**3. Method**

This research is described as Empirical-analytical as it focuses on the analysis of the acquisition of climate knowledge through experience. We have used the quantitative method in quantifiable values such as means or percentages to explain or predict the correlation of variables. It is exploratory in scope because it examines a research problem about which there are doubts and it is considered descriptive because quantifiable information has been collected to be used in the statistical analysis of the selected sample. We could also mention that the research is of an evaluative nature because in this case it is a tool that could be used for the continuous improvement of the quality of educational programmes and the individuals included in them. It should be pointed out that the aim of this research is not to evaluate the teaching programmes of the degree programmes used for the analysis of the data, but rather to have an impact on society with the results obtained, so that if, through the students' degree of knowledge of CC, they can clarify a little better the deficiencies that these programmes have in the subject in question, they could be used as a reference so that programme evaluation professionals take them into account when including this phenomenon in these programmes. Finally, the theoretical approach is the Theory of Social Representations.

#### **3.1 Sample**

We have used a sample of undergraduate students from the public universities of Granada (Andalusia. Spain), having collected 522 questionnaires there, Santiago de Compostela (Galicia. Spain) with 644 and Miño (Braga. Portugal) with 560, for a total of 1709 students.

The reason why these three cities have been chosen is because they belong to the project where this research is framed, the RESCLIMA project, but another reason is because we wanted to take into account the variable of territory, which is considered of interest to compare the social representations that are generated in students who, despite studying in universities located in the Iberian Peninsula, the weather conditions are different within the same seasons of the year.

We considered a probability sample by convenience and chose 16 different degrees: Biology, Environmental Sciences, Speech Therapy, Business Management and Administration, Civil Engineering, Translation and Interpreting, Statistics, Sociology, Law, Education, Economics, Forestry and Environmental Engineering, Agricultural and Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, History and Geography.

For example, in a first analysis, only the part of the sample belonging to the University of Granada and all the branches of knowledge was used, or, for example, in another analysis, the part of the sample belonging to the University of Granada was used together with the part corresponding to the University of Santiago de Compostela and only including the variable of the "social sciences and humanities branch".

As for the instrument used to carry out this research, it is an ad hoc questionnaire, with 45 questions divided into two blocks.

The first block consists of 32 Likert-type questions that may or may not be related to climate change, so that the aim is to assess the student's climate literacy. The questions in this first block are divided into four different dimensions: causes, consequences, related biophysical processes and solutions to climate change. This first block covers all the dependent variables that have been used for the analyses that will be shown below.

The second block consists of the remaining 13 questions, where the questions are of a personal nature to find out to what extent the student feels responsible for climate change, whether he/she has participated in any specific activity on the subject in question or whether or not he/she believes that this phenomenon exists, for example. These questions are the ones we have used to carry out the last analysis as independent variables; however, in the rest of the analysis we have used the independent variables of degree, course, branch of knowledge and territorial context, which will be explained in more detail later on as to why they have been chosen.

The instrument used is a 2nd generation instrument with a reliability of 0.74 based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient. This reliability is not as high as would be


#### **Figure 1.**

*Specific methodology used for each of the analyses according to the objectives.*

*Social Representation of Climate Change among Young Spanish University Students DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98258*

desirable, which is why it is currently being improved by means of a validation of the questionnaire by experts.

In the following image we can see the specific methodology used for each of the analyses according to the objectives we want to achieve (**Figure 1**).

#### **3.2 Hyphotesis**

Therefore, based on the above, 3 alternative hypotheses and a null hypothesis have been launched:

*#H1: The knowledge and beliefs of university students in relation to the causes, consequences, biophysical processes and responses and/or solutions that have to do with climate change are influenced by the university education received. This knowledge will be more abundant and specialised in climate science when students come from natural science or engineering/technology backgrounds, and more so as they progress in their academic studies.*

*#H2: Within climate change-related beliefs, climate change denial will be significantly associated with a representation that downplays the consequences of global warming, including health risks and other extreme weather events related to water, such that students from territorial contexts with high average rainfall and low average annual temperatures will tend to minimise the social representation of risks associated with climate change, and vice versa.*

*#H3: The social representation of climate change around the causes, consequences, biophysical processes and responses and/or solutions of climate change and its link to water and health are created due to a significant relationship with the territorial and socio-cultural context, just as it is associated with the student's self-perceived information and pro-environmental attitude.*

Thus, if these hypotheses cannot be accepted, it is possible to think that the social representation of climate change in university students is not determined in a population group by the academic training received, the territorial and sociocultural context so that, even if they are considered to belong to a scientifically literate environment, this is not significantly modifying the social representation of this phenomenon, at least in aspects that are related to the individual's cognition.
