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.

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 when the attitude and behavioral intention scales are used. People living in the rural context present more attitudes of environmental responsibility and greater consistency on expressing behavioral intentions compatible with the protection of the environment.

No abstract

Esta es la versión de autor del artículo publicado en: This is an author produced version of a paper published in: influences EB in the three conditions. The strongest total impact was found for children living in the city and the weakest for those in the work-related rural area. No direct effect of FCN on EB was found for children in the non work-related rural area, and a negative direct effect for those in the work-related rural area. A better understanding of this direct effect will be needed in order to give recommendations for environmental education initiatives.

The wilderness is one of the most widely recognized sources of transcendent emotion. Various recent studies have demonstrated nature’s power to induce intense emotions. The study at hand will generate conceptual and operational definitions of sublime emotion toward nature. Taking into consideration the recent research on feelings of awe, an instrument is devised to measure sublime emotion toward nature. The proposed scale’s reliability and validity is tested in a sample of 280 participants from the general population of Madrid. Results show that sublime emotion was defined by two conceptual components: awe, and inspiring energy, both obtained using the computer program FACTOR. After reliability and validity analysis, the Sublime Emotion toward Nature (SEN) scale included 18 items, distributed into awe (6 items, α = 0.881) and inspiring energy (12 items, α = 0.933). Awe was defined by feelings of fear, threat, vulnerability, fragility, and respect for nature, which is perceived as vast, powerful, and mysterious. Inspiring energy was defined by feelings of vitality, joy, energy, oneness, freedom, eternity, and harmony with the universe. The SEN is an adequate instrument to measure transcendent emotions provoked by direct wilderness exposure or memory thereof.

No abstract

This paper examines young children's concept of nature, paying attention to the role played by types of daily experience 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).Participants wrote what they thought about when hearing the word 'nature'. Content analysis revealed an overarching two-level conceptual structure formed with four underlying and interconnected themes. Level 1 includes the first theme, (1) Natural and Non-natural Elements and the second integrates the other three (2) the Human-Nature Relationship, (3) Emotional Experience of Nature and (4) Actions in Natural Settings.The type of daily experience with nature 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.

Esta es la versión de autor del artículo publicado en: This is an author produced version of a paper published in: El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscriptionIt is crucial to study environmental attitudes and behavior in populations of children, considering that the envi ronment's future will depend on the decisions of coming generations (Larson, Green, & Castleberry, 2011;van Petegem & Blieck, 2006). However, little is known about children's environmental attitudes, how they develop, or the variables that influence them. The dearth of reliable instruments to measure such atti tudes is, in part, why progress in this field has been so slow (Evans et al., 2007;Manoli, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007). This stands in contrast to the great many studies of environmental attitudes in adults. One of the most widelyused instruments measuring adults' ecolog ical beliefs is the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale by Dunlap and van Liere (1978). According to the New Environmental Paradigm, worldviews are shifting from anthropocentric to ecocentric, the latter of which considers human beings' impact on nature and sug gests limits be placed on growth. The NEP scale consists of 12 items and was created to measure people's affinity for this ecocentric perspective. It was later revised to include a similar number of items in favor of and against the ecocentric view it aims to detect, to incorporate more uptodate environmental problems, and to revise the terminology used in certain items (Dunlap, van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000), giving way to the New Ecological Paradigm: NEP revised. The revised scale is made up of 15 items whose content describes, in five parts, the humannature relationship: 1) ecological limits, 2) antianthropocentrism, 3) balance of nature, 4) antiexceptionalism, and 5) ecocrisis. The NEP scale has been utilized, among other things, to link ecological beliefs to proenvironmental behavior. It has been established that the NEP scale is positively associated with human ecological behavior. For example, Vozmediano and San Juan (2005) found that the NEP scale's ecocentrism dimension is positively correlated with the frequency with which people perform ecolog ical behaviors (r = .12, p < .01) and positive outcomes from those behaviors (r = .28, p < .01). It is negatively correlated, meanwhile, with the effort involved in such behavior (r = −.20, p < .01). Similarly, Olli, Grendstad, and Wollebaek (2001) showed, through multiple regression analysis, that the NEP, together with other variables like family income and environmental knowledge, is able to predict different types of ecological behavior, such as responsible consumption (b = 0.58, β = .09; p < .01) and conservation of resources (b = 0.64, β =.10; p < .01).Hawcroft and Milfont (2010) conducted a metaanalysis of the NEP's use in over 300 studies since 1970. The authors recommend using it as a standardized mea sure of environmental attitudes, and point out just one study wher...