Date of Award
5-1-2020
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Behavior Analysis and Therapy
First Advisor
Dixon, Mark
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to use the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to increase environmentally sustainable behavior among seven college-aged students. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy involves increasing mindfulness and psychological flexibility. All participants filled out a daily survey that ranked how much they had participated in environmentally sustainable behavior or if they had the opportunity to participate in it at all. Four participants then received three individual, brief ACT sessions with the researcher and three of these participants showed an average of a 20% increase overall in self-reported sustainable behaviors after the brief intervention in both phases, while only one participant had an increase in phase 2 alone at 22.3%. The three participants that did not receive the ACT remained in baseline throughout the study and had minimal changes in responding on the survey. These results suggest that the ACT intervention may have some effect on improvements in sustainable behaviors.
Access
This thesis is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.