Kalevi Korpela

Restorative Experience and Self-Regulation in Favorite Places

The authors report further evidence bearing on the relations among restorative experiences, self-regulation, and place attachment. University students (n = 101) described their favorite places and experiences in them, and 98 other students described unpleasant places. Natural settings were overrepresented among favorite places and underrepresented among the unpleasant places. In open-ended accounts, frequent mention of being relaxed, being away from everyday life, forgetting worries, and reflecting on personal matters indicated a link between favorite places and restorative experience. Restoration was particularly typical of natural favorite places. Structured evaluations of being away, fascination, coherence, and compatibility indicated they were experienced to a high degree in the favorite places, although fascination to a lesser degree than compatibility. The favorite and unpleasant places differed substantially in all four restorative qualities but especially in being away and compatibility. Self-referencing appears to be more characteristic of favorite place experiences than engaging or interesting environmental properties.

Place-identity as a product of environmental self-regulation

Abstract In this study place-identity is defined as a product of active environmental self-regulation influenced by the functional principles of self as described in the models of Epstein (1983) , Sarbin (1983) , and Vuorinen, 1983 , Vuorinen, 1986a , Vuorinen, 1986b . It is argued that the physical environment is used as a means of maintaining the psychic balance of pain and pleasure, and the coherence of ones self and self-esteem. This interpretation is demonstrated empirically in a pilot study where 9-, 12- and 17-year-old children (N = 63) were asked to write about their favourite places. The thematic analysis of the descriptions shows that the pleasure and pain principle ( Epstein (1983) ) is concretely experienced in the form of freedom of expression and feelings of pleasure, familiarity, and belongingness in relation to the environment. The unity principle ( Epstein, 1983 ) is realized by being able to clear ones mind in the favourite place in order to ‘find oneself’ and to create coherence for ones self. The descriptions of control of a favourite place, its humanization, the fixing of memories in it, and naming it, seem to be the mechanisms connecting the physical environment to psychic self-regulation, so that ones self-esteem and sense of coherence can be regained when necessary.

A measure of restorative quality in environments

Restorative environments help renew psychological resources depleted in environments that do not fully support intended functions. The design of restorative environments can be aided and underlying theory elaborated with a means for measuring psychological factors thought to work in restorative experiences. This paper reports on four studies carried out to develop such a measure, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). Each study employed several strategies for assessing reliability and validity. Factor analysis was used to examine the stability of the measures factor structure across different sites and studies. To assess criterion, convergent, and discriminant validities, measures of emotional states and other environmental qualities were also completed for each site. The sites selected for evaluation differed on theoretically relevant dimensions (natural‐urban; outdoor‐indoor), enabling checks on the PRSs sensitivity to meaningful differences among environments. The results were consistent across ...

Adolescents' favourite places and environmental self-regulation

The objective of the study was to give credence to the argument that favourite places are used as a means of regulating unpleasant and pleasant feelings, the coherence of self-experience, and self-esteem. High school and vocational school students (n = 144), 17 and 18 years of age, wrote essays about their favourite place, describing the situational and/or emotional context for seeking out a favourite place and the experiences they had there. The essays that emphasized the importance of the place itself (n = 19) rather than social experiences or recreational facilities were included in the content analysis. Internal thoughts and feelings, external stimuli and social conflicts that threatened self-esteem and the coherence of self-experience were the reasons given for going to a favourite place. Since these rationales led to experiences emphasizing the avoidance of pain and threats to self, and to the effort to maintain self-esteem and produce coherence to ones self-experience, the interpretation of these experiences as environmental self-regulation is more warranted than previously. However, this observation is still based on retrospective self-reports alone. Positive and supportive experiences also preceded the visit to the favourite place. This suggests hypotheses for future studies; positive experiences may just be prolonged in a favourite place or they may create incoherence in selfexperience, thus necessitating introspection in a favourite place.

Contributions of Natural Environments to Physical Activity : Theory and Evidence Base

The link between modern lifestyles and increasing levels of chronic heart disease, obesity, stress and poor mental health is a concern across the world. The cost of dealing with these conditions pl ...

