Lecture 8 Green spaces and health Flashcards
Biophilia Hypothesis
- Love (philos) for nature (bio)
- People feel an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life
- People connect to nature they will get happier and healthier
Research done by Jolanda Maas (lecturer)
Results: green space and morbidity
Green space had a positive effect on (some): cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, mental disorders, neurological complaints, respiratory complaints, digestive complaints, miscellaneous diseases.
Attention Restoration Theory (ART)
Two types of attention:
- Directed attention (effortful)
- Involuntary attention (not effortful)
Prolonged use of directed attention diminishes capacity to ward off distractions -> directed attention fatigue -> irritability, difficulty concentrating
Restorative settings in the Attention Restoration Theory (ART)
- Being away: setting is physically or conceptually different from one’s usual environment
- Extent: a setting sufficiently rich and coherent that it engages the mind and promotes exploration
- Fascination (soft & hard): content or mental processes that engage attention effortlessly & allow you to rest your mind
- Compatibility: good fit between your inclinations and the kinds of activities supported by the setting
Conclusion Attention Restoration Theory (ART) in context to vitamine G
- Each of the four components (being away, extent, etc) can be found in any type of environment
- Combination of all four most common in natural environments
- Therefore the research on restorative environments has focused on natural environments
Stress reduction theory (SRT) (Ulrich, 1983)
- Non-harmful and survival promoting natural elements evoke an initial positive affective response (e.g. preference, positive emotions, less anxiety)
- Blocks negative thoughts and mood and helps reduce physiological activation and henceforth stress
What does the stress reduction theory (SRT) suggest?
It suggests that particular characteristics of the environment have an early-warning function for safety and survival:
- A level ground surface
- Considerable spatial openness
- Presence of pattern or structure
- Curving sight-lines
- Presence of water
Perception of these characteristics triggers positive emotional reactions
What are the differences between ART and SRT
Stress reduction theory (SRT) Attention restoration theory (ART)
- Importance of affective processes * Focus on cognitive stressors
- Influence of more affectively charged stressors * Role of attentional depletion
- Affective & psychophysiological measures. * Cognitive measures (e.g. concentration . tasks)
Perceptual Fluency Account (Joye & Van den Berg, 2011)
Natural environments are processed more fluently than urban settings –> difference in restorative potential
- Fractals / self similar patterns are everywhere in nature -> easier to process visual brain more
- Explanation stress-reducing capacity of nature: Fluently organised stimulus are associated with greater safety or familiarity
- Explanation of attention-restoring potential of nature: fluent stimuli are lower on cognitive resource demands-> more place for replenishing attentional resources
What is positive about green space according to the Perceptual Fluency Account?
- Explanation stress-reducing capacity of nature: Fluently organised stimulus are associated with greater safety or familiarity
- Explanation of attention-restoring potential of nature: fluent stimuli are lower on cognitive resource demands-> more place for replenishing attentional resources
Conditioned Restorative Theory (Egner, Sutterlin & Calogiuri, 2020)
Before Conditioning:
- Leisure -> restorative experience (unconditioned stimulus)
- Natural environment -> No restorative experience (unconditioned response)
Restorative conditioning
* Leisure + natural environment -> restorative experience
Conditioned restoration
* Natural environment (conditioned stimulus) -> restorative experience (conditioned response)
Stimulus generalization
* associated environmental cues (generalised conditioned stimulus) -> restorative experience (conditioned response)
Note Eva: In leisure time you go out to a green environment, therefore you associate a green environment with relaxing
Enhanced Immune Functioning (Kuo, 2014)
Time in, around nature -> Active ingredients -> physiological, psychological states / behaviors, conditions / immune function -> Health outcomes
See slide 46
Old Friends Hypothesis (Rook, 2014)
Humans must be exposed to symbiotic microbes during childhood in order for adaptive immunity to properly develop
??
Phytoncides and NK (natural killer) cells (Li, 2009)
NK cells are lymphocytes that are part of the innate immune system
Use of nature in mental health care
Psychiatric ward design
Add stress reducing design features:
- Reduction of crowding stress (e.g. single patient rooms)
- Reduction of environmental stress (e.g. noise reduction)
- Stress reducing positive distractions (e.g. garden, nature window, nature art, daylight exposure)
- Design for observation (e.g. communal spaces)
Leads to:
- Reduced patient stress –> Reduced Aggression
- Improved staff outcomes
What is psychotherapy? What are three examples of psychotherapy?
Any psychological technique used to facilitate positive changes in personality, behavior, or adjustment
For example:
- Psychoanalysis: therapy based on Freud’s theory
- Client-centered therapy: based on humanism
- behavioral and cognitive therapies
What are down sides of psychotherapy?
- A lot of patients keep having complaints
- A lot of relapse
- Underlying mechanisms unclear
- Hard to improve psychotherapy
What is the definition of Nature Assisted Therapy (NAT)?
Intervention with the aim to treat, hasten recovery, and/ or rehabilitate patients with a disease or a condition of ill health, with the fundamental principle that the therapy involves plants, natural materials, and/or outdoor environment, without any therapeutic involvement of extra human mammals or other living creatures
First form of Nature Assisted Therapy (NAT) (1/2)
1st. Social and therapeutic horticulture:
* Horticultural therapy: use of plants by a trained professional as a medium through which certain clinically defined goals may be met
* therapeutic horticulture: process by which individuals may develop well-being by using plants and horticulture, This is achieved by passive or active involvement
2nd. (Natural environment therapies)
Second form of Nature Assisted Therapy (NAT) (2/2)
1st. (social and therapeutic horticulture)
2nd. Natural environment therapies
* Wilderness/ outdoor therapy
* Class of change-oriented, group-based experiential learning processes that occur in the context of a contractual, empowering and empathetic professional relationship
* Adventure therapy
* Shinrin Yoku (exposed to forest environment)
What are the downsides of Nature Assisted Therapy / eco therapy?
- Breaching confidentiality
- Insurance coverage issues
- Monetary reimbursement
- Lack of access to suitable natural settings
- Physical constraints (weather)
- Time consuming
- Unfamiliarity
- Incorporation in daily practice
- Change pf physical dynamics (face-to-face to side-by-side)
- Drop out rash cause by insect bite
- Refusing to cooperate
What are some ways to incorporate nature without going outside?
- Sensate focussing
- Projective techniques
- Natural objects as tools of association
- Use of metaphors
- Homework exercise: use your five senses
- Find a nature friend
What are pathways through which contact w/ nature relates to health
- Air quality
- physical activity
- Social cohesion
- Stress reduction
