A Scale for Assessing Attitudes toward Environmental Quality

Abstract

The dimensionality of attitudes toward environmental quality was investigated in three separate studies of 660 undergraduates and adult citizens, 207 middle-class housewives, and 51 members of environmental groups. A three-dimensional scale was developed, representing concerns for environmental degradation, environmental action, and overpopulation. Members of environmental action organizations were found to have significantly higher scores for each of the three dimensions than middle-class citizens. Global attitudinal concern for environmental degradation and for environmental action were typically found to be better predictors of general levels of behavioral involvement in action than of single activities.