Introduction
The physical environment plays a significant role in influencing violence and aggressive thoughts and behavior in human beings. People living in physical environments characterized by crowding, massive noise, and high temperatures during the day and at night develop tendencies of experiencing violence and aggression. Furthermore, individual features in the environment like congestion, extreme temperatures, and environmental noise pollution have been associated with heightened levels of aggression (Berman et al., 2008). Nevertheless, the environment can contain features that negate the physical features that heighten aggressive and violent behavior amongst dwellers, thereby diminishing violence and aggression levels. This research aims to elucidate whether elements occupying the immediate natural environment like vegetation, grass, and trees can diminish the probability of aggressive and violent behavior among the localities’ inhabitants (Berman et al., 2008). Additionally, the study examines potential mechanisms within the natural and environmental features that can affect the chances of aggression within populations.
According to the research study, the physical and natural environments play critical roles for the public by influencing their behavior and thoughts of aggression and violence. As a result, this study suggests new environmental responsibilities and regards them as significant for the public domain (Berman et al., 2008). It further suggests the environmental role in determining public policies on the environment. The environmental conditions in the inner cities can be vital in shaping dwellers’ aggressive and violent conduct. Features within the immediate physical environment play a critical role in offering new insights into psychological factors contributing to thoughts, the behavior of violence, and aggression in human beings (Berman et al., 2008). Previous literature evidence has indicated significant
hints on reducing aggression thoughts and behavior using garden features like the presence of trees, grassy surroundings, and other exposures to nearby vegetation.
For instance, previous studies have examined the state of Alzheimer’s situations in patients when exposed and compared to two consecutive summers. The experiences occur in five long-term care facilities. The three of five facilities had gardens exposed in their interiors, while two other gardens lacked garden installations (Berman et al., 2012). According to the findings from this study, facilities without gardens heightened violent assaults against Alzheimer patients. In contrast, facilities with gardens slightly lessened the progression of Alzheimer’s due to the reduction of assault incidences. These results depended on the progression and nature of Alzheimer’s disease, which increases in aggressive assaults from the environment. The condition results in the deterioration of cognitive abilities and processes depending on changes in the environment. Besides this study, other studies have associated the garden environment with aggressive behavior in participants (Berman et al., 2012). Previous inmate examination studies established their hostility reduction after participating in the gardening projects. In contrast, inmates who did not engage in gardening projects displayed hostility and aggressive behavior towards others and the environment.
Study findings indicate that natural settings play a substantial role in patients’ recovery from mental fatigue. Increased mental fatigue results in a corresponding increase in aggression and hinder recovery efforts (Berman et al., 2012). Residents residing in inner cities with disadvantaged neighborhoods are susceptible to chronic mental fatigue. Additionally, urban settings with trees and grass in the neighborhoods diminish the tendency for violent and aggressive behavior within the population. Nature might be restorative against the heightened propensity for aggression and violent behavior (Berman et al., 2012). Mental fatigue contributes to aggression through its implication on individuals’ cognitive processing.
Social situations management is effective when an individual’s information processing is effective and efficient.
Adequate information processing in social settings plays a critical averting potential conflicting situations. Children’s behavioral responses to social stimuli are information processing functions (cognitive actions) that follow the outlined five steps (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). These steps start from social cues encoding, interpretation, delivery of the response, evaluation response, and enactment depending on outcomes. A conflicting escalating behavior is likely to occur in problematic social situations involving effortless and automatic cognitive actions (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). In contrast, reasoned, reflective, effortful cognitive actions and processing result in harmonious engagement.
An individual can decrease mental fatigue by continuously engaging in effortful and reflective cognitive processing that is willful. In these situations, a human’s behavior becomes controllable and measurable (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). However, in situations with thoughtless, un-strategic, and tactless processing, individuals’ behavior comprises conflicts that spiral out of control. Aggression can further result from deficits from effortful cognitive processes. In children’s learning environment, deficits manifest through inactiveness, which connects to aggressive behavior in adults and children. Hyperactivity and attention deficits relationship resembles the relationship between aggression and conduct problems (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). When aggressive behavior children underwent therapies to foster reflective responses in problematic situations, aggressive levels dropped to non-aggressive levels.
