Environmental Psychology - Determining flows
Understanding the effects, mechanistic pathways, and constraints of soundscape complexity on mental well-being.
Natural soundscapes are psychologically restorative, but we have a limited understanding of the acoustic properties of natural soundscapes that most benefit mental health and wellbeing, and generally a poor mechanistic understanding of how biodiversity impacts health. It is also unclear how the health benefits of natural soundscapes may be impacted by anthropogenic noise.
Key objectives
- Identify the acoustic properties of natural soundscapes that promote mental health and well-being in psychological experimental studies
- Investigate the mediating pathways that underlie this effect
- Estimate whether anthropogenic noise (e.g. traffic) reduces the mental health and well-being potential of natural soundscapes.
The psychology project theme is based at the University of Surrey, led by Dr Ellie Ratcliffe and Dr Melissa Marselle and investigated by Dr Konrad Uebel.