A Research Note on: Economic and Psychological Constraints in Household Energy Conservation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relative contributions of a number of the determinants of the propensity to engage in energy-conserving behavior. The analysis is based on data from about 200 households in five small cities in Iowa. The key findings of the paper are that resource constraints act as barriers to having an energy-efficient dwelling, but that expression of a propensity to improve the efficiency of that dwelling is constrained by resource and predisposition constraints. The findings indicate that it would be more fruitful to attempt to remove or reduce the resource constraints that serve as barriers to energy conservation than to attempt to change attitudes. Education programs might better be focused on the development of management skills, for example, than on attitude changes. in an attitude change program, the need would be, not only to change attitudes toward energy, but to change them sufficiently to overcome the resource constraints.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shirley M. Niemeyer

Shirley M. Niemeyer is Extension Specialist, Cooperative Extension Service„ University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Earl W. Morris

Earl W. Morris is Professor of Family Environment, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Journal Paper No. J-10842 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 2530. This project was supported by the Graduate College and the Home Economics Research Institute in addition to the Experiment Station of Iowa State University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1983 Annual Meeting of the Environmental Design Research Association, Lincoln, Nebraska.