Psychology and the Environment

Many of us who are interested in the environment are aware of the interconnectedness of us and nature. There is almost an indescribable feeling you get when surrounded by nature that is unlike a feeling you can get anywhere else. It is an intense feeling of peace and belonging. Trent University professor Elizabeth Nisbet has dedicated her life's research on why this is and how nature can affect our happiness and psychology. She has found some very interesting results when looking into our individual subjective feelings of connectedness with nature and our well- being, happiness, health and environmentally sustainable behaviour. Elizabeth refers to an individual's rating of connectedness with nature as their nature relatedness (NR). She has found significant results to say that those with higher ratings of NR are more likely to be more strongly concerned about the environment and take part in more environmentally sustainable behaviours. She has found many results that show that caring for the environment and having a higher NR rating is correlated to having better health. She suggests that efforts to help the environment should be paralleled with efforts to better human health because the two are so intricately related. In one study in 2011, Nisbet found that after determining individual NR levels using a scale test, higher NR scores were significantly related to better personal well- being. Those with higher NR levels were also able to translate messages from environmental education into actual activities and actions in real life better than those with lower scores. In 2014, Nisbet followed this study up by looking at how NR scores could predict happiness levels of individuals versus other scales of connectedness with things like friends, family etc. General levels of connectedness could predict happiness levels well but NR levels could be used as a significant factor when predicting happiness in individuals even when levels of general connectedness were controlled for. This suggests that time spent in nature is a huge contributor to the well being and happiness of individuals. In 2011, Nisbet was also able to find that people rated walks outside in a nature as much more enjoyable than walks inside. Despite this she found that subjects largely underestimated the benefits they could receive from being outside in nature. These findings suggest that on average people miss opportunities to increase their happiness and NR levels by not taking advantage of being outside in nature when they can be. Through all of this amazing research Elizabeth Nisbet urges us that the feeling of connectedness and peace we get from being outside is vitally important to us and our well being. The more we take advantage of being in nature the better off we as individuals will be as well as the planet itself.

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