Environmental Values (2-MEV) and Appreciation of Nature

Abstract

When monitoring the long history of empirical instruments for environmental attitude measurement, the Two Major Environmental Value model (2-MEV) with its two higher order factors: Preservation (PRE) and Utilization (UTL) has repeatedly and independently been confirmed. PRE assesses preferences towards conservation of nature and the environment, whilst UTL measures preferences towards utilization/exploitation of nature. The latter, however, does not yet include the positive aspects of benefitting from the (enjoyable) use of nature. Consequently, besides the established 2-MEV-battery, additional items from an "Appreciation of Nature" (APR) scale were applied to an Irish sample of 289 secondary school students (age: M = 14.3 years). Responses to the altogether 30-item battery were applied on an oblique rotation by using the Promax procedure: UTL and PRE appeared as orthogonally related factors, APR correlated to PRE with 0.283. Based on loading scores, the item number for each subscale was further reduced to make the analysis more manageable in educational outreach sites; on those sites, where completing questionnaires may well be quite unpopular, they are very much needed for planning and fine-tuning educational programs. Therefore, extending the 2-MEV scale with an added scale for Appreciation may help: (i) to judge participants' feedback for adjusting/balancing program contents better; and (ii) to promote appreciation as a successful strategy for shifting individuals away from their individual exploitative preferences.

How Young “Early Birds” Prefer Preservation, Appreciation and Utilization of Nature

“…Using an exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation, we were able to extract a three-factor structure from the 2-MEV+APR, showing consistency with Bogner [24]. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test (0.813) (acceptable limit 0.5, [52]) and Bartlett's test of sphericity (p < 0.001) confirmed the appropriateness of the sample for factor analysis.…”

“…During regular school lessons, all students completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire comprising the 2-MEV scale, the APR scale and the Morningness-Eveningness Scale for Children (MESC). The 2-MEV consisted of 14 items monitoring the orthogonal dimensions Preservation and Utilization of Nature [12,23,24]. The APR assessed the Appreciation of Nature with six items [24,41,42].…”

“…The 2-MEV consisted of 14 items monitoring the orthogonal dimensions Preservation and Utilization of Nature [12,23,24]. The APR assessed the Appreciation of Nature with six items [24,41,42]. The response pattern followed a 5-point Likert scale ranging from totally disagree (1) to totally agree (5).…”

“…Finally, (iv) Borchers et al [58], coming from a psychological-pedagogical background, confirmed the two-factor second order structure in a study conducted in West Africa. Bogner [24] expanded the repeatedly confirmed 2-MEV scale with items measuring the Appreciation of Nature and found a clear three-dimensional structure. The current study is adding to this literature.…”

“…I'm tired in the morning All statistical analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS Statistics version 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). First, a principal component analysis (PCA) with oblique rotation for the 2-MEV+APR was applied to assure the correspondence with the results of Bogner [24]. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett's test of sphericity were used to investigate the appropriateness of the sample for factor analysis [51].…”