Methodological Section - Research Paper Example

CHAPTER 3

Methodology

This section explores the various materials and methods that will be used to complete the study. A specific interest in the methods of this study is the use of the Perceived Restorative Characteristics Questionnaire (PRCQ) that will be critical to collecting data important for this study.  The research question guiding this study is:  What is the effect of nature on stress reduction?

The following sub questions will help answer the research question:

1. What is the relationship between frequencies of visiting natural environments with the level of stress experienced by people? 

2. What is the relationship of stress reduction from exposure to nature based on where participants were raised?

3. Are there gender differences in stress reduction experienced after visiting nature? 

4. Are socioeconomic status and age associated with stress reduction experienced by people through effects of visiting nature?

Research Design 

This study will be conducted on the positivism approach to research. This approach will focus on facts, looking for relationships and fundamental issues.  The concept of restorativeness of nature and effects on stress reduction will be operationalized so that it may be measured. The study will adopt a descriptive survey research design. This is because the study seeks to understand how restorativeness of nature affects stress among people. As such, the respondents would give information based on experiences, and tapping on their memories. 

Variables

As stated in the introduction, the study will explore the restorative effects of nature by examining the role of natural environments in reducing stress among people living in urban areas. The parks to be used for this study are parks such as natural reserves with many trees and high diversity of animals. The choice of the parks and the study sites will be dictated by the fact that these sites are environmentally similar to natural environments. As explained by Anfara and Mertz (2014) a conceptual framework is critical for any research because it guides the whole research process. The following information will be collected as part of this study:

Independent variables will be examined based on demographic variables that determine how and why people visit natural environments. The length of time spent in these parks will also be determined because it may act as a predictor to the variables under study. Frequency of the park visits will be examined and related to the PCRQ to determine the outcome of the restorative effects of nature. 

Demographic information:  Basic demographic will be collected related to gender and Socioeconomic status (SES).  Participants will also be asked to indicate where they were raised (rural vs. urban).  Each of these variables are independent and categorical in nature. The frequency of the visits will also be measured and related to the satisfaction and amount of stress relieved. They will be the predictor variables that determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables.

The PRCQ for this study will be a modified version of the PRCQ used by Pals et al (2009). Some simple questions will be added for purposes of collecting demographic data. The PRCQ includes 24 items: 7 items to measure fascination, 3 items to measure novelty, 4 items to measure escape, 3 items to measure coherence, and 7 items to measure compatibility. Participants will respond using a 7-point Likert Scale the extent to which they agreed to the items, ranging from 1 ‘totally disagree’ to 7 ‘totally agree’. The participants will be expected to indicate on four (seven point) semantic differential elements the extent to which they experienced happiness and felt good as they visited the parks. These will include: happy – sad, pleasure –annoyance, satisfied – dissatisfied, content – bored. Participants will give the level of satisfaction they feel when visiting the parks and whether they feel relaxed or not when visiting the parks.

Sample

The sample will include all the people both men and women visiting these natural environments. The priori power analysis was used to calculate the sample size that would be needed to achieve a power of 0.95. With Mu1 and Mu2 values of 45 and 44 respectively, and standard deviation of 1.99, a sample size of approximately 103 respondents will be needed. This sample size is enough to draw conclusions that can be generalized to answer the objectives of the study. Participants of the study will only comprise of city dwellers who are always visiting the natural environments to relax and enjoy the other benefits. To properly randomize the sample, participants will be recruited at as they leave the park from random exit points.

Study Area

The study will be conducted in an urban area because the aim is to measure the effects of natural environments in reducing stress among urban residents. Two natural settings will be used to conduct this study. The natural environments will be conducted because they are categorized by a large number of trees and other natural vegetation. For purposes of assessing the impact of environment of upbringing, respondents will be asked to answer whether they were raised in an urban or a rural setting and an inference will be made on how that affects relief of stress by nature. 

