Example 8: Annotated student work

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP

BETWEEN AGE AND

ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE

SYSTEMS IN RIYADH?

Environmental Systems and Societies SL

May 2017

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RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the relationship between age and environmental value
systems in Riyadh? The research question is reasonable.

CONTEXT: Why is this study important?

Saudi Arabia possesses 18% of Earth's (proven) petroleum reserves, and ranks as the no. 1
largest exporter of petroleum. As a result, fossil fuels account for 50% of Saudi's gross domestic
product, and approximately 85% of its export earnings. 1 However, as fossil fuels are a non-
renewable energy source, the economies of Saudi Arabia and its petroleum customer may be at
risk. Moreover, with the international consensus that global warming is caused by greenhouse
gases (GHGs) (Kyoto Protocol 1997, UNFCC), Saudi Arabia may become a threat for the entire
world, as its exports of fossil fuels cause to be major contributor to anthropogenic global
warming. Consequently, to protect Earth's species and economics, Saudi Arabia's
environmental stances may have to change.

In addition to Saudi arabia's contribution to climate change, the country is a host of several
endangered and threatened species, such as the Arabian jird (Meriones arimalius), Arabian oryx
(Oryx leucoryx), and Nubian Ibex (Capra nubiana).2 Such species require demanding
conservation efforts which Saudi Arabia needs to adopt if it is to protect the biorights of the
species to exist. Furthermore, according to the WHO, the country's capital, Riyadh, has one of
the highest levels of ambient air pollution in the planet.3 Context is fine as background to the environmental issue.

Understanding older environmental paradigms of Saudi Arabian citizens, and comparing them
with the newer generations' perspectives, may provide insight on the future of Saudi Arabia's
environmental stances. Any apparent change in perspectives from a technocentric viewpoint to
an ecocentric viewpoint may indicate that Saudi Arabia's future leaders will lean more towards
sustainable energy production and ecological conservation.

1
"Saudi Arabia." OPEC : Saudi Arabia. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/169.htm>.
2
"Animal Info - Saudi Arabia." Endangered Animals. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.animalinfo.org/country/saudi_ar.htm>.
3
9789241511353-eng. N.p.: World Health Organization, n.d. PDF.
<http://apps.whoint/iris/bitstream/10665/250141/1/9789241511353-eng.pdf>.

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As a result, investigating the relationship between age and environmental value systems in
Saudi Arabia's most populated city, its capital Riyadh, may provide an understanding on
whether Saudi perspectives are changing to support ecosystems, humans, and/or technology and
economic development.

HYPOTHESIS: It is hypothesized that the older citizens of Riyadh will have more technocentric
and anthropocentric environmental value systems, while younger citizens will have a tendency
to be more ecocentric. This hypothesis is based off of the idea that in the more globalized world
of today, students are more informed about the importance of the environment and aware of
negative anthropogenic contributions to ecology, thus will side with more ecology centered
values than the older generations The connections to the research question are made
clearly here.
Independent variable: Age
Dependent variable: Environmental value system (EVSs)
Controlled variable: Region which participants are from (Riyadh) PLA: there are clear variables.
Equipment: Desktop/Laptop with internet access
PROCEDURE:
 Login to a Gmail account, or create an account at:
 https://accounts.google.com/SienUp?h1=en
 Once logged onto the Gmail account, visit the link:
 https://docs.google.com/forms , and start a new "blank"
form.

In the form, a title, description, and an appropriate number of multiple choice questions should
Not specific on actual number used, and the final survey
be added in order to ensure the accuracy of results. should be here not in appendix. This is considered in the
communication criterion.

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NOTE: Make sure that the description notes that the survey is for citizens of Riyadh only, so as
not to have irrelevant participants taking the survey. This is essential, as it plays a major role in
controlling the controlled variable; the region which participants are from.

- To add choices to the question, click on the "Add option" on the form
- To add another question, click on the on the right-hand side of the screen

- Question may be duplicated by clicking or deleted by clicking

- Ensure that all questions have "Required" tab turned on, in order make sure the participants
answer all questions

 Add related pictures , sections , and color themes to best comfort the target
audience. For the study of Riyadh citizens, it is appropriate to theme the survey green, and
add the Saudi Arabia national emblem.-

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 Once the survey is ready click on at the upper right corner of the screen.
 Click on the icon to display the URL which the survey can be shared by.
 Tick the shorten URL box to make the link more convenient ,and
 press Ctrl+C in order to copy the link
 Record the link, and save it for future steps

Repeat the entire procedure thus far to re-create the same survey in Arabic. This is
especially important as Arabic is the official and most widely spoken language in Riyadh.

