Suchergebnisse

Este texto constituye una versión revisada de la conferencia pronunciada por el Dr. Henk Staats en las III Jornadas de Psicología Ambiental, celebradas en Sevilla del 6 al 8 de noviembre de 1991, organizadas por la Agencia de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucía y el Departamento de Psicología Social de la Universidad de Sevilla. ; Las investigaciones sobre preferencia ambiental han constituido, en los veinte últimos años, una de las áreas de mayor actividad en el marco general de los estudios de psicología ambiental impulsadas, a instancias políticas en los paises más desarrollados por la problemática derivada de la relocalización y gestión de los denominados «recursos escénicos» (paisajes de elevado valor que era necesario proteger, conservar u optimizar). El propósito fundamental que persigue este trabajo es el de realizar un acercamiento general a las cuestiones más importantes que caracterizan este reciente ámbito de estudio. En primer lugar, se comenta, sucintamente, el estado actual de la psicología ambiental en el contexto geográfico del autor, así como se ofrece una definición de dicha disciplina. Posteriormente, se abordan las tres líneas de investigación que contribuyen, en opinión del autor, ejemplos de cuestiones científicas relevantes para el progreso teórico y aplicado de la disciplina señalada: a) la influencia del tiempo en la preferencia por ambientes; b) las diferentes posiciones teóricas existentes (categorías); c) las relaciones que pueden establecerse entre las características objetivas del paisaje y los juicios psicológicos subjetivos (realidad). ; Environmental preference research has constituted, in the last 20 years, one of the most active fields in the general scope of environmental psychology studies. Such research have fundamentally been promoted by governments, in the most conuntries, in order to manage the so-called scenic resources (valued landscapes which are necessary to preserve or improve). The principal aim pursued in this papper is to present a general view about the foremost questions which characterize this active study field. Initially, state of art of the environmental psychology in The Netherlands has been, briefly, introduced and a definition of this discipline is offered. Subsequently, three lines of investigation in invironmental preference have been pointed out which are, according to the author, examples of scientific questions that are directly relevant for theoretical .and applied progress in the mentioned discipline:a) the influence of time on preference for environments; b) the different theoretical views (categories); c) the relationships between objective characteristics and psychological subjective judgements of landscapes (the real world).

Pro-environmental behavioral patterns are influenced by relevant others' actions and expectations. Studies about the intergenerational transmission of environmentalism have demonstrated that parents play a major role in their children's pro-environmental actions. However, little is known about how other social agents may shape youth's environmentalism. This cross-sectional study concentrates on the role that parents and peers have in the regulation of 12- to 19-year-olds' pro-environmental behaviors. We also consider the common response bias effect by examining the associations between parents, peers, and adolescents' pro-environmentalism in two independent data sets. Data Set 1 ( N = 330) includes adolescents' perceptions of relevant others' behaviors. Data Set 2 ( N = 152) includes relevant others' self-reported pro-environmental behavior. Our results show that parents' and peers' descriptive and injunctive norms have a direct effect on adolescents' pro-environmental behavior and an indirect one, through personal norms. Adolescents seem to be accurate in the perception of their close ones' environmental actions.

Interventions for voluntary proenvironmental behavior change usually target a limited number of behaviors and have difficulties in achieving durable change. The EcoTeam Program (ETP) is an intervention package that aims to overcome these flaws. Through a combination of information, feedback, and social interaction in a group—the EcoTeam—participants focus on the environmental consequences of their household behavior. The 3-year longitudinal study found that ETP participants ( N= 150) changed half of the 38 household behaviors examined, with corresponding reductions on four physical measures of resource use. These improvements were maintained or enlarged 2 years after completion of the ETP, amounting to savings from 7% on water consumption to 32% on solid waste deposition. A detailed analysis of one behavior, means of transportation, suggests that change can be predicted from the interplay between behavioral intention and habitual performance before participation, and the degree of social influence experienced in the EcoTeam during participation.

Workshop managers in garages (N = 153) received a message by mail with recommendations on how their subordinates should behave to reduce oil pollution of wastewater. The recommendations were either tailored or not tailored to the current behavior routines in each specific workshop. Tailored messages resulted in more accurate knowledge (assessed 1 week postintervention) and in more pro-environmental behavior (assessed 3 months postintervention and compared to pretest data). Tailored messages were as effective with or without additional information on behavior routines in other garages. Compared to no message (control group, n = 60), the tailored messages resulted in more pro-environmental behavior. The nontailored messages were hardly more effective than no message. The nontailored messages remained as ineffective when readers were helped (via a routing procedure) to select those parts of the message relevant to their workshop. It is concluded that tailoring is a promising new approach when campaigning for pro-environmental behavior in organizations.

Commitment making is commonly regarded as an effective way to promote proenvironmental behaviors. The general idea is that when people commit to a certain behavior, they adhere to their commitment, and this produces long-term behavior change. Although this idea seems promising, the results are mixed. In the current article, the authors investigate whether and why commitment is effective. To do so, the authors first present a meta-analysis of environmental studies containing a commitment manipulation. Then, the authors investigate the psychological constructs that possibly underlie the commitment effect. They conclude that commitment making indeed leads to behavior change in the short- and long term, especially when compared with control conditions. However, a better understanding is needed of the possible underlying mechanisms that guide the commitment effect. The authors see commitment making as a potentially useful technique that could be improved by following up on findings from fundamental research. They provide suggestions for future research and recommendations for improving the effectiveness of commitment-making techniques.