An environmental preference scale: a proposal to measure the relationships between individuals and their environment

Abstract

The goal of the study was to measure and compare environmental preference on 59 biology students and 75 psychology students from a Mexican public university. Participants were shown 60 images of natural and urban environments, they were required to indicate the degree of relationship experienced with that environment, using a 7-point Likert scale. The results showed an internal consistency of 0.94 and a single-factor structure for the scale factor of nature dimension and three others related to an urban dimension (Entertainment, Pollution and Football Soccer). Moreover, a significant main difference on rating performance was obtained between the Biology and Psychology samples.

Keywords

• Environmental preference
• nature
• urban
• biology students
• psychology students