Environmentalist Self-Concept and Influences on Pro-Environmental Behaviors: An Analysis across Identity Schemas

• In Event: 3242 - Open Topics on Social Psychology II

Abstract

Research in environmental sociology holds that self-identification with the environment, or environmental identity, is positively associated with participation in pro-environmental behaviors, such as belonging to environment-related organizations or donating money to environmental causes. Meanwhile, identity theory posits that the capacity of a given identity to influence social action depends upon its relation to the complete set of competing identities that comprise an individual’s self-structure. I contribute to both the environmental identity and identity theory literatures by illustrating how relational methodologies — in this instance, Correlational Class Analysis — may be used to model the relationships among identities that constitute individuals’ self-structures and to measure cultural similarity among individuals. Using Wave Six of the World Values Survey, I identify three distinctive identity schemas that U.S. respondents use to organize their self-structures and show that environmentalist self- concept occupies a distinctive position within each schema. Performing logistic regression, I illustrate that the strength of the relationship between environmentalist self-concept and pro- environmental behaviors depends upon which identity schema an individual uses.

Author

• Kyle Puetz, University of Arizona