Blog 2: What are the psychological effects of exposure to natural environments?

Over recent years there have been many research studies which have found possible links between exposure to natural environments and reduced stress levels, reduced ADHD symptoms in children, decreased recovery time from mental fatigue and physical illness and increased feelings of well-being.

A research study conducted by Kuo and Taylor (2004) suggested that exposure to a green or a natural environment improves symptoms in children who have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study used participants aged between 6 and 18 years of age across a wide range of gender, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Kuo and Taylor found that ADHD symptoms improved consistently across all of these groups. The study asked parents to rate their child’s symptoms before and after their child participated in one of 49 after school activities on the weekend. Their results found that parent’s rated their children’s symptoms better on average after activities that were conducted in green settings rather then non-green settings. Their results also found that activities such as reading or playing sport improved symptoms more when they were performed in an outdoor green setting rather than a non-green setting.

Kaplan (1995) conducted a study which looked at the restorative benefits of nature. Findings from his study suggested that natural environments assist people in recovering from mental fatigue. Kaplan suggested this may be because when people are in natural settings, they engage their mind effortlessly, which gives people a break from having to deliberately focus their attention. Kaplan’s findings are supported by Wells (2000) who linked exposure to nature with superior attention and effectiveness for children at school. Wells also found that children who have views of nature from their school desk score better on tests of concentration and self-discipline. The results of Well’s research also found that the greener the scenery was, the higher the scores on the concentration tests.

A study conducted by Hartig, Mang and Evans (1991) also examined the restorative benefits of nature. In this study participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatments. The first group went for a walk in a natural environment, the second group walked in an urban environment and the final group relaxed in a comfortable chair. The participants happiness, positive affect, anger and aggression levels were measured after each exercise. The study found that people who went on a nature walk reported higher scores of happiness and positive affect, along with lower scores on anger and depression scales.

Lauver (2001) also supports the idea that natural environments provide restoration and increased cognitive abilities. Lauver states that watching a sunset or gardening can increase ones cognitive abilities to cope with a major illness. Lauver also mentions in his article that natural environments can be used as part of a nursing therapy, especially in women. The women who perform a nature activity report less psychological distress and improved cognitive functioning when undergoing nursing therapy. Kaplan (1995) supports Lauver’s argument by stating that spending time in nature allows women to restore concentration and attention processes which reduce their level of mental fatigue caused by their daily routines.
There has also been research which has suggested a link between natural surroundings and increased recovery time from surgery. Ulrich (1984) studied 24 patients who were recovering from surgery in hospital. These patients were matched for age, gender, health status, smoking habits and obesity levels. Ulrich found that the patients who were recovering in rooms which overlooked tress and natural surroundings had a quicker recovery time and fewer negative comments about their stay in hospital then those patients who could view a brick wall from their room. Ulrich suggested this may was because natural surroundings promote positive feelings of well-being and happiness.

Exposure to outdoor settings and fresh air has also been linked to levels of depression in a study conducted in Sweden by Hartig, Catalano and Ong (2007). The study examined the number of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) anti-depressants prescribed in Sweden over the month of July which is traditionally a holiday month in Sweden. The results of the study suggested that constraining time spent outside in July because of below average temperatures and an increased number of cloudy days in July leads to an increase in the number of SSRI’s dispensed in that month. Hartig, Catalano and Ong suggest this might be due to the outdoor scenery distracting people from their troubles, allowing them to forget about their normal stressful work environments. However if there are colder temperatures and more cloudy days people spent less time outdoors which did not allow them to remove their built up stress levels by being outside and hence caused more people to need treatment for depression.
A report on the benefits of ecotherapy looked at the effect of green exercise on people who had current mental health problems (National Association for Mental Health, 2007). Participants undertook two exercises, firstly they took a walk through a country park and the second task involved taking a walk in an indoor shopping centre. This study found that 71 percent of participants reported decreased levels of depression after the walk through the park whereas only 45 percent experienced a decrease in depression when taking a walk through a city shopping centre. The walk through the shopping centre also caused 22 percent of people to experience an increase in depression. This study also found that walking through the park caused a decrease in tension, and a significant increase in self-esteem. In comparison to this 44 percent of participants said their self-esteem decreased after walking through the shopping centre (National Association for Mental Health, 2007).

