Making a Difference to the Environment: Understanding Undergraduates Environmental Behaviour
Keywords:
environment economics, behaviour, undergraduates, theory of planned behaviour, academic perfomance
Abstract
Understanding undergraduates’ environmental behaviour is important as they will be the leaders of the country in the near future. They play an important role in protecting and conserving the environment. This paper investigates the undergraduates’ behaviours towards the environment after completing the Environment Economics course. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) together with some other factors such as academic performance, government regulations and perceived importance of nature are employed. Multiple regression analysis shows undergraduates’ behaviours is positively affected by attitude and perceived importance of nature, and negatively influenced by government regulations. Although academic performance is very important to provide an understanding of basic principles of environmental sustainability, it however does not significantly influence their environmental behaviour. The finding hopes to assist the policy makers to plan future strategies so that the undergraduates behaviours can make a difference to nature and the environment.
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References
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Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211.
Allison, P. D. (1999). Multiple regression. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Arbuthnot, J. and S. Lingg (1975).A comparison of French and American environmental behaviours, knowledge and attitudes. International Journal of Psychology 10, 275-281.
Asmuni, Shahariah; Jamaliah Mhd. Khalili and Zahariah Mohd Zain (2012). Sustainable consumption practices of university students in selangor, Malaysia. Journal of Asian Behavioural Studies, 2 (6), 73-82.
Bebeau, M. J. (1994). Influencing the moral dimension of dental practice. In J. Rest and D. F. Narvaez (eds.) Moral Development in the Professions (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ) 121-146.
Berke, P.R. and Conroy, M.M. (2000), Are we planning for sustainable development? Journal of the American Planning Association, 66(1), 21‐37.
Bruno, F. J. (1986). Dictionary of kev words in psychology. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Bun Lee, E (2008). Environmental Attitudes and Information Sources Among African American College Students. The Journal Of Environmental Education, 40(1), 29 42.
Carlisle, Juliet and Eric Ran Smith (2005).Post-materialism vs. egalitarianism as predictors of cleavages in public support for environmentalism.Environmental Politics, 10(4), 23–48.
Claudy, M.C., Michelsen, C., O’Driscoll, A., Mullen, M.R., (2010). Consumer awareness in the adoption of microgeneration technologies: an empirical investigation in the Republic of Ireland. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 14 (7), 2154–2160.
Dunlap RE, Xiao C, andMcCright AM. (2001). Politics and environment in America: Partisan and ideological
Dunlap, Riley E., George Gallup Jr. and Alec M. Gallup. (1993). Of Global Concern: Results of the Health of the Planet Survey. Environment, 35(7-15), 333-339.
Fishbein, M. (1967).Readings in attitude theory and measurement. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Fishbein, M., andAjzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Fortner, R. and Lyon, A. E. (1985).Effects of a Cousteau television special on viewer knowledge and attitudes.Journal of Environmental Education, 16(31), 12-20.
Graedel, T.E. (2002), Quantitative sustainability in a college or university setting, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 3(4), 346‐58.
Hamilton, J.P. III (1983). Some relationships among knowledge, locus of control, perceived importance, and perceived personal responsibility regarding environmental problems. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, PA.
Hasyim, Abd.Wahab (2013) Ecological Behaviour Intention: The Role of Ecological Sciences, Ecological Value and Pro-Environmental Identity. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 15(4), 47-54.
Henning, O., dan S. Karlsson, (2011), “Environmental Attitudes and How They Affect Purchase Intentions of Environmentally Friendly Automobile; an empirical study on Chinese students at Jonkoping University”, Master Thesis, Jonkoping International Business School, Jonkoping University.http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:441677/FULLTEXT01.pdf retrieved 11 August 2014.
Henriques, I. and P. Sadosky (1999).The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance.Academy of Management Journal, 42 (1), 87-99.
Hicks, William Whitfield, Jr. (1993) Effects of environmental action oriented lessons on environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour of high school students. PhD. Dissertation.The Pennsylvania State University.
