The Environmental Psychology of the Ecological Citizen : Comparing Competing Explanations to Factors Driving Individual Pro-Environmental Behaviour

Despite essentially focusing the same issue, i.e. exploring the drivers behind pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) at the individual level, research within environmental psychology and environmental political science rarely converge. Rather than joining forces, theories and models of individuals’ PEB have developed side-by-side within these two main approaches, without them communicating, exchanging experiences and possibly finding a common ground for future research across disciplinary boundaries. This is certainly a shortcoming in the literature on PEB, as perspectives, theories and models from these two research traditions very well might prove to complement each other in a fruitful way, and provide a better basis for political decision-making and policy design. This research attempts to amalgamate the learning on factors driving individual-level PEB from environmental psychology and environmental political science respectively. The aim of the study is to examine how these two theories relate to each other, if they essentially measure the same mechanism, and if they complement, rather than compete with, each other: What factors remain as significant explanatory factors for PEB when the two theoretical models are combined?Godkänd; 2012; 20121002 (simonm