Recycling + Other Conservation Behaviours (cognitive)

Question 1

Conservation behaviours

Answer 1

Refers to behaviours that are environmentally friendly

Question 2

Examples of conservation behaviours

Answer 2

1. Making sure correct items into recycling bin
2. Not wasting water
3. Walking walking or public transport instead of driving
4. Trying to produce zero waste

Question 3

Factors influencing recycling habits

Answer 3

• companies using more sustainable choices
• recycling behaviours must be researched + measured
• age, income, occupation, education level + environmental knowledge
• accessibility to recycling facilities

Question 4

Factors that influence conservation behaviours

Answer 4

• cognitive mindset - perceptions of benefits vs costs of recycling
  theory of planned behaviour - changed thoughts
  behavioural attitude- positive rather negative
  values, subjective norms, perceived control
• behaviourist- rewards, punishment
  Situational- availability of facilities

Question 5

Ajzens theory of planned behaviour - cognitive theory

Answer 5

Behaviours flow from behavioural intentions which are affected by 3 things:
1. Behavioural attitude - own beliefs + attitudes about behaviour + consequences
2. Subjective norms - views of society - persons belief about what others would think
3. Perceived behavioural control - level of control an individual has over ability to perform behaviour

Question 6

Values

Answer 6

Schwartz (1992) describes certain values - freedom, equality + pro-environmental behaviours. Knowing which values someone holds can helps us make predictions about behaviour.
Steg et al (2014) argued study of values can be useful as they provide an efficient way of explaining behaviour- by changing a persons values could influence specific behaviours

Question 7

Values theories - social value orientations

Answer 7

• reflects extent to which people care about their own + others outcomes in a social dilemma
• people may have broadly cooperative value orientation, individualistic orientation or competitive orientation.
• a persons social value orientations can be assessed using the decomposed game technique developed by Liebrand (1984)

Question 8

Social norms

Answer 8

Research carried out by Nolan at al (2008) investigated willingness of individuals to converse energy.
Found participants behaviour more likely to change as a result of them being given normative info about better conservation behaviours of other households rather than if they were given info about conserving energy for reasons of environmental protection, social responsibility or saving money
However asked to rate importance of the differing info in terms of its effects on their behaviours, the normalities info was rated consistently lower than messages about environmental protection + saving money

Question 9

Attitudes

Answer 9

If individual has a positive attitude towards conservation, then they are more likely to put effort into recycling
Michele Tonglet (2004) surveyed 191 participants living in Northamptonshire. Found that positive attitudes to recycling were the strongest predictor of whether or not people actually recycled.
However Leonard Bickman in an earlier study found that although 94% of his ppts expressed a positive attitudes to picking up litter when faced with opportunity to demonstrate this in real life only 1.4% did actually pick up litter.

Question 10

Subjective norms

Answer 10

Related to social influence + people are likely to do what others around them do, especially role models or people who are important to us.
Judith de Groot + Linda Steg found subjective norms were more closely correlated with intention Han any other factor

Question 11

perceived behavioural control

Answer 11

• the intention to recycle / conserve will only happen if people believe they can actually do it.
• Bandura’s (1977) idea of self-efficacy - persons belief in own competence. if people believe they are able to do something= more likely to do it
• other factors can increase the belief in a persons ability e.g. recycling services offered

Question 12

perceived behavioural control - Shu Fai Cheung et al (1999)

Answer 12

• found student in Hong Kong with positive attitudes to conservation + believe they could manage successfully to recycle were good prediction + behaviour- also suggests theory of planned behaviour is not full story + that past experiences + knowledge are important too

Question 13

cognitive dissonance

Answer 13

Leon Festinger (1957) - dissonance is incompatibility
- proposes if a person holds 2 conflicting views/attitudes = create tension + will feel cognitive dissonance

Question 14

changing cognitions

Answer 14

• not a feeling that individuals enjoy + so they usually try to change the conflict
• can do this by finding out more info, minimising importance of issue. this changes cognitions + therefore reduces tensions felt.

