The countryside image: an investigation of structure and meaning

Abstract

Images of places in the countryside are structured along a number of dimensions corresponding to the attributes perceived in a place. A suitably constructed semantic differential measures the verbal representation of such images. A factor analysis identifies the dimensions, and an oblique solution gives a realistic appraisal of the structure. A second-order factor analysis reveals the nature of the basic structure underlying the images of differing countryside places. It appears that the structure is composed of three composite dimensions (second-order factors) which subsume the initial dimensions (first-order factors) of the image.