Research On The Relationship Between Cognition, Attitude And Behavior Of Urban Residents’Public Participation

Public participation has become a key factor to promote socialist democracy, cultivate civic awareness, measure government’s ability of administration, and enhance government’s scientific and effective decision-making. Public participation impacts the public’s sense of identity of and belonging to the society to a large extent, and issues related to public participation entail more concerns and attention from the government and academia.However, research questions in public participation area such as how to study the three core variables in public participation, namely public participation awareness, public participation attitude, and public participation behavior at an aggregate level, how to identify the key factors that affects public participation, how to introduce the crucial factor of psychological capital into the model of public participation, and how to use the media and personal characteristics to alter negative public into positive public, are still very vague and need further research efforts and attention.This study reviews relevant literature on macro and micro participation theory and uses interview and survey method to examine the relationship between the core variables of public participation, and the important role that psychological capital and public participation attitude play in the process of public participation. In particular, this study examines a) the three-dimension structural model of public participation attitude, b) the relational model of public participation awareness, public participation attitude, and public participation behavior, and c) the overall model of the relationship between psychological capital and public participation.The results show that public participation attitude is a three-dimension structural model. This paper uses exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, compares structural models of public participation attitude based on structural equation modeling, and identifies the three dimensions of public participation attitude (attitude toward public affairs, attitude toward social affairs and attitude toward current events) which contributes to the definition and measurement of public participation attitude. The author also clarifies the relationship between public participation awareness, public participation attitude and public participation behavior, and develops a relational model of the three. Through empirical method, the research explores and verifies the structure of public participation awareness and public participation behavior, and finds that public participation awareness significantly affects public participation attitude, public participation attitude significantly affects public participation behavior, and public participation the attitude fully mediates the effect of public participation awareness on public participation behavior. In addition, this research develops an overall model of the relationship between psychological capital and public participation and examines the relationship between each other. This paper initially introduces the variable of psychological capital to public participation process and studies the impact of psychological factors on public participation. Results from empirical analysis shows that psychological capital has significant effect on public participation awareness and public participation attitude, and partially mediates the effect of public participation awareness on public participation attitude.The managerial implication of this research is to alter participation behavior by adjusting the core participation variables and ultimately improve political apathy. Our research also provides insights for government to guide effective public participation and contributes to develop a more scientific and systematic model of public participation in the attempt to lay a solid theoretical foundation of public participation.