Abstract
We currently live in a consumer society with extremely damaging consequences for the environment. It urges to develop modes and models of production, and consumption behaviours with less environmental impact, which simultaneously ensure the satisfaction of citizens’ basic needs and their health, quality of life, and well-being. To achieve that, it is essential to find out a balance between positive and negative impacts of the overall energy strategy and clean technologies for societies, but also for persons individually considered, since their attitudes and behaviours are vital for that strategy success. This balance must be based on populations’ quality of life, well-being evolution and social progress monitoring, not limiting measures to objective socio-economic conditions, physical environments, goods and services. This chapter seeks to present a narrative review which intends to reflect on the extent to which factors that promote individual health and well-being (in particular connecting with nature) can be made congruent with those that facilitate well-being at collective or global levels. It is argued in the defence of a Positive Ecological Psychology that contributes to the definition and implementation of environmental policies and behaviour change that simultaneously protect and preserve the environment, and allow individuals to live a “full life” and to flourish.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aknin LB, Dunn EW, Norton MI (2012) Happiness runs in a circular motion: evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. J Happiness Stud 13:347–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9267-5
Aknin LB, Barrington-Leigh CP, Dunn EW, Helliwell JF, Burns J, Biswas-Diener R et al (2013) Prosocial spending and well-being: cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. J Pers Soc Psychol 104(4):635–652
Atchley RA, Strayer DL, Atchley P (2012) Creativity in the wild: improving creative reasoning through immersion in natural settings. PLoS ONE 7(12):e51474. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051474
Berman MG, Jonides J, Kaplan S (2009) The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature. Psychol Sci 19(12):1207–1212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x
Bratman GN, Hamilton JP, Daily GC (2012) The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1249:118–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06400.x
Capaldi CA, Passmore H-A, Nisbet EK, Zelenski JM, Dopko RL (2015) Flourishing in nature: a review of the benefits of connecting with nature and its application as a wellbeing intervention. Int J Wellbeing 5(4):1–16. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v5i4.1
Cervinka R, Röderer K, Hefler E (2012) Are nature lovers happy? on various indicators of well-being and connectedness with nature. J Health Psychol 17:379–388
Chadwick A (2015) Bridging the divide between positive and negative: the effectiveness of hope and fear appeals in climate change communication. The conference on communication and environment, Boulder, Colorado, 11–14 June 2015. https://theieca.org/sites/default/files/conference-presentations/coce_2015_boulder/chadwick_amy_e.-1310023120.pdf
Chapin FS, Pickett STA, Power ME, Jackson RB, Carter DM et al (2011) Earth stewardship: a strategy for social–ecological transformation to reverse planetary degradation. J Environ Stud Sci 1:44–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-011-0010-7
Corral-Verdugo V (2012) The positive psychology of sustainability. Environ Dev Sustain 14:651–666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9346-8
Gullone E (2000) The biophilia hypothesis and life in the 21st century: increasing mental health or increasing pathology? J Happiness Stud 1:293–322. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010043827986
Hartmann P, Apaolaza-Ibáñez V (2012) Consumer attitude and purchase intention toward green energy brands: the roles of psychological benefits and environmental concern. J Bus Res 65(9):1254–1263
Herzog TR, Strevey SJ (2008) Contact with nature, sense of humor, and psychological well-being. Environ Behav 40:747–776
Hilbig BE, Zettler I, Moshagen M, Heydasch T (2013) Tracing the path from personality—via cooperativeness—to conservation. Eur J Pers 27:319–327
Howell AJ, Passmore H-A (2013) The nature of happiness: nature affiliation and mental well-being. In: Keyes CLM (ed) Mental well-being: International contributions to the study of positive mental health, pp 231–257. Springer Science, Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5195-8_11
Howell AJ, Dopko RL, Passmore H-A, Buro K (2011) Nature connectedness: associations with well-being and mindfulness. Personality Individ Differ 51:166–171
Keyes CLM (2002) The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life. J Health Soc Behav 43:207–222. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090197
Kushlev K, Drummond DM, Heintzelman SJ, Diener E (2019) Do happy people care about society’s problems? J Positive Psychol 15(4):467–477. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1639797
Kushlev K, Radosic N, Diener EF, Diener E (2020). Subjective well-being and prosociality around the globe: happy people give more of their time and money to others. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7wzan
Liu B, Matsushima J (2019) Annual changes in energy quality and quality of life: a cross-national study of 29 OECD and 37 non-OECD countries. Energy Rep 5:1354–1364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2019.09.040
Louv R (2005) Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Algonquin Books, USA
Lumber R, Richardson M, Sheffield D (2018) The pathways to nature connectedness: a focus group exploration. Eur J Ecopsychol 6:47–68
Martin L, White MP, Hunt A, Richardson M, Pahl S, Burt J (2020) Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. J Environ Psychol 68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101389
