José Antonio Corraliza

Environmental Values, Beliefs, and Actions A Situational Approach

This study investigated the influence of the interaction between personal and situational variables in environmental behavior and the predictive power of values and beliefs. Three different kinds of questions (environmental beliefs, Schwartz’s measure of values, and physical-environmental inhibition level) and 1 item of general environmental concern were presented, along with a 16-item list of environmental actions, to 125 randomly selected undergraduate students. The results permit two main conclusions. First, environmental behavior depends on personal and situational variables in an interactive way. Second, when high conflict level is generated between personal dispositions and situational conditions, the predictive power of attitudes tends to be minimal, whereas in the case of consistency between them it tends to be maximal. The influence of situational variables was found to depend on the environmental action considered. In some cases, situational variables were the most important, whereas in others, commitment or moral obligation played an essential role.

Rural-Urban Differences in Environmental Concern, Attitudes, and Actions

Abstract. Pro-environmental orientation constitutes one of the basic referents of modern culture. However, this pro-environmental orientation of a general nature does not permit us to predict pro-environmental behaviors. In order to explain this incongruence, it is necessary to take into account the sociostructural factors and socialization experiences through which people form their environmental values, attitudes, and behaviors. In this study we compare the values, attitudes, and behaviors of a rural sample and an urban sample, measured by means of three scales: the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, a moral obligation scale specifically designed for this study, and a scale of pro-environmental behavioral intentions. The results indicate high levels of environmental concern and low levels of pro-environmental behavior in both samples. On comparing the two samples it was found that those living in cities assume a larger number of environmental responsibility values but show less pro-environmental orientation...

Children’s Restorative Experiences and Self-Reported Environmental Behaviors

Positive experiences in nature relate to children’s environmental behaviors. The reasons for this link remain unknown. One possibility is that children behave more ecologically because they obtain benefits from spending time in nature. In the present study, we looked at positive experiences in nature, specifically restoration, as a motivational factor enhancing children’s proenvironmental behavior. Children (N = 832) rated their school yards in terms of restoration and reported their frequency of proenvironmental behaviors as well as their environmental attitudes. Perceived restoration predicted 37% of the variance in reported proenvironmental behavior. Moreover, this relationship was completely mediated by environmental attitudes. In addition, fascination, a component of restoration, was the only direct predictor of proenvironmental behavior.

El comportamiento humano y los problemas ambientales

Resumen Este número de Estudios de Psicología está dedicado al estudio de la conciencia ambiental, como concepto intermedio que describe como las personas viven los problemas ambientales. Igualmente, se incluye en este término el estudio de las variables antecedentes y predictoras del comportamiento ambiental. Este número tiene como objetivo presentar algunos de los logros metodológicos en el estudio de este tema, así como mostrar los desarrollos conceptuales y empíricos que se han producido en los últimos diez años en el contexto de la investigación psicosocial española.

Preocupación ecológica y acciones ambientales: Un proceso interactivo

Resumen El objetivo de este artículo es plantear alternativas a la explicació n de la conducta ambiental. Para ello se propone una aproximación dinámica y situational del comportamiento ambiental definido como resultado tanto de las variables relevantes de estudio (i.e. actitudinales, contextual.es—físicas y sociales—y conductuales), como de las relaciones que se establecen entre ellas. Utilizando las variables actitudinales, contextuales y conductuales se han estudiado las consecuencias que tiene la interacción entre variables actitudinales y contextuales sobre tres aspectos del comportamiento ambiental; la realización de conductas de responsabilidad ecológica, el sentimiento de obligación moral por llevar a cabo dicho tipo de conductas y el valor predictivo de las actituds. Vara lo cual se han analizado 23 conductas ambientales agrupadas en cuatro categorías (i.e. conductas de reciclaje, compra de productos ecológicos, consumo de agua y consumo energético). Los resultados apuntan la influencia d las variables contextuales tanto sobre la realización y predicción de la conducta ambiental como sobre el discurso d la moral ambiental del sujeto.

Estructura de las actitudes ambientales: ¿orientación general o especialización actitudinal?

