Nature and Psychology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Anne R. Schutte, Julia C. Torquati, Jeffrey R. Stevens

   Pages 1-6

3. Nature and Attention

   • William C. Sullivan, Dongying Li

   Pages 7-30

4. The Natural-Built Distinction in Environmental Preference and Restoration: Bottom-Up and Top-Down Explanations

   • Agnes E. van den Berg

   Pages 31-60

5. An Environmental Neuroscience Perspective on the Benefits of Nature

   • Marc G. Berman, Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez, Kimberly Lewis Meidenbauer

   Pages 61-88

6. Restoration in Nature: Beyond the Conventional Narrative

   • Terry Hartig

   Pages 89-151Open Access

7. Knowing Nature in Childhood: Learning and Well-Being Through Engagement with the Natural World

   • Louise Chawla

   Pages 153-193

8. The Natural Environment as a Resilience Factor: Nature’s Role as a Buffer of the Effects of Risk and Adversity

   • Nancy M. Wells

   Pages 195-233

9. Perceiving “Natural” Environments: An Ecological Perspective with Reflections on the Chapters

   • Harry Heft

   Pages 235-273

10. Back Matter

    Pages 275-283

    PDF

This volume is comprised of contributions to the 67th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, which brought together various research disciplines such as psychology, education, health sciences, natural resources, environmental studies to investigate the ways in which nature influences cognition, health, human behavior, and well-being. The symposium is positioned to explore two proposed mechanisms in the most depth: 1) the psycho-evolutionary theory of stress recovery and 2) Attention Restoration Theory. The contributions in the volume represent research guided by both of these posited mechanisms, rigorously examine these theories and processes, and share methodological innovations that can be utilized across programs of research. This volume will be of great interest to researchers on natural environments, practitioners and clinicians working with an environmental lens at the intersection of psychology, social work, education and the health sciences, as well as researchers and students in environmental and conservation psychology.











Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

• Positive effects of nature on health and well-being
• Natural environments and education and health sciences
• Effects of nature on cognition
• Psycho-evolutionary theory of stress recovery
• Attention restoration theory
• Influence of human-animal interaction on well-being

• Center for Brain, Biology & Behavior and Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

  Anne R. Schutte, Jeffrey R. Stevens

• Department of Child, Youth & Family Studies and Buffett Early Childhood Institute, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

  Julia C. Torquati

Anne R. Schutte received her Ph. D. from the University of Iowa and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Department of Psychology and is a resident faculty in the Center for Brain, Biology & Behavior. Her research interests are in the area of cognitive development, with a particular focus on the envrionmental factors, such as natural environments, that influence cognition.

Julia Torquati is a Professor in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Buffett Early Childhood Institute Community Chair in Infant Mental Health. She conducts research on the role of teachers’ attachment security and reflective function on the quality of teacher-child relationships, and the influence of natural environments on children’s development.

Jeffrey R. Stevens is an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Department of Psychology, having received his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. In addition to being a faculty member in the Department of Psychology, he is also a resident faculty member of the Center for Brain, Biology & Behavior. Dr. Stevens' research integrates cognitive and evolutionary perspectives to study decision making in humans and other animals. 

Policies and ethics