NATURE RELATEDNESS AS A FACTOR OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING

Abstract

The problem of the quality of life is widely discussed nowadays. The researchers underline that it doesn`t depend only on satisfaction of basic needs, such as food, safeness etc. A very important role has the subjective evaluation of one`s wellbeing. The concept of psychological wellbeing developed by K. Ryff is based on the humanistic approach to the personality which includes the notions of realization of inner potential, selfactualization, finding sense of life, freedom and responsibility. It is the eudomonistic view on the personality wellbeing. At the same time we should consider, that person lives in the environment: natural, social, economic etc. Being a part of a bigger group or of Universe is a big resource for an individual, it gives a sense of connectedness, being a part of something bigger. That`s why a raw of researchers (T.Hartig, E.Nisbet, J.Zelenski and others) considered that nature relatedness may influence the psychological wellbeing, and the data of their investigations approving this fact. On the other hand, the researches in the post-soviet countries (by I.Kryazh, T.Sinyugina) showed different results. To examine the connection of nature relatedness and positive functioning of a personality among Ukrainian people we provided a research. We investigated nature relatedness (“Nature Relatedness Scale NRS” by E.Nisbet and J.Zelenski, express-version), positive functioning (“Psychological Wellbeing Scale” by K.Ryff
and “Hardiness Survey” by S.Muddy, adapted by Osin and Rasskazova), values (A brief inventory of values Stern P.C, Dietz T., Guagnano G.A.) and Graphic Scale by Schultz, W. P. “Includiding of nature in “Me”. The results of research show that relatedness to nature is positively connected to the level of psychological wellbeing and hardiness. Biospheric, altruistic and self-preservation values correlate to nature relatedness and hardiness, but we didn`t observe strait connection of values with psychological wellbeing. There may exist nonlinear connections between ecologic values, nature relatedness and psychological wellbeing. We think a further examination of connections between these factors is necessary.