Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Social Work

Major Professor

Robert Emmet Jones

Committee Members

Sherry Cable, David L. Feldman

Abstract

There is increasing public debate over how to meet future water supply needs in historically humid, water-abundant areas such as the southeast United States. Citizens and policymakers struggle to reach accord on the appropriate environmental policy proposals for meeting those needs and the political strategies for implementing them. This study examines the social-psychological factors affecting environmental policy by developing a heuristic framework that integrates the recent conceptualization of environmental concern by Dunlap and Jones (2002) with the attitude-behavioral theories of Ajzen (1985) and Fishbein (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Specifically, it tries to understand and predict expressions of public support (i.e. intentions or commitment) for building a dam to meet water supply needs in Cumberland County using the Theory of Planned Behavior. The linkages postulated by the theory are empirically tested using the survey responses from a random sample of 433 county residents age 18 and older. Results indicate people’s attitudes towards building a dam and subjective norms are highly predictive of their expressions of support (i.e. intentions) for building a new dam to meet the county’s future water supply needs, explaining sixty-one percent of its variance at the highest level of significance (p < .001). They also demonstrate that while overall public support for building a dam is weak, knowledge of residents’ attitudes towards its construction provide us with a good understanding of their level of support. In addition, the findings suggest that people believe they have some degree of personal control over behaviors that express their support or opposition. Overall, the study demonstrates the Theory of Planned Behavior is useful for understanding the social-psychological determinants of public support for environmental policy related to water supply proposals such as building a dam. Furthermore, by integrating the theoretical components of the theory with the affective, cognitive, conative, and behavioral dimensions of environmental concern, it is possible to employ an explanatory framework based on attitude theory and apply it to an environmental problem, i.e. meeting water supply needs. Examining public support and concern for the environment with a heuristic framework such as this may yield theoretical and policy-relevant results that would be of interest to researchers of environmental concern, attitude theorists, decision-makers, and the general public.

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