Once both surveys are created, and their URLs

shortened and recorded,
 Share the links via email, including a short
message in English and Arabic starting with the
salutation "Peace be upon you," a respectful
greeting in Arabian culture. End the message by
expressing gratitude as a sign of respect.
 Also share links via WhatsApp, or any other
social media medium e.g. Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter
 Individual responses should be recorded, preferably in
the form of tables

Choosing relevant questions:

Questions should be designed in order to compare two aspects: Age and
Environmental value systems (hence forth: EVSs).

Section 1 should have a question to identify age through age group choices e.g.
14-19, 20-29, 30-39,40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70+.

Additionally, this section should identify which municipality of Riyadh the

participant is from, so as to be able to identify whether or not social, economic,
educational or religious factors varying between regions are affecting the results.

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Section 2 should ask a series of multiple choice questions which determine

whether environmental values of the participant are more ecocentric, technocentric,
or anthropocentric. Some questions should be direct e.g.:

Which of the following do you mostly agree with?

o People should minimize their disturbances to nature
o Technology can solve environmental issues
o People are the managers of Earth
Whilst others should be related to realistic situations which can be relevant to
Saudi Arabia e.g.:
If fish populations are declining because of over-fishing, which do you think is the
best solution to the problem?
o Reducing the amount of fish eaten by people
o Fish farming and/or genetic modification
o Limiting the amount of fish that can be caught
The questions should cover different areas of environmental studies (e.g.
populations, conservation, water, food production, biorights, global warming) so as
to gain a broad understanding of environmental perspectives over different

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areas, and help eliminate the possibility of results being biased towards values on
only particular environmental issues, not environmental systems and societies as a
whole.
Why multiple choice questions?
Multiple choice questions are easier and faster for people to answer, thus they
contribute to the comfort of participant. Furthermore, multiple choice questions
ensure that all potential answers from survey takers are the same, thus they help
compare answers of people with others. As a result, multiple choice response data
is also easier to interpret and graphically represent.
Why Riyadh?
Riyadh compromises about 16% of Saudi Arabia's total population, making it the
highest populated city in the country (2017). 4 As a result, of all the cities in Saudi
Arabia, Riyadh may yield the closest representation to Saudi Arabia's EVSs as a
whole, especially as Riyadh is the Kingdom's capital city.
Ethical considerations:The investigation in no way involves the risk or harming
of any animals, including humans. The survey is designed consist of multiple
choice so as to best suit the comfort of the participants and reduce tediousness. In
addition, the survey attempts not to vivify descriptions or suggest discriminatory
ideas, in order to test EVSs whilst not discomforting the respondents or opposing
their morals. Furthermore, through distributing the survey digitally, this
investigation also saves paper in support of anti-deforestation and conservation of
natural capital. The justifications are clearly made.

For the actual surveys used in the investigation, see Appendix I for English, and see
Appendix II for Arabic.

4
Global, TGS. "Saudi Arabia." TGS Global. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017. <http://www.tgs-
global.com/23/285/saudi-arabia>.

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RAW DATA: Broken tables and titles for data and processing are
considered in the communication criterion.

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The table displays all of the data collected from 97 participants. In this form, the data is still
obscure as it has not yet been processed. The majority of participants are seen to be between the
ages of 14 and 29 years, possibly due to a higher use of and connectivity to the internet causing
more of them to answer the survey.

From initial observations, it

appears that Riyadh citizens of
ages 14-19 years are more
supportive of ecocentric values,
and less of technocentric. In
contrast to this, citizens aged 20-
29 seem to be more supportive
of technocentric values, but
relatively marginally to
anthropocentric and ecocentric
perspectives.

Furthermore, the ages 30-39,

according to the tables, have
more ecocentric perspectives
than in all lower and higher age
groups. Ages 40-49 show a
trend where more technocentric
values are held, and this is
maintained throughout the
following age groups; 50-59,
60-69, and 70+. However,
ecocentric viewpoints are shown
to almost level with
technocentric ones in the age
group 60-70. Analysis is done with the data for trends and patterns
seen.

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According to the data presented in the table, a clear ecocentric environmental value
system majority is present amongst 14-19 year-olds, and 30 to 40 year-olds in
Riyadh. All other age groups show a trend where technocentric values are
predominant, however the age group of 60-69 year-olds show ecocentric choices to
almost match in abundancy to technocentric choices. Additionally, the age group of
20-29 year-olds has the most balanced ratio of ecocentric, technocentric and
anthropocentric options chosen in the survey. Such could possibly be the result of
exposure to cultural and educational diversity at college/universities.