Question 15

changing behaviour

Answer 15

possible for people to change behaviour.
usually requires education or it may be where fear of change is greater despite effort required is greater than keeping doing same thing

Question 16

aim of Lord (1994)

Answer 16

to investigate effectiveness of a range of different types of measures designed to increase compliance with a recycling programme in the US.
-> manipulated variables including message appeal + message source

Question 17

hypothesis 1-2 - impact of advocacy message (message that will show positive impact

Answer 17

1. advocacy messages positively affect attitudes
2. advocacy messages lead to an increase in observed recycling behaviour.

Question 18

hypothesis 3-4 - framing of message (positively or negatively framed)

Answer 18

3. positive framing leads to more (+ve) beliefs about benefits of recycling
4. positive framing leads to more favourable attitudes

Question 19

hypothesis 5-8 - interaction between framing + source of message

Answer 19

5. negative framing affects beliefs about recycling if advocacy message comes from news story
6. negative framing affects attitudes towards recycling most where part of a news story
7. personal appeal has effect on attitude when framed positively
   8.personal appeal has more effect on recycling behaviour than other sources, particularly when negatively framed.

Question 20

method of lord (1994)

Answer 20

• field experiment
• 3x2 design
• 3 message sources (advert, newspaper, personal letter)
• 2 framed messages (positive + negative)
  all 6 experimental conditions were to attempt to increase participation in community curbside recycling collection.
• positive messages framed environmental benefits
• negatively framed massages focused on physical benefits

Question 21

sample of lord (1994)

Answer 21

• 140 households in a metropolitan community - new york
• quota sampling (except in personal letter condition)

Question 22

data collection of lord (1994)

Answer 22

• collection day in week 1 study assistants discreetly observed + recorded contents of recycling bins.
• following day stimulus material was delievred - no face to face
• collection day in week 2 the study assisstants repeated bin observations.
• following day delivered questionaire to the adult of each house.
• were assured results would be kept anonymous + asked to return in sealed envelope.

Question 23

the questionnaire in Lords (1994) study

Answer 23

• beliefs in arguments raised by messages were assessed by asking ppts to rate truthfulness of a number of statements using 7 point scale.
• also measured attitudes towards recycling including harmful and unharmful.
• ppts also asked to complete demographic data including age, gender, income + highest qualification
• and attitudes towards message they had been exposed to was measured on points good-bad, wides-foolish, persuasive-unpersuasive, informative-uninformative, weak-strong + believable-unbelievable.

Question 24

results of Lord (1994)

Answer 24

• all messages regardless of source or frame were more likely to improve attitudes and behaviour than no messaging shown by results in control group
• • messages are better that - messages overall for improving attitudes. people found them believable + adverts were the best source
• negative framing in personal letters led to the biggest improvements in recycling behaviour.

Question 25

conclusions of lord (1994)

Answer 25

• responses appeal to recycle are complex + cannot be fully explained by this research alone
• • messages appear to preferred rather than - behaviour
• people more prepared to believe them than -ly framed messages
• negative personal messages have greatest effect on recycling behaviour
• However source of message also has effect + is important if sending negatively framed message.
• Further research should look at power of advertising over other source messages as findings were unexpected.

Question 26

application 1 - antecedent techniques

Answer 26

• provides more recycling bins + more regular collection
• jacob hornik conducted a meta analysis of 67 studies + found frequency of kerbside collections significantly increased the likelihood of the household undertaking recycling
• changing perceptions = largely based on increasing publics perception + the benefits + reducing their perception of drawbacks of recycling or other conservation behaviuor
• framing the advice = adive could focus on all the benefits such us financial and positive feeling

Question 27

application 2 - consequent techniques

Answer 27

they occur either before or after conservation behaviour
- rewards = if people anticipate a reward they are more likely to undertake that behaviour
- punishment = a system like pay as you throw. pay per bag of rubish that isnt for recycling