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N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Facilitating Pro-Environmental Behavior: An Overview of the Research Tuesday, February 6, 2018 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST
The integrity of conservation psychology as a field of research and practice is grounded in rigorous research. This webinar will feature an overview of relevant research, introduction to one empirically tested approach to facilitating behavior change, illustrated by the example of a recent study on fossil fuel divestment
Presenter: Abigail Abrash Walton, PhD Antioch University New England
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Webinar Logistics
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• The presentation will be recorded and posted to the Antioch web site within one week
• Please submit any questions you have for the presenter in the Q& A section
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Facilitating Pro-Environmental Behavior: An Overview of the Research Tuesday, February 6, 2018 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST
• Overview & Introductions • Joy Whiteley Ackerman, PhD
• Presentation • Abigail Abrash Walton, PhD
• Discussion & Audience Questions
Moderator: Dr. Joy Whiteley Ackerman, Antioch University New England
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Presenter: Dr. Abigail
Abrash Walton
Dr. Abigail Abrash Walton serves as co-director of both Antioch's Conservation Psychology Institute and Center for Climate Preparedness and Community Resilience and as faculty in the Department of Environmental Studies, where she directs the Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability master's degree concentration. Under her leadership, Antioch has developed and advanced a range of sustainability and social justice initiatives. Her public engagement, research, and teaching focus on change leadership, facilitating pro-environmental behavior, and translating values into effective action, particularly regarding environmental and social performance. She enjoys the spirit and practice of innovation and has played a central role in launching Antioch's Conservation Psychology Institute and Translating Research to Inform Policy workshops and in catalyzing a national-level working group to build the capacity of scientists and researchers to engage with the public policy process.
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Moderator: Dr. Joy Ackerman
Dr. Joy Ackerman is a Core Faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch University New England, where she serves as Director of Conservation Psychology. Joy teaches graduate courses including Conservation Psychology, Ecological Thought, and Making Sense of Place.
Joy advises students in the Conservation Psychology Certificate Program, the Self-Designed M.S. in Environmental Studies, and doctoral students with interests in spirituality, place and nature experience. She received her Ph.D. in environmental studies from Antioch University, focusing on sacred geography through researching Walden Pond as a place of pilgrimage. She is interested in the phenomenology of place experience, environmental and ecological identity, and how people experience, develop and articulate their connection with nature.
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Tuesday, March 20, 2018 12:00 – 1:00 PM EST Have you noticed that some environmental movements
seem to suddenly “take off”, like going organic, whereas others seem to struggle with gaining widespread adoption, like reusable shopping bags? In this webinar we’ll dig into the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers, 2003) that explains how these movements start in the first place, and what turns a movement into a social norm that sticks. In addition to exploring the theory of social norms, this presentation will also identify the behavioral underpinnings for why they occur and how these behavioral insights can be used to motivate greater adoption of conservation behaviors.
Creating a Conservation Movement
Presenter: Brooke Tully
“the scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world.”
(Saunders, 2003, p.
138)
Conservation Psychology is
Image source: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/hledej.php?hleda=crystal+ball
What [conservation practitioners] need are trained people, useful methods, and tested knowledge that they can use to improve
their day-to-day work. (Salafsky, 2003, p. 176)
The Anthropocene Epoch & Homo Sapiens
Environmental solutions = human behavior change (Heberlein, 2012; Saunders, 2003; Schultz, 2011, 2013; Stern, 2000a)
Image source: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2013/10/geological-anthropocene-era/
• Osbaldiston, R. (2013). Synthesizing the experiments and theories of conservation psychology. Sustainability, 5(6), 2770-2795.
• Osbaldiston, R., & Schott, J.P. (2012). Environmental Sustainability and behavioral science: Meta-analysis of proenvironmental behavior experiments. Environment and Behavior, 44, 257-299.
* Recycling * Conservation of energy, water, gasoline
Most experimental research on conservation behaviors has focused on a small set of behaviors, principally at the household level.
