THE RESTORATIVE EFFECTS OF WILDERNESS BACKPACKING (FIELD RESEARCH, QUASI-EXPERIMENT, ENVIRONMENTS)

The dissertation uses a quasi-experimental design to examine restorative effects of wilderness backpacking. Three groups are compared: One group consists of twenty-five individuals who participated in backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California (backpacking group), another group contains eighteen individuals who were on non-wilderness vacations (vacation control group), while the third group consists of twenty-five individuals who were involved in the usual business of everyday life. Persons in all three groups are experienced backpackers. The design includes pre- and posttesting and a three-week follow-up. The time lapse between pre- and posttesting varied between four days and a week. Self-report and behavioral measures were administered to assess psychological restoration on emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. Attitudes toward wilderness and physical fitness were assessed as a partial check on confounding variables.; The data provide suggestive evidence for restorative effects of wilderness backpacking. Of the eight indicators of emotional well-being, the overall happiness scale showed the hypothesized significant time-by-group interaction effect. Several other self-report measures while not significant were in the predicted direction. While the three groups did not differ at pre- and posttesting, the backpacking group had significantly higher overall happiness at the three-week follow-up.; Results also indicate mental restoration effects. Proofreading was used as an indicator of attentiveness and concentration. While both baseline and vacation control groups showed a decline in proofreading performance from pre- to posttesting, the backpacking group demonstrated increased proofreading performance at posttesting. The data lend support to the position of wilderness as a restorative environment. No changes were found for a frustration tolerance task, that immediately followed proofreading. Aftereffects of the proofreading task are discussed as a plausible explanation for the lack of group differences on the second aftereffect task.; The data did not support the hypothesis of spiritual restoration. Characteristics of the posttesting situation may have masked effects on these self-report scales.