Environmental world view of Ukrainian citizens: Developing an ecocentric type
Distinctive features of the environmental world view among different groups of Ukrainian citizens constitute the central theme of the research undertaken. Structurally, it consists of three parts. The first part provides an explanation of the environmental world view (EWV) and presents a conceptual model with three EVW types (anthropo-, bio- and ecocenric), as well as ten subtypes (anthropocentric-contemplative, anthropocentric-pragmatic, anthropocentric-destructive, anthropocentric-preserving, biocentric-altruistic, biocentric-aggressive, biocentric-syncretic, ecocentric-rational, ecocentric-constructive and ecocentric-oppositional). The second part analyses the attitudes towards environmental issues shared by some groups of Ukraine’s adult population (aged 18 and over), along with their willingness to take up some eco-friendly practices. For this purpose, the author used findings from several nationwide surveys performed by different research institutions and polling companies from 2015 through 2020. In these surveys, a respondent was supposed to answer the following questions: a) which environmental problems (given on the list) worry him/her the most; b) who should be held responsible for such a state of affairs (the government, local authorities, politicians, big businesses, ordinary citizens, etc.); c) what the respondent is personally ready to do (or doing at the moment) in order to somewhat improve the current situation or tackle the environmental crisis. The number of respondents varied between 1,200 and 2,100. The third part focuses on the results of a study conducted in 2021 and 2022 among students from Ukrainian schools (mainly 9th, 10th and 11th graders). The study sought to determine the prevailing type of world view among those students with regard to the “human–nature” relationship (i.e. anthropo-, bio-, or ecocentrism). With this end in view, the author designed a questionnaire consisting of 30 groups of statements with three alternatives to choose. The data indicated a moderate prevalence of an ecocentric world view among students engaged in various environmental projects being implemented within an area to which their school belonged. In addition, a number of activities conducive to the development of an ecocentric type of EWV are proposed (environmental classes and games, art contests, career counselling sessions, recycling competitions, etc.).
About the author:
Olha Maksymenko,
MA in Psychology, leading sociologist at the Department of Methodology and Methods of Sociology, Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021); librarian at Pavlo Usenko Library for Children, Centralised Library Management System of Dniprovskyi District of the city of Kyiv (7, Ivana Mykolaichuka St., Kyiv, 02152)
olga.maksimenko.65@gmail.com
