Blok 3: Social science and environmental behaviour Flashcards
• convey insights into the interactions between human behavior and the physical environment
Why is the behavioral science perspective important?
§ If there is only a physical perspective and scientists and policy makers only look at the things like carbon filters, waste management and the like
§ If the average consumption level were to go up the total amount of pollution would still stay the same or increase.
§ That’s why it’s important for human behavior to also be taken into account.
What are the 4 steps in understanding and managing environmental problems
□ Problem analysis
□ Policy decision-making
□ Practical intervention
Evaluation of policy effectiveness
What can behavioral scientists do to enhance environmental qualities?
§ ‘look over the fence’ and familiarizing themselves with specific c domains of environmental problems.
§ conceptualize and analyze environmental problems as socio-behavioral problems. For example, urban air pollution may be conceived as a problem due to many individual emitters of harmful exhaust gases whose motivation rests largely on the immediate needs and benefits involved, as well as on perceived social norms.
§ conduct empirical studies to test and revise conceptual models and hypotheses about specific environmental problems. For example, research may be able to clarify the reasons behind rising household energy consumption, personal opinions about and (lack of) potential for energy-saving behavior, and people’s expectations about future quality of life if fossil energy consumption were to be seriously discouraged.
assist policymakers and other professionals in designing, applying and evaluating strategies for the development of sustainable behavior patterns, lifestyles and business cultures
Give 3 dichotomies of environmental behavior and why they are important
• Impact vs intent
□ Intent-oriented definition of behaviour
® focus on what intential actions people undertake to benefit the environment
□ Impact-oriented definition behaviour
® A focus on identifying behaviour associated with a significant environmental impact and examine ways of reducing that impact.
• Efficiency vs curtailment □ Curtailment behaviour § Behaviour limiting the use of appliances □ Efficiency behaviours § Behaviour switching to more efficient appliances • Direct vs indirect □ Direct: car use and waste disposal Indirect: voting green, dontating to environemtnal organisation • These categories are important because each of which is affected differently by relevant psychological, sociodemographic and situational factors. Focusing on intentions is different from thinking about impacts. For example, recycling (intention) is more strongly related to environmental attitudes, while energy use (impact) is more strongly related to household income.
Explain the “actor oriented research perspective”
§ A research perspective focused on human needs, goals, activities and determinants of behaviour with environmental impact.
§ Examine why some people act more pro-environmental than others and what can be done to persuade people
Can identify clusters of behaviour, pro-envorionmental person will peform action A and B but not C
Name and explain 4 behavioral processes
§ deliberation, repetition, social comparison, imitation
• Deliberation:
□ a process of individual reasoning about possible behavioural alternatives
• Repetition: □ an individual process of automatic behaviour , established over time through recurrent positive reinforcements and the absence of major disincentives. • Social comparison: □ A process of attuning one’s behaviour to that one observes in or assumes about other people • Imitation: a process of automatically copying other people’s behaviour or their behavioural norms or expectations.
What is a commons dilemma?
§ A situation of conflict between a collective interest and numerous individual interests. In pursuing their own personal interest, many individuals tend to shift the negative impact of their behaviour onto their common environment. The cumulative effect of these numerous small impacts may lead to deterioration of collective environmental qualities.
What are the 4 categories for research and policy making into commons dillemmas? Name 3 issues for each
• Problem diagnosis
§ Analysis of collective risk, annoyance and stress
§ Analysis of socio-behavioral factors and processes underlying risk generation
§ Assessing problem awareness, risk appraisal and actor’s individual values and benefits
• Policy decision-making § Weighing of collectibe risk against total individual benefits § Setting objectives for reducing environmental and/or social risk (if needed) § Translation of risk reduction objectives into individual behavioral goals • Practical intervention § Looking at indicidual target groups and considering the conditions needed for policy effectiveness § Comming up with feasible alternatives and selecting effective policy instruments § Application of strategic programme of behaviorral change • Evaluation of effectiveness § Designing a monitoring and evaluation programme to determine polict effectiveness § Evaluation of obervable effects and side-effects Intermittent and post hoc policy feedback, with possilble revision of policies
Constitutive policies
§ Policies that aim to influence behaviour indirectly by creating preconditions for behaviour (such as education, infrastructure equipment)
What is (Cooperation) in regards to the commons dilemma?
