The Restorative Components of Nature on the Human Psychology
A Study

As it seems, we humans tend to experience feelings of “compatibility” and “fascination” more when we are amongst nature, relative to when we are amongst an urban environment.

In a recent study, two experiments were conducted with the aim of developing a set of rating scales that endeavored to measure the “restorative” components of natural environments over urban environments.

“In Study 1, 238 Norwegian undergraduates acting as subjects imagined themselves to be either in a nature environment or a city environment which they rated on unipolar scales intended to describe how they experienced the environments. In Study 2 another sample of 157 subjects recruited from the same population of Norwegian undergraduates viewed videos of a forest, park, sea area, city, and a snowy mountain, imagining themselves to be in these environments while performing ratings on the same scales.”

Generally, as a result of the two studies, findings paralleled similar, older theories and supported relatively new hypotheses. In terms of the former, the authors of the study note that in Ulrich’s (1993) study, involving evolutionary theory, it is claimed that “physiological stress reduction and positive emotions…are the most important stress-reducing components of nature environments”; and that a study by Kaplan (1989) suggested that the “Kaplan component” of “being away” may be related to “relaxation, referring as it does to escaping from everyday stress and strain.” In terms of the latter, the students’ surveys suggested that feelings of “fascination and compatibility were the most important predictors” that helped to make one feel “relaxed” and “restored”. These components were positively correlated with nature visuals.

Now if only we can get people to realize that Nature is not simply a resource that bears material resources, but also a system with the power to influence and heal our emotional faculties.

K. Laumann, T. Gärling, K.M. Stormark, “Rating scale measures of restorative components of environments.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21 (2001), pp. 31–44.