Environmental Attitudes Conceptualized Through Developmental Theory: A Qualitative Analysis

Women's attitudes toward the environment were explored in relation to Robert Kegan's model of ego development, using a randomly selected sample of 27 women aged 40 to 49 from a Massachusetts town. Ways of thinking about the environment were differentiated qualitatively according to ego stage. Illustrations of stage distinctions focused on the women's feelings of relationship or connection to the environment and on their presented rationale for their environmentally related behaviors. Implications of stage distinctions to educational efforts and to conceptualizations of justice are discussed.