The New Environmental Paradigm Scale: A Reexamination

To examine and measure the paradigmatic shifts in the public's orientation toward the physical environment, Dunlap and Van Liere developed the New Environmental Paradigm Scale. This study examines the dimensionality of the NEP scale. The scale was tested in three different settings to assess its stability. Using confirmatory factor analysis we were unable to confirm any of the previous configurations of the scale's dimensionality. We were, however, able to confirm the dimensionality of a three-factor model using nine of the items from the original scale. Further, the extracted factor pattern for our model closely resembles the findings reported by Albrecht et al.