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Experiencing Connection With Nature: The Matrix of Psychological Well-Being, Mindfulness, and Outdoor Recreation
Abstract
Ecopsychological theory and practice underscore the vital importance of realizing the interdependence between human beings and the diverse living universes that they inhabit. This article focuses on the mental health implications of the shift toward a more ecologically rooted identity by examining relationships between psychological well-being and the personal experience of connection with nature. Three separate surveys conducted with undergraduate and community samples assessed relationships between the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS), psychological well-being, mindfulness, and outdoor recreation. Higher CNS scores were consistently associated with greater trait mindfulness, more participation in appreciative outdoor activities, and higher scores on multiple measures of both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of psychological well-being. Discussion focuses on informing optimal strategies for nature-based interventions.
... This research treats a case study and extracts implications for designing nature experiences enhanced by digital technology. An assumption is based on the idea of "connection to nature," that Wolsko & Lindberg (2013) expounded that exposure to nature correlates with numerous specific advantages in cognitive, emotional, and social functioning. Individuals actively participating in outdoor activities with appreciation are more likely to develop a strong connection with nature and experience elevated psychological well-being. ...
... Ryan et al., 2010). Furthermore, Wolsko, C., & Lindberg, K. (2013) examined that those types of experiences that explicitly generate genuine appreciation of and connection with nature are likely to be the most beneficial for psychological well-being. They also stressed that mental health should be enhanced by interventions that facilitate appreciative outdoor recreational activities, as well as those that promote mindfulness (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). ...
... Furthermore, Wolsko, C., & Lindberg, K. (2013) examined that those types of experiences that explicitly generate genuine appreciation of and connection with nature are likely to be the most beneficial for psychological well-being. They also stressed that mental health should be enhanced by interventions that facilitate appreciative outdoor recreational activities, as well as those that promote mindfulness (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). ...
The positive impact of nature on human wellbeing is well-established, while lack of access to natural environments can negatively affect mental and physical health. In today's digital age, challenges such as excessive screen time and strained relationships emphasize the need for digital wellbeing and balanced technology use. This study explores the potential of digital technology to extend natural experiences and promote wellbeing. Through a case study of an industry-academia collaboration in India with a leading Asian digital device manufacturer, the concept of "Soulo" was developed to create digital nature experiences that enhance individual wellbeing. Results suggest that digital technology can do more than balance health and technology-it can improve wellbeing by enriching our experiences with nature. This innovative approach demonstrates how digital tools can foster shared, meaningful natural experiences, advancing wellbeing through deeper connections to nature and others, rather than merely serving as elements for balance.
... Emotional experiences can include anxiety (Clayton, 2020), anger (Stanley et al., 2021) and grief (Cunsolo and Ellis, 2018). In the UK, Whitmarsh et al. (2022) found 4% of a large sample of adults (n = 1332) reported moderate/severe levels of climate anxiety (consisting of cognitive-emotional and functional impairment; Clayton and Karazsia, 2020). Rates of 'climate worry' were far higher, with 46.2% of participants reporting being 'very' or 'extremely' worried about climate change (Whitmarsh et al., 2022). ...
... In the UK, Whitmarsh et al. (2022) found 4% of a large sample of adults (n = 1332) reported moderate/severe levels of climate anxiety (consisting of cognitive-emotional and functional impairment; Clayton and Karazsia, 2020). Rates of 'climate worry' were far higher, with 46.2% of participants reporting being 'very' or 'extremely' worried about climate change (Whitmarsh et al., 2022). A survey of adults in Tuvalu reported that a majority experienced 'extreme' distress in relation to climate change in at least one way: sadness, worry/anxiety, anger, or poor health, both in relation to local observations of climate change and abstract knowledge of climate change (Gibson et al., 2020). ...
... On the one hand, climate distress is associated with lower well-being and impaired functioning in some respects (Ogunbode et al., 2022), and clinicians have an ethical responsibility to support those experiencing distress. On the other hand, climate distress is associated with higher rates of pro-environmental behaviours (Whitmarsh et al., 2022;Ogunbode et al., 2022). Hence, while mitigating the emotional distress related to climate concerns could improve individual well-being, it could also dampen the motivation to engage in behaviours that contribute to societal efforts to combat climate change. ...
Climate distress describes a complex array of emotional responses to climate change, which may include anxiety, despair, anger and grief. This paper presents a conceptual analysis of how acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is relevant to supporting those with climate distress. ACT aims to increase psychological flexibility, consisting of an open and aware orientation to one’s experiences, and an engaged approach to living, guided by personal values. We discuss the pertinence of each of these processes for adapting to the challenging reality of climate change. By embracing climate distress as a natural human experience and promoting value-guided action, ACT offers a promising approach that brings co-benefits to individuals and wider society.
Key learning aims
(1) To understand the concept of climate distress and its various emotional responses.
(2) To explore the relevance of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in addressing climate distress and promoting psychological well-being.
(3) To examine the importance of psychological flexibility in coping with climate change.
(4) To analyse the role of ACT in embracing climate distress as a natural human experience.
(5) To investigate how ACT can encourage pro-environmental behaviours and climate change mitigation efforts.
... As the economic center of China, Shanghai has been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic in recent years, and some small and medium-sized private enterprises have closed down, increasing the risk of employee unemployment. Working employees of private enterprises, especially those aged [25][26][27][28][29][30] who work overtime, face great psychological pressure and the challenge of reduced happiness, and the long-term overtime culture may lead to physical and mental exhaustion, anxiety and depression. ...
... At present, there are relatively few researches on the psychological happiness of [25][26][27][28][29][30] year old employees in Shanghai private enterprises, especially the empirical studies on outdoor sports intervention activities. This study fills the gap of this research, which is of great significance for perfecting related theories and deepening practical experience. ...
... This study takes a coal trading company in Shanghai as the experimental object. Through the experimental results, the differences in the happiness of 25-30 year old employees before and after the test were determined, and the performance and perceived motivation of the company's [25][26][27][28][29][30] year old employees' happiness were summarized. For this purpose, we created a boys' group and a girls' group and conducted them separately Record and research on the change of psychological happiness before and after the establishment of the league. ...
Today, Shanghai is China's economic and trade center and one of China's mega cities, which leads to the fast pace of life in Shanghai. Some employees in private enterprises work overtime, which makes the happiness of employee’s plummet, and eventually leads to the increase of turnover rate, which leads to the loss of talents in the company. This paper focuses on the impact of overtime work on the psychological happiness of 25 to 30 year old employees in Shanghai private enterprises, and whether the intervention of outdoor team building activities can improve the happiness of employees. This paper will use the mixed research method of interview and questionnaire to explore the influence of 25-30 years old in Shanghai private enterprises on the psychological happiness of overtime workers. This study can improve the working happiness of people between 25 and 30 years old and improve work efficiency, help companies fill the talent gap and further development, provide relevant theoretical basis for applied psychology, and provide reference suggestions for human resources in Shanghai private enterprises to promote the enthusiasm of employees. (Disclaimer: Shanghai in this article refers to Shanghai, China)
... Based on Langer's socio-cognitive perspective, Moscardo (1996) states that visitors who are more active and interested in the destination, question the place and experience, acquire new information and see the world from a new perspective in an informal environment. In the following studies, mindfulness was examined within sustainability (Barber & Deale, 2014;Chan, 2018;Lengyel, 2015), cultural events (Van Winkle & Backman, 2008), recreation (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013), culture and wildlife tourism (Manwa et al., 2017). These studies reveal that visitors with a high level of mindfulness focus on the experience by accepting the culture, natural space, social structure, and other characteristics without judgment. ...
... Similarly, researchers demonstrated that mindfulness increases the enjoyment of food (Arch et al., 2016;Hong et al., 2011). Wolsko & Lindberg (2013) found that higher connection to nature scores were consistently associated with greater mindfulness, more participation in appreciative outdoor activities, and higher scores on multiple measures of both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of psychological well-being. Loureiro, Breazeale, et al. (2019) suggest that tourists who are open to new experiences and aware of multiple perspectives interact with the environment and others with more appreciation. ...
... The research findings revealed that mindfulness enhances the visitors' eudaimonic and hedonic experiences. These findings support positive psychology's perspective and are consistent with previous studies, which demonstrate mindfulness causes fulfillment of happiness (Christie et al., 2017;Garland et al., 2015;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). According to mindfulness-to-meaning theory, mindfulness facilitates positive reappraisal (Garland et al., 2015). ...
... For example, the emotional environment is very important. The relationship between teacher and student, the relationship between students (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013), the relationship between parents and children, as well as the harmony of the attitudes of parents and teachers in the field of education (Altintas et al., 2020), can be effective in the level of students' learning (Dirk & Nett, 2022). ...
... Based on this, examining the capacity of EFL learners in technology-enhanced learning environments has become one of the topics of attention of educational and educational science specialists in recent years. In this regard, the ability to use different learning styles and metacognitive strategies in technologyenhanced learning environments is considered the central core in the processes of learning, problem solving, and decision making (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013;Zhi et al., 2023). ...
... There have been several prototypical relevant studies. For instance, inside the framework of positive psychology, Wolsko and Lindberg (2013), recruiting Chinese university students as members, quantitatively observed that perceived control and perceived value were positively correlated with positive emotions and foreign language performance, and negatively correlated with negative emotions, and negative central emotions played a mediating role between learners and foreign language performance. Besides, Yeldham and Gao (2021) qualitatively explored factors for Chinese EFL teachers' boredom in online courses during the period of Corona-virus in which he interviewed 216 teachers, and found that the online mode of teaching brings more boredom than the face-to-face mode and analyzed the causes and proposed solutions from the macro-categories of studentrelated, task-related, IT-related, and teacher-related factors, among which IT-related factors and teacher-related solutions were the most frequently raised. ...
Language teachers cannot ignore the role of technology in young language learners’ lives to engage and motivate them. Therefore, the current research investigated the mediating effect of students’ learning and cognitive styles on the relationship between their emotions and situational motivation. 1089 respondents were selected from different colleges and universities, with different ages, genders, and levels. Four questionnaires (Cognitive Scale of the Human–Nature Relationship, Learners’ Emotion Questionnaire, The Situational Motivation Scale, and Learning Style Questionnaire) were employed to collect the data. The researcher used Tencent QQ, a widely used communication platform in China, in conjunction with Wenjuanxing, an online survey tool, to distribute the questionnaire to all participants. The results showed that 54% of changes in students’ situational motivation can be explained by interaction among their emotions, learning, and cognitive styles. In addition, it was revealed that less attention is paid to the mental and psychological aspects of students in technology-enhanced learning environments, and most educational environments do not have the necessary compatibility with the psychological characteristics of students. Implications are presented.
... This omission is intriguing considering that leisure and tourism activities have been widely argued to play a vital role in enhancing individuals' life satisfaction and overall happiness (Filep & Laing, 2019;Hwang & Lee, 2019;Sirgy et al., 2011;Su et al., 2021). Despite the importance of CTN in enhancing the well-being of individuals (Mayer & Frantz, 2004;Samus et al., 2022;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013), little attention seems to have been paid to senior tourists and the potential effect of CTN on their well-being. Unsurprisingly, research indicates that elderly individuals have a higher CTN compared to younger people (Beery, 2013;Lindberg et al., 2019;Zhang et al., 2014). ...
... Although there is broad recognition of the link between connectedness to nature and life satisfaction (Mayer et al., 2009;Nisbet & Zelenski, 2011;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013), tourism research modelling CTN seems to offer little on the underlying mechanism between CTN and life satisfaction. According to Capaldi et al. (2014), existing studies offer a complex view of the relationship between nature exposure, CTN, positive emotions, and life satisfaction. ...