Hines, J. M., Hungerford, H. R., andTomera, A. N. (1987). Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behavior: a meta analysis. Journal of Environmental Education, 18, 1-8. http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/malaysia/environmental_problems_malaysia/ retrieved 31/07/14
Hungerford, H. R., and Volk, T. L. (1990).Changing learner behavior through environment education.Journal of Environmental Education, 21(3), 8–21.
Hunter, Lori M, Alison Hatch and Aaron Johnson.(2004). Cross-National Gender Variation in Environmental Behaviors.Social Science Quarterly, 85, 677-694.
Idros, S. N.S. (2006). Exploring environmental behaviours, attitudes and knowledge among university students: positioning the concept of sustainable development within Malaysian education. Journal of Science and Mathematics Education in S.E. Asia, 29(1), 79-97.
Jayaraman, K. Hasnah, H., Gooi, B. S. andSoh, K. L. (2011). Consumer reflections on the usage of plastic bags to parcel hot edible items: an empirical study in Malaysia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19, 1527-1535.
Jones RE, andDunlap RE. (1992) The social bases of environmental concern: Have they changed over time? Rural Sociology, 57, 28–47.
Judith Chen-Hsuan Cheng (2008) Children, teachers and nature: an analysis of an environmental education program. Unpublished PhD thesis.University Of Florida.
Kaiser, F. G., and Gutscher, H. (2003). The proposition of a general version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB): predicting ecological behaviour. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 586–603.
Kempton, WM.; Boster, JS.and Hartley, JA. (1995). Environmental values in American culture. Boston: MIT Press;
Klineberg SL, McKeever M, andRothenbach B. (1998). Demographic predictors of environmental concern: It does make a difference how it’s measured. Social Science Quarterly. 79:734–753.
Krech, D. and Crutchfield, R. S. (1948).Theory and problems of social psychology. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, USA.
Laroche, M., Bergeron, J. andBarbaro-Forleo, G. (2001). Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18, 503–520.
Lynes, J. K. andAndrachuk, M. (2008). Motivations for corporate social and environmental responsibility: a case study of Scandinavian airlines. Journal of International Management,14, 377-390.
M.U. Akpan, N.C. Ojinnaka, and E.E. Ekanem (2010).Academic performance of school children with behavioural disorders in Uyo, Nigeria.Afr Health Sci,10(2): 154–158.
Mamat, M. N. And Mokhtar, F. (2012).Environmental attitude profile among Muslim students of environmental course in Malaysia.Procedia-Social and Bahavioural Sciences, 42, 92-99.
Marcinkowski, T. J. (1989). An analysis of correlates and predictors of responsible environmental behavior (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL).
Marshal BK, Picou S, andBevc C. (2005). Ecological disasters as contextual transformation: Environmental Values in a renewable resource community. Environment and Behavior, 37(5):706–728.
McKenzie-Mohr, D., and Smith, W. (1999).Fostering sustainable behavior: An introduction to community-based social marketing. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society.
Müderrisoğlu, H. and A. Altanlar(2011).Attitudes and behaviours of undergraduate students toward environmental issues.International Journal of Environment Science Technology, 8 (1), 159-168.
Newhouse, N. (1991). Implications of attitude and behavior research for environmental conservation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 22(1), 26-32.
Ofsthun, H. A. (1986). Developing professional responsibleness in counseling psychology students: A course-model evaluation study. PhD. Dissertation, University of Minnesota.
Owens, K. A. and Halfacre-Hitchcock, A. (2006). As green as we think?The case of the College of Charleston green building initiative. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7, 114-128.
Ramsey, J. M. and Hungerford, H. R. (1989). The effects of issue investigation and action training on environmental behavior in seventh grade students. The Journal of Environmental Education, 20(4), 29-34.
