Conceptualizing Environmental Movement Identity Standards: The Role of Personal Identity Theory

Abstract

In this paper, I apply concepts from personal identity theory to understand how individuals perceive their identity standards related to participation in the environmental movement. Using interview data collected from 40 participants in the People’s Climate March, I discuss the contents of participants’ “environmental movement identities” and find a diversity of normative expectations incorporated into identity standards, behavioral expectations tied to an identity. The varied self-concepts found in these data indicate heterogeneity in how people understand their identities that may influence their choices in environmental behavior. The concept of environmental movement identity allows for a more nuanced understanding of the ways that people construct their identities related to participation in the environmental movement, including people who identify as participating in movements for change through private behaviors. This research has implications for integrating identity concepts across disciplinary lines.

Keywords:

• Collective action
• environmental behavior
• identity
• social movements
• social psychology

Acknowledgement

I am grateful for the support of the UMD College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Dean’s Research Initiative in funding this research, and for the helpful feedback of Dr. Rashawn Ray, Dr. Dana Fisher, Dr. Jeff Lucas, and anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 Data were collected in accordance with University of Maryland Institutional Review Board Protocol # 332104-1 and only individuals over the age of 18 were eligible to participate in the study.

2 Interviews were conducted in accordance with the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board protocol #898184-1.