The psychological wellbeing benefits of place engagement during walking in urban environments: A qualitative photo-elicitation study

Abstract

The psychological wellbeing potential of walking in urban environments has received limited attention from scholars, despite the important public health implications of identifying characteristics of urban settings that support wellbeing and encourage behaviour change. The study is the first to explore psychological wellbeing experiences of urban walking framed by theories of restorative environments and therapeutic landscape. Self-reported psychological wellbeing experiences of walking in urban settings were investigated with an innovative application of the photo-elicited interview. Fourteen adults took individual walks in Bristol city centre and photographed their journey; photographs were then discussed during the interview. Participants reported specific engagements with place related to personal connections, the identity of place, and sense of community that resulted in psychological wellbeing benefits. The findings also support the notion that non-natural elements can promote positive affective and cognitive appraisals. Building on the finding that also urban walking can support psychological wellbeing, the findings encourage future research into the health potential of different characteristics of built environments.

Everyday Use of the City Cemetery: A Study of Environmental Qualities and Perceived Restorativeness in a Scottish Context

“…One interviewee walking through the cemetery everyday witnessed a woman laying flowers for her deceased child over a very long time. This experience made her reflect deeply and established a person-place bond, enriching her identity of place as well as perception of restorativeness [45,46]. Flowers and other graveside adornments can provide visual enjoyment, but also imply deeper meanings that encourage reflection, potentially heightening the sense of compatibility.…”

Can Exposure to Certain Urban Green Spaces Trigger Frontal Alpha Asymmetry in the Brain?—Preliminary Findings from a Passive Task EEG Study

“…Interestingly, previous within-subjects study on the brain response to contemplative landscape videos, conducted indoors, did not find FAA differences between contemplative and non-contemplative landscape exposure [44]. As for the previous experiments conducted outdoors, they did not examine the FAA patterns, but demonstrated that green urban spaces (often described as nature) triggered improved mood, emotional regulation, recovery from stress and mental fatigue as compared to exposure to space often defined as urban [45][46][47]. In our study we did not observe improved mood (as measured with POMS) between before and after the exposures in both green urban sites.…”

Evaluating the Relationship between Park Features and Ecotherapeutic Environment: A Comparative Study of Two Parks in Istanbul, Beylikdüzü

“…Ecotherapeutic activities are examined within two categories: working in nature and experiencing nature. Working in nature includes various athletic activities defined as the green and blue gym [23][24][25][26][27][28][29], the most significant of which is walking [23][24][25][26][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Apart from athletics, this group comprises activities such as meditation/therapy [23,25,28,33,34,36,37], art [28,38,39], and production in/with nature (frequently gardening and horticulture) [36,38].…”

“…increase therapy service [26,29,31,41,45,53]. Lastly, ecotherapeutic areas create sensations helpful in obtaining therapy services such as peacefulness [41,58], quiet [26], solitude, distance [55], aesthetic pleasure [26], beauty [26,41], and fascination [35]. In order to obtain ecotherapy services as they are defined, people require the presence of sensations that oppose those endemic to dense urban areas such as overcrowding, noise pollution, etc.…”