Affective forecasting : predicting the influence of nature on well-being
department or school: Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Psychology, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Crawford, Maxine Rae
issued: 2021-01-04T16:53:52Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Although spending time in nature has demonstrated mental and physical health benefits, many individuals engage very little with their natural surroundings. Estimates suggest individuals in developed nations spend up to 90% of their time inside buildings. If individuals underestimate the positive emotions they will experience when exposed to natural environments, they may choose to not spend time in natural settings. This dissertation reports on three studies that explored whether individual’s inaccurate affective forecasts are a barrier to spending time in natural environments. The studies compared participants’ affective forecasting accuracy for outdoor natural and urban spaces. As well, the studies evaluated whether using different cognitive processing systems influenced participants’ affective forecasting error. Some researchers speculate that forecasting error occurs because individuals use one processing system to forecast (System 1) and a different system for a real-time assessment (System 2). Study 1 compared affective forecasting error for virtual natural and urban settings. Participants used System 1 for their forecast and System 2 for their real-time assessment. Study 2 used retrospective assessments of time spent in natural and urban outdoor settings. Participants used System 2 for both assessments because their assessments were retrospective. Study 3 assessed affective forecasting error for outdoor walks in natural and urban settings. This study used a cognitive load manipulation on half the participants to overload their System 2 processing system. This meant that half the participants used System 1 and System 2, and half the participants used only System 1. Results from the three studies did not conclusively demonstrate that individuals underestimate the positive emotional effects of nature exposure and overestimate the positive emotional effects of urban exposure. Overall, the findings indicate that exposure to natural spaces increases positive affect…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76924
note: AFFECTIVE FORECASTING: PREDICTING THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE ON WELL-BEING by Maxine Rae Crawford B.A., (Honours), Thompson Rivers University, 2010 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2012 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In The College of Graduate Studies (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) December 2020 © Maxine Rae Crawford, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Affective Forecasting: Predicting the Influence of Nature on Well-Being submitted by Maxine Rae Crawford in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Examining Committee: Dr. Derrick Wirtz, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisor Dr. Brian O’Connor, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Paul G. Davies, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, Okanagan School of Education University Examiner Dr. John M. Zelenski, Carleton University External Examiner iii Abstract Although spending time in nature has demonstrated mental and physical health benefits, many individuals engage very little with their natural surroundings. Estimates suggest individuals in developed nations spend up to 90% of their time inside buildings. If individuals underestimate the positive emotions they will experience when exposed to natural environments, they may choose to not spend time in natural settings. This dissertation reports on three studies that explored whether individual’s inaccurate affective forecasts are a barrier to spending time in natural environments. The studies compared participants’ affective forecasting accuracy for outdoor natural and urban spaces. As well, the studies evaluated whether using different cognitive processing s…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-02
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395435
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76924