Influence of Environmental Reasoning and Motivation on

Worsening of our global environment is a contemporary problem of increasing magnitude that individuals as well as industry, government, and environmental groups are able to influence by their behaviors. Individuals are in a position to perform a variety of environmentally beneficial behaviors, such as recycling, conserving energy, and so forth. Yet, apathy toward the environment is common leading researchers to explore what factors will foster more environmentally responsible behavior. Hence, the primary aim of this research was to advance understanding of how reasoning and motivation influence behaviors in an environmental context among adults with different levels of environmental interest. Furthermore, the study sought to determine whether differences in these psychological constructs occur for age cohorts that might predict a trend toward more environmentally responsible behaviors in the future. James Rests Four-Component Model of Moral Behavior modified for an environmental context served as the theoretical basis for this research. The constructs included of environmental reasoning, Pelletier and colleagues' self-determined environmental motivation, environmental interest, and environmental group association. Adults (N = 289) from two groups, one environmental and the other non-environmental, responded to the survey conducted in 1999. Findings revealed that reasoning and motivation together exhibit a small but statistically significant influence over two different categories of environmentally responsible behaviors. Self-determined motivation contributed significantly to explaining variations in both kinds of behavior. However, the more developmentally advanced form of reasoning, Post Conventional, demonstrated a significant association with only behavioral intentions. The only motivational subtype significantly associated with behavior turned out to be integrated regulation. Of the four components, environmental interest turned out to be a more influential predictor of environmental behaviors. In general, the Four-Component Model for environmental behavior provided a useful and effective framework accounting for 50-60% of variance in both environmental behaviors. Furthermore, results provided suggestive evidence of age cohort differences for developmental stages of environmental reasoning.