Image source: http://canacopegdl.com/synonym/household.html
Source: USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I[Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 470 pp, doi: 10.7930/J0J964J6. https://science2017.globalchange.gov/
Human
Activities Are
the Primary
Driver of
Recent Global
Temperature
Rise
The Phenomenon
Image Source: www.divestinvest.org/philanthropy/
Source: DivestInvest.org (2017)
$5.5 trillion
Source: DivestInvest.org (2017)
Fossil Fuel Divested Assets (Pledged/Actual) and Global Stock Market Value
US $5.5 trillion
US $63.5 trillion
Data sources: Arabella Advisors (2016); DivestInvest.org (2017); VisualCapitalist.com (n.d.)
Central Research Question:
What explained U.S.-based, private foundation
leaders’ readiness to pursue fossil-fuel divestment
by their institutions?
Image source: standards.gov.nz
Transtheoretical Model of Behavior
Change
Core constructs of the TTM.
TTM
Stages of Readiness to Engage
in New Behavior
Decisional Balance
Self-Efficacy
Processes of
Change
Precontemplation Contemplation Preparation Action Maintenance
TTM Processes of Change Ten Most Effective PEB Interventions and
Treatments
Consciousness raising: increasing
awareness via information, education, and
personal feedback about a problem
behavior and potential solution
Justifications/Instructions: reasons for
performing a specific behavior (also called
declarative information or why-to information)
Dramatic relief: experiencing negative
and positive emotions regarding the
behavior/change
Environmental Reevaluation: assessing
impact on others of your behavior and
possible change
Justifications: reasons for performing a specific
behavior (also called declarative information or
why-to information)
Self-Reevaluation: realizing that the
behavioral change is important to personal
identity, happiness, success and/or values
Cognitive Dissonance: accessing preexisting
beliefs or attitudes in attempt to make
participants behave in ways that were consistent
with those beliefs to reduce the dissonance
Table 2.2
Comparison of TTM Processes of Change and Most
Effective PEB Facilitative Interventions and Treatments
Source: Abrash Walton, 2016, p. 78
TTM Processes of Change Ten Most Effective PEB Interventions and
Treatments Social liberation: empowering individuals to engage in the
change behavior by providing choices and resources; societal
support for behavior; realizing that social norms are changing
to support the new behavior
Social modeling/Making it Easy: passing of information via
demonstration or discussion in which the initiators indicate that they
personally engage in the behavior; changing situational conditions,
involved making behaviors easier to do
Self-liberation: making a firm commitment to change;
believing in one’s ability to change and making commitments
and recommitments to act on that belief
Goal setting/Commitment: aim for a predetermined goal; make some
sort of verbal or written commitment to engage in a behavior
Helping Relationships: seeking and using social support to
make and sustain change; interacting with people who are
supportive of the change
Counter conditioning: substituting new ways of
acting/thinking for old behaviors
Making it Easy: changing situational conditions, involved making
behaviors easier to do
Reinforcement management: increasing rewards for new
behaviors and decreasing rewards for old behaviors
Rewards: any kind of monetary gain that people received as a result of
participating in the experiment
Stimulus control: removing reminders and cues to engage in
the old behaviors; introducing reminders and cues to engage in
the new behaviors
Prompts: non-informational reminders to perform the next specific
action; Feedback: information about the extent to which a behavior has
been performed in an earlier time frame
Table 2.2
Comparison of TTM Processes of Change and Most
Effective PEB Facilitative Interventions and Treatments
Source: Abrash Walton, 2016, p. 78
FINDINGS:
Divestment Behavior Change Process
Source: www.journeytopenuel.com
Contemplation
Preparation (commitment)
Action
Maintenance
Research Design
Two Datasets
Two Phases
Phase 1: Study Population Criteria:
• U.S.-based, private independent foundation, as defined by the
U.S. Internal Revenue Service (Internal Revenue Service, 2014)
• Public commitment to divest the foundation’s institutional assets
from fossil fuels (Divest-Invest Philanthropy, 2015)
Phase 2: Study Participant Criteria:
• Publicly named as foundation’s representative for the Divest-
Invest Philanthropy divestment commitment (Divest-Invest
Philanthropy, 2015) or
• Served in formal, top leadership role (CEOs or board chairs)
Table 4.1
Descriptors of Study Population Organizations
Foundation
Identifier
Geographic Region Total Institutional
Assets (millions)
Divest-Invest Public
Commitment Statement
A West Coast < $10 Yes
B East Coast < $10 Yes
C East Coast < $10 Yes
D East Coast < $10 Yes
E West Coast < $10 Yes
F East Coast < $10 Yes
G East Coast < $10 Yes
H East Coast < $10 Yes
I East Coast < $10 Yes
J East Coast < $10 Yes
