Submit a Manuscript

Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education

Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?
Iresha Jayasinghe 1, Rebekka Darner 2 *
More Detail
1 The Ohio State University, USA
2 Illinois State University, USA
* Corresponding Author
Full Text (PDF)
Research Article

Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 2021 - Volume 17 Issue 1, Article No: e2230
https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157

Published Online: 13 Nov 2020

Views: 160 | Downloads: 92

Open Access
How to cite this article
APA 6th edition
In-text citation: (Jayasinghe & Darner, 2021)
Reference: Jayasinghe, I., & Darner, R. (2021). Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 17(1), e2230. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157
Vancouver
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Jayasinghe I, Darner R. Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?. Int J Env Sci Ed. 2021;17(1):e2230. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157
AMA 10th edition
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Jayasinghe I, Darner R. Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?. Int J Env Sci Ed. 2021;17(1), e2230. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157
Chicago
In-text citation: (Jayasinghe and Darner, 2021)
Reference: Jayasinghe, Iresha, and Rebekka Darner. "Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education 2021 17 no. 1 (2021): e2230. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157
Harvard
In-text citation: (Jayasinghe and Darner, 2021)
Reference: Jayasinghe, I., and Darner, R. (2021). Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 17(1), e2230. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157
MLA
In-text citation: (Jayasinghe and Darner, 2021)
Reference: Jayasinghe, Iresha et al. "Do Emotions, Nature Relatedness, and Conservation Concern Influence Students’ Evaluations of Arguments about Biodiversity Conservation?". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, vol. 17, no. 1, 2021, e2230. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/9157
ABSTRACT
Understanding human treatment towards nature provides insight into mitigating human induced environmental issues. This study determines whether individuals’ relationships with nature (NR), emotions experienced during evidence evaluation, and conservation concern drive evaluation of scientific arguments made about biodiversity conservation. Although we predicted that participants with strong NR would exhibit motivated reasoning, resulting in strong argument-evaluation skills as they evaluate an anti-conservation argument, we found that participants’ emotions during evidence evaluation were more predictive of their argument-evaluation skills. Further, participants with either low or high conservation concern demonstrated better argumentation skills. These findings suggest that while fostering strong relationships with nature may be important, of greater importance is to address emotions experienced when evaluating evidence. Furthermore, this study indicates a possibility that one’s reasoning about arguments made about biodiversity conservation may be motivated by how important one deems conservation to be.
KEYWORDS
Conservation education nature relatedness emotion scientific argumentation motivated reasoning
REFERENCES
  • Albarracin, D., & Kumkale, G. T. (2003). Affect as information in persuasion: A model of affect identification and discounting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(3), 453-469. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.453
  • Allchin, D. (2012). Teaching the nature of science through scientific errors. Science Education, 96(5), 904–926. doi:10.1002/sce.21019
  • Asterhan, C. S. C., & Schwarz, B. B. (2009). Argumentation and explanation in conceptual change: Indications from protocol analyses of peer-to-peer dialog. Cognitive Science, 33(3), 374–400. doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01017.x
  • Bart, J., Platte, R., Andres, B., Brown, S., Johnson, J., & Larned, W. (2013). Importance of the national petroleum reserve–Alaska for aquatic birds. Conservation Biology, 27(6), 1304-1312. doi:10.1111/cobi.12133
  • Batt, S. (2009). Human attitudes towards animals in relation to species similarity to humans: A multivariate approach. Bioscience Horizons: The International Journal of Student Research, 2(2), 180–190. doi:10.1093/biohorizons/hzp021
  • Catsambis, S. (1994). The path to math: Gender and racial-ethnic differences in mathematics participation from middle school to high school. Sociology of Education, 67, 199-215. doi:10.2307/2112791
  • Chi M. T. H. (2008). Three types of conceptual change: Belief revision, mental model transformation, and categorical shift. In S. Vosniadou (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Chiew, K. S., & Braver, T. S. (2011). Positive affect versus reward: emotional and motivational influences on cognitive control. Frontiers in psychology, 2, 279. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00279
  • Colléony, A., Clayton, S., Denis, C., Saint Jalme, M., & Prevot, A. (2017). Human preferences for species conservation: Animal charisma trumps endangered status. Biological Conservation, 206, 263-269. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.035
  • Czech, B., Krausman, P. R., & Borkhataria, R. (1998). Social construction, political power, and the allocation of benefits to endangered species. Conservation Biology, 12, 1103-1112. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1998.97253.x
  • DeKay, M. L., & McClelland, G. H. (1996). Probability and utility of endangered species preservation programs. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2(1), 60-83. doi:10.1037/1076-898x.2.1.60
  • Devine A., Fawcett K., Szucs D., Dowker A. (2012). Gender differences in mathematics anxiety and the relation to mathematics performance while controlling for test anxiety. Behav. Brain Funct., 8, 1–9. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-8-33
