The goals of this study were, first, to operationalize the notion of a
ctivism by using self-reported behaviors and, second, to propose and t
est a model of environmental activism. The results show that the Activ
ism Scale is an acceptable measure of environmental activism. Furtherm
ore, the proposed motivational model of environmental activism was sup
ported by a path analysis of the data. Within the model, individuals'
levels of autonomous motivation predicted the perceived responsibility
of different organizations to prevent health risks, the amount of inf
ormation people obtain from various sources, and the perceived importa
nce of problems in the environment. In rum, those latter variables pre
dicted the perception of environmental health risks. Finally, the perc
eption of environmental health risks predicted environmental activism.
The model demonstrates the importance of autonomous motivation in the
prediction of environmental activists' behaviors and the central role
perceived ecological risks play in the determination of environmental
activism.