The Effects of self-efficacy and confirmity toward social norm on environmentally responsible behaviors

환경 책임성 행동에 미치는 자기 효능감과 사회규범에 대한 동조의 영향

So far, most of studies on environmentally responsible behaviors were based on the Hines et. al.(1987)'s behavior model which emphasized mainly personal causes of behaviors. This study was planned to investigate whether self-efficacy and conformity toward social norm could be good predictors for environmentally responsible behaviors or not. In the preliminary study, Several scales on environmental problems were made up for measuring the levels of knowledge, attitude, and behavior from usually used items of previous studies. And, some relevant items to self-efficacy scale and conformity toward social norm scale were selected through factor analysis and reliability analysis recursively. In the main study, Knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, conformity toward social norm, and behavior of high school students were measured in urban and rural areas. Results showed that students in urban areas took environmentally responsible behavior more often than ones in rural areas, and there were no differences in attitude and sensitivity but significant differences in self-efficacy and confirmity toward social norm between them. According to regression analysis, self-efficacy was the best predictor for environmentally responsible behaviors, and confirmity toward social norm and knowledge were also good predictors. In conclusion, self-efficacy and confirmity toward social norm are better predictors for environmentally responsible behaviors than attitude.