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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”