Department of Forestry and Forest Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Management and Agriculture, University of Warmia and Mazury, Pl. Łódzki 2, 10-727 Olsztyn, Poland.
Natural Resources Institute Finland, Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790 Helsinki, Finland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jul 15;17(14):5109. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145109.
A common problem among students is the problem of delaying important work activities, which is conceptualized as procrastination. Since procrastination can cause considerable costs for society, we would like to find a method to effectively alleviate the symptoms of this conditioning. It has been proven in an earlier study that staying in the forest environment increases vitality and reduces anxiety, and the negative state of these features can be associated with the intensification of procrastination symptoms. Therefore, it is likely that watching a forest video may decrease the probability or intensity of procrastination. To measure the impact of the forest environment on the level of procrastination of the subjects, a randomized experiment was carried out, in which the subjects watched in random order (on different days) one of two 15-min videos: one showing a walk in the forest area and one showing a walk in an urban environment (control). We measured the level of so-called 'fluid procrastination' including three aspects: 'lack of energy to do the work', 'inability to get to work' and 'pessimistic attitude to do the work' with a set of questions the respondents completed before and after the experiment. The results showed that one aspect of fluid procrastination ('pessimistic attitude to do the work') can be effectively lowered by watching a video showing the forest environment. In contrast, watching a video of an urban environment increased the procrastination levels for two other aspects of procrastination ('lack of energy to do the work', 'inability to get to work'). We also measured three other parameters before and after the experiment: mood state, restoration and vitality. Watching the video from forest area raised mood and restoration and watching the video from urban area, decreased mood, vitality and restoration. The study suggests that watching a video showing forest landscapes could be used as an effective remedy for problems related to procrastination among students.
学生中普遍存在的一个问题是拖延重要工作活动的问题，这被概念化为拖延症。由于拖延症可能给社会带来相当大的成本，我们希望找到一种方法来有效缓解这种条件反射的症状。早期的一项研究已经证明，待在森林环境中可以增加活力并减少焦虑，而这些特征的负面状态可能与拖延症症状的加剧有关。因此，观看森林视频可能会降低拖延症的发生概率或严重程度。为了衡量森林环境对受试者拖延症水平的影响，进行了一项随机实验，其中受试者以随机顺序（在不同的日子）观看了两个 15 分钟的视频之一：一个展示森林地区的散步，另一个展示城市环境（对照）的散步。我们使用一套问题来衡量所谓的“流动拖延症”水平，包括三个方面：“缺乏做工作的精力”、“无法开始工作”和“对做工作的悲观态度”，并在实验前后让受访者完成这些问题。结果表明，观看展示森林环境的视频可以有效降低流动拖延症的一个方面（“对做工作的悲观态度”）。相比之下，观看城市环境的视频会增加其他两个拖延方面（“缺乏做工作的精力”、“无法开始工作”）的拖延程度。我们还在实验前后测量了其他三个参数：情绪状态、恢复力和活力。观看森林区域的视频提高了情绪和恢复力，而观看城市区域的视频则降低了情绪、活力和恢复力。该研究表明，观看展示森林景观的视频可以作为治疗学生拖延症相关问题的有效方法。
