https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8413-879X
Synopsis
The question of why people want to protect nature is typically addressed through reference to constructs about the Intrinsic or Instrumental Value of Nature. In recent years, however, a third valuing construct has emerged: Relational Values (RVs). In brief, an RV takes into account people’s own relationship with nature as well as their relationship with others that affect nature.
RVs are a possible explanatory approach to a person’s environmental behaviour. My literature review showed that RVs have received much attention since 2016, but until the time of my thesis, no quantitative measurement tool was available for empirical work that had also been tested for its psychometric properties.
Therefore, in study A, an existing measurement instrument for RVs (based on work by Klain et al.) which consisted of seven questions was slightly adapted, tested on 1300 individuals, and evaluated in terms of psychometric properties and factor structure. The results showed that the instrument is a valid and reliable way to measure RVs. Moreover, the discovered factor structure of the RVs was not one-dimensional as previously suspected but was formed by three components: connection, community, and care. In addition, comparison of RVs and the Connectedness to Nature Scale showed that RVs and connectedness to nature were different constructs, while RVs included connection to nature to some extent.
In study B, using the previously tested measurement instrument for RVs, I examined whether RVs and nature connectedness differed between high school, first-year biology, and advanced biology students. No significant difference was found between groups for RVs. For nature connectedness, biology students were found to have higher connection to nature than high school students.
In summary, the research provides an empirically tested measurement instrument for the RV construct. The instrument can be used in environmental education research to investigate relationships between types of human-nature relationship and other factors, such as environmental attitudes or environmental knowledge. The measurement instrument is also suitable for evaluating environmental education programmes in terms of RVs (to explain pro-environmental behavioural outcomes). In addition to the measurement tool, the study was also able to provide important initial findings when analyzing RVs empirically.
Supervisors:
Paul W. Dierkes and Volker Wenzel
Conferring university:
Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Award type: PhD Natural Sciences [doctor rerum naturalium - Dr. rer. nat.]
Year of award:
2021
Thesis
Kleespies, Matthias Winfried. 2021. “Connection to Nature and Relational Values: An Empirical Study of Human-Nature Relationships to Explore Essential Factors in Environmental Education and Environmental Psychology,” Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main.
Authors email address: [email protected]
Publicationsarising from thesis
Kleespies, M. W., & Dierkes, P. W. (2020): Exploring the construct of relational values: An empirical approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(209). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00209
Kleespies, M. W. & Dierkes, P. W. (2020): Impact of biological education and gender on students’ connection to nature and relational values. PlosOne, 15(11). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242004
Notes on contributor
Matthias Winfried Kleespies is a research assistant at the Department for Bioscience Education and Zoo Biology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. He studied Biology and History and his research focuses on relational values, connection to nature and environmental education programs in zoos.