Audra Balundė

Research Units

Affiliated Research areas

• Social attitudes and beliefs
• Environmental and climate change, societal impact and policy
• Cities; urban, regional and rural studies

Keywords

• Environmental psychology
• Environmental crisis & mental health
• Industrial pollution & mental health
• Environmental self-identity
• Environmental values
• Pro-environmental behavior
• Biodiversity
• Environmental justice
• Communities
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Teaching areas

• Co-developer of the international master program on psychology of climate action

Summary

In 2015, I began my journey into environmental psychology. After completing a Master’s in developmental psychology, I enrolled in a double postgraduate diploma program at Mykolas Romeris University and the University of Groningen.

My early work focused on how personal, social, and contextual factors shape pro-environmental behavior, particularly the environmental values, self-identity, and personal norms.

Through collaboration with researchers, journalists, policymakers, businesses, and community leaders, my interests gradually shifted toward more applied angles of environmental psychology. I began exploring the connection between mental health and the climate crisis, the wellbeing of communities living near polluting industrial sites, community-focused biodiversity conservation, circumstances under which business adopt sustainable technologies, and ways to support youth in environmental advocacy.

Currently, I lead the Environmental Psychology Research Centre at Mykolas Romeris University, the first research unit in Lithuania dedicated specifically to this field. I’m also doing postdoctoral work at Kaunas University of Technology, where I’m continuing to explore applied angles of environmental psychology. Alongside that, I’m a co-founder of the Environmental Psychology Group within the Lithuanian Society of Psychology, and serve as co-chair of ICEP2025.

If you are curious to explore some of my work, here are a few starting points:

- PhD thesis: https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.732675789
- Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Le9h4OQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
- Environmental Psychology Research Centre: https://www.mruni.eu/en/research/mru-laboratories/applied-psychology-research-laboratory/environmental-psychology-research-centre/
- Environmental Psychology Group (Lithuanian Society of Psychology): https://www.psichologusajunga.lt/grupes/#