Psychological Impacts of Urban Environmental Settings: A Micro-Scale Study on a University Campus

Abstract

The environment’s psychological impacts on humans have been long studied, but many questions remain unanswered. We conducted a micro-scale study to examine the relationships among the objective characteristics of urban environmental settings, people’s subjective perception of such settings, and the related psychological responses. We employed a geo-enabled survey tool to gather data on individuals’ perceptions of the immediate environment within their daily activity space. The psychological processes assessed included emotional and affective states such as perceived stress and happiness. The data points were mapped on a high-resolution aerial image, which was classified to derive quantitative properties to examine the dose-response relationship between environmental exposure and psychological responses. Our results showed negative correlations between the momentary stress level and the amount of environmental elements such as water, trees, and grass. Positive correlations were detected between stress level and the amount of parking lot and barren land, as well as the distance to buildings. In terms of perceived happiness, positive environmental factors included water, trees, and artificial surfaces, with all other elements having negative correlations. Most of the correlations examined were not strong correlations. This could be due to the significant differences in how individuals respond to environmental stimuli.