Attitude vs. Behavior

Attitude has been the subject of research for social psychologist for many years.  Over the years, many different definitions of attitude are considered.  For the purpose of my project, attitude is considered as “a general latent disposition which underlies affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses to an attitude object” (Ajzen, 2005).  In other words, an attitude is a personal outlook that is driven by thoughts about the subject, feelings towards the subject, and intentions toward the subject.  

Attitude behavior consistency is the correspondence between declarations and actions.  Social psychologists have discarded the idea of a clear-cut connection between attitude and behavior (Byrka, 2009).  In their book Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Behavior, Ajzen and Fishbein discuss the idea that intention is the driving determinant in a person’s behavior.  They describe intention as

a function of two basic determinants, one personal in nature and the other reflecting social influence.  The personal factor is the individual’s positive or negative evaluation of performing the behavior.  The second determinant of intention is the person’s perception of the social pressures put on him to perform or not to perform the behavior in question (1980).

People will act upon an intention if they determine it as positive and believe “important others think they should perform it” (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). 

Campbell’s paradigm is another major theory in attitude behavior studies.  Katarzyna Byrka discusses his theory in her thesis on Attitude behavior consistency.  According to Byrka, Campbell subscribed the idea to situational limitations such as social norms create different settings for behaviors.  In his theory, the behavior’s difficulty is determined by to “total cost of performance” (Byrka, 2009).

In 1997 a project titled "The Demographics of Recycling and the Structure of Environmental Behavior" was conducted.  This project showed that “a large number of people will take pro-environmental actions is they have access to a convenient way of doing so”.  I hypothesize that redefining a norm and creating a space that is more conducive to performing sustainable actions will result in more environmentally responsible behaviors.   In my research, I will test this by conducting a survey based on the aforementioned areas of sustainability.  The results determine the driving determinant in student attitude-behavior consistency (or inconsistency) on campus.  

Crisis Confirmed.

While re-vamping the introduction to my thesis, I came across the book Environmentalism: A Global History written by R. Guha.  This book is a great source of information how we arrive at our current environmental state.  A line in this book at really got my attention was: “Environmentalism must be viewed as a social program”.  My research is showing this more and more.  We need to come together as a society and work together to solve the environmental problems that we have created. Below are a few passages, if you like them, go check out the book!  It's at Evans Library and it's really good!

The first wave of environmentalism is a response to industrialization, while the second is an intellectual response that gained “shape and force” by public support and transformed into a movement. 


The “first wave” followed the industrial revolution step by step.  “The industrialization of the world dramatically altered the natural world through new methods of resource extraction, production, and transportation.”  Nature was being use and abused more than ever.  “Simultaneously, advances in medical technology led to a steady increase in human populations.  More humans producing more and consuming more led axiomatically to greater pollution and habitat degradation.  The pace of environmental destruction greatly accelerated.  Nature became a source of cheap raw material as well as a sink for dumping the ever-growing appetite of industry decimated forests and wild-lands.  New and dangerous chemicals were excreted into rivers and the atmosphere.”

“Environmental problems were certainly not unknown in the past, but possibly for the first time in human history there [is] now the perception of an environmental crisis” 

To walk or not to walk.

College is the time in a young adult’s life that behaviors and attitudes are developed.  This makes the information and activities they take part in vital to their development, especially their active living development.  The article in the Journal of American College Health by Susan B. Sisson, PhD; James J. McClain, PhD; Catrine Tudor-Locke, PhD focuses on walkability on college campuses.  It compares college campuses to high density communities and analyzes the distance walked and the amount of steps students take in a week.  These statistics were then compared to the built environment of two college campuses, ASU-Tempe and ASU- Polytechnic.  The Tempe campus has many destinations within walking distance, has sidewalks on every street, and is built on a grid that isolates vehicle traffic.  While the Polytechnic campus has fewer walkable destinations, has very few sidewalks, and is laid out along a road with lots of vehicle traffic.  The results showed that the built environment of the ASU Tempe campus is more conducive to pedestrian behavior than the Polytechnic campus.  The results also showed walking for transportation helps students to meet recommended daily physical activity levels.

This article applies to the transportation part of my research.  If we can create a campus that encourages walking and/or using sustainable transportation (ie. bikes and buses), TAMU would benefit physically and environmentally.  

Carbon Footprint Reality

While working on my Best Practices Report, I came across a link on the TAMU website that calculates your carbon footprint.  I like to think that I'm below average on my carbon footprint, but I took the test to make sure!  Turns out... I really am a little below the national average!  What I thought was really cool about this site was that it showed you the state average and how you compared also.  Also, I've been reading about the inconsistency on self reported surveys, and I found myself doing the very thing that I had been reading about...giving the answers that I thought were socially desired, not the what I was actually doing!  So click go to the Nature Conservancy Website and see what your carbon footprint is!  I challenge you to be brutally honest and don't over/underestimate your impact!

Publicity Matters!

Many universities are beginning to embrace sustainability and use the green practices surveys for sustainability rankings. This makes their practices known to the public. However, most of the publicity focuses on energy use such as wind power, renewable energy, and carbon emissions. Many universities still lack an environment that promotes green behavior in students (“Higher Education Moves Toward Sustainability”).

My research proposes that convenience, incentive, awareness, and ethics are all factors in students' green behavior.  Universities should create an environment that not only physically reduces our impact, but provides students with easy ways to implement more green practices into their everyday life, such as recycling, food waste, and transportation methods. 

Margaret Trott discusses the trendiness of going green in her article in Messiah College’s Student Newspaper, “The Swinging Bridge”. She promotes the “reuse” aspect of sustainability over purchasing new “green” items, such as the new hybrid cars recently purchased for the college and questions if green purchasing is a worthy investment.  Margaret provides an example of how some sustainable actions are not translated into the student body’s behavior.