The Effects Of Natural Scenes Versus Built Scenes On Positive And Negative Affect

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

In Thomas Cole’s Essay on American Scenery, the reader is able to appreciate Cole’s predilection and love for the American scenery. It is his belief this scenery is superior to the European scenery, since the latter’s “primitive features of scenery have long since been destroyed or modified … to accommodate the tastes and necessities of a dense population.” However, Cole presents his audience with a gloomy prophecy about America’s future, which he believes will be the same as Europe’s. Still, while acknowledging that industrialization could eventually take over many natural regions, Cole is hopeful that nature will remain victorious, since it will still be predominant. Because of this, he advises the American people to take advantage of

Nature in its tranquility provides a calming sensation away from the buzzing city life. The ability

‘The sheer popularity’ of stimulating nature or using nature as ad space ‘demands that we acknowledge, even respect, their cultural importance,’ suggests Richtel. Culturally important, yes. But the logical extension of synthetic nature is the irrelevance of ‘true’ nature— the certainty that it’s not even worth looking at. (Louv lines 9-19)

“The most practical and the most feasible solution offered, and the one on which this paper will center, involves the schoolyard. The schoolyard habitat movement, which promotes the “greening” of school grounds, is quickly gaining international recognition and legitimacy.” This quote touches on the fact that currently our schools need to “greened” meaning nature needs to be implemented not on the sidelines of fields but rather right in the center for kids to explore. There are many studied showing how children’s connection with nature at a young age helps them have a strong connection with nature along with having better health and lesser chances of depression. There are many organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, Council for Environmental Education, American Forest Foundation, Britain-based Learning through Landscapes, Canadian-based Evergreen, and Swedish-based Skolans Uterum, that have all expresses interest in helping out with this cause. A theory that is very interesting that relates to this issue is a theory by Edward Wilson from Harvard. He had a theory that he named biophilia. Basically what this theory was about was that all people are simply drawn to nature by their very instinct. This quote has a lot of truth to it. Almost all

Throughout generations people believed that having positive visualizations can make situations better, but when you are in a situation that gives you a negative outcome you become devastated. In the essay “The Benefits of “Negative Visualization”’ Oliver Burkeman discussed how negative visualization is more likely to make people happier than positive visualization. Burkeman supported that negative visualization makes an individual happier rather than positive visualization; he supported this claim by describing how spending time and focusing how well things would go reduces one’s motivation to achieve their goal, having tranquility would give individuals the opportunity to focus on negative emotions, positive thinkers are less prepared and more acutely distressed, “negative visualization” causes less stress, and being prepared for the to the worse-case scenario helps establish what to expect. When using negative visualization, it would be beneficial to use it to prepare oneself for the worse-case scenarios and to reduce both fear and anxiety. In regards to Burkeman’s position, I can relate to the information he is presenting and apply it to my personal life. Therefore, I can strongly agree with his point of view that negative visualization is more likely to make an individual happier than positive visualization.

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

The people nowadays also abuse on what nature can provide to them. People are influenced by the western Culture, Man is more powerful and can have dominion over nature and that nature as they see become merely an instrument to satisfy human needs and wants. This kind of thinking or we can say attitude towards nature is called the “Anthropocentric Attitude”. Man reduce the value of nature as it is and it’s important because nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man and that the value of non-human things in nature is merely instrumental. An opposite thinking would be the Eastern Culture, for they value nature very well and they treat nature being one with them. This thinking or attitude is known as “Ecocentric

Overall, results indicate that the manipulation of the color of questionnaire had no effect on mood. However, there was an effect of time of day on mood as well as an effect of gender on mood. The results did not support the main hypothesis that different colors would elicit different moods. Thus, this study found no support for the prediction that brighter colors would elicit positive moods, whereas less bright colors would elicit negative moods. These results do not support past research findings that brighter colors tend to elicit positive moods, whereas, dark colors elicit negative moods (Hemphill, 1996; Kaya & Epps, 2004). Moreover, this result was not expected given the previously discussed research by Weller and Livingston (1988)

In life we are all confronted with the idea of nature along with society. Although both have their pros and cons they work together to give us freedom and order among individuals.

2. Recently very fashionable an ecology constructions have certainly the influence on the physical and emotional well-being

In the narrative, A Literature of Place, Barry Lopez discusses the topic of your relationship with nature. He digests the importance of how we bond with nature. Lopez explains that if you become intimate with a place in nature and establish a connection with it then nature with respect you. Your imagination is shaped at an early age which contributes to your personality. So, geography and what surrounds you is what shapes you into the person that you are.

People from different cultures and times have always used traditional knowledge of flowers to promote health and happiness. Humans have an inborn affinity with nature that goes beyond the tangible benefits we derive from plants and animals. The idea that nature is good for our well-being is old and well understood. This idea is called biophilia by psychologists Erich Fromm and was studied by Edward O.Wilson and Stephen Kellert. Wilson and Kellert published .The Biophilia Hypothesis in 1995. Their hypothesis being that humans have a universal desire to be in natural settings. The notion of a love of nature, biophilia, makes sense as throughout history is has aided our survival. In 1985 a study was done using photographs of snakes as possible

In American Literature many authors write about nature and how nature affects man's lives. In life, nature is an important part of people. Many people live, work, or partake in revelry in nature. Nature has received attention from authors spanning several centuries. Their attitudes vary over time and also reflect the different outlooks of the authors who chose to discuss this important historical movement. A further examination of this movement, reveals prevalence of nature's influence on man and how it affects their lives.

The spiritual realm aside there were more pragmatic reasons to turn to landscape. The natural world offers countless choices of creative elements; rocks, water, trees and the sky are some of them. These are universal images containing infinite varieties of possibilities for mixing and reinterpreting while serving as a springboard for the imagination. Choosing to explore the elements of the landscape presented challenging and engaging opportunities to create and explore abstract relationships of color and form.