Hung and Chang (2004) conducted a study which compared the restorative effects of natural environmental settings and man-made environmental settings. Participants in the study were shown slides of recreational settings in natural and man-made environments. Hung and Chang measured the brain wave responses of the participants as they viewed each slide. Hung and Chang found that brain waves were higher when viewing natural settings compared to man-made recreational areas. This natural setting also increased physical relaxation, increased attention, and increased relaxation scores.

All of the abovementioned research suggests that there is a positive link between time spent outdoors in natural, green settings and improved mental health. The benefits appear to be far ranging however the most common effects of “ecotherapy” seems to be restoration of mental processes, reduced stress levels and increased feelings of well-being.

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References
Hartig, T., Catalano, R. & Ong, M. (2007). Cold summer weather, constrained restoration, and the use of antidepressants in Sweden. Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 27(2), pp. 107-116.

Hartig, T., Mang, M. & Evans, G. W. (1991). Restorative effects of natural environment experiences. Environment and Behaviour. Vol 23, pp 3-26.

Hung, C. C. and Chang, C. Y. (2004). A study of the restorative effects of urban and natural recreational settings. International Society for Horticultural Science. Vol. 639, pp. 235-239.

Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: toward an integrative framework. Journal of environmental psychology. Vol. 15(3), pp. 169-182.

Kuo, F. E. and Taylor, A.F. (2004). A potential natural treatment for attention-deficity/hyperactivity disorder: Evidence from a national study. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 94 (9), p 1580-1586.

Lauver, D. R. (2000). Commonalities in Women’s Apirituality and Women’s Health. Advances in Nursing Sciences, 22(3), pp. 76-88.

National Association for Mental Health (2007). Mind: Go green to beat the blues. Retrieved online October 25, 2007 from http://www.mind.org.uk/News+policy+and+campaigns/Press/Mind+Week+ecotherapy.htm

Ulrich, R. S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science, 224, pp 420-421.

Wells, N. M. (2000). At home with nature: Effect of “greenness” on children’s cognitive functioning. Environment and Behaviour, Vol 32 (6), pp 775-795.

video: exposure to natural environment reduces stress and increases psychological well-being

Hey everybody

I just found a YouTube video which explains how exposure to nature influences your stress levels, healing time and how happy you feel. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Dw3c1e5G8

Blog 2

For my 2nd blog i have chosen the topic:

"What are the psychological effects of exposure to natural environments?"

I think this topic will be interesting and also practical for people's future use in order to get the maximum mental health benefits out of their natural environment. I have started brainstorming ideas on what I could focus on and the things that have come to mind so far are:

* Exposure to sunlight - link with depression

* Effect of environmental toxins such as pollution on mental health

* Effect of processed and natural food compared with organic (naturally) produced foods on psychological well-being

These are just a few ideas to get me started. If there is any major things you think I have missed, please feel free to comment.

Why are aboriginal people negatively stereotyped and what can be done to rectify this?

Stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the common traits of a group of people. They are often over-generalised, inaccurate, durable and unaffected by new information (Myers, 2008). Bauemeister and Bushman (2008) state that stereotypes are heuristics that humans use to save mental effort and time, they can lead to errors however it is thought stereotypes often survive due to the fact that they often produce the right answer. Baumeister and Bushman believe that negative stereotypes are used due to the scapegoat theory, which involves society blaming the majority of its problems on a minority group despite this not being the case. There are both positive and negative stereotypes, the negative stereotypes are more durable then the positive ones which means that it takes many good exceptions to the rule to remove a bad stereotype however it takes few bad exceptions to the rule to destroy a positively held stereotype. This may help explain the continuous negative stereotype held about Australian aboriginals despite the work of many communities to improve their image (ABC News, 30/4/2007). A major problem with stereotypes is that they over-generalize traits to the whole population which is not always accurate. For example, there may be some aboriginals who drink alcohol and commit violent crimes however this is only a small minority of them.

The colonisation of Australia brought about a change in the way aboriginals viewed themselves and what cultural heritage they passed onto their children. The white settlers treated the aborigines like animals and led them and their fellow white men to believe that they were trouble makers who were no good for society. The impact of this treatment is still evident in the negative stereotypes of aboriginals that exist today (Lowe, 2003). The media tends to mention that an offender or a victim was an aboriginal unnecessarily which leads people to suggest that the cause of the incident was something innate about aboriginals rather then some external factors, this also contributes to and strengthens these negative stereotypes (Lowe, 2003).

