Running head: CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 1

Katheryn Reese

Professor Speiser

Writing 2

13 June 2017

WP 2 Revision Sheet

On the topic of psychology and biology, many people have a general understanding of

what the two discourses entail. That being said, while writing this paper, I referenced these

general understandings without backing them up with any evidence. Though many people can

make assumptions and conclusions from what is said, it is better to have evidence included with

my statements to better backup my claims. In Writing Project 2, I discussed the word choice in

psychology academic articles, With this in mind, the lexis used is more comprehensible than

other discourses because they want the general public to be able to understand the data and

conclusions found, but I did not provide any evidence for this statement. I have inserted direct

examples from my psychology source that discuss the topic while also using vocabulary that is

more suitable for the general public.

Both peer review from classmates and family members as well as review from Professor

Speiser helped me be able to see my lack of evidence to back up my statements and after revising

my final draft there is a more credible undertone throughout my paper that was lacking before.

As well as editing the aforementioned quote, I also added more direct evidence while discussing

the psychology lecture I went to, since before it seemed to be quite vague.
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 2

Climate Change: Affecting Humans and the World Around Us

Katheryn Reese

Professor Speiser

Writing 2

Spring 2017

University of California, Santa Barbara

CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 3

Reflective Cover Letter

17 May 2017

Dear Reader,

As time progresses and glaciers melt, people are starting to pay attention to the urgency

of climate change. As this problem concerns the entire world, many people within different

disciplines are concerned about how to approach this problem. The following analysis of various

academic discourses, specifically biology and psychology, considers their different perspectives

on climate change, and how they approach it in a literary and academic sense. The purpose of the

Writing Project 2 essay generally is to get students thinking about the different ways academic

disciplines use literary practices to convey their information and findings. Referencing various

syllabi and lectures of the academic discourses currently up for discussion, psychology and

biology, gives background to how the discourse as a whole handles other topics and problems,

and how it is applied to a global issue such as climate change and its effects.

When first presented with the idea of discourse community, I did not quite understand

what was meant. I had never thought of the classes I go to everyday as separate communities,

or that they had literary practices individual to their own discourse. Comparing two very

different communities helped to see the difference between seemingly similar disciplines. But by

comparing the two, I learned many differences between the two, like how they approach

problems in different ways and the type of data they are looking for in their experiments, since

they are rooted in different branches of science.

The library visit was a tremendous help; I had never known how to use the online catalog
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 4

before, but now I can navigate it very well and will definitely use it more for future projects.

Searching for academic articles through this catalog was actually my first step in the writing

process for this essay, since I was not entirely sure where else to start. I pinpointed distinct

differences between the two articles, which gave me the basis for what I would discuss about the

two discourses in this writing project. From there, I constructed a rough outline with main points

I would cover and go into more detail with. Figuring out how to organize it to make the flow of

the paper better was challenging since some of the main points are quite similar while some are

vastly different. As always, I welcome any feedback on my work, since I find it helps to have a

fresh pair of eyes look over something I have been working on for a while. When writing a big

paper, I get comfortable in the topic which tends to lead to laziness, but having a peer read and

edit it to point out places I need to work on and strengthen helps keep me on track for what I

need to accomplish. By the end of this project, I have started to look at discourse communities I

am involved in with more depth, whether it be a sports team or a friend group, and comparing

and contrasting them to others provides an interesting outlook on life. It is important to delineate

between disciplines in academics and everyday life, but it is also imperative to know they can

learn from each other and work together to discover new information than can benefit a

multitude of people.

Sincerely,

Katheryn Reese
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 5

Climate Change: Affecting Humans and the World Around Us

Climate change is an increasingly prevalent topic in todays society. Not only does it

have an enormous effect on every aspect of life on Earth, but because of its controversial nature,

it is a hot topic that is talked about in depth over a variety of discourses. Each discourse may take

the idea of climate change in a different light, or apply it to a different way of thinking, bringing

new ideas and opinions about this looming environmental concern into the mix that other people

might not have thought of. With a different mindset comes a different approach to the problem,

and possibly different ways to work towards a solution. This is why it is vital to have multiple

types of people analyzing an issue as important as climate change. Having people from different

discourses searching their own areas of study for answers might make getting to the solution a

little easier. Different academic discourses have entirely different processes and here we consider

psychology versus biology. Psychology would take a completely different approach to climate

change than biology would, since psychology is a social science and takes more of a qualitative

and existential approach while biology is grounded in physical science and focuses on

quantitative data and research.

