Two studies evaluated cross cultural perspectives of children’s moral and ecological reasoning as well as values about nature. The first study was conducted in Houston, Texas, with an inner city Black community. Subjects were 72 children from impoverished families. The results suggested that the serious constraints of living in an inner-city community cannot easily squelch Black children’s diverse and rich appreciation for nature, and moral responsiveness to its preservation. The second study, conducted in the Brazilian Amazon, is a modification of the Houston study. Subjects were 44 Portuguese fifth-grade children. The results suggested that Brazilian children do not exercise more biocentric reasoning than those in the Houston study. The two studies extend recent research in the moral developmental literature which suggests that, in important ways, individuals’ moral reasoning across cultures is similarly structured by concerns for human welfare, fairness, and rights. Inadequate attention to universal aspects of development in general, end morality in particular, would result in missing the many essential ways of being human, and underestimating common humanity.
A venturesome hypothesis has been put forth by Wilson (1984), Kellert (1996), and others and has been receiving increasing support. The hypothesis asserts the existence of biophilia, a fundamental, genetically based human need and propensity to affiliate with other living organisms. A review of the biophilia literature sets into motion three overarching concerns. One focuses on the genetic basis of biophilia. A second focuses on how to understand seemingly negative affiliations with nature within the biophilic framework. A third focuses on the quality of supporting evidence and whether the biophilia hypothesis can be disconfirmed. Through this critical examination, biophilia emerges as a valuable interdisciplinary framework for investigating the human affiliation with nature. Yet it is clearly a nascent framework, and some of its potential lies in charting a stronger ontogenetic course. Toward this end, in the second half of this article a structural–developmental approach is framed for investigating biophilia. Support for this approach is provided by discussing the author’s recent studies—conducted in the United States and in the Brazilian Amazon—on children’s environmental reasoning and values.