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Wouter Poortinga   MSc, PhD

Professor Wouter Poortinga MSc, PhD

Professor, Welsh School of Architecture

Welsh School of Architecture

Email
PoortingaW@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 74755
Campuses
Bute Building, Room P.10, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB
Tower Building, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT
Bute Building, Room T.10, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB
Comment
Media commentator
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am an environmental psychologist, based in the Welsh School of Architecture and the School of Psychology.

My research interests are in human-environment interactions, including:

  • environmental risk perception
  • sustainable behaviours and lifestyles
  • housing, neighbourhoods and health.

Publication

2023

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2001

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Monographs

Research

I conduct work on the topics of public perceptions and attitudes to climate change and energy futures, including nuclear power. I recently led a project on public attitudes to nuclear power and climate change in Britain and Japan two years after the Fukushima accident.

My work on sustainable behaviours and lifestyles is on household energy use, the Welsh carrier bag charge, and environmental attitudes and behaviour segmentation.

I am currently managing a research portfolio of £1.2M on housing, neighbourhoods and health. This includes projects on the health impacts of the Carmarthenshire Homes Standard (CHS) programme – based on the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS), the health impacts and economic value of meeting housing quality standards (in which we further develop the Residential Environment Assessment Tool; REAT), and the evaluation of structural energy-performance investments in low-income neighbourhood through the Arbed programme.

Further research interests are in social capital and cohesion, perceptions of indoor air quality/radon, and the clustering of lifestyle risk factors.

Research projects

  • The English plastic bag charge and behavioural spillover
  • Health Impacts of Structural Energy Performance Investments in Wales (Arbed Programme)
  • Health Impact and Economic Value of Meeting Housing Quality Standards

Teaching

  • Environmental Psychology (Module Co-ordinator and Lecturer). Third Year Module, School of Psychology
  • Level 5 Social Psychology Practical. Second Year Module, School of Psychology
  • Architecture Earth & Society.  Masters Level Module, Welsh School of Architecture
  • Introduction to Research Methods. MArch Module, Welsh School of Architecture.
  • Primitives. Masters Module, Welsh School of Architecture.
  • Issues in Contemporary Architecture, Social Aspects of Design. Third Year Lecture, Welsh School of Architecture.

Biography

Education

2002-2004: PhD  Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich.

1995-1997: Energy and Environmental  Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands (MSc level). Centre for  Energy and Environmental Studies (IVEM).

1990-1995: MSc Social Psychology, University of Groningen,  the Netherlands.  Department of Social and Organisational Psychology

Employment

2014-present: Professor, Welsh School  of Architecture/ Department of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff  

2010-2014: Senior  Lecturer, Welsh School  of Architecture/ Department of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff  

2006-2010: RCUK  Academic Fellow, Welsh School of Architecture/ Department of Psychology, Cardiff University,  Cardiff

2001-2005: Senior  Research Associate. Centre for Environmental Risk (CER). University  of East Anglia, Norwich.

2000: Researcher. Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP), the Netherlands.  

1999-2000: Researcher. Centre for Environmental and Traffic Psychology (COV), University  of Groningen, the Netherlands.  

Supervisions

My main supervision expertise is in:

  • Environmental Psychology
  • Housing & Health
  • Environmental Epidemiology
  • Sustainable Behaviours & Lifestyles
  • Environmental Risk Perception.

Happy to consider supervision on topics relating to:

  • social sustainability
  • social aspects of design
  • social-spatial processes using (quantitative) social science methods.

External profiles