Normative Influence of pro-Environmental Intentions in Adolescents with Different Personality Types

Values, Beliefs and Environmental Citizenship

“…The common European goal of promoting Environmental Citizenship could, arguably, be best achieved through the understanding of the underlying diversity of various cultures. It is therefore understandable that promoting Environmental Citizenship in Europe should be context specific and tailored to the individual (Poškus 2017(Poškus , 2018Poškus and Žukauskienė 2017). Investigating values of different groups of individuals as well as values relevant to different cultures and regions (Katz-Gerro et al 2017; Bardi and Goodwin 2011;Bardi et al 2009;Inglehart and Baker 2000) would lend insight into how these regions could be best approached to promote Environmental Citizenship.…”

“…We will give particular focus to beliefs, because they are arguably at the core of all human behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen 2011). There are many ways individuals form beliefs, but belief formation is mostly a function of the interaction of environmental factors and innate traits (Poškus 2017;Fishbein and Ajzen 2011). Thus, beliefs can be formed through systematic means, such as education, but they can also develop naturally through observing one's surroundings.…”

“…Thus, beliefs can be formed through systematic means, such as education, but they can also develop naturally through observing one's surroundings. However, the end result will still be different for different individuals, since individual characteristics and subsequent subjective experiences and interpretations influence the way we perceive the information that we receive from the external environment (Poškus 2017).…”

Personality and pro-environmental behaviour

“…Additionally, personality traits are determined by a multitude of polymorphisms at a multitude of loci,8 therefore regarding them as separate modules would be too simplistic. From a practical standpoint, it becomes useful to regard the whole personality as an adaptive strategy for behaviour and to look at how patterns of traits relate to various behavioural outcomes 5. The rationale for this view is grounded in the person-oriented literature that emphasises a holistic understanding of an individual 3 5 9.…”

“…Even though there is more use in investigating personality trait patterns, rather than separate personality traits, the trait of openness plays a particularly important role for pro-environmental behaviour 5. Sustainable lifestyles are novel and unusual (even though they are becoming increasingly more normalised), thus individuals higher in openness tend to adopt them more readily.…”