Background
Peter H. Kahn, Jr. was born on December 23, 1955, in New York, New York, United States. He is a son of Peter H. and Molly Kahn.
University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
In 1981 Peter H. Kahn, Jr. received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Science in 1984, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1988.
(Urgent environmental problems call for vigorous research ...)
Urgent environmental problems call for vigorous research and theory on how humans develop a relationship with nature. In a series of original research projects, Peter Kahn answers this call. For the past eight years, Kahn has studied children, young adults, and parents in diverse geographical locations, ranging from an economically impoverished black community in Houston to a remote village in the Brazilian Amazon. In these studies, Kahn seeks answers to the following questions: How do people value nature, and how do they reason morally about environmental degradation? Do children have a deep connection to the natural world that gets severed by modern society? Or do such connections emerge, if at all, later in life, with increased cognitive and moral maturity? How does culture affect environmental commitments and sensibilities? Are there universal features in the human relationship with nature? Kahn's empirical and theoretical findings draw on current work in psychology, biology, environmental behavior, education, policy, and moral development. This scholarly yet accessible book will be of value to practitioners in the social science and environmental fields, as well as to informed generalists interested in environmental issues and children.
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Relationship-Nature-Development-Culture/dp/026211240X/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(For much of human evolution, the natural world was one of...)
For much of human evolution, the natural world was one of the most important contexts of children's maturation. Indeed, the experience of nature was, and still may be, a critical component of human physical, emotional, intellectual, and even moral development. Yet scientific knowledge of the significance of nature during the different stages of childhood is sparse. This book provides scientific investigations and thought-provoking essays on children and nature. Children and Nature incorporates research from cognitive science, developmental psychology, ecology, education, environmental studies, evolutionary psychology, political science, primatology, psychiatry, and social psychology. The authors examine the evolutionary significance of nature during childhood; the formation of children's conceptions, values, and sympathies toward the natural world; how contact with nature affects children's physical and mental development; and the educational and political consequences of the weakened childhood experience of nature in modern society.
https://www.amazon.com/Children-Nature-Psychological-Sociocultural-Investigations-ebook/dp/B00194D7ME/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(Kahn describes his investigations of children's and adult...)
Kahn describes his investigations of children's and adults' experiences of cutting-edge technological nature. He and his team installed "technological nature windows" (50-inch plasma screens showing high-definition broadcasts of real-time local nature views) in inside offices on his university campus and assessed the physiological and psychological effects on viewers. He studied children's and adults' relationships with the robotic dog AIBO (including possible benefits for children with autism). And he studied online "telegardening" (a pastoral alternative to "telehunting"). Kahn's studies show that in terms of human well-being technological nature is better than no nature, but not as good as actual nature. We should develop and use technological nature as a bonus on life, not as its substitute, and re-envision what is beautiful and fulfilling and often wild in essence in our relationship with the natural world.
https://www.amazon.com/Technological-Nature-Adaptation-Future-Human-ebook/dp/B00ELW92T8/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(We need nature for our physical and psychological well-be...)
We need nature for our physical and psychological well-being. Our actions reflect this when we turn to beloved pets for companionship, vacation in spots of natural splendor, or spend hours working in the garden. Yet we are also a technological species and have been since we fashioned tools out of stone. Thus one of this century's central challenges is to embrace our kinship with a more-than-human world - "our totemic self" - and integrate that kinship with our scientific culture and technological selves. This book takes on that challenge and proposes a reenvisioned ecopsychology. Contributors consider such topics as the innate tendency for people to bond with local place; a meaningful nature language; the epidemiological evidence for the health benefits of nature interaction; the theory and practice of ecotherapy; Gaia theory; ecovillages; the neuroscience of perceiving natural beauty; and sacred geography. Taken together, the essays offer a vision for human flourishing and for a more grounded and realistic environmental psychology.
https://www.amazon.com/Ecopsychology-Science-Totems-Technological-Species/dp/0262517787/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(We often enjoy the benefits of connecting with nearby, do...)
We often enjoy the benefits of connecting with nearby, domesticated nature - a city park, a backyard garden. But this book makes the provocative case for the necessity of connecting with wild nature - untamed, unmanaged, not encompassed, self-organizing, and unencumbered and unmediated by technological artifice. We can love the wild. We can fear it. We are strengthened and nurtured by it. As a species, we came of age in a natural world far wilder than today's, and much of the need for wildness still exists within us, body and mind. The Rediscovery of the Wild considers ways to engage with the wild, protect it, and recover it - for our psychological and physical well-being and to flourish as a species. The contributors offer a range of perspectives on the wild, discussing such topics as the evolutionary underpinnings of our need for the wild; the wild within, including the primal passions of sexuality and aggression; birding as a portal to wildness; children's fascination with wild animals; wildness and psychological healing; the shifting baseline of what we consider wild; and the true work of conservation.
https://www.amazon.com/Rediscovery-Wild-MIT-Press/dp/0262518333/?tag=2022091-20
2013
Peter H. Kahn, Jr. was born on December 23, 1955, in New York, New York, United States. He is a son of Peter H. and Molly Kahn.
In 1981 Peter H. Kahn, Jr. received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Science in 1984, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1988.
From 1988 to 1989 Peter H. Kahn, Jr. was a lecturer in education at the University of California, Davis. From 1989 to 1991 he served as an assistant professor of human development at the University of Houston. From 1991 to 1997 Kahn worked as an assistant professor of education and human development at Colby College, and a research scientist from 1998 to 1999.
From 2000 to 2003 he was a research associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington, Seattle. From 2003 he has been an adjunct associate professor at the Information School, University of Washington. Since 2003 he has been an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Washington. Since 2012 Kahn has served as a professor there.
(Urgent environmental problems call for vigorous research ...)
1999(For much of human evolution, the natural world was one of...)
2002(Kahn describes his investigations of children's and adult...)
2011(We often enjoy the benefits of connecting with nearby, do...)
2013(We need nature for our physical and psychological well-be...)
2012Peter H. Kahn, Jr. is married Batya Friedman. They have a daughter, Zoe Bat-Ami.