On The Thematic Expansion Of Environmental Protection Research In Environment And Behavior Journal Of United States

Environmental protection has become a hot issue of global concern. The research field of environment and behavior studies in U.S.,also known as environmental psychology, is a new discipline that was early arisen from the 1960s internationally. Since it was arisen, the research direction of environmental protection is included in the content of this field. After nearly half a century in efforts, the research scholars in this field are concerned more about the advancement of the research on the environmental protection, the changes of hot spots and the expansion of the research theme, which are all worthwhile to discuss in the Chinese academic circle that engages in this field later and also beneficial to inspire researchers in this field to closely follow the forefront of international research. At the same time, due to the environment and behavior studies that are concerned about the environmental problems caused by the process of modernization, industrialization and urbanization, this paper sheds light on the concept of environmental protection and the promotion of environmental protection behavior,which are closely associated with the research on the Environmental Philosophy, Ecological Philosophy and Design Philosophy. Therefore, the choice for the research field of environment and behavior studies in US as exploring the expansion of environmental protection theme will be of a theoretical significance in the enrichment for the discussion of the environmental philosophy related to the philosophy of science and technology.This paper is done by choosing the only specialized journal, entitled Journal of Environment and Behavior, in U.S.as the research subject. It firstly sets forth the historical background of the rise of environment and behavior studies in U.S.with the analysis on how the research objective of this journal is influenced by the humanism and ecologism, making the research direction of environmental protection brought into the content of it. The focus of this paper is to use the methodology of metrology with the statistics of the changes of the relevant theme in the research direction of environmental protection from initial stage to today. The statistical research is divided into three parts. Firstly, the papers of this journal will be classified into five major research directions, namely, environmental perception and environmental cognition, environmental sociology, environmental behavior, environmental protection, environmental assessment. Through the statistics on the amount of papers of the five research directions in the early and recent stage of this journal, with the comparison of the changes in the five research directions, it is found that the degree for the concerns about the research direction of environmental protection has been intensified, namely, from the little concerns early to recent a hot concern. Secondly, the research direction of environmental protection is specifically divided into the five major themes, that is, environmental decision-making and public participation, environmental education, environmental awareness, attitudes and management, environmental protection, and global ecological issues.Through the statistics on the amount of papers in the five major research aspects of this journal in different ages, this paper analyzes the longitudinal changes of the theme of environmental protection, it is found that the early studies focused on environmental awareness, attitudes, environmental education, whereas the recent studies concerned more about the environmental protection and the global ecological issues. Thirdly, with the statistics on the authors' distribution in the research direction of environmental protection, it is found that the initial contribution is mainly attributed to the authors from United States but now is based on the joint participation of scholars from different countries. At last, this paper analyzes the reasons for the expansion of the theme in the studies of environmental protection behavior in terms of the rise of the Environmental Campaign, the development of Environmental Ethics and the birth of Ecological Philosophy, with the discussion of the environmental problems solving relied on the ecological wholeness and of the importance to behavior in the implement of the environmental protection.