关键词: 心理丰富, 亲环境行为, 自我扩展, 自然-自我大小

Abstract:

Pro-environmental behavior, such as saving energy and taking public transportation, is beneficial to protecting the environment. Previous studies suggested that personality traits, environmental-related values, beliefs, affection, and norms are antecedents of pro-environmental behavior. However, protecting the environment is also rooted in motives for happiness and well-being. Generally speaking, there are three different types of well-being in positive psychology, namely hedonia, eudaimonia, and psychological richness. Based on different conceptions of well-being, research has shown that hedonic values were negatively related to pro-environmental behavior. Eudaimonic values were related to environmental values but it cannot directly predict pro-environmental behavior. Given it’s a new conception, the relationship between psychological richness and pro-environmental behavior is still absent. Thus, the present study aimed at exploring how psychological richness would influence pro-environmental behavior as well as its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions.

To reach the goals, we conducted ten studies with different experimental manipulations of psychological richness, multi-source participants, and various assessments of pro-environmental behavior. In correlational Study 1.1, we tested the link between psychological richness and pro-environmental behavior. In experimental Study 1.2~1.4, we manipulated psychological richness by recalling past memory and making the perspective change to explore its potential influence on pro-environmental behavior. In Study 2.1~2.4, the measurement-of-mediation design and experimental-causal-chain design were used to examine the mediating role of self-expansion. Based on the cross-sectional Study 2.1, in Study 2.2 we randomly assigned participants to the psychological richness condition and control condition to complete the task, and investigated whether psychological richness affected personal self-expansion. In Study 2.3, self-expansion was manipulated to explore its effect on pro-environmental behavior. To support our model, Study 2.4 was conducted to test whether psychological richness facilitates pro-environmental behavior through self-expansion. To investigate the moderating effect of nature-self size, we manipulated psychological richness in Study 3.1 and conducted a cross-sectional survey in Study 3.2.

As predicted, the present study found that both psychologically rich life and state psychological richness were positively related to pro-environmental behavior. Results indicated that psychological richness motivates people to engage in pro-environmental activities. The increased self-expansion was the reason why people experiencing psychological richness were more willing to protect the environment. Lastly, the results also demonstrated the moderating effect of nature-self size on the association of self-expansion and pro-environmental behavior.

Overall, the results extend the research on the effects of psychological richness on personal growth and sustainable social development. First, it suggested that pursuing well-being and behaving pro-environmentally were not in conflict. Namely, living a psychologically rich life motivates people to protect the environment. Second, message framing that promotes psychological richness could encourage individuals to engage in environmentally friendly activities.

Key words: psychological richness, pro-environmental behavior, self-expansion, nature-self size