ANTHROPOCENTRISM - CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY AND MEASUREMENT

The construct of ''anthropocentrism '' as an organizing principle for understanding consistencies among attitudes regarding humanity's role in nature was explored Anthropocentrism was defined as a doctrine which posits humanity as the centerpiece of the universe and sees the well-being of mankind as the ultimate purpose of things. Various attitudinal manifestations and historical roots of anthropocentrism are explored An exploratory factor analysis yielded nine factors, most notably the first factor, regarded as a ''pure'' measure of anthropocentrism. Correlational methods revealed that anthropocentrism, as measured, is unrelated to attitudes toward humanity per se, egocentrism, locus of control, and social desirability. However, anthropocentrism is an extension of ethnocentric thinking, involving high valuation of humanity in relation to the relevant outgroup-the nonhuman environment. It is also positively related to an exploitationist environmental stance and negatively related to reported environmentally-conscious behaviors. From this research it appears that anthropocentrism is a useful construct for understanding values regarding man-nature interactions. The 30-item Anthropocentrism Scale is recommended as a temporary measure of extended anthropocentrism, to determine the relation of the construct to still other constructs which might comprise a fuller nomological net. In addition, scores on the first factor obtained in the exploratory factor analysis can be utilized as a ''pure '' measure of anthropocentrism.