scholarly journals I Am vs. We Are: How Biospheric Values and Environmental Identity of Individuals and Groups Can Influence Pro-environmental Behaviour

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Wang ◽  
Ellen Van der Werff ◽  
Thijs Bouman ◽  
Marie K. Harder ◽  
Linda Steg

Most research in environmental psychology is conducted in individualistic countries and focuses on factors pertaining to individuals. It is yet unclear whether these findings also apply to more collectivistic countries, in which group factors might play a prominent role. In the current paper, we test the individual-focused value–identity–behaviour pathway, in which personal biospheric values relate to pro-environmental actions via environmental self-identity, in an individualistic and a collectivistic country. Furthermore, we test in both countries whether a new group-focused pathway also exists, in which group values relate to pro-environmental behaviour via environmental group identity, particularly in collectivistic countries. Questionnaire studies were conducted among Dutch (N = 161) and Chinese (N = 168) students. Our results indicated that personal biospheric values, mostly via environmental self-identity, predict pro-environmental behaviour in both countries. We also found initial support for our newly proposed value–identity–behaviour pathway at the group level, particularly in China. Yet, in both countries, the association between group-level variables and pro-environmental behaviour was weaker than for personal-level variables, and partly overlapped with personal-level variables. Our findings show the relevance of personal- and group-level factors in understanding pro-environmental behaviour in both individualistic and collectivistic countries, which has strong theoretical and practical implications, particularly for developing international strategies to promote pro-environmental actions across the world.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen van der Werff ◽  
Linda Steg ◽  
Angela Ruepert

AbstractTo reduce environmental problems, citizens, governments, and organisations need to take action to reduce their environmental impact. In the current paper, we tested if and how perceived environmental responsibility of organisations and government is related to pro-environmental behaviour and acceptability of pro-environmental policies among employees, customers, and citizens. We hypothesised that the stronger perceived environmental responsibility of organisations and government, the stronger the environmental self-identity of employees, customers, and citizens because they are a part of that organisation. We hypothesised that a stronger environmental self-identity, in turn, is positively related to a range of pro-environmental actions as well as acceptability of pro-environmental policies. We tested our hypotheses in three studies. We found that a stronger perceived environmental responsibility of organisations is indeed related to a stronger environmental self-identity among employees and customers of the organisation. A stronger environmental self-identity was in turn related to a range of pro-environmental actions. An alternative explanation for our findings is that those with a stronger environmental self-identity are more likely to become a customer at an organisation with a strong perceived environmental responsibility. However, we found support for our hypotheses among those who chose and among those who did not freely choose to be a customer of the organisation, suggesting that the alternative explanation does not fully explain our findings. Furthermore, we found that citizens report a stronger environmental self-identity when perceived environmental responsibility of their government is stronger. A stronger environmental self-identity was in turn related to a higher acceptability of policies aiming to promote energy savings. Our findings are in line with social identity theory, which states that people partly infer how they see themselves based on the groups to which they belong. Furthermore, our findings have important practical implications for organisations and governments aiming to promote pro-environmental behaviour. Specifically, if organisations and government reduce their environmental impact and clearly communicate this, citizens, employees, and customers may also be more likely to do so.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhawna Rajput ◽  
Saumya Aggarwal ◽  
Shweta .

Environmental issues such as air pollution, noise pollution, global warming, water shortage, resource depletion, loss of biodiversity etc. have become dominant today. Extensive research has been done in various parts of the world with the aim to identify the specific antecedents of the pro-environmental behaviour. Historically many psychologist and sociologist have examined the relationship between attitude and behaviour and whether attitude act as an antecedent to the behaviour. Present study tries to find out the relationship between environmental attitude and environmental behaviour, with emphasis on barriers to pro-environmental behaviour. The analysis involves Principal Component Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis undertaken using Amos and SPSS software. The Structure Equation Modelling is used to construct a model explaining the relationship between Attitude, Environmental Behaviour and Barriers. The results indicate the existence of negative relationship between Attitude and Barriers, Attitude and Behaviour and Barriers and Behaviour.


