THE IMPACT OF BEHAVIORAL DIFFICULTY ON THE SALIENCY OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SELF-DETERMINED MOTIVATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORS

The goal of the study is to evaluate the impact of the perceived level of difficulty of environmental behaviours on the magnitude of the rel ationship between environmental self-determination and the occurrence of environmental behaviours. The participants (n = 444) completed the Motivation Toward the Environment Scale, along with self-report measur es of environmental behaviours and perceived difficulty of environment al behaviours. Three types of environmental behaviours are examined: R ecycling, purchasing environmentally-friendly products, and educating oneself as to what can be done for the environment. It is hypothesized that the level of self-determination of environmental motivation pred icts the occurrence of environmental behaviours significantly. Moreove r, the magnitude of the relationship between self-determination and en vironmental behaviours is expected to increase with the level of perce ived difficulty of the behaviours. Data are subjected to structural eq uation modeling analyzes (EQS). Results support the proposed hypothese s. Self-determination displays a significant relationship with environ mental behaviours, and the magnitude of this relationship increases wi th the difficulty of the environmental behaviour. Current environmenta l research trends and applied intervention strategies are discussed on the basis of this finding. Strategies for the promotion of environmen tal behaviours are proposed.