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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