Explaining Proenvironmental Intention and Behavior by Personal Norms and the Theory of Planned Behavior1
1999/12/01 by Paul Harland, Henk Staats, Henk A. M. Wilke +1 · 873 citations
Environmental Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Control (management) #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Epistemology #Intervention (counseling) #Legal norm #Norm (philosophy) #Psychology #Social norms approach #Social psychology #Statistics #Theory of planned behavior #Value (mathematics) #Variance (accounting)
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00123.x
published in Journal of Applied Social Psychology 29(12), 2505-2528 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1999/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract
The value of personal norms (Schwartz, 1977) for proenvironmental behavior has been demonstrated in previous studies (e.g., Vining & Ebreo, 1992), but not in addition to the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen & Madden, 1986). In the present study, this combination was investigated by means of a mail survey among a sample of 305 Dutch citizens who were enlisted to participate in a behavioral change intervention program on environmentally relevant behavior. Personal norms appear to increase the proportion of explained variance in 5 intentions and 4 self‐reported measures of performed environmentally relevant behaviors beyond that explained by three of the theory of planned behavior constructs (i.e., attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control). Issues evoked by these results are discussed.
Citations
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