... However, there is still a need for a better understanding of the mechanisms by which nature connectedness is linked to well-being (Richardson & McEwan, 2018;Yerbury & Weiler, 2020). Past research indicates that nature-based tourism and recreation activities that provide an opportunity to engage with nature can enhance life satisfaction (Kan et al., 2022;Navarro et al., 2020;Samus et al., 2022;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013), yet, one may assume that CTN may contribute to the well-being of elderly via tourism experiences and tourist well-being. Based on the discussions presented above, we propose the following hypotheses: ...
Connectedness to nature (CTN) has been widely acknowledged as having a favourable impact on individuals participating in nature-based activities. However, existing research seems to focus on environmental outcomes overlooking the potential impact of CTN on tourist experience and well-being of individuals in general and the elderly in particular. Considering this omission and drawing on a transformative tourism perspective, the present study proposes and tests a conceptual model linking CTN with tourist experience, tourist well-being, and life satisfaction. Drawing on data collected from 211 senior individuals aged 60 and over participating in nature-based activities in the UK and Turkey, the findings confirm the positive effect of CTN on tourist experience, tourist well-being, and life satisfaction. As predicted, the findings also show that tourist well-being has a positive spill over effect on the life satisfaction of the elderly. The study makes theoretical contributions to CTN research and senior tourism scholarship and suggests important implications for both the commercial travel trade as well as local councils, NGOs, and other community associations concerned with the elderly's welfare and quality of life. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Although SWB does not feature in much of the literature we examined, certain scholars apply and make overt references to this construct in their research, demonstrating how its elements reflect our five metathemes. For instance, Personal Development (Kerr & Houge Mackenzie, 2020), Immersion and Transformation (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013), (Carpenter & Harper, 2016), Extraordinary Experiences (Boudreau et al., 2020) and Community (Costello et al., 2019). ...
... While all types of exercise bring increased physical fitness and health benefits, Howes (2016) finds that mastering adventurous situations helps to change a person's lifestyle. Adventures can also lead to increased vitality (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013) and to stimulating, positive bodily experiences, such as feeling the snow under your feet (Doran, 2016) or experiencing cold water during ocean swimming (Costello et al., 2019). ...
... Furthermore, participants of appreciative activities, such as canoeing and hiking, enjoy high levels of flourishing and psychological well-being through their immersion in nature. They develop pro-environmental attitudes and conservation behaviours (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). Relatedly, tourism experiences which facilitate flourishing can promote social sustainability as people 'realise their own abilities, can work more productively, cope with change, and contribute to their communities' (Coghlan, 2015, p.385). ...
This study examines the key research concepts associated with the subjective well-being outcomes of outdoor adventure activity participation. The landscape of adventure research is changing, and scholars are increasingly focusing on the beneficial outcomes of engaging in nature-based adventure activities. Yet, little is known about the interplay between adventure and subjective well-being. Therefore, this research presents the key findings from a systematic review of pertinent literature which was carried out using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, content analysis and thematic coding. We reviewed the abstract, introduction, methodology and findings for 125 journal articles and textbook chapters. Five intertwined metathemes and 16 subthemes, which reflect subjective well-being, emerged from this review. The metathemes are Extraordinary Experiences, Physical and Mental Balance, Personal Development, Immersion and Transformation, and Community. These formed the basis of the conceptual framework, which illustrates how adventure activity participants can gain, maintain, and enhance their subjective well-being by experiencing at least one subtheme within one or more of the five metathemes during or after their adventure activity. Further empirical research should be carried out on these metathemes to root the subjective well-being construct more firmly within the adventure literature.
... Integrating classroom learning with community environments can stimulate children's intrinsic environmental concern and nature experiences, which in turn promotes their PEB in adulthood (Chawla, 1998;Cleary et al., 2017). Second, the EF pathway suggests that nature experiences can foster PEB by promoting individuals' EF and mental health (Wolsko and Lindberg, 2013). Satisfying experiences in nature can enhance individuals' emotional connection to the environment, thereby strengthening children's commitment to environmental protection and potentially increasing their likelihood of engaging in PEB (Lee, 2011). ...
... Outdoor education activities, such as field trips and summer camps, significantly increase opportunities for children to have Frontiers in Psychology 04 frontiersin.org environmental contacts (Wolsko and Lindberg, 2013;Lin et al., 2014). Children not only have the chance to personally experience the joys of nature but also learn ecological knowledge and survival skills, which help establish a deeper connection with the environment (Williams and Chawla, 2016). ...
Introduction
In recent years, China has vigorously promoted sustainable social development, aiming to enhance residents’ environmental protection awareness and encourage their active participation in environmental protection through various means. To achieve this goal, cultivating environmental feelings (EF) among residents has become a key initiative. Childhood nature experiences (CNE) may have a profound impact on pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) in adulthood. However, the specific mechanisms underlying this influence remain unclear.
Methods
This study, viewed through the lens of the biophilia hypothesis, uses EF and environmental contacts (EC) as mediating variables, and environmental risk perception (ERP) as a moderating variable. Statistical analyses, including multiple linear regression, mediation, and moderation analyses, were conducted on data from 1,499 survey responses to explore the mechanisms through which CNE influence PEB in adulthood.
Results
(1) The study shows that CNE do not have a direct effect on PEB in adulthood, but instead exert an indirect influence through EF and EC, with the mediating effect of EF being stronger than that of EC. (2) ERP significantly moderates the relationship between EC and two types of PEB, as well as the link between EF and private sphere pro-environmental behaviors (PRIEB). However, it does not significantly moderate the relationship between EF and public sphere pro-environmental behaviors (PUBEB). (3) ERP significantly moderates most of the mediating effects.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that relying solely on childhood EC does not directly shape adult PEB. Compared to EC, EF play a larger mediating role between CNE and adult PEB. ERP strengthens the mediating effects of both EC and EF. The study emphasizes that both unstructured nature contact and planned, educational outdoor activities during childhood are equally important. Society should provide abundant opportunities for nature experiences, cultivate environmental feelings, and establish a close connection with nature to lay the foundation for developing future participants and advocates for environmental protection.
... Some argue that outdoor thermal comfort models should be region-specific, capturing the unique thermal environmental characteristics of a particular area, rather than relying on universally applied models like PET and UTCI. In recent years, scholars such as [8,[46][47][48] have recommended conducting field studies alongside laboratory studies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of urban comfort and the influence of cultural and habitual variables [49][50][51][52][53][54]. ...
... One of the main reasons for evaluating the outdoor thermal comfort index is to optimize the time people spend outdoors to improve their health and wellness. People's emotional and physiological parameters are directly linked to their activity and time expended outdoors [50,51]; therefore, factors promoting one person to spend time outdoors may not suit another. In indoor thermal comfort modeling, attention was given to deriving a personal comfort model or one for a particular group of people using ML models and IoT devices since results of traditional modeling or surveys typically refer to most of the population (assuming these surveys were carried out by random sampling) [52]. ...
The current outdoor thermal comfort index assessment is either based on thermal sensation votes collected through field surveys/questionnaires or using equations fundamentally backed by thermodynamics, such as the widely used UTCI and PET indices. The predictive ability of all methods suffers from discrepancies as multi-sensory attributes, cultural, emotional, and psychological cognition factors are ignored. These factors are proven to influence the thermal sensation and duration people spend outdoors, and are equally prominent factors as air temperature, solar radiation, and relative humidity. The studies that adopted machine learning models, such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), concentrated on improving the predictive capability of PET, thereby making the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) domain underexplored. Furthermore, universally adopted outdoor thermal comfort indices under-predict a neutral thermal range, for a reason that is linked to the fact that all indices were validated on European/American subjects living in temperate, cold regions. The review highlighted gaps and challenges in outdoor thermal comfort prediction accuracy by comparing traditional methods and Industry 4.0. Additionally, a further recommendation to improve prediction accuracy by exploiting Industry 4.0 (machine learning, artificial reality, brain–computer interface, geo-spatial digital twin) is examined through Knowledge Translation.
... İlgili alanyazın tarandığında çocuklarla yapılan pek çok araştırma doğa temelli eğitim uygulamalarının çocukların gelişim ve öğrenme sürecine olumlu yansımalarından söz etmiştir. Doğada zaman geçirmek çocuklarda benmerkezciliği azaltarak çocukların sağlıklı kişilik gelişimine katkı sunmaktadır (Wolsko ve Lindberg, 2013). Doğa ortamında çocukların algı düzeylerinde artış, dikkat süresi, problem çözme becerileri, risk alma, yürütücü bilişsel faaliyetlerde gelişim ve hiperaktivitede düşüş görülmektedir (Erenoğlu, 2010;Polat ve Demirci, 2021;Wells, 2000). ...
Bu araştırma doğa temelli uygulamaların çocukların değerleri üzerindeki etkisini belirlemeyi amaçlayan öntest-sontest ve kontrol gruplu yarı deneysel bir araştırmadır. Araştırmanın bağımsız değişkeni araştırmacılar tarafından hazırlanan ‘‘Doğa Temelli Etkinlik Programı’’; bağımlı değişkeni ise çocukların davranışa dönüşen değerleridir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Diyarbakır il merkezinde bağımsız bir anaokuluna devam eden, yaşları 60-72 ay aralığında değişen, 22’si deney, 22’si kontrol grubunda olmak üzere 44 okul öncesi dönem çocuğu oluşturmaktadır. Deney grubunda yer alan çocuklar UNESCO tarafından desteklenen “Yaşayan Değerler Eğitimi Programı” nda yer alan 12 evrensel değer doğrultusunda hazırlanan 12 oturumlu “Doğa Temelli Etkinlik Programı” na katılmışlardır. Kontrol grubu çocukları ise günlük eğitim rutinlerine devam etmiştir. Araştırma verileri “Davranışta Değerler Ölçeği” ile toplanmıştır. Ölçek hem deney grubunda yer alan çocuklara hem de kontrol grubunda yer alan çocuklara ön test, son test ve kalıcılık testi olarak uygulanmıştır. Yapılan analizler sonucunda deney ve kontrol grubunda yer alan çocukların son test ve kalıcılık test puanları arasında deney grubu lehine anlamlı bir farklılık olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarından yola çıkılarak uygulayıcılara ve araştırmacılara yönelik önerilerde bulunulmuştur.
... Engaging in outdoor recreation activities, such as hiking and gardening, may provide opportunities for meaningmaking, exposure to nature, and personal achievement, which are closely related to ikigai (Kamiya, 1966). Similarly, Wolsko and Lindberg (2013) revealed that partaking in self-directed outdoor activities was positively associated with EWB, including a sense of purpose and mindfulness. ...
Despite the increased recognition of leisure’s significance, there
remains a general lack of understanding about which aspects or
types of leisure contribute to higher levels of subjective and
eudaimonic wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to examine how diverse aspects of leisure, such as free time availability,
leisure activity participation, and subjective experiences, are associated with both subjective wellbeing (SWB; e.g. positive affect, negative affect, happiness, and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic wellbeing (EWB; ikigai). Ikigai is a Japanese concept
that approximates ‘life worth living’, whereupon we explored leisure’s relevance to a non-Western well-being concept. We analyzed online survey data from 674 Japanese university students through hierarchical regressions to investigate the potential influence of leisure-related variables on SWB and EWB. The outcomes revealed that SWB was associated with free time availability, leisure activity participation, and subjective experiences, whereas EWB was primarily linked to leisure activity participation and subjective experiences.
