Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Environmental responsibility--Iowa--Black Hawk County; Environmental responsibility; Outdoor recreation--Environmental aspects; Iowa--Black Hawk County;

Abstract

The environment as an issue has been prominently before the public for over three decades. Yet the question of how much people know about the natural environment and how committed they are to the environment has seldom been considered in research literature. Research of this nature is needed because without it individuals interested in the preservation and conservation of the environment cannot be sure how their efforts to increase people's environmental sensitivity should be applied. The purpose of this study was to examine the level and extent of environmental sensitivity among supporters of an outdoor recreation area/facility in northeast Iowa.

The Maloney, Ward, and Braucht (MWB) Inventory was mailed to 206 supporters of an urban nature center, and 13 7 respondents returned this self-administered paper and pencil questionnaire. The MWB instrument measured the level of subjects' environmental sensitivity on three subscales by examining verbal commitment, actual commitment, and affect, or strength of emotional feeling about environmental issues. The extent of knowledge of respondents' environmental sensitivity was measured on a fourth subscale which included questions of fact about environmental issues.

Parametric, descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the level and extent of environmental sensitivity among supporters of the urban nature center. The results of this study support previous findings which indicated a need for increased environmental sensitivity. These results were examined and discussed. Implications and suggestions were offered for practitioners employed at facilities similar to the urban nature center should they wish to work to increase the environmental sensitivity of their supporters.

Year of Submission

1997

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Debra Jordan

Second Advisor

Don DeGraaf

Third Advisor

Nancy Hamilton

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1997

Object Description

1 PDF file (71 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS