Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes About

¶ … Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes About the Environment Beliefs: Toffler 1980. 'three types of beliefs are preindustrial, industrial, and postindustrial' (Bechtel, 1997). 'Some people get caught in one stage and are not able to adjust to the next stage' (Bechtel, 1997). Attitudes: There is a strong correlation between attitude and behavior and the Fishbein-Ajzen model was the first to show this correlation (Bechtel, 1997). A person's attitude toward a specific behavior strongly predicts if that behavior will occur (Bechtel, 1997). Attitudes toward the Environment: Gray 1985.

He 'developed the most comprehensive model for looking at attitudes toward environment' (Bechtel, 1997). 'The elements of Gray's model are general environmental concern, primitive beliefs, costs/benefits, and locus of responsibility and control' (Bechtel, 1997). The Environmental Response Inventory: Created by McKechnie, 1974. It 'classifies personal dispositions toward the environment' (Bechtel, 1997). Consists of 'pastoralism, urbanism, environmental adaptation, environmental trust, antiquarian, need for privacy, mechanical orientation, and communality classifications' (Bechtel, 1997). NIMBY: Refers to the fact that people may believe that something is good for the environment but "not in my backyard" (Bechtel, 1997).

Environmental ethics: 'Hardin 1968 and the "tragedy of the commons" shows that people find it hard to give up present rewards to prevent future negative circumstances' (Bechtel, 1997). Platt, 1973, calls the tragedy a social trap (Bechtel, 1997). 'Platt states traps arise in situations of highly motivating reward or punishment in the short-term, and consequences postponed to the long-term" (Bechtel, 1997). Different types of traps include one person traps, sliding reinforcers, the missing hero, collective traps, and nestive traps (Bechtel, 1997).

Laws of ecological science: ' propose to resolve the dilemmas of traps, values, attitudes, and beliefs that lead to exploitation of the environment by deriving an environmental ethic from three basic laws of ecological science' (Bechtel, 1997). The law of interdependence: Everything in the universe is connected in some form or fashion and that makes it impossible to do something without affecting something else (GAIA is an example) (Bechtel, 1997). 1) Diversity: "Everything that exists has a place in the scheme of things" (Bechtel, 1997).

2) the law of limitation and irreversibility: "Some things cannot be replaced and in our ignorance we must act as if all things are irreplaceable" (Bechtel, 1997). 3) HEP-NEP: 'Human Exceptionist Paradigm and the New Environmental Paradigm. Dunlap and Van Liere (1978b) used these to describe basic attitudes toward the environment' (Bechtel, 1997). 'These divide people.