School of Environmental & Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Box 352100, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Conserv Biol. 2013 Aug;27(4):866-75. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12058. Epub 2013 May 8.
Although the word commitment is prevalent in conservation biology literature and despite the importance of people's commitment to the success of conservation initiatives, commitment as a psychological phenomenon and its operation in specific conservation behaviors remains unexplored. Despite increasing calls for conservation psychology to play a greater role in meeting conservation goals, applications of the psychological sciences to specific conservation behaviors, illustrating their utility to conservation practice, are rare. We examined conservation volunteers' motivations and commitment to urban conservation volunteering. We interviewed key informant volunteers and used interview findings to develop psychometric scales that we used to assess motivations and commitment to volunteer. We surveyed 322 urban conservation volunteers and used factor analysis to reveal how volunteers structure their motivations and commitment to volunteer for urban conservation activities. Six categories of motivations and 2 categories of commitment emerged from factor analysis. Volunteers were motivated by desires to help the environment, defend and enhance the ego, career and learning opportunities, escape and exercise, social interactions, and community building. Two forms of commitment, affective and normative commitment, psychologically bind people to urban conservation volunteerism. We used linear-regression models to examine how these categories of motivations influence volunteers' commitment to conservation volunteerism. Volunteers' tendency to continue to volunteer for urban conservation, even in the face of fluctuating counter urges, was motivated by personal, social, and community functions more than environmental motivations. The environment, otherwise marginally important, was a significant motivator of volunteers' commitment only when volunteering met volunteers' personal, social, and community-building goals. Attention to these personal, social, and community-building motivations may help enhance volunteers' commitment to conservation stewardship and address the pressing challenge of retaining urban conservation volunteers.
虽然承诺一词在保护生物学文献中很常见，而且人们对保护倡议成功的承诺也很重要，但承诺作为一种心理现象及其在特定保护行为中的运作仍未得到探索。尽管越来越多的人呼吁保护心理学在实现保护目标方面发挥更大的作用，但将心理学科学应用于特定的保护行为，说明其对保护实践的实用性，却很少见。我们调查了城市保护志愿者的动机和对城市保护志愿服务的承诺。我们采访了关键知情志愿者，并利用访谈结果开发了心理测量量表，用于评估志愿者的动机和对志愿工作的承诺。我们调查了 322 名城市保护志愿者，并利用因子分析揭示了志愿者如何构建他们对城市保护活动的动机和承诺。从因子分析中得出了六个动机类别和两个承诺类别。志愿者的动机是帮助环境、维护和增强自我、职业和学习机会、逃避和锻炼、社会互动和社区建设。情感承诺和规范承诺两种形式在心理上使人们与城市保护志愿服务联系在一起。我们使用线性回归模型来检验这些动机类别如何影响志愿者对保护志愿服务的承诺。志愿者继续为城市保护志愿服务的倾向，即使面对波动的反作用力，也是由个人、社会和社区功能驱动的，而不是环境动机。环境在志愿者的个人、社会和社区建设目标得到满足时，除了边缘重要性之外，也是志愿者承诺的重要动机。关注这些个人、社会和社区建设的动机可能有助于增强志愿者对保护管理的承诺，并解决留住城市保护志愿者的紧迫挑战。