Psychologists that study climate change focus more on how humans are affected by it and

how they relate to the natural world rather than only the environmental aspect that first pops into

peoples heads when they talk about climate change. They look more at the psychological

mindset people find themselves in when discussing topics like climate change, and the types of

people that take it more seriously than others. Guy, Kasima, Walker, and ONeill (2014) discuss

the reasons why some people find climate change real while others do not. In their study, they

state, the common finding among studies assessing the relationship between specific climate
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 6

change knowledge and climate change beliefs is that, compared with people who are ill

informed, those who possess accurate information are more accepting of the reality of climate

change. (Guy et al. 2014) looks at the correlation between the amount of knowledge and

exposure people have had to the topic of climate change with their concern for it. Comparing two

things such as these are based entirely on the subjects opinion. The experiment this would entail

is subjective, depending on personal opinions and surveys, a common theme found in the field of

psychology. You cannot easily measure a persons concern for the environment as you can liquid

in a flask or the mass of an object. Experiments commonly used in psychology require extensive

analysis of the subjects answers and being able to delineate certain answers to correspond with

the expected outcomes of the data being collected. Academic articles such as Guy et al. (2010) in

the field of psychology most often serve to inform not only those in that field, but also the

general public, since most of the information found directly pertains to the general public. With

this in mind, the lexis used is more comprehensible than other discourses, similarly, research

conducted in Switzerland indicated that people who were knowledgeable about the types of

human activities causing climate change were more concerned and less sceptical about climate

change (Guy et al. 2010). This kind of lexis differs greatly from other discourses such as

biology, to allow for the general public to be able to understand the data and conclusions found

as opposed to other scientists and researchers that would read what is published in the biology

field.

An easy example of academic discourses using lexis specific to themselves can be found

on a college campus. Here, topics from chemistry to religious studies are being taught at the

same time, only feet from each other, yet the topics being discussed are vastly different. Sitting
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 7

in on a psychology lecture further proves the literary practices used in academic journals are also

utilized in the teaching of the very same discourse. As a social science, the majority of what was

discussed in class was more focused on mental aspects of human action rather than physical

science. In Psychology 1 taught by Professor German, there is an array of topics to cover in only

a ten-week period, so the ability to go in depth is cut shorter than most would like, yet there is

still plenty of time to dive deep into discussions about why people and animals behave the way

they do. The professor wanted the students to focus on more than just numbers and statistics and

actually understand the meaning behind certain actions and behaviors, just like most psychology

journals do. During the lecture, the professor asked students to apply their own experiences to

what they were learning. For example, the topic of one lecture was on sleep and circadian rythm.

Professor German asked the students to think about what happens to them when they travel and

get jet lag, or how they feel after pulling an all nighter at the library. A lot of evidence used in

both university lectures and academic articles use surveys and observations to come to a majority

of their conclusions and to fully understand what the information they have received really

means. Though through many surveys the data collected can point to a conclusion, some of the

time since psychology relies heavily on observations and opinions, which has to lead to inferring

some conclusions, since a clear one is not easily accessible through the information. While

psychology uses more of a qualitative approach to come to conclusions about their research and

experiments, academic discourses such as biology use more raw data and evidence to support

their claims.

Biology is a broad subject that covers most of what goes on in the world around us, from

the animals found outside our homes to the chemical makeup of various parts of the human
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 8

body. As a physical science, its reliance on tangible and quantitative data is crucial when

conducting an experiment to better understand this planet. In biology, where personal opinion is

rarely used, hypotheses that can be proved or disproved through straightforward experiments are

found. In regard to climate change, the field of biology has a number of different options of

where to go with a topic this broad. In Kardol, Cregger, Campany, and Classen (2010), the

effects of climate change on soil ecosystem functioning were looked at. This is a different take

on the topic than that of psychology that looked at the internal effects on humans, while this

discourse is looking at the direct environmental impact. Kardol et al. (2010) tested soil

ecosystem responses to elevated levels of CO2, Overall, while there were some interactions,

water, relative to increases in [CO2] and warming, had the largest impact on plant community

composition, soil enzyme activity, and soil nematodes. Those not familiar with soil ecosystems

might find information like this confusing. This is exactly why a majority of academic articles

such as these are geared towards the peers of those that wrote them, or other scholars in this field

who have a good grasp on what is being discussed here. In context, some of the information can

be inferred, however the lexis used in this academic discourse is geared towards certain people,

leaving it hard for others to fully understand what is being discussed. The practices often found

in academic journals of this same discourse are often reflected wherever said discourse may be.

