Expanding and Evaluating Motives for Environmentally Responsible Behavior

Part of a special issue on Psychology of Promoting Environmentalism: New Ways to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior.This article contends that while striving to promote environmentally responsible behavior, we have focused attention too narrowly on just two classes of motives. There is a need to expand the range of motives available to practitioners and to provide a framework within which motives can be evaluated for both their immediate and long-term effectiveness. The article then examines a strategy for promoting environmentally responsible behavior that has significant potential. This strategy is based on a particular form of motivation called intrinsic satisfaction. Nine studies are reviewed that have outlined the structure of intrinsic satisfaction. A key theme discussed is the human inclination for competence. This fundamental human concern is shown to have both a general form and a resource-specific version.Partially funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation (96-34311A-WER).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83703/1/De_Young,_R._(2000)_Expanding_and_Evaluating_Motives_for_Environmentally_Responsible_Behavior,_JSI,_56,_3,_509-526.pd