Mental fatigue further impacts people’s emotions, thereby contributing to aggressive behavior. Irritability is typical when people suffer emotional damage and affects individuals undertaking fatiguing tasks like air traffic control and vigilance tasks. Moreover, studies have linked irritability to congestion and overcrowding environments (Kuo & Sullivan, 2001). Consequently, inner-city environments comprise poor, congested, and overcrowded
neighborhoods lacking grass and tree gardens. These settings provide appropriate study fields for attentional restoration and the effects of nature on aggressive thoughts and behavior. The population in inner-city environments is susceptible to risks of chronic mental fatigue due to extreme levels of poverty, causing attentional deficits (Kuo & Sullivan, 2001). Additionally, inner-city environments are prone to fatigue-related aggression following the populations’ susceptibility to aggression.
As a result, of underlying inner-city conditions, residents and those living in neighborhoods require mental respite within the natural settings. Poverty has unrelenting and numerous attentional demands (Kuo & Sullivan, 2001). People are living in extreme poverty struggle with fundamental concerns of food, utilities, and shelter that require effortful reasoning and problem-solving. Significant life challenges further add to the attentional challenges for the inner city occupants. Drastic life changes occur to the vulnerable and susceptible poor populations living in inner cities. This study investigates two central variables, whether nearby exposure to nature reduces violence and aggressive behavior and if the underlying effect has restoration remedies (Kuo & Sullivan, 2001). Natural elements like trees and grass contribute to reducing aggressive thoughts and behavior in children and adults, and people living in inner-city conditions are prone to aggressive behavior and violence due to surrounding nature and mental fatigue.
Methods
The APH homes settings in Chicago acted as the experiment site for the experiment (study). The selection of the APH homes environment was possible since it met the selection criteria simultaneously. Vegetation in the surroundings of APH varies considerably from building to building owing to the architectural uniqueness of individual buildings (in terms of architectural details, building facilities, layouts, and building size). The consideration of these factors ignored the residential units available for individual buildings. Ignoring the number of residential units for the individual buildings further leads to the understanding that the arrangement of buildings is along a 4-mile corridor, rendering the surrounding buildings’ features similar. The building borders railroad tracks and interstate highway on the east and borders a wide sidewalk and four-lane municipal thoroughfare on the west.
A random assignment of houses is the criteria for the local housing policies, but housing applicants can specify preferred houses for developments. Additionally, the local housing authority precludes the identification of inhabits and assigns houses with less aggressive and more responsible tags. The assignments for city houses occur at the central offices, with clerks undertaking the responsibilities of over 40,000 units without physically visiting the units. As a result of clerks’ virtual operations, they have never seen applicants or set foot in the developments. As a result, clerks performing these assignments are oblivious of the housing developments characteristics.
Residents occupying homes and neighborhoods of the APH homes play a minor role in the planning and landscaping operations outside buildings. The original buildings at APH built in the 1990s comprised grass and trees surrounding over 25 high-rise buildings to form a garden. However, the authority undertook landscaping and planning decisions that saw the replacement of gardens over time with pavements aiming to eliminate dusty conditions and lower maintenance costs. Paving the surrounding places within the homes’ buildings contributed to the killing of common trees and grass. The resulting environment around buildings comprised barren spaces with scattered buildings undermining the aesthetic beauty of homes. Additionally, these surroundings exhibited isolated pockets of green leftovers rendering the entire APH home’s surroundings dull. A small landscaping crew handles the ongoing maintenance operations at the homes and other developments managed by the local authority. Residents have a minor role, and funds are insufficient for fulfilling particular residents’ requests of the surrounding environment in the gardens.
