ESP 178 Applied Research Methods
Notes on Conceptual Models from Articles
Note: These are my interpretations of the articles, but they are not necessarily the only
interpretations!
Nord
Question: What are the associations between forest recreation, environmental concern, and
proenvironmental behavior?
Type: Explanatory/deductive/hypothesis testing
Dependent variable 1: environmental concern
Dependent variable 2: pro-environmental behavior
Independent variable: forest recreation activity, divided into “appreciative” and “consumptive”
activities
Control variables: socio-demographic characteristics
Hypothesis 1: Environmental concern only weakly associated with forest recreation activity,
especially after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics
Hypothesis 2: Pro-environmental behavior positively associated with appreciative activities.
Note: What is the direction of causality? Hard to tell.
Note: First hypothesis tested as a replication of previous studies.
Forest recreation
activity
Environmental
concern
Socio-demographic
characteristics
Forest recreation
activity
Pro-environment
behavior
Socio-demographic
characteristics
Daneshvary, et al.
Question: Will residents support curbside textile recycling (CTR)? More specifically what factors
influence support for CTR?
Type: Explanatory/quantitiative/deductive
Dependent variable: Support for curbside recycling (support, don’t support)
Independent variable 1: Recycle solid waste on a regular basis
Independent variable 2: Donation of used textiles last year
Control variables: Socioeconomic variables, including income, age, political party
Hypothesis 1: Recycle solid waste on a regular basis positively associated with support for CTR
Hypothesis 2: Donation of used textiles last year positively associated with support for CTR
Additional Hypotheses: income negatively associated; age positively associateds; republican
negatively associated with support for CTR.
Note: Antecedent variables – factors that influence independent variables:
e.g., Environmental concerns are antecedent to current recycling behavior
Note: Mediator variables – factors that come between independent and dependent variable, an
intermediate step:
e.g. Current recycling behavior is a mediating variable between environmental concerns and
support for CTR.
Current Recycling Beh
Recycle solid
waste
Environmental
concern
Donate used
textiles
Support for curbside
textile recycling
Socioeconomic
factors
Gatersleben
Questions: Are proenvironmental behaviors correlated with energy use? To what degree do
environmental attitudes and demographic variables influence proenvironmental behaviors? To what
degree do they influence energy use?
Type: Quantitative and explanatory, but with a good dose of exploratory
Dependent variable 1: Energy use
Dependent variable 2: Proenvironmental behaviors
Independent variables: Environmental attitudes, demographic variables
Hypothesis: Proenvironmental behaviors are negatively associated with energy use
Note: The same variables can be both dependent and independent variables in the same study!
e.g. Proenvironmental behaviors as an explanatory factor for energy use
e.g. Proenvironmental behaviors as the outcome of environmental attitudes and demographic
variables
Environmental
Attitudes
Proenvironmental
behaviors
Demographic
variables
Energy use
Note: The independent variable, dependent variable, antecedent variable, mediator variable
terminology gets confusing! Any variable can be any one of these things, depending on your
conceptual model!