Author(s):  
Shizhen Bai ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Shengxiang She ◽  
Sheng Wei

Research has shown that the extent to which previous environmental actions are linked to people’s environmental self-identity influences subsequent environmentally-friendly behaviour. The study empirically examined the influences of recycling efforts on subsequent pro-environmental behaviour by PLS (partial least squares) structural equation modelling based on the survey data of 426 respondents in China. The results indicate that recycling efforts have a positive effect on pro-environmental behaviour through the mechanism of feelings of pride and environmental self-identity. We hypothesise that past pro-environmental behaviour is more likely to promote an individual’s environmental self-identity when the behaviour is incurred with a higher costliness. However, the results show that only when individuals autonomously perform costly recycling behaviour, the signalling strength of previous recycling efforts is higher to promote environmental self-identity. On the contrary, the high costliness weakens the signalling strength of previous recycling efforts through producing negative emotions. Our results show that when reminding people of their past pro-environmental behaviour in order to promote future pro-environmental behaviour, it is useful to emphasize the autonomously taken costliness of behaviour as it can strongly signal that one is a pro-environmental person, thus as to strengthen environmental self-identity.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-193
Author(s):  
Ольга Віговська

У статті теоретично обґрунтовано феномен конструктивного самозбереження особистості як ознаки самоактуалізації, розкриття власного потенціалу і побудови перспективи розвитку особистості та емпірично виявлено ознаки психологічної детермінації домінуючого інстинкту у конструктивній самореалізації жінок з різним соціальним статусом. Зазначено, що проблема самозбереження асоціюється з особливостями прояву інстинкту самозбереження людини, але потреби вищого порядку зумовлюють соціальну природу її поведінки, яка локалізована у найвищій точці самореалізації. Теоретично обгрунтовано, що самореалізація визначає тенденцію раціональної організації життя людини та проявляється у її почутті задоволеністю життям. З’ясовано, що психологічну основу конструктивного самозбереження становлять індивідуально-типологічні характеристики людини, які відображають психофізіологічні та психосоціальні резерви самореалізації особистості. Розроблена програма емпіричного дослідження, а також комплекс використаних методів математичної обробки результатів дослідження дає змогу конкретизувати психологічний зміст детермінації домінуючого інстинкту у конструктивній самореалізації жінок вікового діапазону 35-45 років та з різним соціальним статусом. У жінок, які виховують проблемну (хвору) дитину, домінує інстинкт "егофільного типу", що виражається у їх надмірному егоцентризмі і супроводжується низькими показниками самоактуалізації, на відміну від досліджуваних жінок, які виховують здорових дітей і у яких на фоні вираженої тенденції до самоактуалізації домінує базовий інстинкт "дослідницького типу" та "лібертофільного типу". This article theoretically proves constructive phenomenon of self identity as signs of self-disclosure own potential and prospects of development of individual construction. In addition, it empirically showes signs of psychological determination of the dominant instinct in a constructive self-determination of women with different social statuses. It was noted that the issue of self-preservation is associated with the peculiarities of manifestation of self-preservation instinct of man, but it needs higher-order cause social nature of the behavior that is localized at the highest point of self-realization. It theorized that self-realization determines the trend of rational organization of human life and manifests itself in its sense of life satisfaction. It was found that the psychological basis of constructive self-preservation of the individual make individually-typological characteristics of a person that reflect physiological and psychosocial reserves of self-realization. The developed program of empirical research, as well as the methods used complex mathematical processing of results of research allows to specify the content of the psychological determination of the dominant instinct of constructive self-realization а women age range of 35-45 years and with different social status. Women who bring up the problem child dominates the instinct of self-preservation, which is reflected in their excessive self-centeredness, and is accompanied by low levels of self-actualization, as opposed to the study of women who are raising healthy children and that against the backdrop of a pronounced tendency to self-actualization, dominated by basic instinct "research type" and "independent type."


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Morales

The problem of identity is an issue of contemporary society that is not only expressed in daily life concerns but also in discourses of politics and social movements. Nevertheless, the I and the needs of self-fulfillment usually are taken for granted. This paper offers thoughts regarding individual identity based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. From this perspective, identity is not observed as a thing or as a subject, but rather as a “selfillusion” of a system of consciousness, which differentiates itself from the world, event after event, in a contingent way. As concerns the definition  of contents of self-identity, the structures of social systems define who is a person, how he or she should act, and how much esteem he or she should receive. These structures are adopted by consciousness as its own identity structures; however, some social contexts are more relevant for self-identity construction than others. Moral communication increases the probability that structure appropriation takes place, since the emotional element of identity is linked to the esteem/misesteem received by the individual from the interactions in which he or she participates.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Kiiza Mwesiga ◽  
Noeline Nakasujja ◽  
Lawrence Nankaba ◽  
Juliet Nakku ◽  
Seggane Musisi

