Which perspective resonates to the environmental view as something to be respected and valued rather than exploited?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Spiritual perspective
The psychologist Stokols described three ways of looking at the human-environment relationship.
Option (1) Minimalist perspective — Incorrect. It assumes that the physical environment has minimal or negligible influence on human behaviour, health and well-being; humans and the environment exist as parallel components. It does not speak of respecting the environment.
Option (2) Spiritual perspective — Correct. It refers to the view of the environment as something to be respected and valued rather than exploited. Human beings recognise their interdependence with the environment and will be happy only as long as it is kept healthy and natural; the traditional Indian view, the Bishnois and the Chipko movement are examples.
Option (3) Instrumental perspective — Incorrect. It suggests that the environment exists mainly for use by human beings for their comfort and well-being. This is the exploiting view the question sets against respect.
Option (4) Ecological perspective — Incorrect. Stokols’ three perspectives are the minimalist, instrumental and spiritual ones; an ‘ecological’ perspective is not one of them, though the word sounds close to the idea of caring for nature.
Note: Stokols’ three views of the human-environment relationship (minimalist, instrumental and spiritual) were there in the chapter ‘Psychology and Life’ of the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023, and are not there in the NCERT book (2025-26).
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “Different Views of the Human-Environment Relationship … There is more than one way of looking at the human-environment relationship, depending largely on how this relationship is perceived by human beings. A psychologist named Stokols (1990) describes three approaches that may be adopted to describe the human-environment relationship.
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