Burr, Kevin F.2018-06-202018-06-2019902018-06-20http://hdl.handle.net/1828/9483Wilderness is an important Issue in British Columbia. The government of British Columbia deemed it necessary to establish a Wilderness Advisory Committee in 1985 to review and report on the place of wilderness in society in the province. Recently, the media have highlighted the controversy and confrontation over several areas in British Columbia on the issue of preservation versus development. This issue continues to stimulate public debate. This study surveys four groups of subjects in British Columbia in order to assess and compare their wilderness psychological dimensions. These four groups, chosen for their hypothesized range of wilderness viewpoints, are members of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), wilderness users, wilderness managers, and members of the general public. The methodological tool used in this research was a mall survey sent or distributed to these four groups of subjects. The wilderness psychological dimensions of these groups were divided into three categories: the personal, the societal, and the environmental. The personal psychological dimension is the individual's perceived locus of control with respect to wilderness which was assessed by an Internal-External Wilderness Scale. The societal psychological dimension is the individual's perceptions, attitudes, values, and beliefs with respect to whether humans should control nature and wilderness. This dimension was assessed by a Wilderness Environmental Protection Scale. The environmental concern dimension was assessed by a Conservation Scale which contains statements on pollution and natural resources, two key indicators of environmental concern. In addition to the above assessments, the associations between the psychological dimensions and other subject variables categorized as wilderness views and use, socioeconomic characteristics, and wilderness managers’ positions and opinions were also investigated. The results of these studies indicate statistically significant differences among the four study groups on each of the three psychological scales. In terms of paired group differences on the Internal-External Wilderness Scale, four pairs of study groups were significantly different. The four paired groups were: wilderness users and members of the general public, members of the general public and CPAWS members, members of the general public and wilderness managers, and CPAWS members and wilderness managers. All pairs of study groups were significantly different on the Wilderness Environmental Protection Scale and the Conservation Scale, with the exception of the study group pair of members of the general public and wilderness managers on the Conservation Scale. Certain wilderness views and use variables (a need for more designated wilderness areas, being a member of a recreation organization, and total number of memberships in recreation organizations), socioeconomic characteristics variables (education level, age, and employment status), and wilderness managers' positions and opinions variables (inadequacy of current wilderness legislation, income, and training) showed statistically significant relationships to the psychological dimensions. On the basis of the results of this research, a conceptual and theoretical framework for the psychological dimensions of wilderness was developed. The Wilderness Environmental Protection Scale and the Conservation Scale can be conceptualized as measuring a care dimension with respect to wilderness, while the Internal-External Wilderness Scale can be conceptualized as measuring a control dimension with respect to wilderness. Within this framework, all four study groups can be classified as having both a high control and a high care view of wilderness. A Wilderness Paradigm is presented which treats the psychological interpretation of wilderness as a function of these two dimensions, A strong endorsement of this Wilderness Paradigm indicates a deep respect for and positive valuing of wilderness. The better understanding of the psychological dimensions of wilderness provided by this research could help to resolve some of the conflicts over wilderness in British Columbia.enAvailable to the World Wide WebNatural areas, social aspects, British ColumbiaWilderness areasThesis