It leads to individual efforts and expenditures from residents whose cooperation enables maintaining a fair degree of greenness in the gardens. The descriptions of APH homes makes them serve as natural experimentation site. It enables a random assignment of residents to environmental variables like vegetation conditions while requiring insignificant control over vegetation. Furthermore, other factors remain constant in the experimentation. Residents staying in APH homes exhibit remarkable homogeneity regarding collective and individual characteristics. These situations render participants susceptible to aggressive thoughts and behavior. Furthermore, individuals might exhibit environmental conditions like economic opportunities, circumstances of life, level of education, and income variations. The procedure, Participants, and Design
The study utilized participants (interviewees), resembling interviewers (researchers), as much as possible to ease pressure from participants responding to questions. As a result of this approach, interviewers consisted of Four African American females from the APH homes who underwent training after their selection. These interviewers’ responsibilities included recruiting, conducting interviews, and carrying out tests for the research. The selected four researchers were long-term inhabitants of APH and were aged 20 and above. However, the selected four researchers resided in buildings outside those selected for this study to eliminate potential bias and conflict of interest towards the study subject. In addition, this approach ensured matching the interviewers and interviewees in terms of significant demographic characteristics, dress code, language and speech, socioeconomic statuses, background, living circumstances, gender, and race.
When preparing for interviewing and testing, interviewers needed to complete predetermined training sessions and programs. The training consisted of interview methods, general training that took fifty hours, learning of interview measures that took twelve hours, and supervised and unsupervised practicing in interviewing processes that took fourteen hours. Besides the interviewers, the research utilizes an on-site supervisor (head researcher) who oversees the entire research (interviewing). The on-site supervisor would regularly visit and meet the interviewers to review processes and procedures adopted during the research. Furthermore, the supervisor explores the challenges encountered in collecting information from participants and addresses any troubling questions on the site. Interviewers had instructions to avoid participants with whom they had conducted, knowledge, and previous relationships. Additionally, counterbalancing of interviewers was necessary for fulfilling the necessary nature condition.
Recruiting participants took place on a door-to-door basis on selected APH homes buildings with the garden around with vegetation. Sampling took place to narrow the buildings to 18. In minimizing the distractions and extraneous factors on participants, the research excluded buildings adjacent to police posts, parks, and other underlying features. Further sampling was applicable within buildings where 2nd to 4th floors were preferable owing to residents’ maximal visual and physical proximity to the grass and trees in the gardens. The first floors did not have residences. The recruitment criteria covered the residential characteristics alongside consideration of environmental factors. Women heading the households and below the ages of 60 received invitations to attend interviews at the institution center. The research’s focus on women was due to women’s high populations (over 80% in APH and Chicago’s urban housing). During the research, participants had the discretion of refusing to answer uncomfortable questions and could stop participating in the interview at any time. However, the research awarded a $10 reward for participants willing to participate in the entire interviewing process.
The research utilized 158 qualified participants (sample size) from the APH homes in Chicago. Out of the sample size, 95% agreed to participate to the end, yielding a final sample of 150 residents. The final sample size consisted of 78 relatively high levels of nearby nature, while the remaining 72 exhibited relatively low levels of nearby nature. The study had a composite participant profile exhibiting the characteristics of African Americans and raising three children. This participant held a diploma (high school education) and raided the three on an annual household income not exceeding $10,000. Fall months and summers were preferable for conducting interviews in participants’ apartments. A 45-minute structured interview was adequate for interviewing participants to examine control variables associated with aggression and aggressive thoughts and behavior. Additionally, the interviews examined participants’ attention capacity and the likelihood of mental fatigue.
Measures
Multiple independent raters and photographs sets were suitable for assessing nearby nature applying to the selected (sampled) 18 buildings. The majority of photographs utilized encompassed views overlooking other buildings and others displaying views looking outside the buildings from a vantage point. Undergraduate students in landscaping architecture provided the services of rating the nearby nature using the 16 photographs. Raters would first visit the selected buildings’ vegetation for familiarization before providing a single greenness rating using the photographs. The response scale utilized by raters encompassed 4 – very green, 3 – green, 2 – relatively green, 1 – slightly green, and 0 – not green. A summary greenness rating was extractible from the raters’ summary rating. According to the rating results, buildings with the lowest ratings were 0.8, and those with the highest were 3.6.
Raters utilized this agreement to deduce an analogous agreement for testing the reliability of items based on a pre-determined scale. This approach assumes that raters respond to particular buildings with similar (uniform) mindsets. The procedure of probing an interrater agreement yielded an alpha 0.98 results translating to high-level raters’ agreement for the greenness of buildings. Ratings from greenness were critical in serving as assignments to conditions. Barren was a designation for buildings with ratings falling below the midpoint and green for those above. Barren-rated buildings ranged from 0.8 to 1.7, and were seven buildings and eleven others had above midpoint ratings of 2.1 to 3.7. Green and barren ratings did not apply for environmental factors like facilities within the homes (schools, parks, traffic for automobiles, and pedestrian walkways). Barren buildings’ classification adopted the interspersed approach with both barren and green buildings having surroundings of asphalt or dirt.
