SUPER GREEN - the International Academy of Design and Health

Environmental psychologyIV art IV plants IV seating IV tidinessMean of combinedwelcome/comfort ratingMean rating of how busydentist wasArt Plants Open Messy 3.73 6.06Art Plants Open Tidy 4.88 4.35Art Plants Closed Messy 3.82 5.99Art Plants Closed Tidy 5.50 4.27Art No Plants Open Messy 4.26 5.81Art No Plants Open Tidy 4.78 4.09Art No Plants Closed Messy 4.10 5.85Art No Plants Closed Tidy 4.41 3.81No Art Plants Open Messy 4.28 5.92No Art Plants Open Tidy 5.97 4.31No Art Plants Closed Messy 3.34 6.33No Art Plants Closed Tidy 5.37 4.08No Art No Plants Open Messy 2.30 6.14No Art No Plants Open Tidy 4.07 3.88No Art No Plants Closed Messy 3.38 6.30No Art No Plants Closed Tidy 3.81 4.21Table 1Overall mean DV ratings (9 = high, 1= low). Highest rated environments are shadeddiscussed, but more to suggest that ‘greenery’is an important element in a wider varietyof environments than the dentist’s waitingroom. However, gender differences mayconfound this fi nding. In a review of gendereffects in environmental research, Zelezny,Chua and Aldrich 15 found that women heldstronger attitudes to environmental issuesthan men. In the Jones study 13 , the ratio ofwomen to men was seven to three.Study 2: ‘Blues’The relationship between the environmentand physiological aspects of wellbeingis important for understanding thehealth implications of different types ofemployment 16,17 . Physical health may beadversely affected by stress 18 , including ‘dailyhassles’ 19 and more severe trauma 20 . Studieshave linked wellbeing with windows 7 , , lightingand natural illumination 21 , and naturalviews 11,22,23 . Mood (affect) has been suggestedas the mediating factor linking environmentand wellbeing, with pleasant environmentseither evoking a positive affect or loweringthe negative affect and buffering the impactof stress. Restorative environments havebeen shown to lower blood-pressure 10,24and cardiac inter-beat interval 25 .The aim of this study was to examine theinfl uence of view on employee mood andself-rated health at a single workplace, basedon the work of Ulrich 8,9,23 and Hartig et al. 10.The hypothesis was based on the probablelink between offi ce view and wellbeing, withmood as a likely mediating factor. A goodview was predicted to be associated withhigher positive affect and/or lower negativeaffect scores – and with better perceivedhealth. Confounds from age, organisationalseniority and sex were anticipated.MethodEighty anonymous participants wererecruited through a questionnaire deliveredto staff mailboxes at the National Institute ofWater and Atmospheric Research (NIWA),in Wellington, New Zealand. There were noinducements. The NIWA building is orientedroughly north-south. Offi ces either facedeast, with a natural view, or west, facing anurban development. The 200+ employeeswere mainly scientists, and formed a relativelyhomogeneous population in work tasks,socio-economic status and intelligence.The questionnaire instructed participantsto consider their responses “while at work”.It included the Positive and Negative AffectSchedule (PANAS) 26 for mood states, andthree visual analogue scales (VAS). The fi rstrated job satisfaction, the second was forperceived health, and the third assessedhow the participant rated the health of anaverage person of a similar age. Demographicquestions covered the employment variablesat the NIWA.Finally, participants were asked to ratetheir east- or west-facing offi ce view on afour-point scale (poor to excellent), andto indicate time spent in their offi ce on anaverage working day. In addition, they wereasked for the date and time they completedthe survey, in order to control for possibleconfounding or moderating effects such asweather or day of the week.WORLD HEALTH DESIGN | October 2008 63