Ecological Self and Well-being

Science has amply demonstrated that contact with nature has positive effects on the health and well-being of human beings. The research we present investigated the sense of connection with nature and its relationship to psychological well-being. The sense of connection with nature is a very recent psychological construct, developed and investigated by several environmental psychologists. Nisbet, Murphy, and Zelensky (2009) refer to it as Nature Relatedness (NR). They regard it as a relatively stable personality trait and believe it is comparable to the concept of the ecological self developed by philosopher Arne Næss. Nature Relatedness consists of three sub-components: NR-perspective, NR-experience, and NR-self. NR-self is the deepest component and represents how strongly people identify with the natural environment. This component seems to fit perfectly with the concept of the ecological self. In a population of 237 teachers in training, we found a moderate positive correlation between Nature Relatedness and psychological well-being (0.203). The component most strongly correlated with psychological well-being is NR-experience (0.317), the subscale measuring behavior. This confirms the general findings of various scientific studies, which suggest that the tendency to spend time in nature increases levels of well-being.