| 1. |
- Bringslimark, Tina, et al.
(författare)
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The psychological benefits of indoor plants : A critical review of the experimental literature
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - London : Academic Press. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 29:4, s. 422-433
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- People have been bringing plants into residential and other indoor settings for centuries, but little is known about their psychological effects. In the present article, we critically review the experimental literature on the psychological benefits of indoor plants. We focus on benefits gained through passive interactions with indoor plants rather than on the effects of guided interactions with plants in horticultural therapy or the indirect effect of indoor plants as air purifiers or humidifiers. The reviewed experiments addressed a variety of outcomes, including emotional states, pain perception, creativity, task-performance, and indices of autonomic arousal. Some findings recur, such as enhanced pain management with plants present, but in general the results appear to be quite mixed. Sources of this heterogeneity include diversity in experimental manipulations, settings, samples, exposure durations, and measures. After addressing some overarching theoretical issues, we close with recommendations for further research with regard to experimental design, measurement, analysis, and reporting.
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| 2. |
- Ceccato, Vania
(författare)
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Homicide in Sao Paulo, Brazil : Assessing spatial-temporal and weather variations
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 25:3, s. 307-321
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although Sao Paulo is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, very little is known about the variations of levels of crime in this Brazilian city over time. This article begins by investigating whether or not homicides are seasonal in Sao Paulo. Then, hypotheses based on the principles of routine activities theory are tested to evaluate the influence of weather and temporal variations on violent behaviour expressed as cases of homicides. Finally, the geography of space-time clusters of high homicide areas are assessed using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Kulldorff's scan test. The findings suggest that central and peripheral deprived areas show the highest number of killings over the year. Moreover, homicides take place when most people have time off: particularly during vacations (hot months of the year), evenings and weekends. Overall, the results show that temporal variables are far more powerful for explaining levels of homicide than weather covariates for the Brazilian case-a finding that lends weight to the suggested hypotheses derived from routine activity theory.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Hartig, Terry, et al.
(författare)
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Cold summer weather, constrained restoration, and the use of antidepressants in Sweden
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - London : Academic Press. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 27:2, s. 107-116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Constraint of restorative activities prolongs chronic stress and may exacerbate depressive symptoms. Treating unseasonable weather as an ecological constraint on restorative activities in outdoor settings, we investigated the relationship between cold summer temperatures and the dispensation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in Sweden. We obtained nationally aggregated data on defined daily doses of SSRIs dispensed monthly from 1991 through 1998. We analyzed the data using autoregressive, integrated, moving average time-series modeling methods. Dispensation of SSRIs correlated negatively with monthly mean temperature for July, the peak vacation period. The association held for both men and women, net of trends, seasonality, and other statistical controls. The constrained restoration hypothesis augments response style, restricted activity and seasonality explanations for depression. The study provides a novel perspective on green spaces and other outdoor settings as mental health resources.
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| 5. |
- Hartig, Terry, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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The need for psychological restoration as a determinant of environmental preferences
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 26:3, s. 215-226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental preferences vary with the environments evaluated and the people who evaluated them. When research has considered the explanatory power of person variables, it has focused on traits or demographic characteristics. Little research has considered how environmental preferences vary with regularly occurring psychological states, such as attentional fatigue. In this experiment, we investigated the need for psychological restoration as a within-individual determinant of the common preference differential between natural and urban environments. We treated preference as an attitude, constituted of beliefs about the likelihood of restoration during a walk in a given environment and the evaluation of restoration given different restoration needs. College students (N = 103) completed the procedure just before a morning lecture (less fatigue condition) or immediately after an afternoon lecture, which itself followed the passage of time and other activities over the day (more fatigue condition). In both fatigue conditions, participants reported more favorable attitudes toward a walk in a forest than a walk in a city center, but this difference was larger with the more fatigued. This result apparently owes to the more fatigued participants' more positive evaluation of attentional recovery, and a greater judged likelihood of restoration when walking in the forest.