Evidence for Rapid Affective Evaluation of Environmental Scenes

The authors employed an affective priming paradigm to provide direct evidence for the rapid evaluation of natural and urban environments suggested in evolutionary models of environmental perception and restoration. Pictures classified as urban and nature environments differing in restorative and affective quality were presented as prime stimuli. They were followed by presentations of human vocal expressions of joy, anger, and emotional neutrality as target stimuli. The participants were required to judge the vocal one-word expressions and produce a forced-choice reaction between joy and anger. The reaction times to vocal expressions of anger were shorter after the presentation of urban scenes associated with low restorative potential and negative affect than after nature scenes associated with high restorative potential and positive affect. The reaction times to vocal expressions of joy were shorter after the presentation of a nature scene than of an urban environment. The results provide support for the rapid and automatic affective evaluations of environmental scenes.

How is leisure time interacting with nature related to the need for recovery from work demands? Testing multiple mediators.

The study compared the importance of spending time in interacting with nature to other leisure activities regarding recovery from work demands. In addition, a multiple mediation model between time spent in interacting with nature and need for recovery through four mediators was tested. Employees of five organizations answered a questionnaire (N = 527). Exercise and being outdoors during free-time was evaluated as the most effective activity for recovery from work stress, and the time spent in interacting with nature was mentioned as second in importance. Time spent in exercise and being outdoors, life satisfaction, and relaxation mediated significantly the relationship between time spent in interacting with nature and need for recovery from work.

Negative Mood and Adult Place Preference

The association between negative mood and place preferences was studied in an adult sample. The respondents described their experiences of favorite and unpleasant places and their mood in a questionnaire mailed to the residents of three housing areas in the metropolitan area. In comparison with low negative mood scorers, high negative mood scorers were significantly more often alone in their favorite places or only with passers-by. Adults with high negative mood were also more likely to choose natural favorite places than other places. No association between the level of negative mood and type of unpleasant place or reasons for disliking that place was found. Speculatively, people with high levels of negative emotion in comparison with other people may not recognize any different negative environmental features but are more tuned for recognizing the physical environment as an opportunity to improve mood through occasional retreat to favorite settings.

The relationship between perceived health and physical activity indoors, outdoors in built environments, and outdoors in nature.

Background: A body of evidence shows that both physical activity and exposure to nature are connected to improved general and mental health. Experimental studies have consistently found short term positive effects of physical activity in nature compared with built environments. This study explores whether these benefits are also evident in everyday life, perceived over repeated contact with nature. The topic is important from the perspectives of city planning, individual well-being, and public health. Methods: National survey data (n = 2,070) from Finland was analysed using structural regression analyses. Perceived general health, emotional well-being, and sleep quality were regressed on the weekly frequency of physical activity indoors, outdoors in built environments, and in nature. Socioeconomic factors and other plausible confounders were controlled for. Results: Emotional well-being showed the most consistent positive connection to physical activity in nature, whereas general health was positively associated with physical activity in both built and natural outdoor settings. Better sleep quality was weakly connected to frequent physical activity in nature, but the connection was outweighed by other factors. Conclusion: The results indicate that nature provides an added value to the known benefits of physical activity. Repeated exercise in nature is, in particular, connected to better emotional well-being.

Do Both Negative and Positive Environmental Scenes Elicit Rapid Affective Processing

A priming paradigm was used to investigate the automatic affective reaction triggered by perception of environmental scenes. Grayscale pictures of environmental scenes differing in the level of restorativeness and preference (low, medium, high) were presented as prime stimuli. The prime stimuli were followed by presentations of human facial expressions of happiness and anger as to-be-recognized target stimuli. The results showed that response times to angry faces were shorter after the presentation of negative scenes compared to positive. A reverse pattern of results was true for the response times to happy faces. As compared to the response times after baseline primers (scenes with medium restorativeness/preference), only negative scenes seemed to result in facilitation of responses to facial expressions of anger. No such facilitation was observed for expressions of happiness after positive environmental primers. The results provide preliminary support for the view that only negative environmental scenes elicit an automatic evaluative reaction.