Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
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ItemFrom the top-down and the bottom-up: A complementary reasoned action and social practice framework for low carbon behaviour( 2021)Climate change is one of the biggest challenges our planet faces, and understanding human behaviour is key to changing its course. This research aimed to combine the strengths of two approaches to predict carbon-relevant household infrastructure behaviour: a top-down, reasoned action approach, and a bottom-up, social practice theory perspective. Four studies were conducted. Study 1 elicited beliefs about six carbon-relevant household infrastructure behaviours from both theoretical perspectives. It demonstrated that the two perspectives were indeed commensurable at the belief level, with each perspective eliciting different, complementary sets of beliefs underlying behaviour. Study 2 demonstrated that both of these sets of beliefs predicted behavioural intentions. However, of the contextual beliefs elicited by the social practice perspective, it was one type in particular that appeared to influence intentions – beliefs about the more concrete components of behavioural context. Studies 3 and 4 piloted and refined a practical behaviour change intervention, informed by the processes people appeared to follow in order to account for concrete contextual beliefs. This intervention influenced both intentions (indirectly) and hypothetical behaviour (directly). It was concluded that social practice and reasoned action approach perspectives are indeed commensurable, with each demonstrating unique value for predicting carbon-relevant household infrastructure behaviour, without compromising either. It was also concluded that the current standard social psychological, top-down behaviour paradigms currently dominating research and policy stand to benefit from a stronger focus on concrete behavioural context, such as that provided by a social practice theory perspective.