Environmental Psychology: Health Benefits of Nature and Restorative Environment

Garden of Dilmun: described in Sumerian clay tablet

  • “Human beings are untouched by illness”

Definition of Health

  • Pathogenic Approach to Health
      * Western traditional definition
      * Conceptualizes disease exclusively as a biological process that is the result of exposure to a certain pathogen (such as a virus or a bacterium)
  • Salutogenic Approach to Health
      * Sees health as a multidimensional concept
      * Involves not only biological but also psychological and social influences
      * AKA biopsychosocial conception

What is health and how can it be measured?

  • Clinical Health Indicators
      * Cover objective and subjective measures of patient functioning
      * Including symptom severity, mortality, hospital days, medication use, discomfort (pain, nausea) and patient satisfaction.
  • Public health indicators
      * Give an indication of the health status of a population
      * Measures based on birth and death statistics, such as mortality rates and life expectancy
      * Measures of the prevalence and incidence of disease and illness (also called morbidity rates)
      * Measures of self-reported general, mental and physical health, and measures of health-related quality of life.

 

  • clear conceptualization of how health is influenced by environment

Linking Nature to Health

  • Hospital patients with view of trees have lower painkiller intakes than patients with view of brick wall

  • Negative relationship between nature connectedness and depression in 18 countries
      * More connected to nature = less prone to depression

  • Green space visits and depression in 18 countries
      * Negative relationship
      * More green space visits = less prone to depression

  • Nature Walks as a part of therapeutic intervention for depression

  • Green space visits and well-being in 18 countries
      * Positive association
      * More green space visits = higher levels of well-being (more happy, contented)

  • Nature connectedness and well-being in 18 countries
      * Positive association
      * Higher nature connectedness = high levels of well-being

  • Nature visits and well-being in 18 countries
      * Greenspace visits (trees, plants): low - HK, high - Scandinavian countries
      * Blue space visits (beach, ocean): similar results

  • Coastal Visit, nature connectedness and well-being in 18 countries
      * Same results

  • The quest to mental well-being: Nature connectedness, materialism and the mediating role of meaning of life in the Philippine context

Restorative Effects of Nature

  • How can you restore the emotional and physical damage to the body?

  • Affective Measures
      * E.g. How happy/sad/stressed do you feel at this moment?

  • Cognitive Measures
      * E.g. attention and memory tasks

  • Physiological Measures
      * E.g. heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, cortisol levels

Attention Restoration Theory

  • If nature helps us restore our memory and focus
  • Proposed 4 qualities of human-environment relationship:
      * Fascination or the capacity of an environment to automatically draw attention without cognitive effort
        * “My attention is drawn to many interesting things”
      * Extent/Coherence connectedness
        * “There is much going on” (reverse-coded)
      * Being away from daily hassles and obligations
        * “Spending time here gives me a break from my day-to-day routine”
      * Compatibility between the individual's inclinations and the characteristics of the environment
        * “I can do things I like here”

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