The Relationship of Dose of Nature on Users’ Psychological Benefits
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Yu, Hsiao-Ling
Abstract
Although a highly developed city provides people a convenient and rapid living environment, urban residents who have less experience in nature are observed more mental and physical health problems. People have paid more and more attentions on the benefits of contact with nature. In 1989, Kaplan and Kaplan proposed the concept of restorative environment which believes people can restore mental fatigue by spending time in natural environments. Further, other scholars have developed various theories and indicators to examine the benefits of nature.
Many studies have confirmed the benefits of natural environments. However, most of them usually focused on the differences in landscape types. Rare discussion is from the perspective of contact time. The aim of this study is to identify the contact time of nature that people can gain adequate mental benefits. Smart phones were utilized as a recording tool that participants reported their experiences of contact with natural environment and emotional condition (ZIPERS scale) for one week.
The results indicated that participants reported more positive emotion when they are in a higher naturalness environment within a short time (about two hours). The relationship between emotion and contact time showed an inverted U-shaped curve. Within 60~80 minutes, contacting with nature longer significantly produces more positive emotions. After this period, the positive emotional effect from nature tends to stay relatively flat or even decline. The results of this study clarify the relationship among contact time, naturalness and psychological responses. It could be a reference of the desired dose of the natural landscape as a healing method in the future.
Subjects
Landscape Benefits
ZIPERS
Experience sampling method (ESM)
Emotion
Smart Phone
Type
thesis
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