Schiffman, L.G.; Kanuk, L. L. (1997). Consumer behaviour (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Schuett, Jessica Lynn (2011) effects of social networks and media on pro-environment behavior. Unpublished Master thesis. University Of North Texas
Haron, S. A., Laily Paim and Nurizan Yahaya (2005). Towards sustainable consumption: an examinationofenvironmental knowledge among Malaysians. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 29 (5), 426–436.
Sharpely, R. (2001), “The consumer behavior context of ecolabelling”, in Font, X. and Buckley, R.C. (Eds), Tourism Ecolabelling, Certification and Promotion of Sustainable Management, CAB International, Oxfordshire, pp. 41-55.
Shepard, C. L. andSpeelman, L. R. (1983). Affecting environmental attitudes throughout door education. Journal of Environmental Education. 17. 20-23.
Stern PC,and Dietz T. (1994). The value basis of environmental concern. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 65–84.
Swenson-Lepper, T. (2005). Ethical sensitivity for organizational communication Issues: examining individual and organizational differences. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(3), 205-231.
T. Ramayahand E. Rahbar (2013) Greening the environment through recycling: an empirical study. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 24(6), 782-801.
Thompson Jr., J. C., andGasteiger, E. L. (1985). Environmental attitude survey of university students: 1971 vs. 1981. Journal of Environmental Education, l2(l), 13-22.
Van Liere KD, and Dunlap RE. (1980). The social bases of environmental concern: A review of hypotheses, explanations and empirical evidence. Public Opinion Quarterly.44:181–197.
Wan, C; Cheung, R. and Shen, G. Q. (2012).Recycling attitude and behaviour in university campus: a case study in Hong Kong. Facilities, 30(13/14), 630-646.
White, Micheal J, and Hunter, Lori M. (2009).Public Perception of Environmental Issues in a Developing Setting: Environmental Concern in Coastal Ghana. Social Science Quarterly, (4), 960-982.
WWF: Environmental problems in Malaysia,
Xiao, Chenyang and Aaron M. McCright. (2007). Environmental Concern and Sociodemographic Variables: A Study of Statistical Models. The Journal of Environmental Education, 38(2), 3-14.
Zabel, H. (2005). A model of human behaviour for sustainability. International Journal of Social Economics, 32(8), 717-734.
Ajzen, I. andFishbein, M. (1980).Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhland J. Beckman (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). Heidelberg: Springer.
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211.
Allison, P. D. (1999). Multiple regression. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Arbuthnot, J. and S. Lingg (1975).A comparison of French and American environmental behaviours, knowledge and attitudes. International Journal of Psychology 10, 275-281.
Asmuni, Shahariah; Jamaliah Mhd. Khalili and Zahariah Mohd Zain (2012). Sustainable consumption practices of university students in selangor, Malaysia. Journal of Asian Behavioural Studies, 2 (6), 73-82.
Bebeau, M. J. (1994). Influencing the moral dimension of dental practice. In J. Rest and D. F. Narvaez (eds.) Moral Development in the Professions (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ) 121-146.
Berke, P.R. and Conroy, M.M. (2000), Are we planning for sustainable development? Journal of the American Planning Association, 66(1), 21‐37.
Bruno, F. J. (1986). Dictionary of kev words in psychology. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Bun Lee, E (2008). Environmental Attitudes and Information Sources Among African American College Students. The Journal Of Environmental Education, 40(1), 29 42.
Carlisle, Juliet and Eric Ran Smith (2005).Post-materialism vs. egalitarianism as predictors of cleavages in public support for environmentalism.Environmental Politics, 10(4), 23–48.
Claudy, M.C., Michelsen, C., O’Driscoll, A., Mullen, M.R., (2010). Consumer awareness in the adoption of microgeneration technologies: an empirical investigation in the Republic of Ireland. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 14 (7), 2154–2160.
Dunlap RE, Xiao C, andMcCright AM. (2001). Politics and environment in America: Partisan and ideological
Dunlap, Riley E., George Gallup Jr. and Alec M. Gallup. (1993). Of Global Concern: Results of the Health of the Planet Survey. Environment, 35(7-15), 333-339.