§ Maximizing behavioural outcome for one’s own interest and the common good
What is (Defection) in regards to the commons dilemma?
Maximizing behavioural outcome for one’s own interest at the cost of the common good
what are Directive policie
§ Policies that aim to influence behaviour directly (through instructions, prohibitions, price incentives)
Impact oriented research perspective
§ A research perspective focusing on physicochemical processes from source to sink.
what are Informational strategies for behavioural change in the commons dilemma?
§ Strategies aimed at provide information in order to changing individual perceptions, motivations and preferences, inducing actors to behave in cooperative manner while leaving the basic nature structure of the commons dilemma unchanged.
Explain the IPAT formula and its different elements. (see notes for figure)
Way to describe environmental decline
§ Formula stating that for any geographic unit, total environmental impact (I) is a product of population size (P), average per capita level of affluence (A) and the environmental resource intensity of the technology (T) used to produce one unit of affluence.
§ I = P x A x T
□ Whereby (P) is the number of people, (A) is the volume of production and consumption and (T) the means to produce and consume. P, A and T are influenced by cultural beliefs (C) and institutions (I).
Myths of nature
model of ‘Myths of Nature’ seeking to reflect different archetypal views on the vulnerability of nature. Four Myths are distinguished:
® Nature Capricious (nature is unmanageable and inefficacious system, you never know what will happen next and you can't learn anything about it) ® Nature Tolerant (nature is a robust system, but only to a certain point. We must respect the limits set by experts and authorities ® Nature Benign (nature is robust and resilient. Nature is stable, resources abundant, it's okay to take risks ® Nature Ephemeral. (nature is precarious and in a delicate balance, we need to avoid risks or we could upset the balance)
Explain the NOA model and how it can be used to describe internal and external behavioral determinants
NOA stands for Needs, Opportunities, Abilities
It is a A model for structuring internal and external behavioural determinants where consumer environmental behaviour can be regarded as governed by the Needs (N), Opportunities (O) and Abilities (A) at hand for undertaking a particular resource-consuming activity.
□ Motivation to perform: ® If there is a Need and an Opportunity, people want to consume □ Behavioural Control: ® if there is an opportunity (O) and ability (A), people could consume □ Opportunity Search: if there is a need and capability of fulfilling, people seek an opportunity to consume
What is the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale?
scale including 15 items providing a general measure of a person’s environmental concern and General Environmental Beliefs
What are pull and push policies?
Policies that aim to make environmentally sound behaviour more/less attractive
What is (short sightedness) in regards to the commons dilemma?
A spatially, temporally and socially limited focus, which may hamper long-term problem awareness, strategic planning and policy decision making.
What are survival dilemmas?
Here we speak of cognitive and affective short-sightedness. When making plans for the long term, we often think we’re being rational but there are several ways in which hamper our decision making skills. We attach more importance to the here, us and now
Are dilemma’s which lead people to discount behavioural consequences
- benefit - risk dilemma: discount risk when benefit is attractive
- spatial dilemma : discount risk for remote places
- temporal dillemma: discount risk for delayed future consequences
- social dileamma: discount risk for strangers
What is the Value-belief-norm theory?
See figure 9.6 in book:
combines the value orientation, the NEP and myths of nature
as in norm-activation theory: it is assumed people only act when they feel morally abliged to do so
VBN theory has been tested and explains low cost behavior bettter than high cost (where people’s ability to act and non-environmental belief play a more important role)
What is (value orientation) in regards to the commons dilemma?
Value orientation of people towards common resources. Values are defined here as enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state
discuss the different perspectives of physical and behavioral scientists in terms of impact orientation vs. actor orientation as regards environmental issues
§ While a physical scientist would tend to address environmental effects and physicochemical processes ‘from source to sink’ (impact orientation)
§ social scientist would be inclined to focus on human needs, goals, activities and determinants of behavior with environmental impact. (actor orientation) § Both are important perspective and are a good starting point to construct policies.
This figure shows that both POVs can be useful an come with different starting points. When trying to make a policy about energy, an impact oriented POV will lead you to address a broad range of energy consumers. If you take an actor oriented POV, you will simultaneously need to address a broad range of environmental impacts