... Social interaction has been recognised as pivotal for psychological restoration. According to Wolsko and Lindberg (2013), engaging in meaningful connections, along with experiencing them, can significantly contribute to an individual's mental recuperation and overall well-being. By establishing friendly relations and friendships with residents, tourists can be free from their life burdens through relaxed social interactions and emotional support, as they can gain psychological and emotional benefits from external social resources (Li et al., 2024). ...
... As discussed, low attachment, and an individualistic culture, can improve OWB by granting individuals' greater control over their investments, and reducing obligations to share resources (Di Falco and Bulte, 2009). "when people think individually they know the consequences of every decision … they are very analytical in making economic decisions … But if it is a group it is for nobody … that attachment … is not the same" (3,DPO) However, low attachment can limit access to cultural ecosystem services, nature-based mental health benefits (Grinde and Patil, 2009;Heerwagen, 2009;Ingulli and Lindbloom, 2013;Wolsko and Lindberg, 2013) and higher levels of community togetherness, which are important components of SWB (Quinn and Halfacre, 2014;Ma et al., 2022;Schutte et al., 2022). ...
Introduction
Despite a growing interest in the measurement and conceptualization of wellbeing, the integration within sustainability research, and the understanding of how different wellbeing outcomes relate, is limited. Many studies focus on singular, often objectively measured, outcomes, without acknowledging the breadth of available measures. This approach can result in crucial subjective information, which can be explored to understand actors’ behaviors and responses, being omitted from research and policy. This study explores objective and subjective wellbeing outcomes, and how they relate, within an environmentally vulnerable context. Wellbeing and environmental services are intrinsically interlinked, therefore, appropriate policy solutions are required to address human needs and pressures on supporting ecosystems.
Methods
This paper uses binary logistic regression modelling, and qualitative participatory rural appraisal methods, to understand the environmental conditions, including climatic hazards and landscape characteristics, associated with households experiencing different objective/subjective wellbeing outcomes within Volta Delta, Ghana.
Results
The mixed method approach highlights a differing relationship between inland agricultural areas impacted by drought and erosion, and coastal/riverine, peri-urban landscapes exposed to flooding and salinization. Agricultural areas associate with “poor but happy” outcomes, whereas peri-urban landscapes associate with being “non-poor but unhappy.” Drawing on existing literature, and both quantitative and qualitative results, these varying outcomes are hypothesized to be driven by differences in livelihood vulnerability, relative comparisons to others, responses to climatic hazards, and individualistic/collective wellbeing conceptualizations.
Discussion
Our study concludes that environmental conditions influence objective and subjective wellbeing through different mechanisms. Sustainable development research should incorporate both objective and subjective measures when implementing and monitoring policy to more comprehensibly capture, and improve, wellbeing in environmentally vulnerable locations.
... A common understanding of the value of immersion in nature comes from the biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that to feel healthy, humans need nature (Kellert and Wilson 1993). The predictive value of recreation in nature on human wellbeing is remarkable (Gladwell et al. 2013;Passmore and Howell 2014;Wolsko and Lindberg 2013), and nature can maintain human wellbeing through reducing stress and providing positive health (Laumann 2004). A lack of a natural environment in daily life might lead to increased stress and lifestyle diseases. ...
In this paper, we explore how immersion in nature implicitly relates to consumerism and how our emotional engagement with nature is manifested as power dynamics in our drive to connect with nature. Utilizing insights from Aristotelian ethics (specifically eudaimonic wellbeing), mindfulness, and aesthetics, we propose a tripartite framework of moods associated with ‘friluftsliv’ in a Norwegian context, arguing that engagement with nature harbours a concealed ecological fallacy. Identifying the means by which we can deepen and enrich our emotional awareness of nature – especially by pinpointing emotions that spur people to act in harmony with the environment – holds immense potential for the development of sustainable lifestyles. We categorize these conceptual moods as the hedonic mood, the eudaimonic mood, and the mood of self-transcendence. Addressing the Western, individualistic perspective on the human-nature relationship, we suggest that leisure and recreational interactions with nature are conducive to a revitalization of the concept of ‘friluftsliv’.
... Research has found a positive relationship between nature-relatedness, mindfulness, and well-being. For instance, Wolsko & Lindberg found that connectedness to nature (CN), which is an individual's emotional connection to nature and a sense of oneness with the natural world, was positively associated with mindfulness and psychological well-being across many measures (Mayer & Frantz, 2004;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). ...
Many empirical studies have provided the relationship between connection with nature, mindfulness, and well-being. According to research, mindfulness and nature have a mutually beneficial impact on well-being. In this study, 135 participants consisting of 91 females (67.4%) and 44 males (32.6%), with a standard deviation of .470 were chosen. This study investigates the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, nature-relatedness, and psychological well-being. The results showed that; there is a significant moderate strong positive correlation (r= 0.444) between mindfulness and well-being with p < 0.01, there is a significant moderate positive correlation (r= 0.376) between nature-relatedness and well-being with p < 0.01and there is a weak positive correlation (r= 0.137) between mindfulness and nature-relatedness with 0.112. These findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of mindfulness may experience greater well-being, partly through their stronger connection to nature.
... More specifically, the nature preference hypothesis 15 suggests that mental health from nature is realised because nature is often the preferred environments over urban environments for individuals. If this is true, individuals with a stronger connection to nature may receive greater improvements in their psychological wellbeing when exposed to nature [16][17][18] . For example, a survey of greenspace visits and life satisfaction from Singapore showed that people with a higher connection to nature that spent more than one hour in natural spaces per week reported higher life satisfaction, but this www.nature.com/scientificreports/ ...
Increasing evidence demonstrates the psychological benefits of nature contact. However, the evidence is often established at the population level, and the individual differences in the psychological benefits gained from nature are considered negligible variations. In this study, we performed a cross-sectional online survey in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia, from April 15th and May 15th, 2021 around one year after the first covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. The results show that individuals with a stronger connection to nature are linked with a lower level of stress and anxiety with increased frequency in public greenspace visits, while such an association is less clear for individuals with a weaker connection to nature. We also find that, through the answer to an open-ended question, individuals with a lower connection to nature tend to mention nature-related words less as the reason for visiting greenspace. This indicates that a person’s connection to nature is linked with how they interact with nature and thus might determine whether and how much psychological benefit a person gains from experiencing nature.
... Children have a natural yearning to be in intimate contact with nature [68]. Research has indicated that being exposed to nature, such as through outdoor play or recreation, is an excellent approach to fostering a connection to nature [69]. This study also discovered that children's need to yearn for nature was more likely to be perceived by mothers who practiced mindful parenting and were willing to take the initiative to accompany their children in experiencing nature and allowing them to play in nature with a more open mind [70]. ...
(1) Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between mindful parenting and children’s creative tendencies and to investigate the mediating role of parent–child intimacy and connectedness to nature in the relationship between mindful parenting and children’s creative tendencies. (2) Methods: In this cross-sectional study, nearly 800 mothers of children aged 3–6 were enrolled. General sociodemographic data, the Mindfulness in Parenting Questionnaire (MIPQ), the Creativity Assessment Packet (CAP), the Child–Parent Relationship Scale—Short Form (CPRS-SF), and the Connectedness to Nature Index—Parents of Preschool Children (CNI-PPC) were all included in the questionnaire survey. (3) Results: There were significant positive correlations among mindful parenting, parent–child intimacy, connectedness to nature, and children’s creative tendencies. Mindful parenting had a positive predictive effect on children’s creative tendencies. Parent–child intimacy played a mediating role between mindful parenting and children’s creative tendencies. Connectedness to nature played a mediating role between mindful parenting and children’s creative tendencies. The correlation between mindful parenting and children’s creative tendencies may be impacted by the chain mediation effects of parent–child intimacy and connectedness to nature. (4) Conclusions: By promoting parent–child intimacy and connectedness to nature, and by utilizing the chain mediating effects of both, mindful parenting positively impacted children’s creative tendencies.
... Ayahuasca usage can foster enduring increases in measures of mindfulness-related capacities (Sampedro et al., 2017;Soler et al., 2018;Murphy-Beiner & Soar, 2020), even when used independently of any mindfulness enhancing practices, such as meditation. There appears to be a strong, positive association between mindfulness and nature relatedness (Howell et al., 2011;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013;Schutte & Malouff, 2018;Van Gordon et al., 2018). Previous studies have found ayahuasca usage to be associated with higher levels of an aspect of mindfulness referred to as decentring (Domínguez-Clavé et al., 2016;Franquesa et al., 2018;González et al., 2020González et al., , 2021Kiraga et al., 2021;Murphy-Beiner & Soar, 2020;Soler et al., 2016). ...
Indigenous Amazonian shamanic ayahuasca practice is embedded in a nature-based context and is employed as an ecological mediating agent and in collective environmental decision-making processes by some of the groups that use it. Phenomenologically, the ayahuasca experience is often rich in nature-based themes and content, and its usage has been associated with eliciting shifts in perspectives and attitudes towards nature. In this proof-of-concept study, participation in an ayahuasca retreat in a traditional Indigenous Amazonian context (with a mean of 6.31 ceremonies attended) was associated with significant increases in nature relatedness directly following ayahuasca retreats as assessed via the Short form Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6) and The Extended Inclusion of Nature in Self scale (EINS), and improvements in depression and stress as assessed via the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were also found, but not on the anxiety subscale. Furthermore, a significant negative correlation with moderate effect size was found between changes in nature-relatedness and stress, suggesting that an increase in nature relatedness is associated with decreased stress levels after attending Amazonian ayahuasca retreats in our sample. It is currently unclear if the changes seen were due to consumption of the ayahuasca brew, participation in ceremony, or the retreat setting itself. Although this pilot study suggests a potential therapeutic role for Amazonian ayahuasca retreats as a multidimensional intervention, further work is required to assess the role of possible mediators underlying such shifts, while evaluating to what extent these are sustained for long term.
... Connection to nature (CTN), 'one's affective, experiential sense of oneness with the natural world, ' (Mayer and Frantz 2004, p. 504) is linked to improved physical and mental health (Cheng and Monroe 2012;Jackson et al. 2021), increased psychological well-being (Summers, Vivian, and Summers 2019;Wolsko and Lindberg 2013), and the development and retention of pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) and attitudes (Hoover 2021). It is well-documented that a lifelong CTN can be facilitated through childhood experiences in the outdoors (Chawla 1998;Chawla and Cushing 2007;Ernst and Theimer 2011;Hoover 2021;Tanner 1980;Wells and Lekies 2006). ...
... This hypothesis was confirmed based on the result of the regression summary table at level of 0.05 significance. Research on CN has shown that adults with higher CN experience greater wellbeing and trait mindfulness, and are also more likely to engage in more environmental behaviors and appreciative outdoor activities (Fletcher, 2017;Freeman, Waters, Buttery, & Van Heezik, 2019;Ives et al., 2017;Richardson, Passmore, Lumber, Thomas, & Hunt, 2021;Whitburn, Linklater, & Abrahamse, 2020;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). Studies with adults has also indicated those who engage in more PEB also show higher levels of nature connection (Chawla & Gould, 2020). ...
