Abstract
ABSTRACT This study aimed to assess the empirical validity of Carl Rogers’ vision of the authentic person to be ecologically minded. 238 participants were asked to complete the Authenticity Scale, the Connectedness to Nature Scale, the Love and Care for Nature Scale, the Ethically Minded Consumer Behavior Scale, and the Brief Social Desirability Scale. It was found that higher scores on authenticity were associated with higher scores on feelings of connection to nature, love and care for nature, and ethically minded consumer choices. Associations remained statistically significant even controlling for social desirability effects. This is the first study to provide empirical support for Rogers’ hypothesis that more congruent individuals will be more environmentally aware and concerned.
Highlights
Deforestation, extinction of species, global warming, depletion of natural resources, intensive livestock farming – there are many scholars who conclude that human civilization as we know it is on the edge of destruction (e.g., Neville, 2018; Orr, 1994, Oskamp, 2000)
It was found that higher scores on the Authenticity Scale (AS) were statistically associated with higher scores on the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS), Love and Care for Nature Scale (LCN), and Ethically Minded Consumer Behaviour scale (EMCB), with 11%, 6%, and 7% of shared variance, respectively
Significant associations were found between CNS, LCN, and EMCB confirming the findings of previous research (Mayer & Frantz, 2004; Perkins, 2011; Schultz, 2002)
Summary
Deforestation, extinction of species, global warming, depletion of natural resources, intensive livestock farming – there are many scholars who conclude that human civilization as we know it is on the edge of destruction (e.g., Neville, 2018; Orr, 1994, Oskamp, 2000). While the last few decades have seen advanced sustainable technologies in the generation of renewable energy for housing and transportation, as well as ‘eco-friendly’ statutory legislations such as the separate collection of waste, become increasingly available, these have not been as widely implemented as they could be to reverse the destructive trend. Such destruction might seem perplexing given the assumption of the person-centered approach that it is the intrinsic tendency of human nature to always be striving towards a constructive way of being - the maintenance, enhancement and interdependence of the organism (Rogers, 1959). In this paper we propose to examine a hypothesis derived from Rogers’ person-centered theory that when people are in a state of congruence, they will be more ecologically sensitive
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