Why Do People Fail to Adopt Environmental Protective Behaviors? Toward a Taxonomy of Environmental Amotivation1

1999/12/01 by Luc G. Pelletier, Stéphanie Dion, Stéphanie C. Dion +3 · 16 citations
Environmental Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Social and Intergroup Psychology

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00122.x

Abstract

Individuals' reasons for their lack of motivation toward environmental protective behaviors were proposed: amotivation because of strategy, capacity, effort, and helplessness beliefs. Confirmatory factor analyses and correlations between the four types of amotivation and constructs related to the environment supported the validity of the constructs. A structural model in which helplessness beliefs could be predicted by the other sets of beliefs, and wherein strategy and ability beliefs resulted from effort beliefs, was tested. All estimated parameters were significant, with the exception of one link: amotivation because of effort beliefs did not display a significant relationship with helplessness beliefs. The importance of understanding why individuals may be amotivated and the strategies liable to help reduce their lack of motivation are discussed.

Citations

• Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency.
• Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation.

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