The Climate Threat, the Four Rooms, and Greta

What are your thoughts on climate change? What do you think about Greta Thunberg and the many young people who are getting involved? Helena Yli-Koski has been thinking about how the Four Rooms of Change ideas fit into today’s world.

Swedish psychological research describes the forces we are seeing around the climate threat and Greta Thunberg right now. Many people on social media support Greta and the school strike currently spreading across the globe. Others question the strike, believing that young people should focus on their education instead of going on strike.

The research I am referring to led to a psychological theory known as the Four Rooms of Change. The theory began in the mid-1960s, when film censorship was a hot topic of debate. Like the climate threat, it seemed to divide the population into two camps. At the time, new filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Vilgot Sjöman provoked audiences with their modern film language. Some thought these films were harmful, arguing that they did not represent reality, and demanded that they be censored. Others argued that these films highlighted an existing reality and that it was important to show it. These advocates believed that many films were too contrived and superficial and therefore harmful because they dumbed people down.

The Swedish Film Institute, led by CEO Harry Schein, provided funding to the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University to help understand the censorship debate. Professor Claes Janssen then asked his student, Claes Janssen, to investigate the desire to censor.

Janssen began by developing an attitude scale for film censorship. Over the years, this evolved into a substantial fifteen-year research project. Based on his data, Janssen presented a previously undescribed personality variable.

His research revealed a personality variable in the population where people can be divided into two groups with different preferences. Some people have a great need for satisfaction, stability, harmony, predictability, security, and community in order to feel good. Others have a great need for freedom, inspiration, creativity, philosophizing, and living their own truth to feel alive.

Janssen also found that people who need satisfaction to feel good tend to sweep things under the rug when things become uncomfortable and the community is threatened. They would rather censor themselves to maintain their security, contentment, and sense of belonging. Conversely, people with a strong preference for inspiration value the truth so highly that they would rather leave the community than compromise their beliefs.

Janssen also found that these people easily become polarized when unaware of each other’s motivations.
People with different preferences become uncomfortable with each other easily. Putting the truth on the table and demanding change can threaten harmony and community. However, sweeping things under the rug threatens change, creativity, and freedom for those who value these things.

Both preferences are necessary for a stable and functional society, as well as for necessary development and change.

This research eventually developed into The Four Rooms of Change, which describes how humans move through four different “rooms” during the changes they experience in their lifetime. The first room is Contentment, which was incidentally the last room Claes Janssen discovered. In this room, everything is fine as it is; therefore, we have no need for change. However, as we know, life changes; that is life’s quality. When contentment is lost, we are not initially aware of it. We have entered the Room of Censorship, where we pretend that everything is fine, even though it is not. Gradually, we become aware that something is wrong, but it usually takes time before we admit it to ourselves. We talk about the loss of contentment, peace of mind, or a dream or reality we enjoyed. When we acknowledge the loss, it hurts. Now, we have entered the Room of Confusion. It is like a stormy sea here: anxiety-filled and painful. We realize that something needs to change, but we don’t know how. Only after accepting the “lost contentment” can we pass the zero point, gather courage, and make new, conscious, realistic choices. We are now approaching the Room of Inspiration! Here, solutions come to us, energy returns, and ideas flow. We can’t recreate the old contentment, but we can create new contentment based on our new circumstances. In the Room of Inspiration, creativity flourishes, and new innovations and opportunities arise from our current situation. As in the Room of Contentment, joy, meaning, openness, love, and flow become the seeds of a new, more sustainable reality.

A new contentment has been created.

Today, when we look at the climate threat and our short-sighted lifestyle, we find ourselves collectively somewhere between censorship and confusion. When we truly grasp the situation, we realize that we can no longer live as we do. This is a painful truth for most people to accept—a loss of what is familiar and comfortable.

What is fascinating about the Four Rooms is that, once we pass the “zero point of confusion,” life comes back into focus, and we can see new opportunities and work toward them together. I have experienced this over and over again in my years with the Four Rooms of Change. I have experienced this over and over again in my years with the Four Rooms of Change.

We will find a new way of life when we let go of the old one. It will be different, but hopefully not worse. Happiness does not lie in consumption. We put on painful blinders when we live in the short term, burning out both ourselves and the planet.

Can you relate to the Four Rooms of Change? What are your thoughts on change and the climate crisis? What do you think about Greta and all the young people who are getting involved now? Can you relate to this text?

If you’re interested in learning more about the Four Rooms of Change, please feel free to contact us.

Photo: Lewis Parsons, Unsplash