Goal-directed conservation behavior: the specific composition of a general performance

The focus in conservation psychology normally is on specific actions, such as paper recycling, rather than on general tendencies. This narrow focus is required because the behaviors of interest fall into different, seemingly unrelated, categories. Based on a theory of goal-directed performance, we provide a framework that essentially requires measuring behavior more generally. Using data from two panel surveys of 895 Swiss residents, we tested a set of 50 behaviors by simultaneously applying a one and a six-dimensional Rasch-type model. We found that the multidimensional behavior measure fits the data better than the general one. Yet, despite its statistical significance, its practical significance proved negligible as the unidimensional model was only marginally less able to predict the data compared to the six-dimensional one. Moreover, because the specific behaviors were highly correlated, a general measure is a reasonable alternative.