Degree Year

2016

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

F. Stephan Mayer

Committee Member(s)

Cindy McPherson Frantz
Paul H. Thibodeau

Keywords

Environment, Sustainability, Architecture, Biophilic, CNS, Connectedness to nature, Environmental psychology, Nature, Seeley G. Mudd Center, Adam Joseph Lewis Center, Mudd, AJLC, Oberlin College

Abstract

In today’s world where climate change consequences are apparent, we need to be searching for ways to encourage more pro-environmental behaviors. Connectedness to nature, which is the sense of kinship and sense of community with the natural world, is one factor that has been shown to promote pro-environmental behavior. While architecture types have been tested with states of well-being, they have never been assessed to examine the effects on one’s connectedness to nature. This study used Seeley G. Mudd Center (Mudd) and the Adam Joseph Lewis Center (AJLC) at Oberlin College to determine whether biophilic types of architecture versus architecture without any natural aspects can heighten or lower ones sense of feeling connected to nature. Our findings suggest that the AJLC can heighten the participants’ connectedness to nature, while Mudd can lower the participants’ connectedness to nature scores. We also found that a person’s state connectedness to nature partially mediates the relationship between building and ranking of environmental issues. Lastly, we found that there isn’t any difference between actively and passively engaging with the architecture. This indicates that architecture with natural aspects can raise people’s kinship with the natural world, which can promote more pro-environmental behaviors and concern for environmental issues.

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