HORTICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND PROGRAMS MAY AFFECT HUMAN EGO STATES

The role of horticultural activities in human ego states was examined by three case studies: Ex. 1) 92 horticulture enthusiasts (43 males and 49 females, mean age= 56) of a horticultural well-being group and community garden users; Ex. 2) 34 participants (9 males and 25 females, mean age=39) in short horticultural therapy training programs; and Ex. 3) 140 students (72 males and 68 females, mean age=20) in Utsunomiya University.
The ego-gram was used to evaluate subjects’ 5 ego states: critical parent (CP), nurturing parent (NP), adult (A), free child (FC) and adapted child (AC). The ego states show a person’s consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and behavior.
Ego-gram is used not only medically but also in education at some schools and in human resources sections of companies.
Subjects also answered a questionnaire referring to horticultural activities.
In Ex. 1) the mean scores of CP, NP and FC were 12.0, 16.4 and 14.1, respectively, higher than the Japanese average (p<0.001). Persons, who frequently used cut flowers in daily life, trended to have higher NP and FC scores among ego states.
In Ex. 2) scores of FC (p<0.02) and frequency of daily use of cut flowers (p<0.001) significantly increased after the horticultural therapy training programs.
In Ex. 3) frequency of daily use of cut flowers significantly correlated with NP (r=0.33, p<0.0001) and FC (r=0.20, p<0.02) scores.
This study implicates that horticultural programs are feasible to provide people some beneficial changes in ego-sate.
The relationships between horticultural activities and the patterns of ego-states were discussed.

XXVII International Horticultural Congress – IHC2006: International Symposium on Horticultural Practices and Therapy for Human Well-Being

K. Yamane, S.Y. Park, N. Fujishige, Y.T. Yamaki

adapted child, critical parent, ego-gram, free child, gardening, horticultural therapy, nurturing parent

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.775.8