The Psychology of Environmentally Sustainable Behavior: Fitting Together Pieces of the Puzzle

This paper considers the main features of four general psychological approaches to the analysis of environmentally sustainable behavior (rational–economic, social dilemmas, attitude–behavior models, and applied behavioral analysis), and focuses on the problems inherent in applying each approach to this issue. It also details the utility of a holistic Social–Ecological Framework that I believe is useful for analyzing environmentally sustainable behavior. This approach draws on concepts from ecological psychology such as Gibson's (1979) notion of “affordances,” and shows how such a method can account for and help us understand the limitations of traditional psychological approaches to environmentally sustainable behavior, and provides a general guiding framework for the formulation of environmental policy decisions and intervention programs.