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Personal and Contextual Influences on Household Energy Adaptations

Personal and Contextual Influences on Household Energy Adaptations Survey data on 478 residential electricity consumers in Massachusetts are used to examine the interactive effects of economic, demographic, structural, and psychological variables on four behaviorally distinct types of reported conservation response involving energy efficiency improvements or curtailment of the services energy provides. The causal model assumes that contextual variables (i.e., demographic, economic, and structural) may affect behavior indirectly through personal variables (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, norms) and that between personal variables, causality moves from the general through the specific to reported behavior. A path analysis incorporating these assumptions suggested that although behaviors that are relatively unconstrained for most households (such as temperature settings) are strongly influenced by norms, personal variables have much less influence on more constrained actions (such as major insulation activity). The effect of high and rising fuel price was stronger in producing economic sacrifice than in producing energy savings. Limits to generalizability are discussed. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Applied Psychology American Psychological Association

Personal and Contextual Influences on Household Energy Adaptations

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References (21)

Publisher
American Psychological Association
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 American Psychological Association
ISSN
0021-9010
eISSN
1939-1854
DOI
10.1037/0021-9010.70.1.3
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Survey data on 478 residential electricity consumers in Massachusetts are used to examine the interactive effects of economic, demographic, structural, and psychological variables on four behaviorally distinct types of reported conservation response involving energy efficiency improvements or curtailment of the services energy provides. The causal model assumes that contextual variables (i.e., demographic, economic, and structural) may affect behavior indirectly through personal variables (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, norms) and that between personal variables, causality moves from the general through the specific to reported behavior. A path analysis incorporating these assumptions suggested that although behaviors that are relatively unconstrained for most households (such as temperature settings) are strongly influenced by norms, personal variables have much less influence on more constrained actions (such as major insulation activity). The effect of high and rising fuel price was stronger in producing economic sacrifice than in producing energy savings. Limits to generalizability are discussed.

Journal

Journal of Applied Psychology – American Psychological Association

Published: Feb 1, 1985

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