The understandings of environmentalism and conservationism among the American population were lacking before the Johnsons took over the administration, which induced Lady Bird Johnson to push for change in the legislation and community efforts so as to improve the situation. The committee for a More Beautiful Capital, which aimed to beautify the city of Washington, attempted to normalize pro-environmentalist attitudes and behaviors by encouraging participation from all level.
Individuals who participated in the efforts can be divided into two broad groups, either they were driven by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Individuals who were driven by intrinsic motivation acted as the act itself was rewarding, while individual who were driven by extrinsic motivation get involved in attempt to earn a reward or to avoid punishment.
Intrinsic Motivation This group of individuals got involved due to their innate concern for the environment, with the experience of improving the environment being rewarding and enjoyable for them. |
Extrinsic Motivation For this group of individuals, external rewards could come in form of social approval when the individual act in a pro-environmentalist manner, especially by individuals who were perceived to be important to them, while punishment referred to the social disapproval by others when the individual failed to conform to the social norm of acting in a pro-environmentalist manner. Therefore, this group of individuals were likely to participate in the conservation efforts, in attempt to seek social approval and avoid social disapproval from others. However, with that being said, even though these group of individuals were driven by extrinsic motivation to begin with and might not be intrinsically motivated to do so, the adoption of pro-environmentalist behaviors could result in shift in attitudes over time, in favor of pro-environmentalism. This could be explained in terms of attempts to reduce cognitive dissonance that arise due to inconsistency between thoughts and behaviors, such that individuals were more likely to have a pro-environmental attitude to align with their pro-environmentalist behaviors. |
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