Values and their Relationship to Environmental Concern and Conservation Behavior
01 Jul 2005-Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (Sage PublicationsSage CA: Thousand Oaks, CA)-Vol. 36, Iss: 4, pp 457-475
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of the relationship between values and environmental attitudes in six countries: Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, India, New Zealand, and Russia, was conducted.
Abstract: Recent research has examined the relationship between values and attitudes about environmental issues. Findings from these studies have found values of self-transcendence (positively) and self-enhancement (negatively) to predict general concern for environmental problems. Other recent findings have differentiated between environmental attitudes based on concern for self (egoistic), concern for other people (socialaltruistic), and concern for plants and animals (biospheric). This article reports the results from a study of the relationship between values and environmental attitudes in six countries: Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, India, New Zealand, and Russia. Results show strong support for the cross-cultural generalizability of the relationship between values and attitudes and on the structure of environmental concern. In addition, analyses of the relationship between values and environmental behavior show evidence for norm activation only for self-transcendence; results for self-enhancement show a consistently negative relationship.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose an integrated theoretical framework for understanding behavior change that identifies two routes to encourage pro-environmental behaviour: reducing the (hedonic and gain) costs of environmental choices and strengthening normative goals.
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TL;DR: It is argued that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change), and there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention.
Abstract: Despite substantial focus on sustainability issues in both science and politics, humanity remains on largely unsustainable development trajectories. Partly, this is due to the failure of sustainability science to engage with the root causes of unsustainability. Drawing on ideas by Donella Meadows, we argue that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change). Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention. We propose a research agenda inspired by systems thinking that focuses on transformational 'sustainability interventions', centred on three realms of leverage: reconnecting people to nature, restructuring institutions and rethinking how knowledge is created and used in pursuit of sustainability. The notion of leverage points has the potential to act as a boundary object for genuinely transformational sustainability science.
748 citations
TL;DR: The Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI) as discussed by the authors ) is a multidimensional and hierarchical approach to the measurement of environmental attitudes, which is a psychological tendency expressed by evaluating the natural environment with some degree of favor or disfavour.
650 citations
TL;DR: 5 studies focusing on a variety of prosocial intentions and behavior support the NAM as a mediator model and validate past research by showing that variables included in the N AM are powerful in explaining a diversity of prossocial intentions andbehavior in the social and environmental contexts.
Abstract: The authors examined the relationships between variables included in the Norm Activation Model (NAM; S. H. Schwartz, 1977) of prosocial behavior. Specifically, they evaluated the strength of 2 commonly used interpretations of this model: the NAM as a mediator model and the NAM as a moderator model. For the most part, 5 studies focusing on a variety of prosocial intentions and behavior support the NAM as a mediator model. Furthermore, these studies validate past research by showing that variables included in the NAM are powerful in explaining a diversity of prosocial intentions and behavior in the social and environmental contexts.
643 citations
Cites background from "Values and their Relationship to En..."
...Also, during the past 3 decades, there has been an increasing amount of empirical support for the NAM in the environmental context, such as energy conservation (Black, Stern, & Elworth, 1985; Tyler, Orwin, & Schurer, 1982), willingness to pay for environmental protection (Guagnano, 2001; Guagnano, Dietz, & Stern, 1994), recycling (Bratt, 1999; Hopper & Nielsen, 1991; Vining & Ebreo, 1992), and general proenvironmental behavior (Nordlund & Garvill, 2002; Schultz et al., 2005)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis was performed on 87 published reports containing 253 experimental treatments that measured an observed, not self-reported, behavioral outcome, and concluded that cognitive dissonance, goal setting, social modeling, and prompts provided the overall largest effect sizes (Hedge's g > 0.60).
Abstract: To provide practitioners with useful information about how to promote proenvironmental behavior (PEB), a meta-analysis was performed on 87 published reports containing 253 experimental treatments that measured an observed, not self-reported, behavioral outcome. Most studies combined multiple treatments, and this confounding precluded definitive conclusions about which individual treatments are most effective. Treatments that included cognitive dissonance, goal setting, social modeling, and prompts provided the overall largest effect sizes (Hedge’s g > 0.60). Further analyses indicated that different treatments have been more effective for certain behaviors. Although average effect sizes are based on small numbers of studies, effective combinations of treatments and behaviors are making it easy to recycle, setting goals for conserving gasoline, and modeling home energy conservation. The results also reveal several gaps in the literature that should guide further research, including both treatments and PEB ...
593 citations
References
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TL;DR: A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is providedHere the sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for eight standard statistical tests.