K West Coast < $10 Yes
L East Coast $10-30 Yes
M West Coast $10-30 Yes
N East Coast $10-30 Yes
O Mountain/Midwest $10-30 Yes
P Mountain/Midwest $10-30 Yes
Q West Coast $10-30 Yes
R East Coast $10-30 No
S East Coast $10-30 Yes
T West Coast $10-30 Yes
U Mountain/Midwest $30-100 Yes
V West Coast $30-100 Yes
W East Coast $30-100 Yes
X East Coast $30-100 Yes
Y West Coast $30-100 Yes
Interviews (N=36; n=18)
Participant
Identifier
Total institutional
assets (millions) Institutional role Geographic Region
F1 < $10 President West Coast
F2 < $10 Trustee East Coast
F3 < $10 Trustee East Coast
F4 $10-$30 Board Chair West Coast
F5 $10-$30 Executive Director West Coast
F6 $10-$30 Executive Director East Coast
F7 $10-$30 President Mountain/Midwest
F8 $10-$30 President East Coast
F9 $10-$30 Trustee East Coast
F10 $30-100 Executive Director Mountain/Midwest
F11 $30-100 Executive Director East Coast
F12 $30-100 Executive Director West Coast
F13 > $100 Executive Director West Coast
F14 > $100 Executive Director East Coast
F15 > $100 CEO West Coast
F16 > $100 Trustee West Coast
F17 > $100 Executive Director East Coast
F18 > $100 President East Coast
Table 4.3 Descriptors for Participants
Divestment Decision
Figure 4.4. Organizational readiness to commit to divestment.
Contemplation Preparation (commitment)
Figure 4.5. Conceptual framework: Individual leader
divestment commitment and implementation behavior
change process.
•Considering implications of divestment (decisional balance inventory)
•Educating themselves about the feasibility of divestment
•Engaging the foundation board in conversation
Contemplation
•Feeling good: Positive emotions about making commitment to divest
•Making a divestment plan
Preparation •Defining what to divest
•Identifying alternatives
Action
•Including fossil fuel divestment in investment policy statement
•Monitoring investments
Maintenance
All Stages: Engaging effective support from investment advisors
TTM
Stages
Decisional Balance
Self-Efficacy
Processes of Change
Table 4.6
Divestment Commitment Decisional Balance Inventory
Pros Cons
Desire to align investing with
mission/vision/values/grant-making
Desire to address climate change (moral &
economic)
Desire to exercise leadership
Efficacy and feasibility of divestment, based
on personal, past activist experience
View of divestment as an investment
opportunity that would send market signal to
catalyze new investment services and products
and influence public policy
Time involved in researching and
implementing the decision
Potential for decreased performance of
the investment portfolio
TTM
Stages
Decisional Balance
Self-Efficacy
Processes of Change
• Ability to identify fossil fuel holdings
• Availability of alternative (i.e., non-fossil fuel) investment
vehicles
• Changing investment advisors
• Clear definitions of what constitutes divestment
• Effective support from investment advisor/s
• Existence of pro-socially responsible investing institutional
investment policy statement
• Familiarity with/prior engagement in
socially responsible investing
• Not owning a high percentage of
fossil fuel holdings, to begin with
• Resources provided by movement organizers
and think tanks (personnel and
decision-support tools)
Factors Affecting Sense of Self-Efficacy
TTM
Stages
Decisional Balance
Self-Efficacy
Processes of
Change
Process of
Change
New Term for
Process of Change
Evidence of Leader Experience
Consciousness
Raising
Recognizing Motivation to divest, based on their understanding of climate change
and the consequent need to end the use of fossil fuels
Dramatic
Relief
Reacting Strong emotions about climate change; Positive emotions about
committing to divestment; regret at not acting sooner
Environmental
Re-evaluation
Re-evaluating
(other)
Recognition of the problematic impacts of fossil fuels on human and
ecological systems
Self Re-
evaluation
Re-evaluating (self) Desire to align investments with mission, vision, values, and/or grant-
making; reflection on leaders’ own identity as environmentalists and
activists, including prior experience with South African divestment
and other forms of socially responsible investing
Social
Liberation
Realizing Recognition of the divestment movement and the resources movement
organizers provided to support the divestment behavior change
Self-liberation Committing Divestment commitment
Helping
Relationships
Reaching Out Actions to engage the effective support of investment advisors;
support by movement organizers
Reinforcement
Management
Rewarding Positive performance of portfolio, post-divestment; positive feedback
from others about the divestment decision
Counter
Conditioning
Replacing Reinvestment of institutional assets into “climate solutions”
Stimulus
Control
Restructuring Actions to include fossil fuel divestment in the foundation’s
investment policy statement
Table 4.8
Processes of Change, New Terms for Processes of Change, and Evidence of Leader Experience (Abrash Walton, 2016)
TTM
Stages
Decisional Balance
Self-Efficacy
Processes of
Change
If people just know
enough, they’ll change.