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COM: key colour similarity makes the data hard to read.

According to the graph, a trend is apparent where the percentage of EVSs followed
greatly vary between age groups. Ecocentric perspectives are the most prevailing
viewpoints amongst the ages 14-19, however they are slightly overtaken by
anthropocentric technocentric perspectives amongst the ages of 20-29. This then
changes as the percentage of ecocentric views reaches its peak of 52.7% between
the ages of 30 and 39 years, while technocentric views reach their minimum of
16.9%. This high percentage then decreases in older ages, as the second lowest
percentage of ecocentric views is achieved between the ages 40-49, which proceeds
to decrease to the lowest percentage of ecocentric views at 22.0% amongst ages 50-
59. This decrease however then shifts into an increase up to 40.8% amongst ages
60-69, and then decreases amongst ages 70+ to about 30.0%, as technocentric
viewpoints reach their peak at 55.7%. Anthropocentric EVSs, unlike technocentric
and ecocentric ones, make up a more stable percentage of Riyadh citizens' EVSs,
ranging between 29.3% and 35.7% between the ages 14 and 60 years, where the
peak is reached at ages 50-60 years. Nevertheless, this stability continues to fall
with ages above 60, where a minimum of 14.3% anthropocentrism is apparent with
ages 70+.

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These changes in EVSs with age show a trend where overall ecocentric values are
mostly present amongst people aged 14-40, while technocentric values take over in
ages above 40 years. Additionally, the graph shows that the most diverse
perspectives are present amongst citizens of Riyadh aged 20-30, as the relative
percentages are closest in this age group. Regarding anthropocentric values, no
significant differences are apparent until the observing those aged 60 and above,
where the percentage of anthropocentrism decreases. Other than after this age,
anthropocentric viewpoints seem less altered and more reluctant to change from its
position as the second highest EVS followed. Analysis is complete.

CONCLUSION:
According to the results, the hypothesis was only partially correct. A trend was
found in the processed data where younger age groups in Riyadh between the ages
of 14 and 40 showed the highest amount of ecocentric values, whilst ages 40 and
above had the majority of technocentric perspectives. However, although only
marginally, technocentric and anthropocentric values still prevailed of ecocentric
values between the ages of 20 and 30 years, thus conflicting with the hypothesis.
Moreover, the hypothesis is further refuted as the claim that anthropocentric values
would also be more prevalent in older ages was proven false. This is due to the
results displaying anthropocentric values falling drastically after 60 years of age,
until reaching their minimum of 14.3% at ages 70 years and older. As a result of
these outcomes, it may be concluded that there is no clear strong relationship
between age and EVSs in the city of Riyadh. However, ecocentrism does show a
tendency to be more amongst ages younger than 40, technocentrism above the age
of 40, and anthropocentrism below the age of 60. A well worded conclusion using the data trends seen.

EVALUATION:
The investigation showed effectiveness in obtaining results through its digital
distribution, as 97 participants were surveyed. Furthermore, the survey's inclusion
of participants from all municipalities of Riyadh reduces the probability of the
results being biased due to social, economic, educational and religious differences
present between areas. On the other hand, despite the strengths in obtaining results, Strengths are clearly presented.
there are also weaknesses in the experiment which may arise concern towards the
reliability of conclusions.

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Firstly, digitally distributing the survey limited the responses to only citizens
having access to internet. Citizens not able to afford/access the internet were
omitted from the data collection. In addition, although various statements clearly
stated that the survey is for citizens of Riyadh only, whether or not respondents
were only from Riyadh could not be validated. In addition, whether or not all
respondents answered the survey truthfully cannot be determined. Furthermore,
although the experiment includes results from all of Riyadh's municipalities, the
proportion of responses between municipalities was not equal, thus results may still
be biased towards specific areas of the city.

Another limitation to the investigation is that classifying people into following

specific EVSs may be fallacious. Respondents from Riyadh may have believed in a
mixture of options or options not available in the survey, yet they were only limited
to three. Moreover, some age groups had drastically different numbers of
participants e.g. 14-19 years had 20 responses, while 70+ years had 5. As a result
of this, some of the age groups' EVS ratios may have been less accurate than
others, hence age group comparisons may be unfair. Additionally, although the
questions attempted to maintain objectivity, it may have only been achieved to a
certain extent, thus questions may be phrased in a way which influences choice
biases. Last but not least, most of the age groups include wide ranges of ages e.g.
20-30, 70+. As a result, by grouping years together e.g. in groups of 10, the data
may be overlooking differences ages' perspectives year by year, thus reducing the
accuracy of conclusions and trendlines drawn. Limitations identified.

