TOPIC 3: HUMAN BEHAVIOUR CULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

 

CONTENT.

1.3 Factors influencing human behavior towards the environment.

3.2 The role of education awareness, attitude, motivation, and commitment to improve Environmental quality.

3.3 Changing detrimental environmental behaviors

1.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOR TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT.

•      Definition of behavior

•      Relationship between behavior and environment

•       Factors influencing human behavior to wards the environment.

By free encyclopedia (2005) human behavior can be defined to be collection of activities performed by human being as influenced by cultural, attitudes, emotions, values, authority, rapport, persuasion& coercion

Relationship between behavior and environment

One of the behavioral change theories is social learning (social cognitive theory) ‘’An individual's behavior may change their environment but the environment can change the human behavior as well as the way the individual thinks or feels''. They believe in reciprocal relationship between individual behavior and environment.

• The question here is how best we can influence human behavior to more environmentally sound?
• Responding to this question requires a full understanding of the nature of human behavior, how human behavior shapes the environment & what are the determinants of human behavior.
• Changing human behavior and preserving natural resources are among the greatest challenges to the sustainable development for the world today.

1. Bushfire
2. Cutting down the trees
3. Overfishing
4. sport hunting /Illegal hunting
5. Improper garbage disposal
6. Mining leftovers
7. Fumes from the factory
8. Dumping of industrial waste products into water sources

FACTORS INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOR TOWARDS ENVIRONMENT

Education, reinforcement, defaults (Alternatives or solutions) prompt (reminder),income (poverty), beliefs, environmental stress (emotions), environmental legislation, age, and responsibility

•      GROUP QUESTION;

Discuss how the following factors can affect human behavior towards environment; age, laws and regulations, environmental stress and/or emotions, responsibility, beliefs, and poverty.

1.   EDUCATION .

• By educating and improving the problem based knowledge one can change environmental attitude and increase feeling of stress of people towards environment.
• These changes in turn improve preparedness to act friendly with the environment.

2.   REINFORCEMENT.

• Reinforcement Theory of Motivation by BF Skinner. It states that “Individual’s behavior is a function of its consequences”. It is based on “law of effect”, i.e, individual’s behavior with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but individual’s behavior with negative consequences tends not to be repeated.
• Positive Reinforcement
• This implies giving a positive response when an individual shows positive and required behavior. For example - Immediately praising a student who has planted a tree in a school compound. This will increase probability of outstanding/planting trees behavior occurring again.
• Negative Reinforcement- This implies rewarding a person by removing negative / undesirable consequences. Eg after planting  trees then villagers can be allowed to get firewood from once protected area.  Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used for increasing desirable / required behavior.
• Punishment means applying undesirable consequence for showing undesirable behavior. For instance - Suspending a student from a school after intentionally uprooting the trees planted in the school compound. (www.satlectwowayradios.co.za in Reinforcement Theory of Motivation)

3.   DEFAULTS (ALTERNATIVES OR SOLUTIONS).

• They are used to make desirable behavior easier than non desirable behavior. When there’s for example no waste bins around, littering is more likely and the vice versa.  When the environment doesn’t allow for people to properly dispose their litter, people will litter the environment.
• When translated into environmental behavior; if pro- environmental alternatives or salutations are not enabled in a physical or social environment, people are more likely not to undertake pro- environmental behavior.

4.   PROMPT (REMINDER).

• Prompts are reminders to people that a particular behavior is necessary or required.
• hen waste bins were provided to residents the cleanliness of the area increased significantly. The research have shown that the cleanliness rate increased not because of the bins themselves but it was the reminder that the bins provided
• and the social norm that the bins evoked.
• Overtime these prompts help specific action to become part of the social norms leading to the culture of conservation. 

5.   STRESS/EMOTIONS

• Stress is a major concept that plays a major fundamental role in understanding many forms of human adaptations, Ashford, et al (2010, p. 33) have pointed out that, stress represents any event in which environmental demands or bolt tax all exceed the adoptive resources of an individual social system or tissue system.
• Evance, (1982, p. 15) point out that stress is a process by which environmental events or forces, called stressor threaten an organism’s existence and well being by which an organism respond to these threats.
• The stress reaction replete with commonly known symptoms such as fear, acient and anger is only part of this process. It is probably the most easily recognized, but in many cases it may simply represent “side effects” of the main attraction perceiving a threat, copying with it and adapting to it.
• Our lives can be characterized as a constant adaptation to sudden change or gradual evolution of our surroundings. Sometimes these changes are minor and we can adopt in them without even being aware of them. At other time, however, these changes can be severe and clearly threatened.