Introduction: Individual and group level interventions have the largest effect on outcomes in patients with the first episode of psychosis. The quality of these individual and group level interventions provided to first-episode psychosis patients in Uganda is unclear.Methods: The study was performed at Butabika National Psychiatric Teaching and referral hospital in Uganda. A retrospective chart review of recently discharged adult in-patients with the first episode of psychosis was first performed to determine the proportion of participants who received the different essential components for individual and group level interventions. From the different proportions, the quality of the services across the individual and group interventions was determined using the first-Episode Psychosis Services Fidelity Scale (FEPS-FS). The FEPS-FS assigns a grade of 1-5 on a Likert scale depending on the proportion of patients received the different components of the intervention. Results: The final sample included 156 first-episode psychosis patients. The median age was 27 years [IOR (24-36)] with 55% of participants of the female gender. 13 essential components across the individual and group interventions were assessed and their quality quantified. All 13 essential components had poor quality with the range of scores on the FEPS-FS of 1-3. Only one essential component assessed (use of single antipsychotics) had moderate quality.Discussion: Among current services at the National psychiatric hospital of Uganda, the essential for individual and group level interventions for psychotic disorders are of low quality. Further studies are required on how the quality of these interventions can be improved.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Payne ◽  
Heidi A. Vuletich ◽  
Kristjen B. Lundberg

The Bias of Crowds model (Payne, Vuletich, & Lundberg, 2017) argues that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts. It is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level. But when aggregated to measure context-level effects, the scores become stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. We concluded that the statistical benefits of aggregation are so powerful that researchers should reconceptualize implicit bias as a feature of contexts, and ask new questions about how implicit biases relate to systemic racism. Connor and Evers (2020) critiqued the model, but their critique simply restates the core claims of the model. They agreed that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts; that it is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level; and that aggregating scores to measure context-level effects makes them more stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. Connor and Evers concluded that implicit bias should be considered to really be noisily measured individual construct because the effects of aggregation are merely statistical. We respond to their specific arguments and then discuss what it means to really be a feature of persons versus situations, and multilevel measurement and theory in psychological science more broadly.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Lackey

Groups are often said to bear responsibility for their actions, many of which have enormous moral, legal, and social significance. The Trump Administration, for instance, is said to be responsible for the U.S.’s inept and deceptive handling of COVID-19 and the harms that American citizens have suffered as a result. But are groups subject to normative assessment simply in virtue of their individual members being so, or are they somehow agents in their own right? Answering this question depends on understanding key concepts in the epistemology of groups, as we cannot hold the Trump Administration responsible without first determining what it believed, knew, and said. Deflationary theorists hold that group phenomena can be understood entirely in terms of individual members and their states. Inflationary theorists maintain that group phenomena are importantly over and above, or otherwise distinct from, individual members and their states. It is argued that neither approach is satisfactory. Groups are more than their members, but not because they have “minds of their own,” as the inflationists hold. Instead, this book shows how group phenomena—like belief, justification, and knowledge—depend on what the individual group members do or are capable of doing while being subject to group-level normative requirements. This framework, it is argued, allows for the correct distribution of responsibility across groups and their individual members.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110308
Author(s):  
Fan Ouyang ◽  
Si Chen ◽  
Yuqin Yang ◽  
Yunqing Chen

Group-level metacognitive scaffolding is critical for productive knowledge building. However, previous research mainly focuses on the individual-level metacognitive scaffoldings in helping learners improve knowledge building, and little effort has been made to develop group-level metacognitive scaffolding (GMS) for knowledge building. This research designed three group-level metacognitive scaffoldings of general, task-oriented, and idea-oriented scaffoldings to facilitate in-service teachers’ knowledge building in small groups. A mixed method is used to examine the effects of the GMSs on groups’ knowledge building processes, performances, and perceptions. Results indicate a complication of the effects of GMSs on knowledge building. The idea-oriented scaffolding has potential to facilitate question-asking and perspective-proposing inquiry through peer interactions; the general scaffolding does not necessarily lessen teachers’ idea-centered explanation and elaboration on the individual level; the task-oriented scaffolding has the worst effect. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed to foster knowledge building with the support of GMSs.


Author(s):  
Katharina Diehl ◽  
Alessia Brassat ◽  
Jennifer Hilger-Kolb

Abstract Background To assess physical activity (PA), a comparative measurement – evaluating one’s own PA compared to others – may be an appropriate method. In previous studies, the use of comparative measurements led to an effect known as unrealistic comparative optimism (UCO) – people being unrealistically optimistic about their behavior. Our aim was to use this comparative measurement in university students to quantify the prevalence of UCO at the group level and to draw conclusions on its validity. Methods We used data from the Nutrition and Physical Activity in Adolescence Study (NuPhA), a cross-sectional online survey that included only self-reports (n = 689). To assess PA among students, they were asked to rate their PA level compared to that of their same-aged fellow students. In addition, we used the Godin-Shephard leisure-time PA questionnaire and other questions on PA for comparisons. We used bivariate and cluster-based analyses to identify potential UCO. Results We found that UCO at the group level led to an uneven distribution, with a higher proportion of students who rated themselves as being more physically active than average. However, the individual assessment of PA with a single and simple comparative question seemed to be valid. Discussion A global single comparative question seems useful for studies where PA is measured as a covariate in university students.


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