Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes About the Environment

Overview of Beliefs and Stages

According to Toffler (1980), as discussed in Bechtel (1997), there are three types of beliefs: preindustrial, industrial, and postindustrial. Some people become fixed in one stage and are unable to adjust to the next. These stages reflect broader shifts in how societies relate to and conceptualize the natural world, forming the foundation for understanding more specific environmental psychology frameworks.

There is a strong correlation between attitude and behavior, and the Fishbein-Ajzen model was the first to demonstrate this relationship (Bechtel, 1997). A person's attitude toward a specific behavior strongly predicts whether that behavior will occur.

Attitudes and Environmental Models

Regarding attitudes toward the environment specifically, Gray (1985) developed what is considered the most comprehensive model for examining environmental attitudes (Bechtel, 1997). The elements of Gray's model are: general environmental concern, primitive beliefs, costs and benefits, and locus of responsibility and control (Bechtel, 1997).

Created by McKechnie (1974), the Environmental Response Inventory classifies personal dispositions toward the environment (Bechtel, 1997). Its classifications include pastoralism, urbanism, environmental adaptation, environmental trust, antiquarian, need for privacy, mechanical orientation, and communality (Bechtel, 1997).

The Environmental Response Inventory

The NIMBY phenomenon refers to the fact that people may believe something is beneficial for the environment in principle but oppose it as "not in my backyard" (Bechtel, 1997). This tension between general environmental support and local opposition is a recurring challenge in environmental policy.

On the broader question of environmental ethics, Hardin's (1968) "tragedy of the commons" illustrates that people find it difficult to give up present rewards in order to prevent future negative circumstances (Bechtel, 1997). Platt (1973) referred to this tragedy as a social trap (Bechtel, 1997). Platt argued that traps arise in situations involving highly motivating rewards or punishments in the short term, with consequences postponed to the long term (Bechtel, 1997).

NIMBY and Environmental Ethics

Different types of traps identified in this framework include one-person traps, sliding reinforcers, the missing hero, collective traps, and nestive traps (Bechtel, 1997).

The laws of ecological science are proposed as a means of resolving the dilemmas of traps, values, attitudes, and beliefs that lead to environmental exploitation, by deriving an environmental ethic from three basic ecological principles (Bechtel, 1997).

The law of interdependence holds that everything in the universe is connected in some form or fashion, making it impossible to take any action without affecting something else. The GAIA hypothesis is offered as one example of this principle (Bechtel, 1997).

Laws of Ecological Science and HEP-NEP

Diversity reflects the principle that "everything that exists has a place in the scheme of things" (Bechtel, 1997).

The law of limitation and irreversibility states that "some things cannot be replaced, and in our ignorance we must act as if all things are irreplaceable" (Bechtel, 1997).

HEP-NEP — the Human Exceptionist Paradigm and the New Environmental Paradigm — were developed by Dunlap and Van Liere (1978) to describe basic attitudes toward the environment (Bechtel, 1997). These paradigms divide people into two groups: those who believe they can help or harm the environment through their actions, and those who believe humans are separate from the environment and therefore have no effect on it (Bechtel, 1997). Together, HEP and NEP serve as tools for measuring human attitudes toward the environment.

Elgin (1981) introduced the concept of voluntary simplicity as a way of putting environmental ethics into practice by simplifying one's life in order to help the environment (Bechtel, 1997).