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| 6. |
- Johansson, Maria
(författare)
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Environment and parental factors as determinants of mode for children's leisure travel
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1522-9610 .- 0272-4944. ; 26:2, s. 156-169
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study was aimed at increasing our understanding of environmental and parental factors influencing mode choice for children's journeys to organized leisure activities. Three hundred and fifty-seven Swedish parents of 8-11-year-old children completed a questionnaire and kept a travel diary. The design of urban environment, in which the families lived, was assessed by a group of five experts. By means of multiple regression analyses it was found that the parents' attitude towards chauffeuring was related to environmental factors such as traffic environment, quality of footpaths and cycle paths, and sense of community as well as the number of cars in the household. The attitude towards independent travel was related to characteristics of the child, such as age and maturity, and individual parental factors, such as trust and the need to protect their child, and whether there were older children in the household. Both the relative frequency of journeys made independently and by car was related to the parent's attitude towards independent travel, as well as environmental and parental factors. To decrease car usage and increase children's independent travel to leisure activities, planners and policy-makers should focus on improvements in the traffic environment and promote a favourable attitude towards independent travel. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Ljungberg, Jessica K., 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Stress, subjective experience and cognitive performance during exposure to noise an vibration
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 27:1, s. 44-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates the effects of noise and whole-body vibration on saliva cortisol levels and subjectively rated difficulty and stress while performing cognitive tasks. In the first experiment, 24 men completed a logical reasoning task and a short-term memory task while, on separate occasions, being exposed to noise, vibration, combined stimuli, and control conditions. The environmental stimuli were designed to simulate the exposure from a forestry vehicle. The main finding was that participants made significantly higher ratings of stress when the noise stimulus was present, either alone or in combination with vibration. There were, however, some indications that noise sensitivity might moderate both subjective and objective measures such as higher ratings of stress and elevated cortisol levels in high noise sensitive participants. A second experiment was conducted where noise sensitivity was used as an inclusion criterion. A low sensitive and a high sensitive group were created, each containing 16 participants. The results of the second experiment, found only marginal effects of noise sensitivity and no effects at all on performance or cortisol. Increased ratings of stress and difficulty were found whenever either environmental stressor was present, whether by itself or in combination. The same result was seen even when pooling the data from both experiments. The main conclusion of the study is that relatively short exposures to noise and vibration typical of those levels that are found in industrial vehicles do not significantly affect performance in cognitive tasks nor saliva cortisol levels even if work in these environments can be experienced as more difficult or stressful.
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| 9. |
- Oswald, Frank, et al.
(författare)
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Homeward bound: Introducing a four-domain model of perceived housing in very old age
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1522-9610 .- 0272-4944. ; 26:3, s. 187-201, s. 168-168
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this article is to introduce an integrative and more comprehensive approach to understanding and measuring perceived housing in old age. First, four conceptual domains of subjective housing were introduced, based on the assumption that each of the domains brings a unique perspective to the understanding of perceived housing: housing satisfaction, usability in the home, meaning of home and housing-related control beliefs. Second, relationships between the proposed domains were empirically examined using correlative analysis, factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques. Cross-cultural similarities and differences in the observed empirical relations were then analysed across three Western European countries. Data were drawn from a sub-sample of the participants in the European ENABLE-AGE Project amounting to 1223 old adults aged 80-89 years and living alone in their private homes in Swedish, British, and German urban regions. The ENABLE-AGE data set has the advantage of containing measures related to all four domains of perceived housing which are the focus of this paper. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis as well as of the SEM give empirical support for the usefulness of the theoretically proposed four component model of perceived housing. Furthermore, multi-group analysis supports the assumption of similarity of perceived housing among older people living in the different countries. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 10. |
- Pedersen, Eja, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of visual factors on noise annoyance among people living in the vicinity of wind turbines
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - London : Academic Press. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 28:4, s. 379-389
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wind turbines are highly visible objects and the response to wind turbine noise is possibly influenced by visual factors. In this study, visibility of the noise source, visual attitude and vertical visual angle (VVA) in different landscapes were explored. Data from two cross-sectional field studies carried out among people living near wind turbines (n=1095) were used for structural equation modelling. A proposed model of the influence of visual attitude on noise annoyance, also comprising the influence of noise level and general attitude, was tested among respondents who could see vs. respondents who could not see wind turbines from their homes, living in flat vs. hilly/rocky terrain, and living in built-up vs. rural areas. Visual attitude towards the noise source was associated with noise annoyance to different degrees in different situations. A negative visual attitude, more than multi-modal effects between auditory and visual stimulation, enhanced the risk for noise annoyance and possibly also prevented psychophysiological restoration possibilities. Aesthetic evaluations of the noise source should be taken into account when exploring response to environmental noise.
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