Marianna Piskóti the ROLE of ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY in the DEVELOPMENT of ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR

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Marianna Piskóti the ROLE of ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY in the DEVELOPMENT of ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR Marianna Piskóti THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR INSTITUTE OF MARKETING AND MEDIA DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING RESEARCH AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR Supervisor: Dr. Ágnes Hofmeister-Tóth Professor © Marianna Piskóti CORVINUS UNIVERSITIY OF BUDAPEST Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR Doctoral dissertation Marianna Piskóti Budapest, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ III LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................V 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 OBJECTIVE AND STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION .............................................................. 3 2 SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION ............................................................................................ 5 2.1 CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION ............................................................................ 8 2.2 STAKEHOLDERS OF SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION ................................................................ 11 2.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS CONSUMER ............................. 13 3 INTERPRETATION OF PSYCHOLOGY SCHOOLS IN THE RESEARCH OF ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR .................................................................. 18 3.1 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ................................................................................ 19 3.1.1 Self-concept of social psychology ................................................................................... 20 3.1.2 Application of social psychology in the understanding of environmentally-friendly activities. ...................................................................................................................................... 21 3.2 GESTALT THEORY AND ECOPSYCHOLOGY ........................................................................... 33 4 PERSONALITY ........................................................................................................................ 36 4.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM ........................ 39 4.2 IDENTITY THEORY ............................................................................................................... 43 4.3 SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY .................................................................................................. 46 5 IDENTITY AND NATURE ...................................................................................................... 49 5.1 ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY ................................................................................................ 51 5.2 FORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY........................................................................ 54 5.3 MEASUREMENT METHOD OF IDENTITY ................................................................................ 55 5.3.1 Measuring Environmental Identity ................................................................................. 55 5.3.2 Connection to Nature ...................................................................................................... 57 5.3.2.1 Presentation of Implicit Association Test .............................................................. 59 5.3.2.2 IAT-Nature test to study the relationship between man and nature ....................... 62 5.3.3 Emotional bonds to nature .............................................................................................. 64 5.3.4 Relation to nature scale .................................................................................................. 65 5.4 IDENTITY AS A FORMING FACTOR OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ............................................. 66 6 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR MODELS IN ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION ................................................................................................................................ 71 7 PRELIMINARY STUDIES ...................................................................................................... 78 7.1 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TO STUDY COMMITMENT TO NATURE ........................................... 78 7.1.1 Research method ............................................................................................................. 79 7.1.2 Results of the research .................................................................................................... 79 7.1.3 Summary and limitations of the research ....................................................................... 84 7.2 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH TO TEST SCALES MEASURING ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY ......... 85 7.2.1 The study of INS scale..................................................................................................... 86 7.2.2 Examination of NR scale ................................................................................................ 87 7.2.3 Examination of EID scale ............................................................................................... 88 I 8 EMPIRICAL RESEARCH PLAN ........................................................................................... 92 8.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES ............................................................................ 93 8.2 RESEARCH METHODS APPLIED ............................................................................................. 99 8.2.1 Implicit Association Test - Nature .................................................................................. 99 8.2.2 The study of the relationship between environmental identity and environmentally conscious behaviour................................................................................................................... 100 9 THE APPLICATION OF IAT-NATURE FOR THE CONNECTION WITH NATURE 102 9.1 PRESENTATION OF TOOLS AND STIMULUS OF THE RESEARCH ............................................. 102 9.2 DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE ................................................................................................... 104 9.3 RESULTS OF IMPLICIT MEASUREMENT ................................................................................ 105 9.4 RESULTS OF THE EXPLICIT MEASUREMENTS ....................................................................... 106 9.5 LINK BETWEEN IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT MEASUREMENTS ................................................... 107 9.6 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................... 108 10 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR ................................................................ 110 10.1 OBJECTIVE AND CONDITIONS OF THE RESEARCH ............................................................... 110 10.2 DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE ................................................................................................... 111 10.3 RELIABILITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY SCALE ........................................................... 113 10.4 DEMOGRAPHICAL DETERMINANTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY .................................... 117 10.5 EFFECT OF VALUES ON ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY ........................................................... 123 10.6 PATH ANALYSIS: THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY ON ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY BEHAVIOUR ..................................................................................................................................... 126 10.6.1 Presentation of measuring scales ................................................................................. 127 10.6.2 Regression models examined ........................................................................................ 130 10.6.3 Summary of research results ......................................................................................... 138 11 EVALUATION OF RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS ................................................................ 141 11.1 SUMMARY OF RESULTS ...................................................................................................... 142 11.2 CONCLUSIONS ON THE MEASUREMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY .............................. 148 11.3 THE THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EXAMINING ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITY 151 11.4 LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH AND FUTURE RESEARCH POSSIBILITIES ................................... 153 LIST OF REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 154 ANNEX .............................................................................................................................................. 176 II LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Connection of pillars of sustainable development ................................................. 6 Figure 2 Stakeholders of sustainable consumption ............................................................ 11 Figure 3 Inclusion of nature in the self (INS) .................................................................... 58 Figure 4 Theory of Reasoned Action ................................................................................
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