The Theory of Planned Behaviour doesn't reveal 'attitude-behaviour' gap? Contrasting the effects of moral norms vs. idealism and relativism in predicting pro-environmental behaviours.

The inconsistency between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours called the 'attitude-behaviour' gap, has been reported in many scenarios relating to sustainable actions. However, the reasons for it are not entirely clear. It has been proposed that the 'attitude-behaviour' gap is driven by the moral dimension whereby moral attitudes fail to translate into subsequent moral behaviours. If so, the lacking integration of moral dimension into the environmental domain serves as a generalisable factor to improve the accuracy of predicting pro-environmental behaviours. Hence, we aimed to explore (i) whether the addition of a moral element to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) shows the 'attitude-behaviour' gap and (ii) whether the ethics position questionnaire (EPQ) is a more suitable measure of morality within the TPB framework, as compared to that of moral norms. The results from 181 US MTurk participants disclosed that the addition of the moral element to the TPB framework did not reveal the presence of the 'attitude-behaviour' gap, despite both moral norms and idealism significantly predicting pro-environmental attitudes. The findings do not indicate whether moral norms or idealism should be used as a more accurate measure of morality within the TPB framework, although relativism was found to have no significant effects. Further investigation of why the moral element does not reveal the 'attitude-behaviour' gap within the TPB framework predicting pro-environmental behaviours would help understand the reasons why rational choice models tend to overestimate theoretical vs. real-life engagement with sustainability.

Hunt-Vitell's General Theory of Marketing Ethics Predicts "Attitude-Behaviour" Gap in Pro-environmental Domain.

The inconsistency between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, known as the "attitude-behaviour" gap, is exceptionally pronounced in scenarios associated with "green" choice. The current literature offers numerous explanations for the reasons behind the "attitude-behaviour" gap, however, the generalisability of these explanations is complex. In addition, the answer to the question of whether the gap occurs between attitudes and intentions, or intentions and behaviours is also unknown. In this study, we propose the moral dimension as a generalisable driver of the "attitude-behaviour" gap and investigate its effectiveness in predicting attitudes, pro-environmental intentions and subsequent behaviours. We do so by using Hunt-Vitell's moral philosophy-based framework of ethical decision-making, which conceptualises morality as the central decision-making parameter. The results from 557 US MTurk participants revealed that the manipulation of moral dimensions, specifically deontology and teleology, impacted ethical evaluation of presented dilemmas, however, failed to translate into subsequent intentions and behaviours. This finding suggests (i) that the moral dimension has an effect in shaping attitudes toward environmental issues, and (ii) that gap occurs between attitudes and intentions rather than intentions and behaviours. Further investigation of what strengthens and/or overrides the effects of the moral dimension would help understand the reasons why moral attitudes do not always translate into subsequent intentions and behaviours in the pro-environmental domain.

The effects of idealism and relativism on the moral judgement of social vs. environmental issues, and their relation to self-reported pro-environmental behaviours.

Many studies have demonstrated that moral philosophies, such as idealism and relativism, could be used as robust predictors of judgements and behaviours related to common moral issues, such as business ethics, unethical beliefs, workplace deviance, marketing practices, gambling, etc. However, little consideration has been given to using moral philosophies to predict environmentally (un)friendly attitudes and behaviours, which could also be classified as moral. In this study, we have assessed the impact of idealism and relativism using the Ethics Position Theory. We have tested its capacity to predict moral identity, moral judgement of social vs. environmental issues, and self-reported pro-environmental behaviours. The results from an online MTurk study of 432 US participants revealed that idealism had a significant impact on all the tested variables, but the case was different with relativism. Consistently with the findings of previous studies, we found relativism to be a strong predictor of moral identity and moral judgement of social issues. In contrast, relativism only weakly interacted with making moral judgements of environmental issues, and had no effects in predicting pro-environmental behaviours. These findings suggest that Ethics Position Theory could have a strong potential for defining moral differences between environmental attitudes and behaviours, capturing the moral drivers of an attitude-behaviour gap, which continuously stands as a barrier in motivating people to become more pro-environmental.

How a smiley protects health: A pilot intervention to improve hand hygiene in hospitals by activating injunctive norms through emoticons.

Hand hygiene practice in hospitals is unfortunately still widely insufficient, even though it is known that transmitting pathogens via hands is the leading cause of healthcare-associated infections. Previous research has shown that improving knowledge, providing feedback on past behaviour and targeting social norms are promising approaches to improve hand hygiene practices. The present field experiment was designed to direct people on when to perform hand hygiene and prevent forgetfulness. This intervention is the first to examine the effect of inducing injunctive social norms via an emoticon-based feedback system on hand hygiene behaviour. Electronic monitoring and feedback devices were installed in hospital patient rooms on top of hand-rub dispensers, next to the doorway, for a period of 17 weeks. In the emoticon condition, screens at the devices activated whenever a person entered or exited the room. Before using the alcohol-based hand-rub dispenser, a frowny face was displayed, indicating that hand hygiene should be performed. If the dispenser was subsequently used, this picture changed to a smiley face to positively reinforce the correct behaviour. Hand hygiene behaviour in the emoticon rooms significantly outperformed the behaviour in three other tested conditions. The strong effect in this field experiment indicates that activating injunctive norms may be a promising approach to improve hand hygiene behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The associations between personality traits, education, occupation and the occurrence of eczema in adulthood.

There were 5834 participants with complete data on parental social class at birth, childhood cognitive ability tests scores at 11 years, educational qualifications at 33 years, the Big Five-Factor personality traits, occupational levels and eczema (measured at age 50 years). Results showed that eczema in childhood, educational achievement and occupational levels were significantly associated with the occurrence of reported eczema in adulthood. Emotionally Stable people (non-neurotic) were less likely to have eczema, but those with high Agreeableness and Openness more likely to have eczema. Childhood cognitive ability was significantly and positively associated with eczema in adulthood.

The more (and the more compatible) the merrier: multiple group memberships and identity compatibility as predictors of adjustment after life transitions.

Two longitudinal studies considered the role of social identity factors in predicting well-being after students' transition to university. The transition (assessed before starting university and after 2 months at university) had a detrimental effect on well-being, but identification as a university student improved well-being. Both studies showed that the social context in which the change occurred either facilitated or hindered university identification. Specifically, perceived compatibility between old and new identities and having multiple group memberships (which were each influenced by social class background, Study 2) both increased likelihood of identification with the new group. These predictive relationships remained statistically reliable when controlling for other factors relevant to the transition. The results suggest that life transitions are difficult partly because they entail changes in group membership. Both studies also demonstrate that identification with a new group can help buffer individuals from the negative well-being consequences of change.

Therapist competence, comorbidity and cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression.

BACKGROUND: Therapist competence has consistently been associated with therapy outcomes, although the nature of this relationship varies considerably across studies. METHOD: In a naturalistic process-outcome study, 69 clients presenting with depression were treated by 1 of 18 cognitive-behavioral therapists in a 'real world' outpatient clinic. Using triangulated measures of therapists' competence, we hypothesized that greater therapist competence would be associated with improved cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) outcomes for clients diagnosed with depression. We hypothesized that the variation in the research to date on therapist competence and CBT for depression outcomes may be due to the moderating effects of complexity of client presentation, in terms of comorbidity. RESULTS: We replicated the previous finding that comorbidity compromises CBT for depression outcomes, but found that greater therapist competence was associated with improved outcomes, regardless of clients' comorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Therapist competence is associated with improved therapy outcomes, and therapists who are more competent have better patient outcomes regardless of the degree of patient comorbidity.