Responding to Environmental Concerns: What Factors Guide Individual Action?
Axelrod, L. J. & Lehman, D. R. (1993). Responding to environmental concerns: What factors guide individual action? . Journal of Environmental Psychology, 13, 2, 149-159.
Examined the motivational role played by 3 classes of outcomes (tangible rewards, social acceptance, and acting in accordance with one's principles) in predicting environmentally concerned behavior. 259 undergraduates and 105 community adults completed questionnaires. General attitudes toward the natural environment and environmental protection issues, level of perceived threat, and efficacy beliefs also were measured. Desires regarding principled outcomes explained a significant amount of variance in behavioral reports for the student sample, whereas desires related to tangible outcomes did so with the community sample. In support of a multivariate approach to the study of environmentally concerned behavior, threat perception, issue importance, and efficacy constructs also accounted for a significant portion of variance in behavioral reports.