ResumenEl estudio de las actitudes ambientales se articula sobre centros de interes diferenciados. Algunos trabajos estan orientados por la definicion de la estructura factorial sobre la que se organizan las actitudes ambientales. Otros ponen el acento en la investigacion de los procedimientos mas eficaces para el cambio y modificacion de actitudes ambientales. Los resultados de investigacion muestran un panorama de resultados escasamente acumulativos, cuya relevancia depende de las muestras de participantes utilizadas o de los temas ambientales objeto de estudio. Este trabajo pretende establecer, en base a las respuestas a un cuestionario de actitudes ambientales de una muestra de 396 personas, la pertinencia de la diferenciacion entre actitudes ambientales consideradas como un conjunto de creencias y/o juicios que reflejan una valoracion general de la problematica ambiental frente a creencias y/o juicios focalizados sobre acciones ambientales en funcion de la estimacion subjetiva de los costes. Los resu...

Experiencing nature and children’s conceptualizations of the natural world

This paper examines young children’s concepts of nature, paying attention to the role played by types of daily experiences with nature on 832 children’s constructions of the natural world. We observed the roles of three types of experiences, as determined by the children’s place of residence (urban, rural mountain range, and rural agricultural) in Spain. Participants wrote what they thought about when hearing the word ‘nature’. Content analysis revealed a conceptual structure formed with four underlying and interconnected themes: (1) natural and non-natural elements, (2) the human–nature relationship, (3) emotional experience of nature, and (4) actions in natural settings. The type of daily experiences with nature (i.e. urban, rural mountain range, and rural agricultural) accounted for variability in children’s concept of nature. These results reinforce the importance of considering the role played by personal and situational characteristics in shaping children’s constructions of the natural world.

Aspectos físicos y sociales en los lugares peligrosos: Miedo al delito en un espacio institucional

espanolSe propone el concepto de lugar peligroso para unificar diversos resultados relacionados con las caracteristicas sociofisicas de los espacios en que ocurre el miedo al delito. El concepto se refiere a la interpretacion de los rasgos fisicos ambientales como indices de las posibles actividades sociales esperadas en el lugar (bien delictivas, bien como apoyo social). Se realiza un estudio, mediante diapositivas, en un espacio institucional, para reafirmar la implicacion de algunos rasgos fisicos, como deterioro ambiental, rasgos de misterio y nocturnidad. La presencia de posibles ofensores ofrece resultados ambiguos que requieren investigaciones posteriores. Frente al escaso poder explicativo de variables personales previas relacionadas con el conocimiento del delito, se destaca la implicacion de la percepcion actual de amenaza y de variables referidas a competencias de afrontamiento del individuo EnglishThe concept of dangerous place is proposed to unify several results related to the sociophysical aspects of places where fear of crime occurs. The concept refers to the interpretation of physical features as indices of expected social activities in certain places (crime and social support). A study, using slides, in an institutional area is presented to reaffirm the implication of physical features such as environmental damage, mystery and nocturnity. The presence of possible offenders shows ambiguous results, requiring more investigation. Besides the low explanational power of previous personal variables related to knowledge about delinquency, there is found an involvement of variables referring to actual danger perception and subjects personal ability to deal with crime

Children's Perceived Restoration: Adaptation of the PRCS for Children to a Spanish sample

Abstract Several studies have shown that when childrens attention capacity is diminished, they cannot focus, they find it hard to cope with stressful situations and they become more likely to take unnecessary risks. A large number of studies have demonstrated that natural environments boost the restoration of attention capacity more than urban or semi urban environments. Hence, several instruments have been used to measure perceived restoration in adults in different environments; however, little attention has been paid to designing tools to measure childrens perceived restoration. In this study, the Perceived Restorative Components Scale for Children (Bagot, Kuo & Allen, 2007) has been adapted to a Spanish sample. It has been used with 832 children aged between 6 and 13 years old. The results show that it is important to include nature in school playgrounds, since playgrounds with a greater amount of nature in them (trees, ground vegetation, etc.) have a higher positive effect on childrens perceived restoration.

Estilo de vida, hábito y medio ambiente

Resumen En los últimos años el concepto de hábito está siendo integrado dentro de los modelos psicosociales contemporáneos que intentan explicar la conducta humana Stern (2000) lo considera un factor independiente en la explicación de la conducta ecológica. El presente trabajo presenta los estilos de vida como variables fuertemente relacionadas con las conductas de hábito. Específicamente, se analiza la capacidad predictiva que tienen seis factore d estilo de vida sobre diez conductas ambientales residenciales de hábito en una muetra española de 420 sujetos. Los resultados revelan que los estilos de vida funcionan como variables predictoras de la conducta ecológica d hábito y que, la variabilidad de tales relaciones, permite definir los estilos de vida según su grado de proambientalidad.