This study investigated the influence of connectedness to nature and environmental identity on pro-environmental behaviour among youths. Three instruments were used in this study, they are: Pro-environmental Behavior Scale (PEBS), Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS), and Environmental Identity Scale. Two hundred undergraduates were selected using a Convenience Sampling method. Four hypotheses were tested using regression, independent T-test. Result showed that connectedness to nature β= .30, t= 4.40, p<.01 and environmental identity β= .25, t= 3.66, p<.01 independently predict pro-environmental behaviour. Connectedness to nature and environmental identity jointly predict pro-environmental behaviour; there is no significant sex difference in pro-environmental behavior t(198)= .542, p>.05. There is no significant difference in pro-environmental behavior between rural and urban residents t(198)= 1.646,p>.05. Findings of the study were discussed in line with extant literatures. It was concluded that connectedness to nature and environmental identity are positive integers to pro-environmental behaviours.
... Segundo Zelenski & Nisbet (2014) é consenso entre os pesquisadores que altos níveis de CN contribuem para a saúde e qualidade de vida das pessoas e na adoção de um comportamento de proteção e conservação dos ambientes naturais. A CN tem sido apontada ainda, como um preditor do bem-estar subjetivo (BES), ou seja, da felicidade, da satisfação com a vida (Whitten et al., 2018;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013;Maia et al., 2018). ...
A população idosa é a que mais cresce e que participa ativamente em diversas esferas socioambientais. Estudar a relação idoso-ambiente, pode nos revelar aspectos que exprimem as condições de qualidade de vida no envelhecimento. Entre tantos aspectos, o vínculo subjetivo de interação com o mundo natural, nomeado Conexão com Natureza (CN) que um idoso possui pode representar um indicador de saúde integral. Este estudo investigou os níveis de CN entre os idosos da região metropolitana de Manaus-AM, considerando que os idosos que vivem na Amazônia sempre estiveram muito próximos dessa convivência com a natureza. Utilizou-se uma entrevista semiestruturada com perguntas abertas, fechadas e escala de CN. Participaram 62 idosos entre 60 e 83 anos de idade (Fem=23; M=36). Os resultados mostram que a maioria dos idosos possui altos níveis de CN, e que a natureza faz parte de sua identidade mesmo morando em área urbanas e distantes de áreas naturais.
... 29 Wolsko and Lindberg suggest that individuals who frequently in outdoor activities may exhibit higher NC. 30 Similarly, Nisbet et al discovered that college students involved in environmental programs managed to sustain their inherent connection to nature. 31 According to Broaden-and-Build Theory, 32 the emotions experienced in a specific context have significant effects on thought-action repertoires. ...
Purpose
Although prior research has found outdoor activities to be an important effect on employee well-being, the mechanisms of their effect are understudied. This study integrated the Broaden-and-Build Theory, Attention Restoration Theory and Cognitive Assessment Theory to examine the relation between passion for outdoor activities (two dimensions, namely, harmonious passion, obsessive passion) and employee well-being (three dimensions, namely, life well-being, workplace well-being, psychological well-being) by the mediating role of nature connectedness and the moderating role of environmental identity.
Participants and Methods
Data were collected from 403 employees of Guangxi enterprises in China. The structural equation model was constructed using AMOS and SmartPLS to test the hypotheses proposed in this study.
Results
Our results confirm that harmonious passion for outdoor activities had a positive effect on employee nature connectedness, workplace well-being and psychological well-being. Obsessive passion for outdoor activities had a negative effect on employee nature connectedness, life well-being and psychological well-being. Natural connectedness has a positive effect on all three dimensions of employee well-being. Nature connectedness mediates between harmonious passion for outdoor activities and all three dimensions of employee well-being. Environmental identity positively moderated the relationship between nature connectedness and the three dimensions of employee well-being. Harmonious passion for outdoor activities has no direct effect on employee life well-being. Obsessive passion for outdoor activities had no direct effect on employee workplace well-being.
Conclusion
This study reveals the mechanism of passion for outdoor activities on employee well-being from a new perspective and unveils that the two dimensions of passion for outdoor activities have different effects on employees’ life well-being, workplace well-being, and psychological well-being. Business managers should give attention to the benefits of outdoor activities and nature connectedness for their employees, through which they can relieve stress at work, recover attention and improve well-being.
... Outdoor activities have been extensively studied in urban studies as an expression of behavior benefitting the physical, social, and psychological well-being of urban populations. In recent years, many studies have shown that outdoor activities can increase the psychological health and well-being of urban populations, and can help them better cope with mental fatigue, anxiety, anger, sadness, and other emotions [20][21][22]. For example, outdoor activities such as walking [23,24] can effectively reduce psychological anxiety and improve mood. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a distinctive impact on Hong Kong, especially given the city’s prior experience with the SARS outbreak. The resulting psychological distress has been exacerbated by Hong Kong’s extreme density and compactness, which places residents in proximity on the streets searching for outdoor activities. Streets are a precious source of space for social interactions, but, unfortunately, the pandemic has forced them to empty, leading to increased distress and challenging the psychological well-being of the urban population. In this study, we explore street vibrancy patterns in terms of outdoor activities, here addressed through a decision-making psychological perspective as volitional behaviors determined by psychological factors and essential for well-being, in one of the densest neighborhoods in Hong Kong. We statistically analyzed behavioral monitoring data in relation to spatial and morphological characteristics of their environments under COVID-19 psychological distress. The results highlighted the relevance of specific parcels of the streets acting as clusters and vibrancy initiators, stressing their significance in terms of affective and cognitive inputs determining context-based outdoor activities. The decision-making psychological perspective adopted here to address outdoor activities has relevant implications for design and planning strategies for post-pandemic scenarios, for psychological well-being, and for the future of urban density.
... Using mindfulness in nature has been associated with an increased ability to emotionally regulate and mitigate or reduce feelings of anxiety and depression (Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). Many participants identified that they felt more clarity and perspective while spending time in parks and natural spaces. ...
Urbanization contributes to a collective disconnection from nature and an increase in mental health-related illnesses. Women were the focus for this research, as they disproportionately experience anxiety, depression, phobias, and comorbidity of conditions. This qualitative study investigated the mental health benefits of practicing mindfulness in nature, and its influence on stewardship in Newfoundland and Labrador Parks and Protected areas. Feminist narrative inquiry and semi-structured interviews were used to explore ten women’s stories from parks and nature-based experiences. Drawing on the influences of attention restoration theory and mindfulness, this research used photo elicitation to explore natural features that provoked feelings of mindfulness. Barriers to participation were gender-related issues including fear, ethic of care, and financial and time constraints. Participation was facilitated by relationships, community, empowerment, and green exercise. Practicing mindfulness in natural spaces influenced feelings of deeper connection and environmental stewardship.
... In addition, engaging in outdoor PA or having access to outdoor spaces at home appears to be particularly crucial for children and adolescents. This is in line with previous studies highlighting an association between outdoor activities and psychological well-being (38)(39)(40)(41)(42). As suggested by previous research (43,44), these findings emphasise the need to facilitate outdoor recreation opportunities, which should be taken into . ...
Introduction
The closure of sports centres was implemented as a preventive measure to mitigate the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Given the observed global decline in physical activity and concurrent rise in sedentary behaviour, even among younger age groups, a retrospective cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of this measure on mental health in children, adolescents, and young adults during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
A total of 1,717 non-professional athletes (age range: 6–25; 53.9% males, 44.6% females) completed an online questionnaire including widely used and validated measures for mental health assessment (SDQ and PGWB-S) and questions regarding sociodemographic characteristics (such as gender), physical activity, and screen time. The association between mental health and sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, and screen time was evaluated by using univariate and multivariable logistic regression models.
Results
In children and adolescents, the incidence of psychological difficulties was associated with not being physically active (OR = 1.49; 95% CI: 1.09, 2.07; p = 0.015). Engaging in physical activity during the period of closures, particularly if more than twice a week, was significantly associated with less psychological difficulties for children/adolescents (OR = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.82; p = 0.004) and psychological symptoms (i.e., psychological well-being lower than the median) for youth/young adults (OR = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.45; p < 0.001). More psychological difficulties were also found in males for children and adolescents (OR = 1.37; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.79; p = 0.018). However, young adult males showed less psychological symptoms than females (OR = 0.35; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.55; p = 0.001). Additionally, a greater amount of screen time was associated with a higher incidence of psychological symptoms in the whole sample.
Conclusions
Our results confirm the positive impact of physical activity on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among younger age groups. They also provide valuable insights into the risk-benefit relationship of interrupting sports activities as a preventive measure for infectious diseases.
... So, there is a need to clarify the effect of (mindfulness) meditation on such variables, given the initial skills or dispositions of the subjects and the inclusion or the exclusion of explicit ethical content in the meditation-based program. Also, several studies showed that trait mindfulness is linked to proenvironmental behavior (Geiger et al. 2018;Panno et al. 2017;Wamsler and Brink 2018) and connectedness to nature (Howell et al. 2011;Wolsko and Lindberg 2013). Furthermore, meditation practitioners expressed a greater inclination towards sustainability than nonpractitioners (Jacob et al. 2008;Loy and Reese 2019). ...
Both creativity and responsibility are important higher-order skills to develop to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene, and both are related to attentional states of consciousness and to ethics. Meditation is a set of practices that trains attentional and emotional regulation. A few studies have shown that different kinds of meditation can foster different kinds of creative thinking, and others have begun to investigate the effect of the combination of meditation and ethics on ethical characteristics (but not yet on creativity or precisely on responsibility, so far). Here, we present a nonrandomized trial with an active control group among second-year science university students (n = 84) to test the effect of the secular Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) program on creative potential, self-reported awareness, and sense of one’s own responsibility. The results show a large effect of the program on sense of one’s own responsibility and convergent and divergent creative writing tasks, both in conceptual–semantic and engineering-like verbal ideation. They also suggest that convergent conceptual–semantic thinking might moderate the effect of the MBER program on the awareness and sense of one’s own responsibility. This work opens up new research and educational perspectives linked to necessary behavioral changes in the Anthropocene.
... It represents a straightforward and intuitive idea related to the humannature relationship and the importance each person gives to nature. Nevertheless, the multiple processes (e.g., Beery et al., 2020;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013) and components (e.g., Kals et al., 1999;Schultz, 2002) involved in this relationship make its discussion complex. Very different terms, such as emotional affinity toward nature (Kals et al., 1999), environmental identity (Clayton, 2003), love and care for nature (Perkins, 2010) or slight variations, such as connectedness with nature (Schultz, 2002;Zylstra et al., 2014), connectedness to nature (F. S. Mayer & Frantz, 2004;Restall & Conrad, 2015) and connectivity with nature (Dutcher et al., 2007) are used with different definitions. ...
Trail advocates argue that trails promote contact with nature, generate economic benefits for communities, and raise awareness about the importance of nature conservation. Mega trails, thousands of kilometers long crossing different regions, could spread these benefits for extensive landscapes, protecting important ecological and climate corridors. However, these benefits are poorly supported, and few studies evaluated whether these trails show effective conservation outcomes. This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to explore these outcomes and assess if mega trails are effective conservation tools. Based on extensive surveys and interviews along the three most renowned US national scenic trails – NST (Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trail) the influence of these trails on hikers, local communities, and landscapes is investigated. Regarding hikers, the results suggest that the longer the hiking experience, the stronger and broader the sense of place. Hikers motivated by NSTs present a stronger and broader sense of place, and this difference occurs even among day hikers, suggesting a brand effect. Mega trails help create meaning for extensive landscapes, facilitating the understanding of large-scale ecological processes. However, the path leading from sense of place to support for conservation and pro-environmental behavior is complex and seems to be mediated by a connection to nature as a whole. Mega trails also influence residents’ perceptions of trail benefits. Initiatives such as trail town programs and personal experiences influence the gateway communities’ residents’ perceptions more than economic benefits. The engagement of hikers, communities, and other actors to protect trail corridors, scenic views, and landscapes results in legal protection, land acquisition, and other land use actions. Trails with a high level of mobilization result in greater landscape connectivity and can be large corridors to allow species range shifts in response to climate change and habitat destruction. These findings suggest some guidelines for mega trail implementation worldwide, such as investing in the association of trail brands with geographical features or ecoregions and alternate routes to reach a diverse audience. Overall, when properly managed, mega trails seem to contribute to people’s awareness, community engagement, and habitat connectivity, corroborating the discourse in favor of mega trails as conservation tools.