Ready
Pros outweigh cons
Feel confident about ability to change
There are10 general techniques for facilitating
behavior change
Abrash Walton, Abigail, "Positive Organizational Leadership and Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Phenomenon of Institutional Fossil Fuel Divestment" (2016). Dissertations & Theses. 269.
Ardoin, N., Heimlich, J., Braus, J., & Merrick, C. (2013) Influencing conservation action: What research says about environmental literacy, behavior, and conservation results. New York, NY: National Audubon Society.
Clayton, S., & Myers, G. (2015). Conservation psychology: Understanding and promoting human care for nature. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.doi: 9781118874608
Osbaldiston, R. (2013). Synthesizing the experiments and theories of conservation psychology. Sustainability, 5(6), 2770-2795.
Osbaldiston, R., & Schott, J.P. (2012). Environmental Sustainability and behavioral science: Meta-analysis of proenvironmental behavior experiments. Environment and Behavior, 44, 257-299.
Prochaska, J.O., DiClemente, C.C., & Norcross, J.C. (1992). In search of how people change: Applications to addictive behaviors. American Psychologist, 47 (9), 1102-1114.
Salafsky, N. (2003). Making conservation psychology relevant to practitioners. Human Ecology Review, 10(2), 174–176.
Saunders, C.D. (2003). The emerging field of conservation psychology. In Human Ecology Review, 10(2), 137-149.
Schultz, P. W. (2013). Strategies for promoting pro-environmental behavior: Lots of tools but
few instructions. European Psychologist, 19(2), 107–117. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000163
Schultz, P.W. (2011). Conservation means behavior. Conservation Biology, 25(6), 1080–1083. Society of Conservation Biology.
Steg, L. & Vlek, C. (2009). Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour: An integrative review and research agenda. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29(3), 309–317. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.10.004
Stern, P.C. (2000b). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 407-424.
Stern, P. C. (2003). How can conservation psychology become influential? In Human Ecology Review, 10(2), 177–179.
Selected References
Source: Abrash Walton, 2016
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Facilitating Pro-Environmental Behavior: An Overview of the Research
Q & A and Discussion
Moderator: Dr. Joy Whiteley Ackerman, Antioch University New England
Presenter: Dr. Abigail Abrash Walton,
Antioch University New England
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Thanks for joining this webinar.
Please do offer us your feedback via the brief exit survey.
Facilitating Pro-Environmental Behavior: An Overview of the Research Tuesday, February 6, 2018 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST
N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N C O N S E R V A T I O N P S Y C H O L O G Y W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Tuesday, March 20, 2018 12:00 – 1:00 PM EST Have you noticed that some environmental movements
seem to suddenly “take off”, like going organic, whereas others seem to struggle with gaining widespread adoption, like reusable shopping bags? In this webinar we’ll dig into the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers, 2003) that explains how these movements start in the first place, and what turns a movement into a social norm that sticks. In addition to exploring the theory of social norms, this presentation will also identify the behavioral underpinnings for why they occur and how these behavioral insights can be used to motivate greater adoption of conservation behaviors.
Creating a Conservation Movement
Presenter: Brooke Tully