Heib Sascha, Hildebrand Jan, Kortsch Timo
Department of Environmental Psychology, Institute for Future Energy and Material Flow Systems (IZES gGmbH), Saarbrücken, Germany.
Department of Health and Social Work, IU International University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 21;14:1082061. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1082061. eCollection 2023.
In times of rising energy prices and increasing importance of climate change, saving energy becomes even more important. Universities are large public institutions with significant energy-saving potential. This study investigated the energy-saving behavior of students and employees at a German university. In contrast to previous studies, which often focused on individual buildings, this study took a comprehensive approach and addressed all university members (employees and students). A extended model of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) served as the theoretical basis. Considering the specific organizational context, the main question of the study was to explore the interlinkages between the intention to save energy, corresponding consumption behavior, and the effects of injunctive and descriptive social norms within the social system of the organization. Furthermore, the impact of "not energy related" factors like the identification with the organization was tested.
As methodological approach a university-wide quantitative online survey was conducted. For the survey, a standardized questionnaire containing several scales on energy consumption behavior and TBP-constructs was used. All in all, data from a total of 1,714 members of the university participating in the study was analyzed.
Structural equation modeling showed that the extended TPB model yields a satisfactory amount of explained variance (approximately 40%) for intention and a moderate amount (approximately 20%) for behavior. The strongest predictors are personal norm and behavioral control. The organizational influence factor identification was also significant for intention, but only to a small extent.
The results extend the understanding of the TPB in the context of energy conservation in universities and emphasize that the sense of behavioral control and the personal norm must always be considered when intervening in this context to promote energy conservation and thus provide valuable hints for practical measures.
在能源价格不断上涨以及气候变化日益重要的时代，节能变得更加重要。大学是具有巨大节能潜力的大型公共机构。本研究调查了一所德国大学学生和员工的节能行为。与以往通常关注单个建筑的研究不同，本研究采用了综合方法，涵盖了所有大学成员（员工和学生）。计划行为理论（TPB）的扩展模型作为理论基础。考虑到特定的组织背景，该研究的主要问题是探讨节能意图、相应的消费行为以及组织社会系统中指令性和描述性社会规范的影响之间的相互联系。此外，还测试了诸如对组织的认同等“与能源无关”因素的影响。
作为一种方法，开展了一项全校范围的定量在线调查。对于该调查，使用了一份标准化问卷，其中包含几个关于能源消费行为和TPB构念的量表。总共分析了参与该研究的1714名大学成员的数据。
结构方程模型表明，扩展的TPB模型对意图产生了令人满意的解释方差量（约40%），对行为产生了适度的解释方差量（约20%）。最强的预测因素是个人规范和行为控制。组织影响因素认同对意图也有显著影响，但程度较小。
研究结果扩展了在大学节能背景下对TPB的理解，并强调在这种背景下进行干预以促进节能时，必须始终考虑行为控制感和个人规范，从而为实际措施提供有价值的提示。