Methods

Demographic variables for the participants, including age, gender, socioeconomic status, and household income will be collected. This information will be critical in examining the intervening factors between the dependent and independent variables. The PRCQ will address five restorative characteristics of natural environment including fascination, novelty, escape, coherence and compatibility. There will different questions to address each of these restorative characteristics. After selection at different points of exit from the study sites, the participants will fill out the questionnaire as they leave the parks. The PRCQ will be the major instrument to be used for collecting the data.

Justification of Research Tool

The objective of this study is to examine the restorative effects of nature in reducing stress urban dwellers. The dependent variable in this research is the stress reduction aspect while the independent variable is the restorativeness of nature as reported by the participants. Therefore, the suitable survey instrument for this study is the use of a Perceived Restorative Characteristics Questionnaire (PRCQ). 

The PRCQ is an appropriate instrument since its questions are designed to measure both variables (Pals, Steg, Siero, & Van der Zee, 2009). It has also been used by several scholars to show the correlation between stress reduction and interaction with nature. The PRCQ was developed on the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) that examines the degree of self-reported perceived restorativeness of a particular setting or environment. Most of these scales are based on Attention Restoration Theory (Berto, 2014). 

The PRCQ has been proved a reliable and valid instrument for measuring restorative value of natural environments and urban settings. It is also appropriate to measure the restorative value of outdoor activities (Pals, Steg, Siero, & Van der Zee, 2009). The PRCQ was developed with inspiration from both the PRS and RCS, both instruments that measure perception based on five major restorative characteristics. These include novelty, fascination, escape, coherence and compatibility. In addition to using the PRCQ to measure perceived restorativeness, the authors also ascertained that the instrument is reliable for measuring the relationship between perceived restorative value and visitation experience of nature. As such, the PRCQ can successfully be adopted for this study and the results used to make sound conclusions (Pals, Steg, Siero, & Van der Zee, 2009). 

The questionnaire in this survey will involve the use of both open ended and closed ended questions. The use of both these types of questions will permit the researcher to obtain adequate answers to complex questions in an easier and quicker way. This will also enable creativity, self-expression, and richness of detail. The use of both open ended and closed questions is also a suitable method in collecting quantitative data.   

The PRCQ is a self-reported measure of how people feel when they interact with nature. Based on this strategy, my study will also assess how people in urban areas feel when they visit parks. The questionnaire assumes that the subjective feedback from people will give a reasonable index that demonstrates people’s psychological experiences when exposed to natural settings. The use of the PRCQ will be of great benefit in understanding role of nature in relieving stress among urban dwellers visiting parks (Berto, 2014).

Informed Consent 

Before the start of the questionnaire, participants will be expected to sign an informed consent form using a randomized number so that they participate in the study willingly. Signing with randomized numbers will help ensure anonymity of the participants is maintained a consent form provides the participants with information on the study that is sufficiently detailed to enable them to reach informed, voluntary, and rational decision to take part. The participants in this case will be made aware that the data collected during the course of this research is for academic purposes only (Diener & Crandall, 2012). 

The significance of the study will be explained to the participants and allow them to reflect on what is being studied. The expected information to be collected and the uses of this information will be clearly explained to the participants before they participate in the study. Explaining the importance of the study to the participants gives them the chance to choose whether to participate in the study of not. In addition to informed consent, the researchers will also ensure confidentiality in the participant information provided. 

Data Analysis

Once the responses have been collected, descriptive statistics will be analyzed to determine and explain the important features of the survey. The results of the descriptive analysis will be important in establishing normal distribution of data. The data will be tabulated and inferences made from the graphical analysis coupled with the descriptive analysis will make the foundation for the quantitative   analysis of the tabulated data.  The results from the analysis will be presented in the subsequent results section. Relationship between the dependent and the independent variable will be analyzed using correlation and regression. The results from the analysis will be presented in the subsequent results section. Differences between the variables will be further analyzed using post hoc analysis. 

From the first research sub question, it is hypothesized that a higher frequency in visiting parks will be an important contributor to lessening of stress levels. People who visit the park more often will most likely have less stress related problems and will have a happier outlook to life as opposed to those that do not visit the park regularly. This will be a strong indicator that connecting with nature has an important role to play in dealing with stress.  