6.   RELIGION/BELIEVES/FAITH

• World religion, each in their own way, offer a unique set of moral values and rules to guide human beings in their relationship with the environment. Religions also provide sanctions and offer stiffer penalties such as fear of hell, for those who do not treat god’s creation with respect. Although it is true that, in the recent past, religions have not been in the fore-front of protecting the environment from human greed and exploitation, many are now willing to take up the challenge and help to protect and conserve environment. For example, while technology gives the individual the physical power to create or to destroy the world, religion gives the moral strength to grow in virtue buy nurturing restraint, humility, and liberation from self centeredness. Directly and indirectly, religion can be a powerful source for environmental conservation and protection. Thus we need a strategy for conservation that does not ignore the powerful influence of religion, but instead draws from all religious foundation and cultures. (Gottlieb, 2004, p. 145)

7.     HOW AGE CAN INFLUENCE THE ENVIRONMENT

•  Grunnet  and Johl , 1995 in their  paper titled  ‘’Values, environmental attitude of buying organic food’’  agreed with other   several researchers  suggestion that people’s  basic value orientations  are important to the behavior that are related to the environment. Meaning that at early stages of life, basic knowledge on environmental issues is very important for determining how a person will be in future.
•  Johnny Sanvichith (2011) in his paper titled ‘’Home gardens, Identity and Pro-Environmental Behavior ‘’ found the strong relationship   between age and environmental behavior. According to him this relationship bases on experience that one has . Young children have little experience on environmental matters. Youths of are exposed to new ideas that may inform emerging self-identity, and they generally demonstrate high levels of pro-environmental attitudes and behavior (Milfont, Duckitt & Cameron, 2006). This age is also an essential time to learn about one’s national background, and heritage (Phinney, 1990).
• At old age one has more experience on environmental issues than youths therefore will act more friendly to the environment than children and youths. Someone’s age identity is influenced by one’s sense of belonging to that age group, (A child, youth or adult) , and the degree to which this affects one’s thinking, perceptions and decisions (Phinney, 1996)  

3.2:THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AWARENESS, ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION, AND COMMITMENT TO IMPROVE   ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY . 

Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach/learn about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably.The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to post-secondary

• However, it should be used more broadly to include all efforts to educate the public and other audiences, including print materials, websites, media campaigns, etc. Related disciplines include outdoor education and experiential education.
• The role of education awareness attitude motivation and commitments to improve environmental policy (a program of actions adopted by the government) will be realizedby the EE learning  outcomes which are;  

1. To improve awareness and concern about environmental issues. 
2. To develop understanding of ecologically principals 
3. To stimulate commitments for environmental problems. 
4. To demand action to promote conservation of natural resources.

3:3 CHANGING DETRIMENTAL ENVIRONMENT BEHAVIORS

Detrimental environment behaviors are the behaviors that harm our environment. They include burning/cutting trees, illegal hunting, over fishing, improper garbage disposal, bad methods of fishing and the like.

The detrimental environmental behavious can change through;

Education

• Awareness that the environmental issue in question is actually or potentially detrimental to the person an health &welfare
• Enough concern with the hazardous condition to be motivated to do something about it.
• Knowledge of what one can do about the issue.
• Knowledge of how to carry out this action.
• Ability to carry out this action.
• Belief that one’s action will have a substantive impact on the environmental condition.
• Assurance that gains from taking the action will outweigh any sacrifices required.

Responsibility.

• A sense of social responsibility needs to be instilled so that each person will regard even a minute   contribution to violating the environment or restoring it has been morally &physically significant.

Environmental legislation /laws / regulations

• These are used to regulate people behaviors towards protection & conservation of environment.

Prompts (reminders)

• The use of posters & other means to remind people on environmental maintenance.

Reinforcement

• Rewards  encourage behavior  while punishment discourages behavior.

Affordance / Defaults /alternative solutions.

• Presence of infrastructure to enhance a particular behavior e.g. distribution to throw rubbish.

Income/poverty. 

• Low income people are adversary affected by the social processes and therefore they respond negatively towards nature.

 

REFERENCES

Johnny, S. (2011). Home gardens, Identity and Pro-Environmental Behavior

                             Among Southeast Asian American. UC Berkeley

                               Students.

Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of

                                     research. Psychological  Bulletin, 108(3), 499-514.

                                      doi:10.103

 Phinney, J. S. (1996). Understanding ethnic diversity. American Behavioral

                                      Scientist, 40(2), 143.

Ashford et al, (2010) Human behaviour in the social environment: A multi-dimensional perspective 4^th Edition. USA: Cengage Learning Ltd.

Gottlieb, R. S. (2004). This sacred Earth: Religion, Nature and Environment. London, Britain: Routledge.

Evance, G. W. (1982). Environmental stress. USA: Cambridge University Press Ltd.

 

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