  • Dowker, A., Sarkar, A., & Looi, C. Y. (2016). Mathematics Anxiety: What Have We Learned in 60 Years?. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 508. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00508
  • Driver, R., Newton., P., & Osborne, J. (2000). Establishing the norms of scientific argumentation in classrooms. Science Education, 84(3), 287. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-237X(200005)84:3<287::AID-SCE1>3.0.CO;2-A
  • Dunlap, R., Liere, K. D., Mertig, A., & Jones, R. (2000). Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 425-442. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00176
  • Duschl, R. A., & Osborne, J. (2002). Supporting and promoting argumentation discourse in science education. Studies in Science Education, 38(1), 39–72. doi:10.1080/03057260208560187
  • Duschl, R. A., Schweingruber, H. A., & Shouse, A.W. (2007). Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in grades K-8.Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
  • Else-Quest, N., Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. (2010). Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 103-127. doi:10.1037/a0018851
  • Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broadenand-build theory of positive emotions. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci., 359, 1367–1378. doi:10.4135/9781412956253.n75
  • Garcia-Marques, T., & Loureiro, F. (2016). Dispositional beliefs regarding “affect as information” determine the perception of persuasive self-efficacy. Analise Psicologica, 34(1), 73–86. doi:10.14417/ap.1098
  • Glassner, A., & Schwarz, B. (2007). What stands and develops between creative and critical thinking? Argumentation?. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 2(1), 10-18. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2006.10.001
  • Gough, M. F. (1954). Mathemaphobia: Causes and treatments. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 28(5), 290–294. doi:10.1080/00098655.1954.11476830
  • Harrington, L. (2015). International commercial trade in live carnivores and primates 2006-2012: Response to Bush et al. 2014. Conservation Biology, 29(1), 293–296. doi:10.1111/cobi.12448
  • Isen, A. M., & Daubman, K. A. (1984). The influence of affect on categorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1206-1217. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.47.6.1206
  • Isen, A. M., Daubman, K. A., & Nowicki, G. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1122–1131. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1122
  • Kaplan, S. (2000). Human Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 491–508. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00180
  • Kellert, S. R. (1978). Policy implications of a national study of American attitudes and behavioral relations to animals. U.S. Department of the Interior, Stock Number 024-101-00482-7, U.S., Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
  • Kunda, Z. (1987). Motivation and inference: Self-serving generation and evaluation of evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 636-647. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.53.4.636
  • Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 480-98. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480
  • Lee, Y. C. (2007). Developing decision-making skills for socio-scientific issues. Journal of Biological Education, 41, 170-177. doi:10.1080/00219266.2007.9656093
  • Lee, H. S., Liu, O. L., Pallant, A., Roohr, K. C., Pryputniewicz, S., & Buck, Z. E. (2014). Assessment of uncertainty-infused scientific argumentation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51(5), 581–605. doi:10.1002/tea.21147
  • Mauss, I. B., & Robinson, M. D. (2009). Measures of emotion: A review. Cogntive Emotion, 23(2), 209-237. doi: 10.1080/02699930802204677.
  • Millar, R. & Osborne, J. (Eds.). (1998). Beyond 2000: Science education for the future. London: King’s College.
  • Nisbet, E. K., & Zelenski, J. M. (2013). The NR-6: A new brief measure of nature relatedness. Frontiers in Psychology, 4(NOV), 1–11. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00813
  • Nisbet, E. K., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2009). With nature to environmental concern and behavior. Environment and Behavior, 41(5), 715–740. doi:10.1177/0013916508318748
  • Presley, M., Sickel, A., Muslu, N., Merle-Johnson, D., Witzig, S., Izci, K., & Sadler, T. (2013). A framework for socio-scientific issues based education. Science Educator. 22. 26-32.
  • Richardson, F. C., & Suinn, R. M. (1972). The mathematics anxiety rating scale: Psychometric data. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 19, 551-554. doi:10.1037/h0033456
  • Tam, K. P. (2013). Concepts and measures related to connection to nature: Similarities and differences. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 34, 64–78. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.01.004
  • Tisdell, C.,Wilson, C., Nantha, H.S. (2006). Public choice of species for the ‘Ark’: Phylogenetic similarity and preferred wildlife species for survival. Journal for Nature Conservation, 14(2), 97–105. doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2005.11.001
  • Toulmin, S. (1958). The uses of argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Villata, S., Cabrio, E., Jraidi, I., Benlamine, M., Chaouachi, M., Frasson, C., & Gandon, F. (2017). Emotions and personality traits in argumentation: An empirical evaluation. Argument & Computation, 8, 1-27. doi:10.3233/aac-170015
  • Wang, H., Hong, Z., Lin, H., & Tsai, C. (2020). The relationships among adult sustainability attitudes, psychological well-being, nature relatedness, and interest in scientific issues. Current Psychology, doi:10.1007/s12144-020-00708-1
  • Wyer, R. S., & Dieter, F. (1983). The effects of feedback about self and others on the recall and judgments of feedback-relevant information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19(6), 540–59. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(83)90015-x
LICENSE
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
All Rights Reserved © 2006-2020