... Several studies have shown that trait mindfulness is linked to pro-environmental behavior (Geiger et al., 2018;Panno et al., 2017;Wamsler & Brink, 2018) and connectedness to nature (Howell et al., 2011;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013). Also, meditation practitioners expressed a greater inclination towards sustainability than non-practitioners (Jacob et al., 2008;Loy & Reese, 2019). ...
The consequences of our individual actions have an increasing impact on the rest of the world as we are now living in global times. We name the individual awareness of these consequences "Consciousness of one's own responsibility". We developed a scale to measure this consciousness and a Second Generation-Mindfulness-Based Intervention (SG-MBI) that, as such, contains an explicit and central ethical perspective. We present a first impact study of this Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) program on indicators of responsibility, creativity and other soft skills. The results underline the promising potential of the MBER program for ethical development among young adults.
... Ayahuasca has also been associated with enhancing mindfulness (Murphy-Beiner & Soar, 2020; Thomas et al., 2013), which shares a positive reciprocal relationship with nature relatedness (Howell et al., 2011;Wolsko & Lindberg, 2013;Schutte & Malouff, 2018). Nature relatedness has been associated with lower levels of state and trait anxiety (Martyn & Brymer, 2016), of mental distress and antidepressant medication prescription usage (White et al., 2021), and positively associated with psychological resilience (Ingulli & Lindbloom, 2013). ...
Ayahuasca is a psychedelic plant brew originating from the Amazon Rainforest. It is formed from two basic components, the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, and a plant containing the potent psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT), usually Psychotria viridis. There has been a dramatic increase in interest surrounding ayahuasca since the turn of the millennium. Increasing numbers of tourists are travelling to the Amazon rainforest to drink the brew, with various media outlets, celebrities, and researchers describing benefit from its consumption. Ayahuasca is now present in every continent and retreat centres offering plant medicine experiences in the Amazon rainforest has become a thriving business. Anecdotal evidence varies significantly, ranging from evangelical accounts to horror stories involving physical and psychological harm. This thesis comprises five studies investigating Amazonian ayahuasca use. Initially, the pharmacology of the brew is explored in the form of a systematic review, concluding complex synergistic mechanisms may be present, although further research is needed. The remaining studies utilise observational methodology, investigating the impact of ayahuasca retreats following a traditional Shipibo lineage adapted for ayahuasca tourists in the Peruvian Amazon. The effects of the brew on personality, mental health outcomes, epigenetics, and nature relatedness are documented. Further, a phenomenological analysis of the ayahuasca experience is included. The research in this thesis is amongst the first to investigate Shipibo-style ayahuasca retreats in the Peruvian Amazon. Various ethical issues surrounding the increasing popularity of the brew and potential medicalisation are also discussed. It is hoped that this research will add to the growing body of knowledge surrounding the potential therapeutic effects of ayahuasca, whilst considering risks, ethics, and wider applications.
... The exact measurements were used in a survey by Loureiro et al. (2020). In Wolsko and Lindberg's (2013) survey of recreation participants, Brown and Ryan's (2003) mindfulness measure was used. Ndubisi (2014) used the LMS in a study of destination marketing, while Loureiro et al. (2019) used it in a study of rural tourism. ...
Socio-cognitive mindfulness has been applied extensively in recreation, parks, and tourism research. Moscardo first applied Langer’s conception of mindfulness in the field and devised a mindfulness measure that has been subsequently used over the past three decades. This research note describes how this mindfulness measure has been employed in applied research in recreation, parks, and tourism. Other measures of mindfulness as a state of consciousness used in this field and information about scales to measure dispositional mindfulness are likewise addressed. Suggested future use and exploration of Moscardo’s mindfulness measure are also described.
... The accessibility of green areas in outdoor scenes, the availability of facility structures, the existence and esthetics of sidewalks, and the multiplicity of physical facilities are positively correlated with participation in sports activities (46)(47)(48). Those who partake in more esthetically pleasing outdoor activities are more prone to attaining positive psychological dispositions and sound mental wellbeing (49). Sports and other outdoor recreational activities in outdoor communication and activity environments assist students in mitigating academic stress (50). ...
Introduction
During COVID-19, the mental health of Chinese university students has been a pressing concern. But the internal mechanism of perceived campus outdoor environment and learning engagement affecting college students’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been fully discussed.
Methods
The current study used cross-sectional data from 45 Chinese universities to explore the relationship among perceptions of campus outdoor environments, learning engagement, and college student mental health, and focused on differences among college students in different grades.
Results
Our study revealed the mental health problems of Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic were more severe. The mental health of postgraduates was generally poor, and their risk of depression was higher than that of undergraduates. More importantly, for postgraduates, the direct impact of the perceived campus outdoor environment on their mental health was stronger. For undergraduates, the indirect impact of learning engagement on the effect of the perceived campus outdoor environment on their mental health was stronger.
Conclusion
The results of the study have implications for campus planners, landscape architects, and university planners to pay particular attention to the needs of postgraduates for campus outdoor environments, which is of great significance to improve the overall mental health of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turizm, kültürler arasında bir köprü görevi görmekte ve bölgesel kalkınmaya önemli ölçüde katkıda bulunmaktadır. Son yıllarda, geleneksel deniz-güneş-kum üçlüsünün ötesinde farklı deneyimler sunan alternatif turizm biçimlerine yönelik ilgi giderek artmaktadır. Binicilik turizmi, önemli bir büyüme potansiyeline sahip niş bir pazar olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışma, zengin doğal manzaraları, tarımsal mirası ve atlı turizm merkezleriyle tanınan Kastamonu ilinin Daday ilçesindeki atlı turizm merkezlerini ziyaret edenlerin deneyimlerini incelemektedir. Turist deneyimleri üzerine kurulan araştırma, Daday'daki binicilik faaliyetlerinin turistlerin eğlence, eğitim, kaçış ve estetikle ilgili deneyimsel ihtiyaçlarını ne ölçüde karşıladığını ve bu deneyimlerin genel memnuniyet düzeylerini araştırmaktadır. Daday'daki en az üç binicilik merkezini ziyaret eden 17 katılımcı ile yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Yapılan betimsel ve içerik analizleri neticesinde, genel olarak olumlu deneyimler bildirirken, hizmet kalitesi, personel profesyonelliği ve faaliyet süresi gibi alanların iyileştirilmesi gerektiğini ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Bulgular, atlı turizm merkezleri bağlamında literatüre katkıda bulunmakta, turist memnuniyetini artırmak ve Daday'daki atlı turizm merkezlerinin sürdürülebilir gelişimini teşvik etmek için pratik öneriler sunmaktadır.
Jelen munka célja, hogy feltárjuk, milyen jellemzőkkel írható körül a magyar horgász társadalom motivációja és a természethez való viszonya. Vizsgálatunkban 62 fő, 18. életévüket betöltött, átlagosan 20,41±16,53 éve horgász-engedéllyel rendelkező horgász vett részt. A horgászok a szociodemográfiai, valamint a sportággal és sportolással kapcsolatos háttérinformációkra vonatkozó adataikon túl félig strukturált kérdéseket is kitöltöttek, amelyeket kvalitatív módszerrel elemeztünk. Eredményeink során a félig strukturált kérdőívekből három fő kategóriát azonosítottunk: 1) a horgászat motívumai; 2) a horgász és a természet kapcsolata, valamint 3) a horgászat és mentális jóllét kapcsolata. Kutatásunk eredményei fontos információval szolgálhatnak horgászoknak és nem horgászoknak, sportszakembereknek, sportolóknak, pedagógusoknak és minden horgászat iránt érdeklődőnek a sportág mélyebb megismerése szempontjából.
General anxiety is a common mental health condition across the world, with many barriers preventing people from accessing treatments. A growing body of evidence suggests that serious games offer appealing and effective solutions for anxiety. Despite their potential, an understanding of game design qualities and contextual game mechanics in game-based interventions are significantly under-explored, especially for general anxiety. Alternative and emerging game genres may offer new intervention approaches previously overlooked in digital mental health research. We use story-led exploration games, particularly the environmental storytelling walking simulator game genre, as an analytical template to understand new game design strategies and features that can potentially enable engaging and efficacious serious games as interventions for general anxiety. Using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, we summarize input from expert clinical participants who identified and evaluated several game design qualities towards developing walking simulators as potential serious game interventions.
Background
A universal adjustment to pandemic restrictions for the colleges and university outdoor programs we interviewed was limiting travel. This forced outdoor programs to modify their offerings. Some chose to use closer outdoor venues.
Purpose
This investigation sought to understand if college outdoor leaders believed they achieved or could achieve their program's goals using nearby nature from March 2020 until travel restrictions were lifted—usually beginning in fall 2021—as well as if the use of closer outdoor venues stayed the same or increased after that.
Methodology
This study gathered data through semi-structured interviews ( n = 14) with college outdoor program leaders.
Findings
College outdoor leaders reported they were able to achieve some to most of their program's goals, like teaching trip planning skills and providing opportunities for social contact with others by using nearby nature. Once pandemic travel restrictions were lifted, programs largely returned to distant programming.
Implications
Given the reduction of barriers to participation (e.g., cost and travel logistics) and the benefits (positive health outcomes and socialization) identified in this study of programming in nearby nature, college outdoor leaders are encouraged to increase programming in nearby nature to achieve some of their program goals.
Aims
Natural environments have been widely recognized to have many beneficial effects on emotions and emotion regulation processes. However, this mechanism is still largely overlooked in current research and practice, with only a few studies that specifically investigated these processes applying terminology and approaches grounded in the emotion regulation theories. This review explores the literature regarding how nature-related aspects impact on emotion regulation, considering studies based on relevant emotion regulation concepts and language.
The aim is to bridge the nature-health literature with the emotion regulation field, enhancing theoretical development and understanding of the benefits of nature exposure by identifying common terminology and measurement approaches.
Methods
To inform future research with existing evidence, a rapid review of the literature on this topic was conducted in November 2022. In January 2024, an additional literature search was conducted to incorporate recent articles and update the review. Five databases (PsycInfo, PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubPsych) were searched for relevant studies reporting effects of nature exposure and other nature-related aspects (e.g., nature connectedness) on emotion regulation processes.
Results
Following the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, twenty-seven relevant articles were selected for the review. The assessment of emotion regulation and nature-related aspects used in the studies were diverse and the research was heterogeneous; therefore, a narrative synthesis of the results was conducted. Overall, nature exposure appears to have a positive impact on emotion regulation processes in general as well as on specific emotion regulation strategies, such as decreasing rumination and worry, and enhancing the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies (i.e., mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal). Furthermore, the review indicated that there is an association between nature connectedness and affect regulatory processes, for example emotion regulation and dysregulation have been found to mediate the effects of nature connectedness on perceived stress and happiness.
