After looking at HOW this environmental identity can be developed during the course of growing up, I would like to explore more specifically some possible reasons in which we form this attachment to nature:
1. Positive encounters with nature during childhood
During childhood, perhaps our parents have brought us to outdoors places such as the zoo, the park or even the beach for family outings. I remember that when I was young, my mother used to bring my sisters and me to go kite flying at Marina South, on the wide grass area where we had our picnic as well. While having a good time with family members, we could have also associated the positive emotions elicited from the family interactions with the space where the outing took place. Kals et al. (as cited in Clayton and Myers, 2009) found that emotional attachment with nature is related to having spent time in nature with significant others as a child.
2. Family members who are role models for respecting the natural environment
Parents who practise pro-environmental behaviors at home can cultivate a positive family culture where parents serve as a role model in the house, educating children on ways to care for nature. Values are established from young and the children look up to their family members and imitate the same environmentally sustainable behaviors. These behaviors are internalized and children grow up to care for the environmental based on intrinsic motivation and feelings. Such family norms also provide social support for the individual’s behaviors.
3. Environment as an object for affection and attachment
As we interact with the environment while growing up, we develop affection for different aspects of our environment, be it the natural setting, pets and other animals, and people around us. We have learnt about the 4 attachment styles identified in Ainsworth's study of the "strange situation" (as cited in Santrock, 2009). Similarly, 4 types of place attachment have been found in Chawla's study (as cited in Clayton and Myers, 2009). I will next talk about the different 'types' of environmental identity we can have when we form attachment to different aspects of the environment.
4. Nature provides an optimal level of sensory stimulation
Consider a nature reserve you see in Singapore. On a regular day, it is quiet in the sense that it is relatively free of human or construction sounds. Yet we can hear birds chirping or some insects buzzing. We may also see monkeys swinging from tree to tree, or certain insects pollinating from plant to plant. The rhythm of nature together with the sights provides an optimal level of sensory stimulation, giving a space for introspection.
5. Motivations
As humans, there are various basic needs that motivate us to behave in certain ways. A crude example would be the fact that our hunger motivates us to seek food. In the course of growing up, we also feel the need to find our identity in the world we live in. The environment often gives us the space to fulfill these needs.
1) Desire for autonomy
Recalling Erikson's psychosocial theory (as cited in Santrock, 2009), the need to feel autonomous occurs right from the early ages between 1 and 3. Nature provides a setting for us to achieve that due to the lower amount of social rules and consequences. For instance, when children play in their backyard, they begin to manipulate the materials around them (such as twigs and leaves) to make play objects (such as a leaf monster). They are able to make decisions on how to design and build the play objects by themselves without being judged by other people, who might otherwise criticize them or pressure them to act against their own wishes.
2) Desire to feel competent
A related need to the above is the need to feel competent. People learn to provide for themselves when they are exposed to the environment. A good example is the wilderness. Some adventurers subject themselves to the wild nature and stay for a period of time. During then, they have to find food, water, and shelter by themselves. A study by Suedfeld (as cited in Clayton and Myers, 2009) reported that people who placed themselves in extreme settings often show similar psychosocial responses, which included an increased sense of control and competence. Hence, as our desire to feel self-efficacious is satisfied in the context of nature, we become more attracted to nature and subsequently forming an attachment to it.
3) Desire for connection or belongingness
Humans are social creatures. The natural environment can show us how small we are and how humans are part of a very much wider network in the ecosystem. By transcending ourselves, we can fulfill to the desire to connect with other elements present in this mutually dependent system, such as people, tree, soil, animals, mountains and rivers etc.
Looking at the benefits that nature offers, it is not surprising why humans may form attachment to nature, in one aspect or another. Next, I would like to identify these various aspects of nature, from which we develop our environmental identity.