Abstract: One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided here. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for eight standard statistical tests: (a) the difference between independent means, (b) the significance of a product-moment correlation, (c) the difference between independent rs, (d) the sign test, (e) the difference between independent proportions, (f) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (g) one-way analysis of variance, and (h) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation.
38,291 citations
"Values and their Relationship to En..." refers methods in this paper
...We sought to obtain a minimum sample size of 120 from each location in order to provide sufficient power (.80) to detect medium correlations and for regression coefficients with eight predictors (Cohen, 1992)....
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01 Jan 1991TL;DR: In this article, the effects of predictor scaling on the coefficients of regression equations are investigated. But, they focus mainly on the effect of predictors scaling on coefficients of regressions.
Abstract: Introduction Interactions between Continuous Predictors in Multiple Regression The Effects of Predictor Scaling on Coefficients of Regression Equations Testing and Probing Three-Way Interactions Structuring Regression Equations to Reflect Higher Order Relationships Model and Effect Testing with Higher Order Terms Interactions between Categorical and Continuous Variables Reliability and Statistical Power Conclusion Some Contrasts Between ANOVA and MR in Practice
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TL;DR: In this article, multiple regression is used to test and interpret multiple regression interactions in the context of multiple-agent networks. But it is not suitable for single-agent systems, as discussed in this paper.
Abstract: (1994). Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. Journal of the Operational Research Society: Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 119-120.
13,068 citations
"Values and their Relationship to En..." refers background or methods in this paper
...Following Aiken and West (1991), we also analyzed the data using a simple slopes analysis of centered scores....
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...The multiplicative effects are tests of moderation (Aiken & West, 1991), and the purpose of this regression analysis was to test for norm activation....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the universals in the content and structure of values, concentrating on the theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries, and its four basic issues: substantive contents of human values; identification of comprehensive set of values; extent to which the meaning of particular values was equivalent for different groups of people; and how the relations among different values was structured.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter addresses the universals in the content and structure of values, concentrating on the theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries, and its four basic issues: substantive contents of human values; identification of comprehensive set of values; extent to which the meaning of particular values was equivalent for different groups of people; and how the relations among different values was structured. Substantial progress has been made toward resolving each of these issues. Ten motivationally distinct value types that were likely to be recognized within and across cultures and used to form value priorities were identified. Set of value types that was relatively comprehensive, encompassing virtually all the types of values to which individuals attribute at least moderate importance as criteria of evaluation was demonstrated. The evidence from 20 countries was assembled, showing that the meaning of the value types and most of the single values that constitute them was reasonably equivalent across most groups. Two basic dimensions that organize value systems into an integrated motivational structure with consistent value conflicts and compatibilities were discovered. By identifying universal aspects of value content and structure, the chapter has laid the foundations for investigating culture-specific aspects in the future.
12,151 citations
"Values and their Relationship to En..." refers background or methods in this paper
...Following on the work by Schwartz (1992) in classifying human values, Stern and his colleagues began applying the model to the study of environmental attitudes and behavior....
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...The full 56-item version of this instrument was used (Schwartz, 1992, 1994)....
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...Schwartz (1992, 1994) has developed a broad model for classifying the dimensions of values, with 56 value items representing 10 universal value types....
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...A large number of cross-cultural studies have demonstrated the usefulness of Schwartz’s organizational model for categorizing and measuring values across many different cultures (Oishi, Schimmack, Diener, & Suh, 1998; Schwartz, 1992, 1994; Spini, 2003)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a theory of potentially universal aspects in the content of human values, and present a new values instrument, based on the theory and suitable for cross-cultural research.
Abstract: This article presents a theory of potentially universal aspects in the content of human values. Ten types of values are distinguished by their motivational goals. The theory also postulates a structure of relations among the value types, based on the conflicts and compatibilities experienced when pursuing them. This structure permits one to relate systems of value priorities, as an integrated whole, to other variables. A new values instrument, based on the theory and suitable for cross-cultural research, is described. Evidence relevant for assessing the theory, from 97 samples in 44 countries, is summarized. Relations of this approach to Rokeach's work on values and to other theories and research on value dimensions are discussed. Application of the approach to social issues is exemplified in the domains of politics and intergroup relations.
4,843 citations
"Values and their Relationship to En..." refers background or methods in this paper
...The full 56-item version of this instrument was used (Schwartz, 1992, 1994)....
[...]
...Schwartz (1992, 1994) has developed a broad model for classifying the dimensions of values, with 56 value items representing 10 universal value types....
[...]
...A large number of cross-cultural studies have demonstrated the usefulness of Schwartz’s organizational model for categorizing and measuring values across many different cultures (Oishi, Schimmack, Diener, & Suh, 1998; Schwartz, 1992, 1994; Spini, 2003)....
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