In a classroom, these practices are magnified, as professors with a heightened understanding for

these topics are teaching them to those who are not experienced in this field.

The differing approaches of academic disciplines can be seen and conveyed simply in

their corresponding syllabi. Easily accessible online, the syllabus for a psychology class is more

descriptive and detailed while the syllabus for a biology class is to the point with brief facts and
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 9

only the information that is necessary, often a mirror for biological research. This reflects

perfectly onto how people in each field take on a problem such as climate change. For one, they

focus the majority of their energy on completely different aspects of the problem. Psychology

mainly involves the study of the development and reasoning of the mind and how it reacts with

the world around it, so they would not typically be found analyzing samples of soil correlated

with carbon dioxide levels that biologists would. Most psychologists analyzing climate change

look at the people it impacts, and how they think and feel about it.

Psychology and other social sciences are usually looking for a change in behavior or

process, and analyzes the changing circumstances to find the cause, while biology and other

physical sciences usually look at the clear change in numbers and results to determine if their

hypothesis can be proved or disproved. Though this creates a rather large divide between the two

disciplines, they can often be related in the structure of how they go about collecting data.

Because of the type of data they are searching for, both disciplines rely on laboratory research as

well as data analysis and observations. At a glance, biology can be seen as a physical science

only interested in the numbers and clear conclusions made from them, which a lot of times is

true. But like psychology, much of what they find first starts as laboratory research that must be

observed frequently, since in most cases just having numbers by the end of an experiment is not

enough. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis is required in both fields, though each

discourse typically dominates the opposite type of analysis.

However, there is a reason these discourses are separate. Having their own experiments

and processes allows for scientists and researchers to gather information in regards to that field,

and when put together with other discourses, the varying types of data collected can lead to
CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 10

multiple takes on one topic. The ability to approach a topic with more than a one-sided view of it

helps people have a greater understanding of the impact a topic like climate change can have on

entirely different aspects of life most people dont usually associate with these types of issues.

Also having people from various parts of the spectrum of research working together can greatly

help in the search for a solution to a subject as dangerous and prevalent as climate change.

In both every day classes and scientific experiments, psychology and biology discourses

have their similarities and differences. Though equally validated through years of extensive

research, how they conduct that research is where the line is drawn between the two disciplines.

Through centuries of studies and academic articles, precedents have been set for both academic

disciplines. The battle between qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis may continue,

however much of the information found between both discourses can be combined to have a

greater understanding of the topic at hand. With insights into multiple different ways of

approaching a global issue, people can form a well-rounded opinion on the effects of climate

change. Students may treat their psychology class differently than their biology class, but the

skills taught in both can help apply them to real world issues, where all aspects of life are being

brought into consideration. The lexis of various disciplines might scare some people away or

throw them off, but this is only due to the targeted audience the author is going for. Even though

disciplines like psychology and biology take completely different parts of life into consideration

when faced with topics like climate change, the different processes they go through to collect

data and information brings people one step closer to fully understanding the topic at hand,

especially an unavoidable topic that includes every being on this planet.

CLIMATE CHANGE: AFFECTING HUMANS AND THE WORLD AROUND US 11

References

Guy, S., Kashima, Y., Walker, I., & O'Neill, S. (2014, July 28). Investigating the effects of

knowledge and ideology on climate change beliefs. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from

European Journal of Social Psychology

Kardol, P., Cregger, M. A., Campany, C. E., & Classen, A. T. (2010, March 01). Soil

ecosystem functioning under climate change: plant species and community effects.

Retrieved May 10, 2017, from Ecological Society of America

University of California, Santa Barbara. (2014). MCDB 1A and 1AL: Introduction to Biology

Syllabus. Santa Barbara, California. Retrieved from gauchospace.ucsb.edu.