In Australia, aboriginals are often seen in news stories about indigenous drinking problems and violent behaviour however there is little seen about the people who are doing good things for the community by demonstrating leadership and giving direction to the aboriginal people. There is one television program, run by Bush TV, called the Murri Minute which is run in Cape York, Rockhampton and Brisbane, which attempts to breakdown the negative stereotypes of aboriginal people by showing aboriginal people exercising their talent and entrepreneurial skills and praising those who are achieving things. This show is playing a vital role in breaking down the negative stereotypes of aboriginals in those communities (ABC News 30/4/2007).

The stereotype may also be attributed to the high ratio of aboriginal prisoners in both male and female prisons in Australia. A report by Payne (1990) showed that the ratio of aboriginal female prisoners to white female prisoners is 16:1 and for men 14:1. Aboriginal men and women are involved in a high proportion of homicides, rapes and assaults compared to the rest of Australian society. (Payne, 1990) This may contribute to the police force holding a negative view of aboriginals, which can exacerbate the negative stereotype.

An aboriginal candidate for the Federal Election in 1998, Charmaine Clarke, described how she was brought up at school to believe that aboriginals were more like apes then people, because they had no intellect, vision or sense of innovation. This was after she was taken from her home and fostered into a white family under the government’s assimilation policy (Arkley, 1998). The education system in previous decades is partially responsible for the negative stereotypes that still exist today because they taught white Australians that aboriginals were inferior and not the same as white Australians. This knowledge may have been passed on along the generations which helps explain why such a negative stigma surrounds Aboriginal Australians today.

The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (2007) reported that there are many indigenous people in Victoria who are working hard to improve the health and well-being of aboriginals in their community. The Organisation also called on the media and politicians to reduce the number of dramatic media reports which reinforce these negative stereotypes and to increase the reporting of the hard work of aboriginal communities to improve their social status and well-being.

There are several programmes which have been developed to reduce these stereotypes. These programmes may be cognitive in orientation, which involves changing inter-group attitudes by attempting to increase the in-groups knowledge, awareness and understanding of the out-group by providing members of the in-group information about the stereotyped groups history, achievements and contributions to the community. An alternate method is by introducing inter-group contact by getting a member of the other group to personally present the information. The success of these programs has been limited. A study by Hill and Augoustinos (2001) found that people in the Australian Public service who were put through a cross-cultural awareness study informing them of Aboriginal culture and commonly held stereotypes had little long-term effect on the attitude of the participants towards indigenous Australians. There was a short-term effect which reduced modern and old-fashioned racism and also reduced negative stereotypes of Aboriginals. Three months after the course however, it was found that old stereotypes had been reformed and only those who were highly prejudiced towards Aboriginals showed any long-term improvement.

Largely due to the durability of negative stereotypes, the negative stereotype of aboriginals still exists today. The media are largely to blame for this, due to the reporting of negative events much more frequently then positive actions of aboriginals. If this negative stereotype is to be reduced, the media must play a large role by informing people of the Aboriginals culture and achievements. Other initiatives such as the cross-cultural awareness study can also be implemented to reduce the prejudices shown by highly discriminatory people. Our education system must inform young children of today that aboriginals are not all as problematic as their stereotype would suggest and that they can be valuable contributors to our society.

Word count: 1012

References

Payne, S. (1990). Aboriginal women and the criminal justice system. Aboriginal Law Bulletin, Vol 2(46) 41. p 9-11. Viewed online September 2, 2007. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AboriginalLB/1990/41.html

Arkley, L. (1998). Few and far between, aboriginal candidates try to break a stereotype. Christian Science Monitor, Vol 90(216), p 6.

Victorian Aborginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. Media Release (11/7/2007). Victoria’s peak Aboriginal health body in plea to media and politicians not to reinforce negative stereotypes of Aboriginal people. Viewed online September 3, 2007. http://www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/VACCHO_sucess_stories.pdf

Lowe, S. (2003). The third Aboriginal/Maori youth cultural exchange. OxFam News Magazine. Viewed online September 5, 2007
http://www.oxfam.org.au/oxfamnews/february_2003/indigenous_exchange.html

Myers, D. (2008). Social Psychology. Holland, Michigan: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Baumeister, R. F. & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social Psychology and Human Nature (1st ed.) Belmont, California: Thomson Wadsworth.

ABC News (30/4/2007). Bulletin breaks down negative perception of Aboriginal people. Viewed online September 5, 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/04/30/1910124.htm

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