Cognitive dimensions of wilderness privacy: a field test and further explanation.

Abstract In 1981 and 1982, a psychological scale was developed for exploring the several meanings of privacy and solitude that wilderness recreationists find to be important. The scale was never field tested, however. The present report describes the results of a field test of the wilderness privacy scale among backpackers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1987. Factor analysis of 20 items characterizing various aspects of wilderness privacy produced the following five factors, ranging from most to least important: tranquility and natural environment, individual cognitive freedom, social cognitive freedom, intimacy, and individualism. One new factor (social cognitive freedom) that did not appear in the earlier laboratory development of the wilderness privacy scale resulted from the field test. Nevertheless, the most important aspect of wilderness privacy in the field test remained being in a natural, remote environment that offers a sense of tranquility and peacefulness and that involves a freedom...