Conclusions
Despite the variety in the methods adopted by the reviewed studies, most findings reported positive impacts of nature on affect regulatory processes in general, and more particularly on specific strategies of emotion regulation. These findings highlight the importance of further research on this topic and the need for enhanced methodological rigor in study designs and measurements tools to assess the association among individuals’ exposure to nature and the strategies they adopt to regulate their emotions. Achieving greater consistency in the terminology adopted across studies is also crucial for building a cohesive body of knowledge and facilitating evidence accumulation across diverse contexts.
The growing need to increase green spaces in highly urbanised cities has become more prominent recently.
Special attention is paid to involving communities in the design process to enhance societal changes for a
meaningful appreciation of the natural environment. Urban green collective initiatives in lower-income neighbourhoods
have the potential to promote meaningful relatedness to the natural environment, agency, and
stewardship. These initiatives contribute to new spatial collective norms that help decrease crime and violence.
This study analyses a unique communal green space in Medellin, built and maintained by residents of the Villatina
neighbourhood after a catastrophic landslide. After the disaster, residents exhibited self-organisation and
collective efficacy to protect the space from being used by criminal actors. In 2010, the garden underwent
renovations to be part of the ecosystem services network of the Circumvent Garden project. Although participatory
strategies were implemented, the new social dynamics hindered collective actions in the space. This study
contends that urban green collective initiatives in lower-income neighbourhoods introduce a unique form of
communal action in urban green spaces, resulting in long-term societal changes. By integrating the collective
placemaking strategies and key spatial elements in participatory design protocols, balanced social-environmental
dynamics may be introduced to foster sustainable consciousness and minimise criminal behaviour.
The aim of the chapter is to examines the factors that influence the subjective well-being (SWB) of Malaysians, which are changes in leisure, nature-based, and family activity participation. This research is primarily concerned with investigating the impact of changes in leisure activity, nature-based activity, and family activity on the subjective well-being (SWB) of Malaysians in the Selangor region. In this research, descriptive research design is used with a population of 6.56 million local residents in Selangor. The survey will be conducted by using an online questionnaire and will be distributed to 300 respondents which are in Selangor. Researchers focus on quantitative research as the ability to analyze mass and huge groups of information is high. For the method to analyze the data, SPSS version 26 is used to generate the result of the data collection. Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were used by researchers to test the research variables and model. Results highlight nature-based activity participation and family activity participation have a significant impact on subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.KeywordsCOVID-19Leisure activityNature-based activityFamily activitySubjective well-beingOutdoor activityOutdoor recreation
Ecopsychology and its praxis, ecotherapy, are gaining ground in the counselling world as valid and important therapeutic modalities for recovering human mental, physical, and emotional health through reconnecting with the natural world. L.M. Montgomery’s Magic for Marigold illustrates what happens to a child’s mental health when her relationship with the outdoors is first curtailed and then reinstated by an adult who does not share the same fantastic and highly imaginative capabilities as the child has.
Health tourism and horticultural therapy have a significant impact on the phy-
sical and mental health of a person. Health tourism takes many forms, such as
sylvotherapy, spa rehabilitation or tourism to seaside regions. Horticultural the-
rapy can be either active or passive. Research data show the positive impact of
medical tourism, wellness tourism and horticultural therapy on health aspects
such as the functioning of the immune system, cardiovascular system, muscu-
loskeletal system, endocrine system, mental state and improvement in the func-
tioning of people with intellectual disabilities or senile dementia.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has become one of
the biggest challenges for health care worldwide. This disease has affected the
lives of millions of people, leading to serious health and economic problems. In
the face of the pandemic, spa hospitals have become important rehabilitation
centers for patients who have survived the COVID-19 disease. At the same time,
the global economic crisis, which began with the development of the pandemic,
did not go unaffected by the operation of these centres.The purpose of this paper
is to present the importance of rehabilitation after COVID-19 and to show the
role that spa hospitals have in the recovery process. The work also aims to iden-
tify the challenges that the pandemic has posed to hospitals in times of economic
crisis and ways to cope with these difficulties.
Three studies examine the effects of exposure to nature on positive affect and ability to reflect on a life problem. Participants spent 15 min walking in a natural setting (Studies 1, 2, & 3), an urban setting (Study 1), or watching videos of natural and urban settings (Studies 2 & 3). In all three studies, exposure to nature increased connectedness to nature, attentional capacity, positive emotions, and ability to reflect on a life problem; these effects are more dramatic for actual nature than for virtual nature. Mediational analyses indicate that the positive effects of exposure to nature are partially mediated by increases in connectedness to nature and are not mediated by increases in attentional capacity. The discussion focuses on the mechanisms that underlie the exposure to nature/well-being effects.
The utility of the attitude concept in outdoor-recreation research rests upon its predictive validity, that is, an ability to predict subsequent behavior (at either the general or specific level). This study examines the moderating and mediating effects of participation in three types of outdoor recreation activities (appreciative, consumptive, and motorized) on environmental attitude-behavior correspondence. A mediating effect occurs if participation accounts for the relation between attitude and behavior. A moderating effect occurs if the attitude-behavior relationship changes as a function of participation. Respondents (n1220) to a telephone interview of households in the Southern Appalachian region of the Southeast United States were asked about their participation in a selection of outdoor recreation activities and their environmental behaviors and were randomly assigned to one of five general environmental attitude scales. Results support a significant mediating effect for appreciative outdoor activities only. No consistent moderating effects were found. Findings are interpreted within the context of attitude accessibility, and implications for generating proenvironmental behaviors are provided.
For decades social scientists have observed that Americans are becoming more selfish, headstrong, and callous. Instead of lamenting a cultural slide toward narcissism,
Transcending Self-Interest: Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego provides a constructive framework for understanding--and conducting research on--both the problems of egocentrism and the ways of transcending it. Heidi A. Wayment and Jack J. Bauer have assembled a group of contributors who are helping to reshape how the field of psychology defines the self in the 21st century. In the spirit of positive psychology, these authors call us to move beyond individualistic and pathological notions of self versus other. Their theories and research suggest two paths to this transcendence: (a) balancing the needs of self and others in one's everyday life and (b) developing compassion, nondefensive self-awareness, and interdependent self-identity. At the end of these converging paths lies a quiet ego--an ego less concerned with self-promotion than with the flourishing of both the self and others. Readers will find in this volume inspiration not only for future work in psychology but also for their own efforts toward personal development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstract: Wilson's (1984) biophilia hypothesis predicts that people's psychological health is associated with their relationship to nature. Two studies examined associations among nature connectedness, well-being, and mindfulness in samples of undergraduate students while socially desirable responding was con-trolled. Significant associations emerged among measures of nature connectedness and indices of well-being (in Study 1 and Study 2) and mindfulness (in Study 2). Results are discussed in relation to possible mediators and moderators of the association between nature connectedness and mental health.
Environmental preferences vary with the environments evaluated and the people who evaluated them. When research has considered the explanatory power of person variables, it has focused on traits or demographic characteristics. Little research has considered how environmental preferences vary with regularly occurring psychological states, such as attentional fatigue. In this experiment, we investigated the need for psychological restoration as a within-individual determinant of the common preference differential between natural and urban environments. We treated preference as an attitude, constituted of beliefs about the likelihood of restoration during a walk in a given environment and the evaluation of restoration given different restoration needs. College students (N=103) completed the procedure just before a morning lecture (less fatigue condition) or immediately after an afternoon lecture, which itself followed the passage of time and other activities over the day (more fatigue condition). In both fatigue conditions, participants reported more favorable attitudes toward a walk in a forest than a walk in a city center, but this difference was larger with the more fatigued. This result apparently owes to the more fatigued participants’ more positive evaluation of attentional recovery, and a greater judged likelihood of restoration when walking in the forest.
We used a direct rating approach based on definitions of each construct to measure the four components of a restorative environment proposed by attention restoration theory (ART): being away, extent, fascination, and compatibility. We used the same approach to measure two criterion variables, perceived restorative potential (PRP) of a setting and preference for the setting, as well as four additional predictor variables (openness, visual access, movement ease, and setting care). Each participant rated 70 settings, 35 each from urban and natural environments, for only one of the variables. Mean ratings were higher for the natural than the urban settings for both criterion variables and all four restorative components, with differences significant in all cases except for fascination. Correlations across settings generally followed the predictions of ART, but collinearity appeared among several sets of variables, most notably being away and setting category, PRP and preference, and extent and fascination. Despite these problems, regression analysis showed that being away and compatibility predicted PRP and that the pattern of prediction for PRP and preference was somewhat different. r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature—technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is “yes”), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue—and area for future research—of “environmental generational amnesia.” The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.
Baer's review (2003; this issue) suggests that mindf ulness-based interventions are clinically efficacious, but that better designed studies are now needed to substantiate the field and place it on a firm foundation for future growth. Her review, coupled with other lines of evidence, suggests that interest in incorporating mindfulness into clinical interventions in medicine and psychology is growing. It is thus important that professionals coming to this field understand some of the unique factors associated with the delivery of mindfulness-based interventions and the potential conceptual and practical pitfalls of not recognizing the features of this broadly unfamiliar landscape. This commentary highlights and contextualizes (1) what exactly mindfulness is, (2) where it came from, (3) how it came to be introduced into medicine and health care, (4) issues of cross-cultural sensitivity and understanding in the study of meditative practices stemming from other cultures and in applications of them in novel settings, (5) why it is important for people who are teaching mind-fulness to practice themselves, (6) results from 3 recent studies from the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society not reviewed by Baer but which raise a number of key questions about clinical applicability, study design, and mechanism of action, and (7) current opportunities for professional training and development in mindfulness and its clinical applications.
Measures of well-being were created to assess psychological flourishing and feelings—positive feelings, negative feelings,
and the difference between the two. The scales were evaluated in a sample of 689 college students from six locations. The
Flourishing Scale is a brief 8-item summary measure of the respondent’s self-perceived success in important areas such as
relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. The scale provides a single psychological well-being score. The measure
has good psychometric properties, and is strongly associated with other psychological well-being scales. The Scale of Positive
and Negative Experience produces a score for positive feelings (6 items), a score for negative feelings (6 items), and the
two can be combined to create a balance score. This 12-item brief scale has a number of desirable features compared to earlier
measures of positive and negative emotions. In particular, the scale assesses with a few items a broad range of negative and
positive experiences and feelings, not just those of a certain type, and is based on the amount of time the feelings were
experienced during the past 4weeks. The scale converges well with measures of emotions and affective well-being.
KeywordsSubjective well-being-Well-being-Measure-Positive affect-Negative affect-Scales (or Assessment)
Five studies assessed the validity and reliability of the connectedness to nature scale (CNS), a new measure of individuals’ trait levels of feeling emotionally connected to the natural world. Data from two community and three college samples demonstrated that the CNS has good psychometric properties, correlates with related variables (the new environmental paradigm scale, identity as an environmentalist), and is uncorrelated with potential confounds (verbal ability, social desirability). This paper supports ecopsychologists’ contention that connection to nature is an important predictor of ecological behavior and subjective well-being. It also extends social psychological research on self–other overlap, perspective taking, and altruistic behavior to the overlap between self and nature. The CNS promises to be a useful empirical tool for research on the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Different conceptual perspectives converge to predict that if individuals are stressed, an encounter with most unthreatening natural environments will have a stress reducing or restorative influence, whereas many urban environments will hamper recuperation. Hypotheses regarding emotional, attentional and physiological aspects of stress reducing influences of nature are derived from a psycho-evolutionary theory. To investigate these hypotheses, 120 subjects first viewed a stressful movie, and then were exposed to color/sound videotapes of one of six different natural and urban settings. Data concerning stress recovery during the environmental presentations were obtained from self-ratings of affective states and a battery of physiological measures: heart period, muscle tension, skin conductance and pulse transit time, a non-invasive measure that correlates with systolic blood pressure. Findings from the physiological and verbal measures converged to indicate that recovery was faster and more complete when subjects were exposed to natural rather than urban environments. The pattern of physiological findings raised the possibility that responses to nature had a salient parasympathetic nervous system component; however, there was no evidence of pronounced parasympathetic involvement in responses to the urban settings. There were directional differences in cardiac responses to the natural vs urban settings, suggesting that attention/intake was higher during the natural exposures. However, both the stressor film and the nature settings elicited high levels of involuntary or automatic attention, which contradicts the notion that restorative influences of nature stem from involuntary attention or fascination. Findings were consistent with the predictions of the psycho-evolutionary theory that restorative influences of nature involve a shift towards a more positively-toned emotional state, positive changes in physiological activity levels, and that these changes are accompanied by sustained attention/intake. Content differences in terms of natural vs human-made properties appeared decisive in accounting for the differences in recuperation and perceptual intake.
