Psychosocial Predispositions Towards Sustainability and Their Relationship with Environmental Identity

Abstract

Environmental psychology is a particular area or subfield of psychology, especially involved in the delimitation of the causes and solutions of environmental problems. This area deals with the study of the interactions between human behavior and the socio-physical components of the environment. The emphasis on the interrelationship of environment and behavior is important; not only physical settings affect people’s behavior, individuals actively influence the environment. Thus, several studies have proposed the existence of a series of predispositions which allow the appreciation of diversity and the interdependence of person–environment relationships, making it possible to adopt lifestyles that can guarantee the sustainability of socio-ecological systems for present and future generations. Therefore, in order to work towards the goals of sustainability, it is necessary to know which are the inclinations or dispositions that people present when caring for the environment. The objective of this research was to identify the association between the variables of psychosocial predispositions towards sustainability with environmental identity in a sample of higher education students from southern Sonora. Nine different scales to measure these predispositions were applied to 417 students, considering emotions towards the environment, environmental and socio-environmental actions, as well as a scale to measure environmental identity. Results revealed, on the one hand, that first-order factors emerged consistently, indicating the presence of a higher-order factor (psychosocial predispositions towards sustainability). On the other hand, we found this construct is related in a bidirectional way with environmental identity, that is, that both the emotions and actions carried out by the students in favor of the environment are related to the degree of identification they have with it, and vice versa, thereby demonstrating an interdependence relationship between these two variables. These findings suggest that the presence of certain psychological characteristics in people would promote a closer relationship with nature, which could encourage participation in caring for the environment.