Natural scientists are describing a present global condition of annual “ecological overshoot,” in which in only about 7 months, humanity is consuming what the biocapacity of the earth can regenerate in a year. That means we then extract from the “capital” or underlying bio-capacity for the rest of what we take, further exacerbating the cycle. Climate change is only the most reported-upon of multiple similar trends. As climate activists have said, we may be the first generation to comprehend these threats, and the last to be able to avert them. Currently, local variation in impacts, time-lags, and artificially low prices disguise this trend. The magnitude of previous challenges to humanity pales in comparison to the changes in institutional operating rules, cultural values, and behavior patterns needed to adapt to the changes already committed, and to avoid yet more drastic conditions for future generations. In the short term, some populations continue to suffer disproportionate environmental health impacts. How can the field of positive psychology help address this situation, respecting ecological limits through positive means and simultaneously addressing social equity in environmental costs and benefits? Through a presentation by noted conservation psychologist Olin Eugene Myers on “Positive Psychology’s Potential in Forging an Environmentally Sustainable and Just Future,” and commentaries by leading positive psychologists Nansook Park and Hans Henrik Knoop, the symposium (Jeanne Nakamura, Chair) raises a range of possible ways that the field might realize its potential to help, drawing on core areas of theory, research, and application in positive psychology such as the psychology of hope, affect science, and strengths and systems perspectives. The session will conclude with a Q&A with Professor Myers.
Jeanne Nakamura is Associate Professor of Psychology and Co-director of the Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) in Claremont, CA. She helped establish CGU’s Quality of Life Research Center with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and its positive psychology graduate program. She studies positive psychology in a lifespan developmental context, including vital engagement and flow, mentoring and good work, and aging well. She is coauthor of Good Mentoring and Creativity and Development and co-editor of Applied Positive Psychology. Her current research and writing address motivation and engagement in adulthood, and prosocial commitment after sixty as a model for positive aging. She is a former IPPA Board member, current member of IPPA’s Council of Advisors, and was scientific co-chair of the 2013 IPPA World Congress on Positive Psychology. With colleagues, she has organized conferences on the Psychology of Well-being and Its Ecological Implications, and Alternatives to Materialism.
Olin Eugene (Gene) Myers, Jr. is Professor of Environmental Studies at Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington. He is past President of the Society for Human Ecology. His work deals with four interrelated areas: the psychological foundations of children’s relation to animals; the lifespan development of environmental care and responsibility; conservation psychology, the integration of psychology into sustainability practice; and the teaching of environmental ethics and the preparation of future environmental educators. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is author of Children and Animals: Social Development and Our Connection to Other Species (1998) and Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature (with Susan Clayton, 2nd ed., 2015), which explores implications of positive psychology for the promotion of environmental well-being. In 2013 he organized a conference strand on the intersection of Positive Psychology and Conservation Psychology for the 3rd IPPA World Congress.
Nansook Park is Professor of Psychology and a Director of Michigan Positive Psychology Center at the University of Michigan. Her research spans many topics in positive psychology including strengths, virtues, and well-being in relational context but she is best known for her work in collaboration with the late Christopher Peterson developing ways to measure character strengths and virtues and studying their development, consequences, and contributors across cultures. She has worked on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Positive Health project, Annenberg Positive Youth Development project, Positive Education project in Australia, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and Soldier Resilience project, and other initiatives. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and IPPA and a recipient of the 2015 Christopher Peterson Gold Medal Award from IPPA. She has given invited lectures and workshops in 23 nations across 6 continents. She is a core member of the Science and Ethics for Happiness and Well-being (SEH) initiative led by the Vatican City and the UN-Sustainability. She is a former IPPA Board member, current member of IPPA’s Council of Advisors. She was an Associate Editor for Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being and is a Consulting Editor for The Journal of Positive Psychology.
Hans Henrik Knoop is Associate Professor with distinction and Director of the Positive Psychology Research Unit at Aarhus University, Denmark, where he has co-directed the Master’s Program in Positive Psychology since 2011. He adopts a systems, interdisciplinary approach in his work on flourishing in education, work, and society. He has studied more than 250,000 Danish students and thousands of educators and leaders in his research in positive psychology, including as Research Director at the Universe Research Lab, Denmark. Knoop has authored and co-authored over 200 publications, including nine books, and delivered over a thousand invited keynotes and lectures in Denmark and other countries including Australia, Austria, Croatia, China, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Slovenia, the Philippines, the U.K., and the U.S. His commentaries on positive psychology topics appear frequently in newspapers, radio and television. He was President of the European Network for Positive Psychology from 2010 to 2014, hosted the 5th European Conference on Positive Psychology (ECPP) in Copenhagen in 2010, helped organize the 2012 and 2014 ECPP conferences, and served on the IPPA Board of Directors from 2009 to 2016.