Download or read book An Integrated Model for Investigation of Social psychological Influences on College Students Attitudinal Tendencies Toward Appropriate Environmental Behavior written by Yi-Hsuan Hsu and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: A culturally adaptive model involving appropriate patterns of environmental behavior in a developing country-- Taiwan-- is examined. In the model, underlying social and psychological factors that determine individuals' attitudinal responses toward appropriate environmental behavior were assessed. By means of questionnaire data randomly collected from a sample of college students (236/300 = 78.7% response rate) in Taipei City of Taiwan, seven major scales of variables were measured: socio-demographic characteristics, situational factors, personality variables, perceived external & internal barriers to action, environmental attitudes, perceived self-efficacy toward action, and appropriate environmental behavior. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to identify the most parsimonious set of the determinants that best predict environmental behavior, as well as to recognize the most important behavior(s) that were appropriate to the respondents. The major findings were: (1) The relationships between perceived importance and perceived appropriateness of environmental behavior on the five categories as well as the total behavior scale were all highly correlated, especially, the behaviors involving energy and water conservation (EW), consistently rated as the most important and appropriate category of environmental behavior, with social & political actions (SP) viewed as the least favorable behavior to the respondents. (2) For the socio-demographic characteristics, older respondents (22-41 years old) in the graduate level of the study and who obtain membership in social organizations as well as frequent contact with environmental education activities and courses are more likely to hold positive behavioral tendencies toward environmental conservation. (3) Significant correlations were found between environmental attitudes and three social structural variables: external barriers (r = -0.14), experiences with EE (r = 0.15), and environmental courses completed (r = 0.15), indicating that the respondents who perceive lower levels of external barriers and higher levels of the cognition on environmental education and the relevant courses are more likely to hold positive attitudes toward the environment. (4) Positive, significant correlations were found between environmental attitudes and four psychological-dimension variables in environmental dispositions: pastoralism (r = 0.17), environmental trust (r = 0.14), antiquarianism (r = .21), and mechanical orientation (r = 0.21). (5) A moderate, positive correlation was found between environmental attitudes and perceived self-efficacy (r = .38), explaining a significant three-way interaction between perceived self-efficacy, environmental attitudes, and behavioral tendencies. (6) The total scale of appropriate environmental behavior (AEB) was significantly correlated with 18 out of 22 factor variables measured. These correlates include: perceived self-efficacy (r = 0.51), pastoralism (r = 0.48), status of study (r = 0.42), internal barriers (r = - 0.39), age (r = - 0.38), antiquarianism (r = 0.37), situational factors (r = 0.34), external barriers (r = - 0.31), environmental attitudes (r = .30), membership in NGOs (r = .23), environmental trust (r = .22), environmental adaptation (r = - 21), leisure interest in indoor activity (r = - 0.21), experience with EE (r = .20), leisure interest in outdoor activity (r = 0.20), mechanical orientation (r = 0.16), environmental courses completed (r = 0.16), and urbanism (r = - 0.15). Combining the effects derived from these social psychological indicators, a total of 61% of the variance was explained for the model as a whole. Implications for theory, practice, and future research on environment-behavior studies as well as the pursuit of environmental education/communications were discussed.
