Protection motivation theory and pro‐environmental behaviour: A systematic mapping review
By Emily J. Kothe, Mathew Ling, Madelon North, A. Klas, Barbara A. Mullan, Lisa Novoradovskaya. 2019
216 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Objective Climate change and related issues associated with the interaction of humans with the environment are of great importance in today's context. More and more research is focusing on understanding what can be done to prevent and reverse the effects of environmental problems through individual behaviours. Within psychology, there is a lack of synthesis of what drives pro‐environmental behaviours in various paradigms and how they can be changed. The current study focuses on the application of protection motivation theory to predicting and changing pro‐environmental behaviours using a systematic mapping approach. Methods A systematic screening of 132 databases was performed, resulting in the identification of 22 relevant studies with the total N = 12,827. Results Investigation of the included research revealed a number of gaps in knowledge including: lack of experimental evidence with successful manipulations of protection motivation theory constructs; non‐inclusion of all the aspects of the theory into studies; the absence of examination of the intention–behaviour relationship; the lack of consistency in operationalisation of protection motivation theory constructs; a focus on predominantly western high income societies, and the lack of uniformity in the definition of pro‐environmental behaviours. Conclusion Future research should consider employing experimental designs with proper manipulation checks and longitudinal focus, as well as consistent definitions and operationalisations of relevant concepts, and exploring these constructs across different countries.
Subfields: Applied Psychology, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8d4f62a44bc84cab6896425897c994c7dc5c8973
Citations in the corpus
- Unusual purchasing behavior during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: The stimulus-organism-response approach (2020, unknown): “, 2000) and pro-environmental behavior (Kothe et al., 2019), among others.”