Environmental Attitude and Ecological Behaviour

Based on I. Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior, this study used a unified concept of attitude and a probabilistic measurement approach to overcome shortcomings (e.g., the lack of a unified concept of attitude) that limit the predictive power of environmental attitude concepts. Data were drawn from members of 2 ideologically different Swiss transportation associations (aged 20-82 yrs) stratified by French, Italian, and German languages. Questionnaires were completed by 1,371 Ss in Study 1, 1,189 of these Ss in Study 2, and 445 of the German-speaking subgroup of 579 Ss from Study 1. Factor analysis confirmed 3 measures as orthogonal dimensions: (1) environmental knowledge, (2) environmental values, and (3) ecological behaviour intention. General ecological behaviour was established as a Rasch-scale that assessed behaviour by considering the tendency to behave ecologically and the difficulties in carrying out the behaviours, which depend on influences beyond people's actual behaviour control. A structural equation model was used to confirm the proposed model: environmental knowledge and environmental values explained 40% of the variance of ecological behaviour intension which, in turn, predicted 75% of the variance of general ecological behaviour.