Assessing Diversity Dimensions in Environmental Psychology: Challenges and Recommendations

Abstract

Representing diversity is a ubiquitous challenge in environmental psychology: Many researchers aim to describe the diversity of their samples by collecting characteristics such as gender, age, and socioeconomic status, and the (lack of) diversity of participants is often discussed when dealing with the generalizability of environmental psychology findings (e.g., for different ethnic groups). Some standard instruments for measuring sociodemographic characteristics can be problematic because they are based on outdated concepts (e.g., a two-gender system) and are inappropriate for accurately capturing participant heterogeneity. To address this issue, we compare and extend existing approaches for the operationalization of sociodemographic characteristics and provide recommendations for capturing and documenting diversity in environmental psychology in particular. In addition, we discuss measures of specific diversity dimensions (migration/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender and sexual orientation) and provide recommendations for assessing them in general. Thereby, we aim to promote the use of more inclusive measures to assess sociodemographic characteristics and to stimulate an enriching discussion about representing diversity dimensions in environmental psychology.