ENST20001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Social Dilemma, Resource Depletion, Behaviorism
24 May 2018
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LECTURE 10: PERSPECTIVES ON
ENCOURAGING SUSTAINABLE ACTION
Contrasting Approaches: ABA and Identity Campaigning
Applied Behavioural Analysis (Geller, 2002)
• Theoretical basis:
o Combines behaviourist and humanist psychology
o Focus on external factors influencing behaviour - believes internal factors have little relevance
• Change antecedents and consequences of behaviour
• Underlying premise:
o More cost effective to apply interventions directly to environmentally relevant behaviours rather
than trying to change environmental attitudes and values
• "Act people into thinking differently" - Geller, 2002
• Focus on the workplace, as an organisation as bringing about change
• Increasing pro-environmental behaviour
o Often a mismatch between short and long term consequences of behaviour - 'social dilemma'
• Short term consequences of food choice = comfort, social status, yet long term consequence
is resource depletion
o Aim of ABA is to create better match between short and long term consequences of behaviour
• A-B-C
• Activators (external antecedents that precede behaviour) - behaviour - consequences (external
outcomes of behaviour that punish or reward)
• DO IT process
• D = define the behaviours to work with
o Identify target areas
o Sectors: residential, government, consumer
o What behaviour?
• Psychical change (encourage efficiency solution) or behavioural change (encourage
curtailment of behaviour)
• O = observe baseline level of behaviour
o When does it happen, what are the consequences, are actors aware of actions and consequences,
do actors have knowledge to act in a desired way, and what consequences will be most noticeable
to actors?
o Types of behaviour:
• Unconscious incompetent: does not know/does not perform
• Conscious incompetent: knows but choose not to perform
•
• Unconsciously component: automatic performance of desired behaviour
• I = intervene to increase target behaviour
o 2 types of interventions:
• Activators: include prompts, media messages, signs, demonstrations, goal setting
▪ Prompts should be noticeable, self-explanatory, specific to behaviour, polite, close in
time and space to behaviour
▪ Information
• Consequences: includes rewards or punishment
▪ Money fines, social recognition, comfort
▪ Need to consider attitudes that follow behaviour change
• Most effective when: consequences are soon and certain, positive consequence
better than negative, rewards just sufficient to initiate - may lead to long term
change