Sources of error:
Factors which may potentially affect the results of the experiment include: not
considering, social, economic, religious, and educational factors, non-citizens of
Riyadh answering the survey, untruthful responses in the survey, biases in phrasing
questions, biases in question options, irrelevancy in questions, and inaccurate
representation of EVS perspectives through question options.

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Areas of improvement:
To improve the investigation of the relationship between age and environmental
value systems in Riyadh, the surveys could be distributed both digitally and
physically, in order gain more participants, and address the issue of citizens
without internet not being able to participate. Furthermore, in order to increase to
reduce bias between municipalities in Riyadh, results could be filtered to have an
equal number of respondents from each municipality. Another improvement to the
investigation could be the inclusion of non-multiple choice questions/responses,
and the ability to select more than one option in order to examine the peopled
mixture of environmental values more accurately. To further improve accuracy,
especially with regards to data comparison, only a specific amount of responses
from each age group should be taken into consideration in order to maintain the
same data accuracy for all ages. Additionally, the ages of respondents should not
be grouped into age groups, but rather allowed to be provided freely in order to
enable more accurate age vs. EVS representations and interpretations of results. Modifications are given.

Regarding the social, economic, educational and religious factors in Riyadh which
may affect EVSs alongside age, they may be a valuable area for future exploration
as public data on them is limited, and such explorations could potentially identify
significant demographic differences which could affect the relationship between
age and EVSs in Riyadh. As an example, the research question: "To what extent do
economic differences in Riyadh affect environmental value systems?" could be
explored. Further research areas mentioned.

APPLICATIONS OF RESULTS: This is also the discussion element.

Regarding the issue of Saudi Arabia needing to reduce fossil fuel consumption and
distribution, improve its focus sustainable energy resources, and act towards
conserving the environments of its endangered and threatened species, the results
show a potentially positive outcome for future of the Kingdom. As ecocentric
perspectives are most prevalent amongst younger generations, and anthropocentric
viewpoints are more or less being maintained, these results may indicate a shift in
Riyadh's general EVSs from being more technologically centered to being more
ecologically centered, whilst still placing importance on the well-being of human
beings. Regarding the conservation of wildlife, this could mean that future/younger
leaders from Riyadh could place more emphasis on protecting endangered and
threatened species. Regarding reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution,

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by having focus on people and ecology and human health, citizens of Riyadh may
have more awareness of the negative effects industries have, locally and globally,
thus they may contribute more to combatting global warming, conserving their
natural resources, and reducing concentrations of local air pollution. Lastly,
regarding using more sustainable energy resources, the shift away from
technocentric viewpoints and more towards ecocentric ones may reduce Riyadh's
will to use advanced sustainable energy technology, however on the other hand, the
ecological and long-term societal benefits may overlook this and thus still cause
Riyadh to go forth will sustainable energy projects.

Nevertheless, these applications of the results obtained are still the results of
inductive reasoning; the applications are based on the idea that the results obtained
may represent Riyadh, and even Saudi Arabia as a whole, however they cannot be
accurately generalized to form reliable predictions. The applications are only
suggestions from the data, and other factors e.g. cultural, scientific, and/or societal
changes/breakthroughs/differences between regions may invalidate these
applications. Furthermore, considering the limitations of the investigation itself,
whether or not these applications are reliable are further put into question.

Regardless, if the applications prove to be true, they not only show a positive shift
in Riyadh's society, ecology, and economy, but would also prove testimony to the
positive effect of globalization in spreading awareness of environmental issues, as
well as compliment international efforts for protecting the environment.
APP: here three solutions are mentioned but these are
the environmental issues first mentioned in the context,
so they are the discussion. Each one can potentially be a
solution too, so consideration is given to generalized
solutions with very brief evaluations provided.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Saudi Arabia." OPEC; Saudi Arabia. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/169.htm>.

"Animal Info - Saudi Arabia." Endangered Animals. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.animalinfo.org/country/saudi_ar.htm>.

9789241511353-eng. N.p.: World Health Organization, n.d. PDF.

<http://apps.who.inthris/bitstrearn/10665/250141/1/9789241511353-eng.pdf>.

Global, TGS. "Saudi Arabia." TGS Global. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.tgs-global.com/23/285/saudi-arabia>.

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