No abstract

Innovative technologies are expected to play a significant role in climate change mitigation and adaptation within the agriculture sector and in global food security. Clearly, however, the value of technological innovations in the agriculture sector is premised on their adoption. Therefore, understanding why farmers differ in their adoption of innovative green technologies is important. In the following paper, we review current literature and set the theoretical framework for suggesting that three important personal resources correlate with agricultural technology adoption: positive emotions, character strengths (including specific ones), and cognitive goal-oriented hope. This study constitutes an important theoretical basis for future practical recommendations for environmental policy, positive psychology, and innovation adoption that may help narrow some of the gaps in technology adoption rates. In addition to its theoretical innovation, the importance of this study lies in its practical value: we focus on variables that are influenced through policy, education, and communication. The theoretical connections between positive psychology and environmental studies emerging from this study should be developed and explored. We hope that this new perspective will motivate future research on these factors within diverse farming communities across different nations.

This article offers a new perspective on 2 of the most pressing challenges of contemporary society: improving the state of the environment and improving the subjective well-being (SWB) of adolescents, who are not only likely to suffer the severe consequences of environmental degradation but are also society's future leaders. We present an innovative interdisciplinary approach blending positive psychology with environmental education to study the previously unexplored mechanisms by which green schools may promote not only adolescents' environmental behavior (EB) but also their SWB. Within a new framework of environmental subjective well-being, our explanatory theoretical model posits a potential chain of influence that begins with green schools' effects on students' goal-directed environmental hope (a latent cognitive variable indicated by agency thinking, pathway thinking, and trusting other members of society), which in turn contributes to increased levels of EB and SWB. A latent cognitive-behavioral variable, indicated by self-control skills and resistance to peer pressure, is posited as moderator of the relation between environmental hope and actual EB. Implications for research, practice, and policy are proposed.

This article proposes an integrative policy approach to defining and promoting wellbeing through the joint lenses of positive psychology and environmental sustainability. The study suggests that while both positive education and environmental education address various aspects of wellbeing, a common definition is still absent. The study proposes a framework for advancing a mutual concept of wellbeing: “sustainable wellbeing”, integrating aspects of individual wellbeing and the wellbeing of the environment. Sustainable wellbeing is achieved when improving individual wellbeing is correlated with improving the wellbeing of other members of society and the natural environment. It suggests a framework for integrating the benefits of positive education and environmental education into a coherent approach for exploring, discussing, and experiencing sustainable wellbeing. The paper mainly develops, explores, and demonstrates ten rules for implementing sustainable wellbeing literacy in schools, based on cognitive behavioral therapy and positive psychology insights. It contributes to the development and understanding of wellbeing, highlights the benefits of parallel developments of two distinct educational fields, and offers practical guidelines for implementing educational programs. Furthermore, the paper contributes to developing 21st century educational systems and further develops the emerging field of positive sustainability.

What influences countries' environmental performance? Do structural differences alone affect the level of air pollution? Do economic conditions determine water quality? Might society's dominant ideology and values impact national environmental performance? Are different kinds of environmental-performance indicators affected by the same variables? This paper employs comparative empirical analyses of EPI data to address these questions. Doing so enables us to contribute the following five insights to the research literature. First, we propose a conceptual categorization of EP following their health, ecological and global aspects. Second, we demonstrate that social policy, a previously underexplored factor, affects environmental policy and performance. Third, we provide evidence for the role of international engagement in explaining global-related environmental performance. Fourth, our research extends the sample studied beyond the traditional OECD sample to 68 countries with diverse development status. Finally, we demonstrate that the multiple regression models we employed provide high levels of explanatory power (up to 89%). Collectively, the results demonstrate the important role of social policy in explaining differences in the environmental performance of countries. In addition, the differences in the influence of the explanatory variables on each of the proposed category support our theoretical arguments for differentiating between various categories of environmental performance.