Intro to NBT Literature Matrix

Article Title: The connectedness to nature scale: A measure of

individuals
feeling in community with nature
Authors: F.Stephan Mayer, Cynthia McPherson Frantz, cited 675
times
Department of Psychology, Oberlin College
Date: June 2004
Citation: Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The connectedness
to nature scale: A measure of individuals feeling in community
with nature. Journal of environmental psychology, 24(4), 503-515.
Content: Looked at five studies investigating the connectedness
to nature scale (CNS).
Objectivity: No obvious conflicts of interest.
Manner Research Conducted: People were polled at 5 different
colleges at different parts of the year.
Manner of Presentation:

Strengths: Good detail on the data collected, motivation for study

clearly preented.
Weakness:Only 5 sampling locations is a bit small for the
conclusions presented.
Conclusions: It seems moderately reasonable that CNS is a
prictor of well-being and ecological behavior. There appears to be
potential for its use as an empirical tool.

Article Title: Happiness is in our nature: Exploring nature

relatedness as a contributor to subjective well-being
Authors: Elizabeth Nisbet(Dept of psychology, carleton
University), John Zelenski, Steven Murphy(Sprott School of
Business, Carleton University) 132 citations
Date: 28 March 2010
Citation: Nisbet, E. K., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2011).
Happiness is in our nature: Exploring nature relatedness as a
contributor to subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies,
12(2), 303-322.

Content: Looked at three different studies, In study 1 and 2,

investigated relationship of Nature-relatedness (NR) with
personal well-being. In study 3, looked at the influence of
environmental education on NR and general wellness.
Objectivity: No apparent conflicts of interest.
Manner Research Conducted: Used multiple regression analyses
measuring NR and well-being.
Manner of Presentation:
Strengths: Using the same experiement on students and working
populations makes the conclusions stronger, useful diagrams
were inluded.
Weaknesses: Lack of random sampling used for selecting the
students.
Conclusions: Nature relatedness does indeed see to be a good
predictor of well-being, at least among students and working
people. Id be interested to see if these results hold true with
very young children and the elderly, though.

Article Title: ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDE AS A MEDIATOR OF THE

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESTORATION IN
NATURE AND SELF-REPORTED ECOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR1
Authors: KATARZYNA BYRKA
Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw
Faculty, Eindhoven University of Technology, TERRY HARTIG,
Uppsala University, FLORIAN G. KAISER, Otto-von-Guericke
University
Date: December 2010
Citation: Byrka, K., Hartig, T., & Kaiser, F. G. (2010).
ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDE AS A MEDIATOR OF THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESTORATION IN
NATURE AND SELF-REPORTED ECOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR 1, 2.
Psychological Reports, 107(3), 847-859.
Content: German university students were surveryed to
investigate the effect of environmental attitude on the
restoration-behavior relationship.
Objectivity: No apparent conflicts of interest.

Manner Research Conducted: 468 German students were

surveyed using the New Ecological Paradigm (ECP) scale.
Hierarchical regression analysis was then used on the results.
Manner of Presentation:
Strengths: Large sample size, did a good job controlling for bias.
Weaknesses: Would have benefited greatly from a few more
graphs. Only looking at univesity students makes the study harder
to generalize to the genreal public.
Conclusions: There does seem to be some evidence that positive
experiences in nature ca nhave far reaching effectson on
envronmental attitudes, though clearly much more reesearch is
needed in this regard.

Biophilia Literature Matrix

Article Title: THE BIOPHILIA HYPOTHESIS
AND LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY: INCREASING MENTAL
HEALTH OR INCREASING PATHOLOGY?

Authors: ELEONORA GULLONE (Monash University

Department of Psychology)
Date: 15 June 2000
Citation: Gullone, E. (2000). The biophilia hypothesis and life in
the 21st century: Increasing mental health or increasing
pathology?. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1(3), 293-322.
Content: Investigates the biophilia hypothesis, and how this may
mean negative consequences in our cities that are devoid of
nature.
Objectivity: No conflict of interest apparent.
Manner Research Conducted: A comprehensive review of currently
existing literature.
Manner of Presentation:
Strengths: Significant number of studies cited, logical progression
of ideas.
Weaknesses: A fair amount of extraneous information which
doesnt directly relate to the authors main contention.

Conclusions: There is tentative evidence suggesting that lack of

nature in our lives is leading to psychological stress, though more
research is needed to determine if ths is truly a causal
relationship, and to what extent the effects are felt.

Article Title: Biophilia: Does Visual Contact with Nature Impact on

Health
and Well-Being?
Authors: Bjrn Grinde 1(Norwegian Institute of Public Health),
Grete Grindal Patil(Department of Plant and Environmental
Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)
Date: 31 August 2009
Citation: Grinde, B., & Patil, G. G. (2009). Biophilia: does visual
contact with nature impact on health and well-being?.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,
6(9), 2332-2343.
Content: This article investigated if negative effects occur from
lack of visible natural stimuli in the environment, such as plants.

Objectivity: Funding of study not clear, though no conflict of

interest seems likely.
Manner Research Conducted: They reviewed currently existing
litereature, most notably empirical studies in both indoor and
outdoor environments.
Manner of Presentation:
Strengths: Considerably bakground history of the topic was
provided, before moving into a review of the existing literature.
The background helps motivate the discussion nicely.
Weaknesses: Authors extrapolate conclusions a bit too far givent
the tentative nature of their cited studies.
Conclusions: It seems that humans do indeed suffer some
negative psychological effects in the absence of nature. However
I dont think the authors made a convincing enough case to
warrant their suggestion that resources be spent in bringing
nature into cities.

Article Title: Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning

through Immersion in Natural Settings

Authors: Ruth Ann Atchley (Department of Psychology, University
of Kansas), David L. Strayer (Department of Psychology,
University of Utah), Paul Atchley (Department of Psychology,
University of Kansas)
Date: December 12, 2012
Citation: Atchley, R. A., Strayer, D. L., & Atchley, P. (2012).
Creativity in the wild: Improving creative reasoning through
immersion in natural settings.
Content: Investigated the effects of Attention Restoration Theory
(ART), which uses natural stimuli, in improving creative problem
solving.
Objectivity: Funding not clear, though no apparent conflicts of
interest seem likely.
Manner Research Conducted: The authors conducted a study on
hikers in the wilderness. Hikers were segmented into pre-hile and
post-hike groups, and compared.
Manner of Presentation:

Strengths: Potential confounding variables were controlled for,

authors do not extrapolate conclusions too far.
Weaknesses: The sample sizes were quite small. Additionally, no
visual aids were presented in the article.
Conclusions: Being in nature does seem to aid creativity, but the
mechanism by which this happens is not understood. The authors
wisely mention this important distinction. As a preliminary finding
though, the results seem promising.