Rachel Holden: Rurban Summer Intern
Who are you?
Hello, I’m Rachel. I am going into the third year of my Psychology degree at the University of Liverpool, and over the summer I am doing an internship with Dr. Bethan Mead and Dr. Charlotte Hardman, within the area of nature exposure and food-related choices. I am very interested in the impact that having access to green spaces and urban agriculture, can have on the health-choices that individuals make. Over the (several) lockdowns we have had over the past 18 months, I have become increasingly more in tune with nature and its benefits to my physical and mental health, and so it is an area that I am thrilled to have the opportunity to explore further.
What research are you conducting within your internship?
We are conducting an online study with the aim to investigate if exposure to nature and urban agriculture scenes have similar or different effects on dietary food choices, and perceived restorativeness. To our knowledge, the combined effects of nature and urban agriculture scenes have not yet been directly compared within an empirical, online setting. Therefore, it is important to study said effects, to shed light on possible interventions and policies that may serve to improve nationwide health choices. I am delighted to have the opportunity to consider and learn about what influences everyday health behaviours, and the ways in which they can be positively improved.
What do you hope will come from your research?
With the rates of obesity rapidly increasing worldwide, so are the rates of mental health problems, and global public health concerns. In line with the inspiring research that the Rurban Revolution team conduct, the present study hopes to find more evidence to support the transformative potential of nature exposure, and exposure to urban agriculture. More specifically, we hope that participants will have a greater desire for healthy food options after viewing scenes of nature and urban agriculture, compared to urban scenes, as well as have greater perceived restorativeness. I hope this research can add to the growing realisation that nature and nutritious food have the great potential to heal, and that being exposed to such relatively simple aspects of life, can help to improve both our physical and mental health.
What inspires you?
Learning and discovering what can help people, truly inspires me. Although I am just starting out in my Psychology career, I have a burning desire to find out why; why people act the ways in which they do, why people are more prone to certain things or lifestyles than others, why do people have certain mindsets or opinions etc., and more importantly, I have a desire to learn how to help people change all of those things if they wish to. So, what better way to help people than to conduct research into areas that can inform them, and provide them with substantial knowledge, so that they can make informed changes and decisions!