave) other wise you wont get folks to live out here!
    Rumour has it that Michaelangelica has died
    Id love to plant an acorn on him!
     
  19. hazelnut

    hazelnut Junior Member

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    Hello Andrew Curr. It looks like I have found a bunch of Aussies here! I am in west-central Alabama USA so you can imagine my surprise. And then I woke up! regenerative agriculture, sustainable building and living, etc. in fact would be vary appropriate here also. Rural Alabama is one of the poverty regions of the USA, and as such it has been targeted for some economic types of regenerative practice. We are in the Alabama black belt-- the old sea floor full of oceanic minerals is what the soil is made of. 200 years ago settlers came in (many from Ireland), they built plantation homes of the type you may have seen in the movie
    Gone With the Wind. There are still a few hundred of those around here--so that testifies to the sustainablity of that type of architecture. But they also grew cotton. Later after the civil war followed by the Depression they grew soybeans. Today there are fish farms -- catfish. But not much else. There are a few farms that still produce soybeans at a commercial level. But the area is about 70 % black and few blacks own farms.

    I hope Michaelangelica is not dead. From the post above, I can she that he/she would be a great person to talk to.

    What is Zone 5?
     
  20. milifestyle

    milifestyle New Member

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    Yes, sorry to say that Michael did pass away a few weeks ago.
     

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