From our second research sub question, it is hypothesized that where people were born and raised up will have a significant effect on how nature affects their stress levels. The respondents that were raised in rural areas will most likely have a better response to nature than those that were raised in cities. This would mean that the respondents that find nature more stress alleviating will be the ones that were raised in rural settings. 

It is also hypothesized that there will be a gender difference in the effect that nature has on stress levels. Female respondents are most likely to benefit more in terms of stress reduction by visiting nature than their male counterparts. This is because the males respond to logic more than emotion and females will probably connect with nature easier and better. 

Our fourth research sub question is whether the respondent’s socioeconomic status and age is associated with stress reduction experienced through visiting nature and the hypothesis is that age and socioeconomic factors will play a huge role in stress reduction witnessed in the respondents. Older people will probably experience the biggest relief from stress by visiting parks because the younger people are more accustomed to multitasking and hurrying that they will probably not rest in the park. They might be busy on their gadgets or worrying about many mundane things. 

Correlations will be computed between the items and the perceived five restorative characteristics. There will also be corrections for self-correlation and subscale-lengths. Regression analyses will be carried out to determine the extent to which the fascination, novelty, escape and coherence could predict preference, and pleasure when the participant visit the natural environments.  The first objective will analyzed using regression analysis to examine the effects of visiting parks and reduced stress among the respondents. The second objective is more of a comparative component whereby the researchers will aim at determining the stress reduction between rural and urban dwellers. This objective will be analyzed using sample t-test. 

Sample

The sample will include all the people both men and women visiting these natural environments. The priori power analysis was used to calculate the sample size that would be needed to achieve a power of 0.95. With Mu1 and Mu2 values of 45 and 44 respectively, and standard deviation of 1.99, a sample size of approximately 103 respondents will be needed. This sample size is enough to draw conclusions that can be generalized to answer the objectives of the study. Participants of the study will only comprise of city dwellers who are always visiting the natural environments to relax and enjoy the other benefits. To properly randomize the sample, participants will be recruited at as they leave the park from random exit points.

Study Area

The study will be conducted in an urban area because the aim is to measure the effects of natural environments in reducing stress among urban residents. Two natural settings will be used to conduct this study. The natural environments will be conducted because they are categorized by a large number of trees and other natural vegetation. For purposes of assessing the impact of environment of upbringing, respondents will be asked to answer whether they were raised in an urban or a rural setting and an inference will be made on how that affects relief of stress by nature. 

Methods

Demographic variables for the participants, including age, gender, socioeconomic status, and household income will be collected. This information will be critical in examining the intervening factors between the dependent and independent variables. The PRCQ will address five restorative characteristics of natural environment including fascination, novelty, escape, coherence and compatibility. There will different questions to address each of these restorative characteristics. After selection at different points of exit from the study sites, the participants will fill out the questionnaire as they leave the parks. The PRCQ will be the major instrument to be used for collecting the data.

Justification of Research Tool

The objective of this study is to examine the restorative effects of nature in reducing stress urban dwellers. The dependent variable in this research is the stress reduction aspect while the independent variable is the restorativeness of nature as reported by the participants. Therefore, the suitable survey instrument for this study is the use of a Perceived Restorative Characteristics Questionnaire (PRCQ). 

The PRCQ is an appropriate instrument since its questions are designed to measure both variables (Pals, Steg, Siero, & Van der Zee, 2009). It has also been used by several scholars to show the correlation between stress reduction and interaction with nature. The PRCQ was developed on the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) that examines the degree of self-reported perceived restorativeness of a particular setting or environment. Most of these scales are based on Attention Restoration Theory (Berto, 2014). 

The PRCQ has been proved a reliable and valid instrument for measuring restorative value of natural environments and urban settings. It is also appropriate to measure the restorative value of outdoor activities (Pals, Steg, Siero, & Van der Zee, 2009). The PRCQ was developed with inspiration from both the PRS and RCS, both instruments that measure perception based on five major restorative characteristics. Read More