Connectedness with nature (CN) is seen as a personal disposition relevant for environmental as well as human health. In five questionnaire studies (N = 547) we systematically investigated the relationship between various operationalizations of well-being and CN. CN was assessed with two different tools in parallel. All significant correlations were controlled for the effects of age and gender. Psychological well-being, meaningfulness and vitality were found to be robustly correlated with CN. We highlight the relevance of CN with respect to human health and further discuss conceptual differences unraveled by the concurrent application of two CN-tools.
As a result of increasing urbanisation, people face the prospect of living in environments with few green spaces. There is increasing evidence for a positive relation between green space in people's living environment and self-reported indicators of physical and mental health. This study investigates whether physician-assessed morbidity is also related to green space in people's living environment.
Morbidity data were derived from electronic medical records of 195 general practitioners in 96 Dutch practices, serving a population of 345,143 people. Morbidity was classified by the general practitioners according to the International Classification of Primary Care. The percentage of green space within a 1 km and 3 km radius around the postal code coordinates was derived from an existing database and was calculated for each household. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
The annual prevalence rate of 15 of the 24 disease clusters was lower in living environments with more green space in a 1 km radius. The relation was strongest for anxiety disorder and depression. The relation was stronger for children and people with a lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, the relation was strongest in slightly urban areas and not apparent in very strongly urban areas.
This study indicates that the previously established relation between green space and a number of self-reported general indicators of physical and mental health can also be found for clusters of specific physician-assessed morbidity. The study stresses the importance of green space close to home for children and lower socioeconomic groups.
Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.
Human beings are unique in their ability to think consciously about themselves. Because they have a capacity for self-awareness not shared by other animals, people can imagine themselves in the future, anticipate consequences, plan ahead, improve themselves, and perform many other behaviors that are uniquely characteristic of human beings. Yet, despite the obvious advantages of self-reflection, the capacity for self-thought comes at a high price as people's lives are adversely affected and their inner chatter interferes with their success, pollutes their relationships, and undermines their happiness. Indeed, self-relevant thought is responsible for most of the personal and social difficulties that human beings face as individuals and as a species. Among other things, the capacity for self-reflection distorts people's perceptions, leading them to make bad decisions based on faulty information. The self conjures up a great deal of personal suffering in the form of depression, anxiety, anger, envy, and other negative emotions by allowing people to ruminate about the past or imagine the future. Egocentrism and egotism blind people to their own shortcomings, promote self-serving biases, and undermine their relationships with others. The ability to self-reflect also underlies social conflict by leading people to separate themselves into ingroups and outgroups. Ironically, many sources of personal unhappiness - such as addictions, overeating, unsafe sex, infidelity, and domestic violence - are due to people's inability to exert self-control. For those inclined toward religion and spirituality, visionaries throughout history have proclaimed that the egoic self stymies the quest for spiritual fulfillment and leads to immoral behavior.
Mounting evidence for the mental, physical, and behavioral health benefits of exposure to nature has considerable implications for psychotherapeutic practice. Survey research was conducted with a geographically and professionally diverse sample of mental health practitioners (n=231) in order to investigate the personal attitudes and demographic characteristics of those who practice ecotherapy, by incorporating the natural environment into their processes of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Ecotherapeutic attitudes and behaviors were more prevalent among those individuals who received graduate training in environmental psychology, had more positive personal experiences with nature, were female, agreed more with the New Ecological Paradigm, lived in communities with lower population density, lived in states with higher levels of outdoor recreation, and held master's degrees in psychology (relative to PhDs or PsyDs). All these variables exerted unique predictive effects, suggesting that there are a variety of independent pathways contributing to the integration of nature into therapy. Discussion focuses on issues related to the utility and practicality of engaging in ecotherapy, including a consideration of commonly reported obstacles to implementation.
One of this century's central challenges is to embrace our kinship with a more-than-human world - our "totemic self"- and integrate that kinship with our scientific culture and technological selves. This book takes on that challenge and proposes a re-envisioned ecopsychology.
The utility of different theoretical models of restorative experience was explored in a quasi-experimental field study and a true experiment. The former included wilderness backpacking and nonwilderness vacation conditions, as well as a control condition in which participants continued with their daily routines. The latter had urban environment, natural environment, and passive relaxation conditions. Multimethod assessments of restoration consisted of self-reports of affective states, cognitive performance, and, in the latter study, physiological measures. Convergent self-report and performance results obtained in both studies offer evidence of greater restorative effects arising from experiences in nature. Implications for theory, methodology, and design are discussed.
Three experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that exposure to restorative environments facilitates recovery from mental fatigue. To this end, participants were first mentally fatigued by performing a sustained attention test; then they viewed photographs of restorative environments, nonrestorative environments or geometrical patterns; and finally they performed the sustained attention test again. Only participants exposed to the restorative environments improved their performance on the final attention test, and this improvement occurred whether they viewed the scenes in the standardized time condition or in the self-paced time condition. Results are in agreement with Kaplan's [(1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15, 169–182] attention restoration theory, and support the idea that restorative environments help maintain and restore the capacity to direct attention.
American society's approach to its natural environment includes a narcissistic component. “Mount Rushmore Syndrome” refers to an attitude to nature that is grandiose, entitled, distant, dominating, manipulative, and hyper‐independent, yet empty. A manifestation of Mount Rushmore Syndrome is the exploitation of the natural world as a result of consumerism. Heavily influenced by corporate advertising, consumerism requires that people continually alternate between a consumer false self and a consumer symptomatic, or “one‐down,” self. Mount Rushmore Syndrome also includes an over‐identification with technology. Also discussed is a narcissistic process that occurs when , people exploit nature and when some groups socially oppress others, which helps explain why these two phenomena co‐exist so often.
Disconnection from the natural world may be contributing to our planet's destruction. The authors propose a new construct, Nature Relatedness (NR), and a scale that assesses the affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects of individuals' connection to nature. In Study 1, the authors explored the internal structure of the NR item responses in a sample of 831 participants using factor analysis. They tested the construct validity of NR with respect to an assortment of environmental and personality measures. In Study 2, they employed experience sampling methodology examining if NR people spend more time outdoors, in nature. Across studies, NR correlated with environmental scales, behavior, and frequency of time in nature, supporting the reliability and validity of NR, as well as the contribution of NR (over and above other measures) to environmental concern and behavior. The potential of NR as a useful method for investigating human-nature relationships and the processes underlying environmental concern and behaviors are discussed.
Pleasures of the mind are different from pleasures of the body. There are two types of pleasures of the body: tonic pleasures and relief pleasures. Pleasures of the body are given by the contact senses and by the distance senses (seeing and hearing). The distance senses provide a special category of pleasure. Pleasures of the mind are not emotions; they are collections of emotions distributed over time. Some distributions of emotions over time are particularly pleasurable, such as episodes in which the peak emotion is strong and the final emotion is positive. The idea that all pleasurable stimuli share some general characteristic should be supplanted by the idea that humans have evolved domain-specific responses of attraction to stimuli. The emotions that characterize pleasures of the mind arise when expectations are violated, causing autonomic nervous system arousal and thereby triggering a search for an interpretation. Thus pleasures of the mind occur when an individual has a definite set of expectations (usually tacit) and the wherewithal to interpret the violation (usually by placing it in a narrative framework). Pleasures of the mind differ in the objects of the emotions they comprise. There is probably a
Outdoor recreation may foster positive environmental views among participants and their nonparticipating household members, but little research has addressed this hypothesis at the household level. We address this gap with a case study evaluating both the individual-and household-level relationship between outdoor recreation and environmental views using the new ecological paradigm scale (NEP). Results suggest NEP relates positively to appreciative outdoor recreation participation and negatively to nonappreciative outdoor recreation participation for participants and their household members. Future research should focus on how household dynamics mediate the relationship between environmental views and outdoor recreation.
This book provides an in-depth psychological analysis of consumerism that draws from a wide range of theoretical, clinical, and methodological approaches. The contributors to this edited book demonstrate that consumerism and the culture that surround it exert profound and often undesirable effects both on people's individual lives and on society as a whole. Far from being different influences, advertising, consumption, materialism, and the capitalistic economic system affect personal, social, and ecological well-being as well as childhood development. The book makes a strong case that despite psychology's past reticence to investigate issues related to consumerism, such topics are crucial to understanding human life in the contemporary age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Author's Note: This article benefited greatly from the many improvements in organization, expression, and content made by Rachel Kaplan, and the many suggestions concerning consistency, clarity, and accuracy made by Terry Hartig. Thanks also to the SESAME group for providing a supportive environment for exploring many of the themes discussed here. The project was funded, in part, by USDA Forest Service, North Central Experiment Station, Urban Forestry Unit Co-operative Agreements. Abstract An analysis of the underlying similarities between the Eastern meditation tradition and attention restoration theory (ART) provides a basis for an expanded framework for studying directed attention. The focus of the analysis is the active role the individual can play in the preservation and recovery of the directed attention capacity. Two complementary strategies are presented which can help individuals more effectively manage their attentional resource. One strategy involves avoiding unnecessary costs in terms of expenditure of directed attention. The other involves enhancing the effect of restorative opportunities. Both strategies are hypothesized to be more effective if one gains generic knowledge, self knowledge and specific skills. The interplay between a more active form of mental involvement and the more passive approach of meditation appear to have far-reaching ramifications for managing directed attention. Research on mental restoration has focused on the role of the environment, and especially the natural environment. Such settings have been shown to reduce both stress and directed attention fatigue (DAF) (Hartig & Evans, 1993). Far less emphasis, however, has been placed on the possibility of active participation by the individual in need of recovery. A major purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of this mostly neglected component of the restorative process.
Five studies utilizing survey, experimental, and diary methods assessed the effects of being outdoors on subjective vitality. In Study 1, we used a vignette method to examine whether being outdoors was associated with vitality, above and beyond the influences of physical activity and social interactions. Study 2 explored the effects of being outdoors on vitality through an experimental design contrasting indoor and outdoor walks. In Study 3. participants were exposed to photographic scenes of either nature or buildings. Results showed that only the nature scenes enhanced subjective vitality. Studies 4 and 5 used a diary methodology to examine within-person variations in subjective energy as a function of being outdoors, again controlling for physical and social activity. Being outdoors was associated with greater vitality, a relation that was mediated by the presence of natural elements. Limitations of these studies are discussed, as well as their implications for research on energy and vitalization.
