Psychological effects of landscape design on village residents’ anxiety: a guided study

Abstract

Background

The increasingly prominent psychological anxiety of villagers in rural areas has a negative impact on their lives and well-being. It is of great significance to find effective mitigation methods. Research on the guiding effect of rural landscape design on villagers’ psychological anxiety from the perspective of design psychology can provide help for alleviating the psychological anxiety of rural residents.

Subjects and Methods

In this study, 300 villagers from rural areas were selected as the experimental group among the villagers with psychological anxiety, who received teaching and appreciation of rural landscape design from the perspective of design psychology, while another 300 villagers from rural areas were selected as the control group, who did not receive relevant teaching and appreciation. The psychological Anxiety of the two groups of villagers was assessed by Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) once a quarter for a total of four quarters.

Results

At the end of the first quarter, the average anxiety score was 20 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group. At the end of the fourth quarter, the average anxiety score was 12 for the experimental group and 24 for the control group. The anxiety of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group.

Conclusions

Rural landscape design from the perspective of design psychology can effectively guide villagers’ psychological anxiety, and improve their emotional regulation ability and satisfaction with the rural environment. Therefore, rural areas should pay attention to the humanization and psychological orientation of landscape design to provide better psychological support and living environment for villagers.

Acknowledgement

Jiangxi University Humanities and Social Science Research Fund Project, Rural old-age landscape construction under the background of rural revitalization—a case study of the communist youth community in the communist youth city (No.YS21235).