Mayer FS, Frantz CM (2004) The Connectedness to nature scale: a measure of individuals’ feelings in community with nature. J Environ Psychol 24:504–515
Mella P, Gazzola P (2015) Sustainability and quality of life: the development model. In Kapounek S (ed) 18 Annual international conference enterprise and competitive environment. conference proceedings. Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic
Merino A, Valor C, Redondo R (2020) Connectedness is in my character: the relationship between nature relatedness and character strengths. Environ Educ Rese. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1825630
Instituto Nacional de Estatística (n.d.) Well-being index. https://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_indbemestar
Nadimi R, Tokimatsu K, Yoshikawa K (2017) Sustainable energy policy options in the presence of quality of life, poverty, and CO2 emission. Energy Procedia 142:2959–2964
Nisbet EK, Zelenski JM, Murphy SA (2011) Happiness is in our nature: exploring nature relatedness as a contributor to subjective well-being. J Happiness Stud Interdiscip Forum Subjective Well-Being 12(2):303–322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-010-9197-7
Passmore HA, Howell AJ (2014) Nature involvement increases hedonic and eudaimonic well-being: a two-week experimental study. Ecopsychology 6:148–154. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2014.0023
Passmore HA, Howell AJ (2014) Eco-existential positive psychology: how experiences in nature can address our existential anxieties and contribute to well-being. Humanistic Psychol 42:370–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/08873267.2014.920335
Pasten C, Santamarina JC (2012) Energy and quality of life. Energy Policy 49:468–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.051
Perkins HE (2010) Measuring love and care for nature. J Environ Psychol 30(4):455–463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.05.004
Restall B, Conrad E (2015) A literature review of connectedness to nature and its potential for environmental management. J Environ Manage 159:264–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.05.022
Rosa CD, Collado S (2019) Experiences in nature and environmental attitudes and behaviors: setting the ground for future research. Front Psychol 10:763. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00763
Ryan RM, Deci EL (2001) On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annu Rev Psychol 52(1):141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141
Ryff CD (1989) Happiness is everything, or is it? explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. J Pers Soc Psychol 57:1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069
Schueller SM, Seligman MEP (2010) Pursuit of pleasure, engagement, and meaning: relationships to subjective and objective measures of well-being. J Posit Psychol 5(4):253–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439761003794130
Seligman M (2018) PERMA and the building blocks of well-being. J Posit Psychol. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466
Shepley M, Sachs N, Sadatsafavi H, Fournier C, Peditto K (2019) The impact of green space on violent crime in urban environments: an evidence synthesis. Int J Environ Res Public Health 16(24):5119. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16245119
Smith J (2018) How selfish is your search for happiness? The Psychologist, 28–32. Available at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-31/august-2018/how-selfish-your-search-happiness
Taylor AF, Kuo FE, Sullivan WC (2001) Coping with add: the surprising connection to green play settings. Environ Behav 33(1):54–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139160121972864
Ulrich RS (1984) View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science 224(4647):420–421. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.6143402
Valera S, Vidal T (2017) Some cues for a positive environmental psychology agenda. In Fleury-Bahi G, Pol E, Navarro O (eds) Handbook of environmental psychology and quality of life research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31416-7_3
Weinstein N, Przybylski AK, Ryan RM (2009) Can nature make us more caring? Effects of immersion in nature on intrinsic aspirations and generosity. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 35:1315–1329. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209341649
White MP, Alcock I, Grellier J, Wheeler BW, Hartig T, Warber SL et al (2019) Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Sci Rep 9:7730. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3
Wonneberger A (2018) Environmentalism—a question of guilt? Testing a model of guilt arousal and effects for environmental campaigns. J Nonprofit Public Sect Mark 30(2):168–186
World Health Organization (1997) WHOQOL: measuring quality-of-life. WHO, Geneva
World Health Organization (2004) Promoting mental health: concepts, emerging evidence, practice: Summary report. Geneva: World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/promoting_mh_2005/en/
Zelenski JM, Nisbet EK (2014) Happiness and feeling connected: the distinct role of nature relatedness. Environ Behav 46:3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916512451901
Zhang JW, Piff PK, Iyer R, Koleva S, Keltner D (2014) An occasion for unselfing: beautiful nature leads to prosociality. J Environ Psychol 37:61–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.11.008
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Silva, I., Jólluskin, G., Cardoso, P. (2022). Positive Ecological Psychology: Contributes to the Promotion of Healthy Lives and Well-Being. In: Leal Filho, W., Vidal, D.G., Dinis, M.A.P., Dias, R.C. (eds) Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86304-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86304-3_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-86303-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-86304-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)