Who Cares about Ecology? Personality and Sex Differences in Environmental Concern

Examined personality factors that underlie concern for ecological-environmental problems. 96 undergraduates with either high or low environmental concern were given the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and were found to differ significantly on many subscales. A factor analysis of the CPI data produced 4 factors that closely paralleled previous CPI research findings. In conjunction with this analysis, 4 factorially derived scores were obtained for each individual. Comparison of high and low environmental-concern Ss' factorially derived scores showed high environmental-concern Ss as having stronger value orientation, person orientation, and ethical-conscientiousness, but not differing from low environmental-concern Ss in terms of independence of thought or action. Further, high environmental-concern females were found to be significantly more extraverted, leader-types than low environmental-concern females, while the opposite relation was obtained for males. Thus, it appears that men and women become involved with the environmental movement for different reasons. Implications of the involvement of basic psychological individual differences in determining ecological-environmental concern are discussed. (38 ref)