Dr Natasha Parker

Natasha works as Head of Post-Consumerism at the environmental charity Global Action Plan where she leads the development of research and campaigns to mobilise action on the systems that harm people and planet. The projects she leads are working to end surveillance advertising to kids, campaign to make social media safer by design, challenge our “buy now get next day” culture, supercharge climate conversations in young people, and working with young creatives and TV executives to create positive and sustainable visions of the future.

She completed her PhD in environmental psychology at the University of Surrey in 2023, exploring how individuals can be supported to shift away from materialistic values and goals and to deepen understanding of the benefits of living sustainably. Her research demonstrated the encouragement of self-transcendence values and intrinsic goals to be an effective strategy to reduce a materialistic goal orientation. It also demonstrated pro-environmental behaviours to be associated with pleasure-based (hedonic) wellbeing even when they are not associated with virtue-based (eudemonic) wellbeing. This finding provides tentative evidence that pro-environmental behaviours are not only compatible with wellbeing due to a virtuous sense of “doing good,” but they may be inherently pleasurable. She also has a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of East London.

Work w/ CUSP

Working closely with CUSP researchers Birgitta Gatersleben and Kate Burningham, Natasha is contributing to CUSP events and our blog series, and is facilitating CUSP’s collaboration with GAP.

Publications

Parker, N., Kasser, T., Gatersleben, B., & Druckman, A. (2021). Associations of pro-environmental behaviours with hedonic and eudemonic well-being among young, working adults from three European nations. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 5, 19, 1-13. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology 5/19.

Parker, N., Kasser, T., Bardi, A., Gatersleben, B., & Druckman, A. (2020). Goals for Good: Testing an Intervention to Reduce Materialism in Three European Countries. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 4/9, 1-13. https://www.nationalwellbeingservice.org/volumes/volume-4-2020/volume-4-article-9/

Parker, N., & Ivtzan, I. (2016). The Relationship between Materialistic Aspirations and Distinct Aspects of Psychological Well-being in a UK sample. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Mental Health, 1, 35–48. Retrieved from: https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/85019

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