A key strategy to motivate proenvironmental behavior (PEB) involves the promise of monetary rewards. Financial incentives are intuitively appealing because they can increase an individual's expected benefits for engaging in the PEB; however, there is concern that incentives can transform motivations for the PEB. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of financial incentives on behavior across time. Specifically, I used an experimental design to examine the immediate effects payments on litter-removal effort (Phase 1) followed by effort after payments were no longer available (Phase 2). Undergraduate students were recruited for a trail evaluation study and randomly assigned to a control treatment or a financial incentive treatment. In Phase 1 I asked students to pick up discarded litter during their trail evaluation (PEB). The incentive condition offered students $0.25 for each of the possible 16 items of trash planted along the trail. The control condition simply asked students to help by picking up trash. Students were again asked to collect trash in Phase 2 but the financial incentive condition was not offered a payment. In accordance with self-determination theory I expected payments to increase effort in the short term and suppress effort when the incentive was no longer provided. Although there was an overall decrease in effort between phases within both conditions, the results of a repeated-measures ANOVA indicated no difference between the control and incentive condition in either phase. Given the lack of a statistically significant finding, it is possible that there are conditions under which payments provide no greater inducement than a simple request for help. This idea is supported by a meta-analysis, which identifies a consistent lack of effect for easily-performed tasks. Additional research is needed to further understand the conditions under which financial incentives can motivate and sustain PEBs. / Master of Science

The 5 factor model of personality, including the traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, is a well-established theoretical model for describing how personality is structured. Hirsh (2010) demonstrated the big 5 personality traits, excluding extraversion, were correlated with pro-environmental attitudes. The purpose of this quantitative study was to replicate previous findings, and discover if there was a correlation with a person's pro-environmental behaviors and the big 5 personality traits. A total of 100 participants from an online participant pool completed a survey, which included the Environmental Concern Scale to measure concern and attitudes about the environment, and the General Ecological Behavior scale and the Self-Reported Pro-environmental Behavior Scale to measure participants' pro-environmental behaviors. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression were performed to determine the predictive relationship between personality traits and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. The trait of openness was significantly correlated with both pro-environmental attitudes, r(91) = .36, p < .01, and behaviors r(93) = .41, p < .01. Agreeableness was also significantly correlated with pro-environmental behaviors r(93) = .26, p <. 05. Multiple regression revealed that trait of openness was found to be a significant predictor of pro-environmental concern F(5, 87) = 3.69, p < .005, and behaviors F(5, 89) = 4.04, p < .002. The implications for positive social change include a better understanding for psychologists of which of the Big 5 personality traits are more likely to contribute in the participation preserving the environment.

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Achieving sustainable consumption of energy is an important issue due to the increasing demand for energy and its environmental impact. One of the biggest consumers of the global energy production is the residential sector. Factors determining pattern of energy consumption in this sector are firstly, characteristics of the buildings and equipment and appliances which are used inside them and secondly, people who are using the buildings. The former could be approached by using efficiency strategies; i.e. designing and using materials and utilities which are low energy demanding or reducing consumption of energy. The latter could be reached by adoption of demand side management strategies which could improve pattern of energy consumption by the end users. Combining these strategies bring out energy-smart buildings with energy-smart people as the users. This project aims at introducing potential approaches to strategies of promoting sustainable behavior regarding energy consumption in individuals, with the focus on the students of Linköping University living in the properties of housing company of the city, Studentbostäder. For fulfilling this purpose, literature review has been done for finding influencing factors on and strategies for shaping of pro-environmental behavior. In the next step, two projects with focus on demand side management for changing energy consumption of individuals have been studied. Afterward, a questionnaire based on the results of the literature review was prepared and used to gain an understanding of first: attitude, values, knowledge, and awareness of students of Linköping University regarding environmental issues, and second: point of view of the students toward the strategies for shaping pro-environmental behavior. Results of the above mentioned methods were used for identifying characteristics of a demand side management project based on provision of feedback on energy consumption for the users. It has been proposed that designing and implementing such project has the potential of affecting pattern of energy consumption by people and lead to its reduction, especially among students accommodating at housing company of city of Linköping, Studentbostäder. More studies are needed for finding feasibility of implementing such project.