environmental Test 2 - Nature and Human Nature Measuring...

Nature and Human Nature
• Measuring landscape preferences
o Ecological approach
o Descriptive approach
 Emphasizes basic elements of design
 Line, form, color, texture
 Contrasts in natural landscapes are pleasing
o Physical-perceptual approach
 Empirical
o Psychological approach
• Kaplan & Kaplan
o Coherence
o Legibility
o Complexity
o Mystery
 These things are favored by people, and it makes evolutionary
sense
• Biophilia Hypothesis
o Love of the biosphere
o We prefer natural landscapes due to history (evolution)
 E.O. Wilson
• Biophobias- intense irrational fears about things that make
evolutionary sense
o Fetishes
 Rachman (1976)- conditioned women’s objects and erotic pictures
o Ulrich (1979)- students were more at ease for a test when they were shown
nature scenes
o Ulrich (1984)- less complications in hospital if there’s nature outside the
window
• Experience
o Hartig et al (1991)
 Identified a group of backpackers
 Self-selected amongst themselves between:
• Backpacking trip
• Car vacation
• Staying home
 Monitored them for a 4-7 day period
 Assessed: happiness and attention
• Being in nature supposedly benefits both
 Backpackers weren’t immediately happier, but were 1-2 days later
 Backpackers scored higher on the attention task
o Hartig et al
 Randomly assigned college students to either:

• A nature walk
• An urban walk
• Relax with a magazine in a comfortable chair
 Nature walk people had to ride in a van for about half an hour to
get there
 Urban walkers had to ride in a van, but for a shorter distance
 Both terrains were generally the same, except in different
environments
 The people on the nature walk were happier than those in both
other conditions
• They also reported less anger and aggression
 No differences in physiological arousal
o Hartig et al (2003)
 Attention depleting task: proof-reading or some task to make
participants tired, reduce their attention capacity
 They walked through either a natural or an urban environment
 Measured attention, mood, and blood pressure
 Used random assignment and controls
 Involved actual experience
 Variables were similar, because no travel was involved this time
 Natural environment walkers had increased attention and mood
and lower blood pressure both with and without the ADT
o Van den Berg et al (2003)
 Participants viewed “Faces of Death #1”, a movie with images of
animals being slaughtered
 They then viewed either an urban or natural environment movie,
walking through either area
 Measured: attention, how they felt about the environment, affective
restoration (mood)
• Pre/post walk movie moods were measured
 Nature movie resulted in better attention and mood
o Type of environment (A)  affective restoration  ratings of
environment (B)
 Data was consistent with this path model
 A  B because A changes the amount of affective restoration that
occurs
o Existential Terror
 Fear of death
 Achieve permanence:
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