Green Care: A Conceptual Framework - Frisk i naturen

Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) suggest that recovery of directed attention is not
the only benefit of restorative environments. Different restorative settings
can also provide varying degrees of attention recovery and opportunities
for reflection, depending on the nature of the fascination involved. They
propose (Kaplan, 1995) that fascination can range in quality from ‘hard’ to
‘soft’. ‘Hard’ fascination is so intense that it entirely dominates attention
and leaves little or no room for thinking, whilst ‘soft’ fascination exerts
a moderate hold on attention and so allows opportunity for ‘reflection’.
Herzog et al (1997) suggest ‘amusement parks, rock concerts, bars, video
games and parties’ as examples of settings for hard fascination whilst
natural environments are settings for soft fascination (Kaplan, 1995;
Herzog et al, 1997).
“Attentional fatigue” can also occur in major illnesses such as cancer. Work
carried out by Unruh, Smith and Scammell (2000) with a small group of
women with breast cancer suggests that they experienced gardening and the
natural environment as being ‘restorative’.
References
Herzog, T. R., Black, A. M., Fountaine, K. A. and Knotts, D. J. (1997) ‘Reflection and attentional
recovery as distinctive benefits of restorative environments’. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 17,
165-170.
Kaplan, S. (1995) ‘The restorative benefits of nature: toward an integrative framework’. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 15, 169-182.
Kaplan, R. and Kaplan, S. (1989) The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Unruh, A. M., Smith, N. and Scammell, C. (2000) ‘The occupation of gardening in life-threatening
illness: a qualitative pilot project’. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67(1), 70-77.
6.4 Nature and recovery from stress
An alternative model to that of Kaplan and Kaplan (outlined in 6.3) which
has been used to explain the benefits of the natural environment is Roger
Ulrich’s model of recovery from stress. Ulrich’s view is that the effect of
the natural landscape and nature itself is evolutionary in origin and not
predominantly cognitive or reasoned as the work of the Kaplans suggests.
He sees compatibility, for example, as an elaborate and complex function
dependent on an individual’s inclinations and experience and not an innate,
instinctive response. Ulrich argues that since the process of evolution
took place in a natural environment it favoured those individuals who
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