Psychology rarely examines the effects of economic systems on people's lives. In this target article, we set out to explore some of the costs of American corporate capitalism and its focus on self-interest, competition, hierarchical wage labor, and strong desires for financial profit and economic growth. Specifically, we apply recent cross-cultural research on goal and value systems (Schwartz, 1996; Grouzet et al. 2006), as well as a variety of other types of evidence, to demonstrate how the aims and practices that typify American corporate capitalism often conflict with pursuits such as caring about the broader world, having close relationships with others, and, for many people, feeling worthy and free. We hope that by bringing to light the value and goal conflicts inherent in this economic system, psychologists might begin to systematically investigate this pervasive yet paradoxically ignored feature of contemporary culture.
Nature relatedness (NR) describes the affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects of human–nature relationships (Nisbet in Environ Behav
41: 715–740, 2009). Evidence from three studies suggests that individual differences in NR are associated with differences in well-being. In
study 1 (N=184), we explore associations between NR and a variety of well-being indicators, and use multiple regression analyses to
demonstrate the unique relationship of NR with well-being, while controlling for other environmental measures. We replicate
well-being correlates with a sample of business people (N=145) in Study 2. In study 3 (N=170), we explore the influence of environmental education on NR and well-being, and find that changes in NR mediate the
relationship between environmental education and changes in vitality. We discuss the potential for interventions to improve
psychological health and promote environmental behaviour.
KeywordsNature relatedness–Happiness–Well-being–Positive affect–Vitality–Environmental attitudes–Environmental education
Directed attention plays an important role in human information processing; its fatigue, in turn, has far-reaching consequences. Attention Restoration Theory provides an analysis of the kinds of experiences that lead to recovery from such fatigue. Natural environments turn out to be particularly rich in the characteristics necessary for restorative experiences. An integrative framework is proposed that places both directed attention and stress in the larger context of human-environment relationships.
A growing body of literature indicates that contact with nature influence people's health and psychological well-being both directly and by moderating processes. A questionnaire study was conducted in urban residential settings with high road-traffic noise exposure (LAeq, 24 h = 60–68 dB). Out of 500 residents, 367 lived in dwellings with access to a quiet side (LAeq, 24 h ≤ 45 dB free field value; “noise/quiet”-condition) and 133 had no access to a quiet side (“noise/noise”-condition). The present paper examines whether perceived availability to nearby green areas affects various aspects of well-being in these two noise-condition groups. For both those with and without access to a quiet side, the results show that “better” availability to nearby green areas is important for their well-being and daily behavior by reducing long-term noise annoyances and prevalence of stress-related psychosocial symptoms, and by increasing the use of spaces outdoors. In the process of planning health-promoting urban environments, it is essential to provide easy access to nearby green areas that can offer relief from environmental stress and opportunities for rest and relaxation, to strive for lower sound levels from road traffic, as well as to design “noise-free” sections indoors and outdoors.
Objective To compare the effects on mental and physical wellbeing, health related quality of life and long term adherence to physical activity, of participation in physical activity in natural environments compared with physical activity indoors.
Design Systematic review.
Data sources Medline, Embase, Psychinfo, GreenFILE, SportDISCUS, The Cochrane Library, Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Science and BIOSIS from inception to June 2010. Internet searches of relevant websites, hand searches of relevant journals and the reference lists of included papers and other review papers identified in the search.
Methods Controlled trials (randomised and non-randomised) were included. Eligible trials compared the effects of outdoor exercise initiatives with those conducted indoors and reported on at least one physical or mental wellbeing outcome in adults or children. Screening of articles for inclusion, data extraction and quality appraisal were performed by one reviewer and checked by a second with discrepancies resolved by discussion with a third if necessary. Heterogeneity of outcome measures precluded formal meta-analysis.
Results Eleven trials (833 adults) were included. Most participants (6 trials; 523 adults) were young students. Study entry criteria and methods were sparsely reported. All interventions consisted of a single episode of walking or running indoors with the same activity at a similar level conducted outdoors on a separate occasion. A total of 13 different outcome measures were used to evaluate the effects of exercise on mental wellbeing and four outcome measures were used to assess attitude to exercise. Most trials (n=9) showed some improvement in mental wellbeing on one or other of the outcome measures. Compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation and positive engagement, decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression and increased energy. Participants reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and declared a greater intent to repeat the activity at a later date. None of the identified studies measured the effects of physical activity on physical wellbeing, or the effect of natural environments on exercise adherence.
Conclusions The results show some promising effects on self-reported mental wellbeing immediately following exercise in nature which are not seen following the same exercise indoors. However, the interpretation and extrapolation of these finding is hampered by the poor methodological quality of the available evidence and the heterogeneity of outcome measures employed. The influence of these effects on the sustainability of physical activity initiatives also awaits investigation.
There is considerable scientific interest in the psychological correlates of pro-environmental behaviors. Much research has focused on demographic and social-psychological characteristics of individuals who consistently perform such actions. Here, we report the results of 2 studies in which we explored relations between broad personality traits and pro-environmental actions. Using a wide variety of behavior and personality measures, we consistently found moderate positive relations between Openness to Experience and pro-environmental activities in both a community sample (Study 1: N = 778) and an undergraduate student sample (Study 2: N = 115). In Study 2, we showed that the effect of Openness on pro-environmental behaviors was fully mediated by individuals' environmental attitudes and connection to nature. Our findings suggest that high levels of aesthetic appreciation, creativity, and inquisitiveness, but not personality traits associated with altruism, may have motivated the performance of pro-environmental actions among our respondents. Implications for intervention development are discussed.
Stress-relieving effects of gardening were hypothesized and tested in a field experiment. Thirty allotment gardeners performed a stressful Stroop task and were then randomly assigned to 30 minutes of outdoor gardening or indoor reading on their own allotment plot. Salivary cortisol levels and self-reported mood were repeatedly measured. Gardening and reading each led to decreases in cortisol during the recovery period, but decreases were significantly stronger in the gardening group. Positive mood was fully restored after gardening, but further deteriorated during reading. These findings provide the first experimental evidence that gardening can promote relief from acute stress.
This study investigates whether the presence of green space can attenuate negative health impacts of stressful life events. Individual-level data on health and socio-demographic characteristics were drawn from a representative two-stage sample of 4529 Dutch respondents to the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2), conducted in 2000-2002. Health measures included: (1) the number of health complaints in the last 14 days; (2) perceived mental health (measured by the GHQ-12); and (3) a single item measure of perceived general health ranging from 'excellent' to 'poor'. Percentages of green space in a 1-km and 3-km radius around the home were derived from the 2001 National Land cover Classification database (LGN4). Data were analysed using multilevel regression analysis, with GP practices as the group-level units. All analyses were controlled for age, gender, income, education level, and level of urbanity. The results show that the relationships of stressful life events with number of health complaints and perceived general health were significantly moderated by amount of green space in a 3-km radius. Respondents with a high amount of green space in a 3-km radius were less affected by experiencing a stressful life event than respondents with a low amount of green space in this radius. The same pattern was observed for perceived mental health, although it was marginally significant. The moderating effects of green space were found only for green space within 3 km, and not for green space within 1 km of residents' homes, presumably because the 3-km indicator is more affected by the presence of larger areas of green space, that are supposed to sustain deeper forms of restoration. These results support the notion that green space can provide a buffer against the negative health impact of stressful life events.
Clinically depressed persons suffer from impaired mood and distortion of cognition. This study assessed changes in depression severity and perceived attentional capacity of clinically depressed adults (N=18) during a 12-week therapeutic horticulture program. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Attentional Function Index (AFI) were administered at baseline, twice during (4 and 8 weeks), and immediately after the intervention (12 weeks), and at a 3-month follow-up. Experiences of being away and fascination related to the intervention were measured at 4, 8, and 12 weeks. The mean BDI score declined 9.7 points from pretest (27.3) to posttest (p < .001) and were clinically relevant (deltaBDI > or =6) for 72% of the cases. The mean AFI score increased 10.2 points from pretest (68.8) to posttest (p = .06). The greatest change in BDI and AFI scores occurred in the initial weeks of the intervention. The reduction in BDI scores remained significant and clinically relevant at the 3-month follow-up (N=16). The decline in depression severity during the intervention correlated strongly with the degree to which the participants found that it captured their attention. Therapeutic horticulture may decrease depression severity and improve perceived attentional capacity by engaging effortless attention and interrupting rumination.
The Varieties of Religious Experience : a Study in Human Nature / William James Note: The University of Adelaide Library eBooks @ Adelaide.
In this article, we examine subjective vitality, a positive feeling of aliveness and energy, in six studies. Subjective vitality is hypothesized to reflect organismic well-being and thus should covary with both psychological and somatic factors that impact the energy available to the self. Associations are shown between subjective vitality and several indexes of psychological well-being; somatic factors such as physical symptoms and perceived body functioning; and basic personality traits and affective dispositions. Subsequently, vitality is shown to be lower in people with chronic pain compared to matched controls, especially those who perceive their pain to be disabling or frightening. Subjective vitality is further associated with self-motivation and maintained weight loss among patients treated for obesity. Finally, subjective vitality is assessed in a diary study for its covariation with physical symptoms. Discussion focuses on the phenomenological salience of personal energy and its relations to physical and psychological well-being.
Recently, the psychological construct mindfulness has received a great deal of attention. The majority of research has focused on clinical studies to evaluate the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions. This line of research has led to promising data suggesting mindfulness-based interventions are effective for treatment of both psychological and physical symptoms. However, an equally important direction for future research is to investigate questions concerning mechanisms of action underlying mindfulness-based interventions. This theoretical paper proposes a model of mindfulness, in an effort to elucidate potential mechanisms to explain how mindfulness affects positive change. Potential implications and future directions for the empirical study of mechanisms involved in mindfulness are addressed.
Theory and research dealing with self-regulation have focused primarily on instances of self-regulation that involve high levels of self-reflection and effortful self-control. However, intentionally trying to control one's behavior sometimes reduces the likelihood of achieving one's goals. This article examines the process of hypo-egoic self-regulation in which people relinquish deliberate, conscious control over their own behavior so that they will respond more naturally, spontaneously, or automatically. An examination of spontaneously occurring hypo-egoic states (such as flow, deindividuation, and transcendence) suggests that hypo-egoic states are characterized by lowered self-awareness and/or an increase in concrete and present-focused self-thoughts. In light of this, people may intentionally foster hypo-egoism via two pathways-(a) taking steps to reduce the proportion of time that they are self-aware (such as repeating a behavior until it is automatic or practicing meditation) or (b) increasing the concreteness of their self-thoughts (such as inducing a concrete mindset or practicing mindfulness). In this way, people may deliberately choose to regulate hypo-egoically when effortful control might be detrimental to their performance.
To determine the association between the percentage of greenspace in an area and the standardised rate of self-reported "not good" health, and to explore whether this association holds for areas exhibiting different combinations of urbanity and income deprivation.
Cross-sectional, ecological study in England.
All residents of England as at the 2001 Census.
Age and sex standardised rate of reporting "not good" health status.
A higher proportion of greenspace in an area was generally associated with better population health. However, this association varied according to the combination of area income deprivation and urbanity. There was no significant association between greenspace and health in higher income suburban and higher income rural areas. In suburban lower income areas, a higher proportion of greenspace was associated with worse health.
Although, in general, higher proportion of greenspace in an area is associated with better health, the association depends on the degree of urbanity and level of income deprivation in an area. One interpretation of these analyses is that quality as well as quantity of greenspace may be significant in determining health benefits.