Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-8-2020
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Laura Johnson
Second Advisor
Stefan Schulenberg
Third Advisor
Todd Smitherman
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Fostering healthy relationships between humans and the environment is beneficial for people and for the natural world around us. Efforts to foster these relationships are more important now than ever before due to the rapid deterioration of the climate and the growing divide between people and nature. There is abundant research documenting the positive physical, psychological, and social effects of time spent in nature, such as positive mood, life satisfaction, connection to nature, pro-environmental behavior, and feelings of transcendence. However, actual experiences in nature may be inconvenient, inaccessible, or otherwise unavailable. Addressing this concern, researchers are now examining the possible outcomes of experiencing nature by proxy. One approach is through reflecting on and writing about significant life experiences in nature. This study of university students (N = 42) was designed to further investigate human-nature relationships, wellbeing, and sustainable behavior. In particular, it was hypothesized that writing about a positive childhood memory in nature would be associated with higher mood, nature connectedness, life satisfaction, and pro-environmental behavior. Mood outcomes were examined pre- to post intervention using a paired samples t-test followed by a one-way ANOVA. Nature connectedness, life satisfaction, and pro-environmental behavior were examined using a one-way ANOVA. The transcripts from the writing intervention were coded in a qualitative analysis to assess overall themes with particular interest in transcendent values. Results showed that mood was significantly increased from pre- to post intervention, but there was no significant difference between groups. In the test of group differences, the nature writing intervention had a significant effect only on aspects of pro-environmental behavior. In conclusion, this study confirms that autobiographical memory writing can boost mood and that nature writing is associated with environmental behavior intention and transcendence.
Recommended Citation
Turner, Grace, "The Roots of Wellbeing: Positive Effects of Nature Writing" (2020). Honors Theses. 1464.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1464
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