Digit Span Backwards (DSB) test measured attentional fatigue using neurocognitive standardization and was relevant in evaluating directed attention during field study owing to its simplistic operation and administration. It involves reading aloud digit series and participants repeating backward. Administration follows an increasing length and participants score according to the most extended series performed within pre-determined attempts. Conflicts Tactics Scale (CTS) helped evaluate intra-family violent and aggressive behavior levels through self-reporting. The measure has an impressive validity calibration of 0.97 (parent-children aggression) and a husband to wife internal consistency of 0.89. participants self-examined themselves by thinking of situations involving disagreements and conflict resolution tactics utilized. Participants were to indicate the usage rate of conflict resolution tactics provided using a seven-point scale (X – No idea, 1- 6 – Twenty times and more, and 0- Never).
Results
Results on Mental Fatigue and Aggression
Aggression levels in the investigation exceeded national findings, with over 61% of partners attesting to having engaged in a violent confrontation with spouses previously. The findings aligned with previous findings investigating African American married couples’ incidences of violence which recorded a 58% rate. A similar pattern for aggression against children appeared, with participants recording a 55% rate of having hit children with an object at least once in their lives. When testing attentional levels using the DSB technique, an average limit score ranges from 4 to 5 depending on participants’ education levels. The current study recorded varied attentional functioning owing to a DSB score of 4.8.
Results for Central Hypothesis
According to the hypothesis on the nearby nature’s impact on aggression, residents living in green conditioned gardens around apartments should record less aggression than those living in barren gardens. One-tailed tests took place against the respondent’s spouse, followed by the child for examining range and frequency conditions for aggression.
Table 1: Aggression Against Partner’s Mean Rates for Green and Barren Conditions reen BARREN S D D General Aggression .75 .08 .05 .90 .70 0.6 Psychological Aggression .10 .27 .51 .21 .26 .02 Violent conduct .51 0 .53 .75 .51 .00 0.2 Mild violent conduct .51 0 .53 .74 .51 .07 .002 Severe violent conduct .34 0 .49 .50 .53 .12 0.06
The table above shows aggression against partners recorded by participants for a period lasting a year. According to the table, residents residing in apartments with green garden conditions experienced relatively more minor aggression than counterparts in barren garden conditions (first row). In the second row, residents living in apartments with green garden conditions were less likely to display psychological aggression against partners than those in barren conditions whose tendency of psychological aggression was high. Overall, violent conduct recorded was significantly lower for residents with greenish apartments than those residing in apartments with barren conditions.
A marginal significance difference (p = 0.07) was deducible between green and barren garden apartments’ residents owing to a 25% deviation in the set of violent tactics utilized. Aggression against children showed varied results due to fewer parent-child conflicts and conflicts manifesting through disciplinary actions. Ultimately, nearby nature had a mitigating impact on violent conduct and aggressive thoughts and behavior against partners and a slight impact when tested against children.
Discussion
Individuals (out of 150 participants) residing near nature displayed significantly lower levels of aggression and violence. This situation owes to nearby nature’s impact on these individuals’ apartments. On the other hand, individuals residing in buildings with barren garden conditions displayed increased violence and aggression levels (Faber & Kuo, 2009). The results on mediated mental (attentional) fatigue further aligned with the hypothesis statement. Greener garden residents recorded excellent attentional functioning measures (Faber & Kuo, 2009). Therefore, the prediction of attention functioning was optimistic on the aggression summary index.
When utilized controlled attention within the environment, the relationship between aggression and nearby nature became insignificant. Nevertheless, the relationship between social interaction, stressful settings, mood conditions, and aggression was insignificant when a follow-up analysis examined alternative mediating factors (Faber & Kuo, 2009). Additionally, alternative mechanisms were void when tested by unspecified mediators. The results demonstrating the relationship between nearby nature and aggression and violence forms were inconsistent when examined using children participants. Children’s aggressive behavior is most susceptible to socialization effects in the environment (Faber & Kuo, 2009). This situation implies future research should adopt advanced methodologies in examining forms of aggression challenging to assess using nature-aggression studies.
