|
|
The effect of photographs of primary and secondary forest environments on human mood and cognitive performance
Arnot, Tomáš ; Hůla, Martin (advisor) ; Grygarová, Dominika (referee)
We are currently witnessing a growing trend of people moving to larger cities. People are less in touch with nature than before and recent research shows that this is a problem. In this thesis, we summarise the findings of studies that have been carried out and proved the positive effect of the natural environment on human psychology and physiology. Our work focuses on the effect of mood and cognitive enhancement due to exposure to a stimulus. The research was conducted remotely through questionnaires. We exposed respondents (N=600) to photographs of four types of forest environments and examined the difference in scores using standardized methods of STROOP and POMS-SF tests. When formulating the design of our study, we drew inspiration from already conducted research. The original feature of our approach rested in distinguishing forest environments into deciduous and coniferous types, or primary and secondary types. We asked respondents how they liked the outdoor environment to which they had previously been exposed. This allowed us to determine whether the effect of the stimulus on mood and cognition was related to liking when evaluating the results. The findings of the thesis suggest that all types of forest environments have an effect on mood when compared to the city as a control stimulus....
|
|
|
Effect of relaxation creative activity on the level of perceived stress
Nekvasilová, Sára ; Lukavská, Kateřina (advisor) ; Pavelková, Isabella (referee)
The main goal of this thesis was to determine the effect of relaxing creative activity on reducing perceived levels of stress. Relaxing creative activities are simple forms of fine art and drawing method called Zentangle was used. This thesis is based on 2 main hypotheses: the first being that Zentangle method has the potential to favorably affect the human psyche and can reduce level of stress, the second being that the effect of this method will increase with higher levels of experineced flow. The theoretical part of this thesis is focused on clarifying fundamental concepts, important for the research. These concepts are stress, methods for decreasing stress and the concept of flow. In the empiric part of the thesis, the stated hypotheses were tested by a quantitative design. The research was carried out with 55 participants, divided into 3 groups - the first was practicing creative art activity, the second was used as an active-control group and was practicing hand yoga, and the last group represented passive-control group. Levels of stress and flow were measured by questionnaires. The influence of relaxing creative activity and hand yoga on reduction of perceived levels of stress was verified by statistical methods. The second hypothesis, stating that higher levels of flow will increase influence of...
|
|
|
The Basis of Environmental Psychology for Outdoor Education (The Influence of Nature on Mental and Social Well-Being)
VRBOVÁ, Zuzana
The work deals with theoretical research of basis of Environmental Psychology for Outdoor Education. It answers two questions ? why in the conceptions of Outdoor Education is nature the preferred environment and what are the benefits of nature for physical, mental and social health. The answers to theses questions are in the work described through theories of environmental preference and restorative effects of nature. There are three major sections of the work. The first part discusses the basis, principles and contents of Environmental Psychology and Outdoor Education, the core terminology of the work, and the nodal points of Environmental Psyhcology and the theory of Outdoor Education. Second part describes those theories and concepts of Environmental Psychology which are related to the primary and subsidiary research questions. The third part evaluates the impacts and relevance of environmental-psychological knowledge on concepts of Outdoor Education.
|
guest ::