Fishbein, M. (1967).Readings in attitude theory and measurement. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Fishbein, M., andAjzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Fortner, R. and Lyon, A. E. (1985).Effects of a Cousteau television special on viewer knowledge and attitudes.Journal of Environmental Education, 16(31), 12-20.
Graedel, T.E. (2002), Quantitative sustainability in a college or university setting, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 3(4), 346‐58.
Hamilton, J.P. III (1983). Some relationships among knowledge, locus of control, perceived importance, and perceived personal responsibility regarding environmental problems. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, PA.
Hasyim, Abd.Wahab (2013) Ecological Behaviour Intention: The Role of Ecological Sciences, Ecological Value and Pro-Environmental Identity. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 15(4), 47-54.
Henning, O., dan S. Karlsson, (2011), “Environmental Attitudes and How They Affect Purchase Intentions of Environmentally Friendly Automobile; an empirical study on Chinese students at Jonkoping University”, Master Thesis, Jonkoping International Business School, Jonkoping University.http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:441677/FULLTEXT01.pdf retrieved 11 August 2014.
Henriques, I. and P. Sadosky (1999).The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance.Academy of Management Journal, 42 (1), 87-99.
Hicks, William Whitfield, Jr. (1993) Effects of environmental action oriented lessons on environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour of high school students. PhD. Dissertation.The Pennsylvania State University.
Hines, J. M., Hungerford, H. R., andTomera, A. N. (1987). Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behavior: a meta analysis. Journal of Environmental Education, 18, 1-8. http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/malaysia/environmental_problems_malaysia/ retrieved 31/07/14
Hungerford, H. R., and Volk, T. L. (1990).Changing learner behavior through environment education.Journal of Environmental Education, 21(3), 8–21.
Hunter, Lori M, Alison Hatch and Aaron Johnson.(2004). Cross-National Gender Variation in Environmental Behaviors.Social Science Quarterly, 85, 677-694.
Idros, S. N.S. (2006). Exploring environmental behaviours, attitudes and knowledge among university students: positioning the concept of sustainable development within Malaysian education. Journal of Science and Mathematics Education in S.E. Asia, 29(1), 79-97.
Jayaraman, K. Hasnah, H., Gooi, B. S. andSoh, K. L. (2011). Consumer reflections on the usage of plastic bags to parcel hot edible items: an empirical study in Malaysia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19, 1527-1535.
Jones RE, andDunlap RE. (1992) The social bases of environmental concern: Have they changed over time? Rural Sociology, 57, 28–47.
Judith Chen-Hsuan Cheng (2008) Children, teachers and nature: an analysis of an environmental education program. Unpublished PhD thesis.University Of Florida.
Kaiser, F. G., and Gutscher, H. (2003). The proposition of a general version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB): predicting ecological behaviour. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 586–603.
Kempton, WM.; Boster, JS.and Hartley, JA. (1995). Environmental values in American culture. Boston: MIT Press;
Klineberg SL, McKeever M, andRothenbach B. (1998). Demographic predictors of environmental concern: It does make a difference how it’s measured. Social Science Quarterly. 79:734–753.
Krech, D. and Crutchfield, R. S. (1948).Theory and problems of social psychology. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, USA.
Laroche, M., Bergeron, J. andBarbaro-Forleo, G. (2001). Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18, 503–520.
Lynes, J. K. andAndrachuk, M. (2008). Motivations for corporate social and environmental responsibility: a case study of Scandinavian airlines. Journal of International Management,14, 377-390.
M.U. Akpan, N.C. Ojinnaka, and E.E. Ekanem (2010).Academic performance of school children with behavioural disorders in Uyo, Nigeria.Afr Health Sci,10(2): 154–158.