The confidence rating for the nature-aggression studies owes to understanding the following elements: participants underwent a random assignment to the natural condition, recorded consistent negative results for several tests, results were further different for different households and depended on the interviewer characteristics (Bowler et al., 2010). Additionally, two conditions assured the consistency of environmental factors like architectural conditions. These factors included using double-blind measures and multiple buildings per condition using testing the relationship between aggression and nearby nature. The specific causal pathway between aggression and nearby nature was obtainable using numerous tests. All the tests utilized in the examination adhered to one accord. Alternative meditator tests like direct tests and spuriousness tests were relevant in ruling out other probable pathways from the mediation pathway test for attention (Bowler et al., 2010). The testing utilized the assumption of no other possible pathways since other possibilities might have arisen.
The finding from the testing is that aggression reduces in individuals through nearby nature, which supports attentional functioning. The link between aggression and nearby nature emanates from attention restoration theory. Besides internal validity, external validity on the operationalization of constructs for the research. The operationalization of constructs in this research was directed by avoiding proxies and surrogates (Bowler et al., 2010). Directness was apparent in the utilization of vegetation for studying residential instead of resorting to primary methodologies like displaying slides. Another directness was evident in attentional functioning measure compared to giving discretion to participants rate their attention capacities. The study obtained ratings of aggression frequencies from participants and did not use laboratory settings or trigger modified hypothetical settings (Bratman et al., 2012). Directness through aggression measures, nearby nature, and participants’ attention lend confidence to the relationships tested in the study: the study’s credibility and reliability owing to the utilization of a substantial sample size of 150 participants.
Results obtained from the study might not apply to different settings, although mental fatigue challenges affect men and women despite this study focusing on women’s intra-family aggression. Research on aggression for the future should focus on other aggression forms like gang violence and road rage and combine men and women (Bratman et al., 2012). Despite the findings obtained from this study, domestic violence and forms of aggression within families form a significant topic in modernity. Children growing up in settings and families experiencing aggression and violent behavior grow up with similar thoughts and behavior. It encompasses children witnessing abuse and those susceptible to violent treatment. Knowledge of children’s violent behavior development necessitates the investigation of possible avenues for containing intra-family aggression and domestic violence for the benefit of future generations (Bratman et al., 2012). Green neighborhoods can offer indirect solutions in reducing aggression and violent behavior while promoting socialization in children. The research work offers an understanding of aggression prevention and the psychological implications of natural surroundings.
Conclusion
The work contributed to understanding the natural environment’s effects on humankind’s psychological effects in different ways. It offers insights into the unexplored potential of nature in reducing aggression and violent conduct in families. Previous research restricted their scope on attention levels, people’s daily lives, stress, and moods but hinted at the significance of nature on aggression. The study further cemented the relationship between surrounding vegetation on building apartments and the attentional functioning of people. However, further exploration is necessary to establish the relationship between residential nature and psychological conditions like positive mood, stress, and anxiety that previous and present studies have ignored or failed to establish. The study contributes to psychological understanding through volume and density of coverage and conveyance of information. The presence of trees and grass (vegetation) outside might appear to have little or no impact on residents’ aggressive thoughts and violent behavior. Still, the study indicates substantial significance in people’s management of life issues and forging social ties with neighborhoods. Future investigation might focus on variations in vegetation density as a function of impacting human contact with nature to improve psychological capacity (reduce aggression and violent behavior).
References
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Kaplan, S., & Berman, M. G. (2010). Directed attention as a common resource for executive functioning and self-regulation. Perspectives on psychological science, 5(1), 43-57.
Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001). Aggression and violence in the inner city: Effects of environment via mental fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33(4), 543-571.
Faber Taylor, A., & Kuo, F. E. (2009). Children with attention deficits concentrate better after walking in the park. Journal of attention disorders, 12(5), 402-409.
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Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., & Daily, G. C. (2012). The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1249(1), 118-136.
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