The Influence of Viewing Photos of Different Types of Rural Landscapes on Stress in Beijing

Abstract

The environment can affect people’s health by relieving stress, and rural landscape as a special environment might influence human’s stress relief. This study takes different types of rural landscapes as the research object to explore their impact on stress levels, which are shown by photos. As an independent variable, the rural landscape is divided into three levels: Type 1 (natural landscape), type 2 (productive landscape), and type 3 (artificial landscape). Seventy-three subjects were randomly assigned to each type of rural landscape. Salivary cortisol, blood pressure, heart rate, and a subjective rating state scale (brief profile of mood states, BPOMS) were used as indicators of stress. At the same time, the influence of preference and familiarity on the stress relieving effect was also discussed. A paired t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used as the main statistical methods. In the results of t-test for pre-posttest, significant difference was observed in high blood pressure, heart rate, and total mood disturbance (TMD) of type 1 and type 2, and the high and low blood pressure of type 3; ANOVA analysis revealed that for the difference of pre-posttest, significant difference was observed in the TMD value among the three types; except for type 3, blood pressure, heart rate, and BPOMS values were significantly affected by preference and familiarity. The conclusions include the following: The three types of rural landscapes have a positive effect on relieving stress; the productive landscape has the best effect on relieving stress; and users’ landscape preferences and familiarity with the environment can affect the effect of stress relief in rural landscapes.

The Influence of Virtual Forest Walk on Physiological and Psychological Responses

“…This variation could have been due to a variety of natural factors in the VR of the two environments. This result is compatible with our physiological results and those of several studies related to the effects of forest environments on, e.g., stress relief, emotional situation adaptation, the positive association between health parameters and natural environments, and the positive impact of the forest on the activity of the nervous system (such as autonomic activity) [33,40,41,43,44]. Generally, walking is connected with therapeutic effects, and most people consider it a beneficial activity [45].…”

“…The results showed that a realistic environment could substantially positively impact sympathetic activity, resulting in a quicker recovery from stressful situations. These findings were generally consistent with past research that discussed physiological response when exposed to forest environments [24] and the positive effect of rural landscapes on stress [40]. However, the reported high significance in the realistic environment might have been more related to the greenery of scenes compared to the dreamlike environment, which was consistent with previous research findings on the use of green environments to mitigate stress [40,41].…”

“…These findings were generally consistent with past research that discussed physiological response when exposed to forest environments [24] and the positive effect of rural landscapes on stress [40]. However, the reported high significance in the realistic environment might have been more related to the greenery of scenes compared to the dreamlike environment, which was consistent with previous research findings on the use of green environments to mitigate stress [40,41]. This potential of VR has been validated by other studies that have reported its capability to reduce pain, fear, and anxiety associated with needle-related procedures [42] and others that have revealed its positive impact on psychiatric disorders [23].…”

Effect of a Virtual Reality-Based Restorative Environment on the Emotional and Cognitive Recovery of Individuals with Mild-to-Moderate Anxiety and Depression

“…First of all, considering the integration of psychological and VR technology, the attention, focus, and cognitive preference in the psychosocial response due to specific anxiety and depression moods have not yet been fully grasped. We failed to discuss the possible effects of attention [130], environmental preference [131], familiarity with the environment, and different types of recreation environments [132] on recovery outcomes.…”

A Short Communication on Indoor-Based Therapies to Reduce Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Six different environments (using virtual reality) were assigned to 120 participants randomly, and it was found that natural sceneries had restorative effects on fatigue and negative mood. A study done by Wang et al [25] discovered that water landscapes had a higher positive impact on the stress levels of subjects, compared to other natural environments. In contrast, Tsutsumi et al [26] found that participants were more relaxed after watching forest videos compared to sea videos.…”