Mamat, M. N. And Mokhtar, F. (2012).Environmental attitude profile among Muslim students of environmental course in Malaysia.Procedia-Social and Bahavioural Sciences, 42, 92-99.
Marcinkowski, T. J. (1989). An analysis of correlates and predictors of responsible environmental behavior (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL).
Marshal BK, Picou S, andBevc C. (2005). Ecological disasters as contextual transformation: Environmental Values in a renewable resource community. Environment and Behavior, 37(5):706–728.
McKenzie-Mohr, D., and Smith, W. (1999).Fostering sustainable behavior: An introduction to community-based social marketing. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society.
Müderrisoğlu, H. and A. Altanlar(2011).Attitudes and behaviours of undergraduate students toward environmental issues.International Journal of Environment Science Technology, 8 (1), 159-168.
Newhouse, N. (1991). Implications of attitude and behavior research for environmental conservation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 22(1), 26-32.
Ofsthun, H. A. (1986). Developing professional responsibleness in counseling psychology students: A course-model evaluation study. PhD. Dissertation, University of Minnesota.
Owens, K. A. and Halfacre-Hitchcock, A. (2006). As green as we think?The case of the College of Charleston green building initiative. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7, 114-128.
Ramsey, J. M. and Hungerford, H. R. (1989). The effects of issue investigation and action training on environmental behavior in seventh grade students. The Journal of Environmental Education, 20(4), 29-34.
Schiffman, L.G.; Kanuk, L. L. (1997). Consumer behaviour (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Schuett, Jessica Lynn (2011) effects of social networks and media on pro-environment behavior. Unpublished Master thesis. University Of North Texas
Haron, S. A., Laily Paim and Nurizan Yahaya (2005). Towards sustainable consumption: an examinationofenvironmental knowledge among Malaysians. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 29 (5), 426–436.
Sharpely, R. (2001), “The consumer behavior context of ecolabelling”, in Font, X. and Buckley, R.C. (Eds), Tourism Ecolabelling, Certification and Promotion of Sustainable Management, CAB International, Oxfordshire, pp. 41-55.
Shepard, C. L. andSpeelman, L. R. (1983). Affecting environmental attitudes throughout door education. Journal of Environmental Education. 17. 20-23.
Stern PC,and Dietz T. (1994). The value basis of environmental concern. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 65–84.
Swenson-Lepper, T. (2005). Ethical sensitivity for organizational communication Issues: examining individual and organizational differences. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(3), 205-231.
T. Ramayahand E. Rahbar (2013) Greening the environment through recycling: an empirical study. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 24(6), 782-801.
Thompson Jr., J. C., andGasteiger, E. L. (1985). Environmental attitude survey of university students: 1971 vs. 1981. Journal of Environmental Education, l2(l), 13-22.
Van Liere KD, and Dunlap RE. (1980). The social bases of environmental concern: A review of hypotheses, explanations and empirical evidence. Public Opinion Quarterly.44:181–197.
Wan, C; Cheung, R. and Shen, G. Q. (2012).Recycling attitude and behaviour in university campus: a case study in Hong Kong. Facilities, 30(13/14), 630-646.
White, Micheal J, and Hunter, Lori M. (2009).Public Perception of Environmental Issues in a Developing Setting: Environmental Concern in Coastal Ghana. Social Science Quarterly, (4), 960-982.
WWF: Environmental problems in Malaysia,
Xiao, Chenyang and Aaron M. McCright. (2007). Environmental Concern and Sociodemographic Variables: A Study of Statistical Models. The Journal of Environmental Education, 38(2), 3-14.
Zabel, H. (2005). A model of human behaviour for sustainability. International Journal of Social Economics, 32(8), 717-734.
Published
2018-02-09
How to Cite
Cheam, C. L. and Ong, S. C. (2018) “Making a Difference to the Environment: Understanding Undergraduates Environmental Behaviour”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), 3(1), pp. 1 - 13. doi: 10.47405/mjssh.v3i1.53.
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