The close relationship between sports and the natural environment has been endangered by climate crisis and global warming (Breitbarth et al., 2023; Cunningham et al., 2020; McCullough, 2023; Orr & Inoue, 2019). For this reason, the development of golf courses has been accused of serious impacts on environmental destruction which causes climate change, despite the popularity of golf (Fouillouze et al, 2023). Golf courses have become quite far from the green image. Hence, golf courses began to voluntarily obtain environmental certification (e.g., Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, GEO certified) to protect nature and keep ecosystems sustainable (Gomis et al., 2018; Lee et al., 2022; Minoli et al., 2015; Scott et al., 2018). However, the existing literature cannot determine whether the golf courses' environmental efforts play an important role in laying the groundwork for the development of relationships with customers, and even it is unclear whether they can benefit from the relationship marketing. Thus, the purpose of this study was to create and assess a holistic model that explains the formation of customers' brand advocacy on environmentally friendly golf courses. Building on various bodies of literature, such as green brand image, feelings of gratitude, relationship quality, and brand advocacy, proposed a theoretical model that explains the formation of customers' brand advocacy intentions. Empirical data were collected from 575 golfers who had visited environmentally friendly golf courses and analyzed using a structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that perceived brand image influences feelings of gratitude, which in turn positively influences brand advocacy intentions through relationship quality. The feelings of gratitude did not directly affect brand advocacy intentions, while they indirectly influenced brand advocacy intentions through the quality of relationships including trust and commitment. The findings of the study suggested that under the influence of green marketing, relationship quality plays a pivotal role in influencing brand advocacy intentions, providing a holistic model of relationship development. Therefore, sustainable branding is a relationship strategy that can inspire customers.

Gratitude has become one of the most central concepts in positive psychology and counseling. Most of all, gratitude positively influences the well-being of human beings. Despite growing interest in dispositional gratitude and well-being in cultural frameworks, these relationships have not been systemically compared across cultures. Thus, in order to investigate the cross-cultural similarities and differences in dispositional gratitude and well-being, this study systemically examined the associations between dispositional gratitude and well-being indicators, including subjective well-being such as life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, and psychological well-being such as purpose in life, autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery, positive relationships with others, and self-acceptance, of university students in the United States and South Korea, representing each individualistic and collectivistic culture. Moreover, increased knowledge of the moderators provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between gratitude and well-being in cultural contexts. Thus, this study also investigated the moderating effects of indebtedness on the relationship between dispositional gratitude and subjective well-being in two countries. This study utilized a web-based survey and included a valid sample of 307 American and 306 Korean college students. The independent samples t-test analyses indicated that American and Korean university students differed significantly in the mean levels of all study variables. Specifically, compared to the American participants, Korean participants reported higher mean levels of dispositional gratitude, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, total score of psychological well-being, environmental mastery, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. On the other hand, American participants reported higher mean levels of autonomy and personal growth than Korean participants. Second, the results from Pearson coefficients revealed that dispositional gratitude was significantly associated with all indicators of subjective and psychological well-being in both the United States and Korea. Third, the results from Fisher Z analyses showed that the differences in the associations of dispositional gratitude with negative affect, total psychological well-being score, environmental mastery, and personal growth between American and Korean participants were statistically significant. These associations of American university students were significantly more robust than those of Korean university students. Lastly, the results from multiple hierarchical analyses indicated that indebtedness did not moderate the relationship between dispositional gratitude and three subjective well-being indicators for American and Korean college students. This study is also meaningful in that it provides insight into how counselors or educators should intervene with their clients with gratitude interventions within cultural contexts. Moreover, these results could also stimulate future empirical work to replicate and extend more representative and larger samples from different cultures and other moderators. Lastly, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

This thesis argues that Heidegger’s thought offers crucial insights into the structural challenges that modernity poses to being an ethical and religious person. I argue that these difficulties come down to an instrumentalist conception of truth, a denial or repression of finitude as the condition of meaningfulness, and a philosophical anthropology that is both too subjectivistic and too objectivistic. Yet while Heidegger was good on the diagnosis, he was reluctant to give more than digressive and opaque prescriptions to these problems. My thesis seeks to respond to this lacuna by putting Heidegger’s critical observations in the service of articulating a positive religious ethics. To that end, it seeks to locate—as well as redefine from an ontological perspective—the human dispositions and practices that expose truth in a non-instrumental light, that show finitude as a positive condition of meaningfulness, and that reveal the essence of the human being in non-subjectivist and non- objectivist terms. I argue that these include listening and gratitude—dispositions and practices I claim should form the backbone of any religious ethics, and yet which I also claim should not be limited to those who believe in a personal, theistic God. My thesis contributes to the fields of modern theology and Heidegger Studies in four ways. First, it shows that Heidegger’s critics (such as Levinas and Adorno) are wrong to oppose ontology to ethics. Second, it shows that Heidegger’s critics (such as Marion and Jonas) are wrong to oppose ontology to theology. Third, it shows that Heidegger’s own ambivalence about the ethical and theological relevance of his thought allows for the development of a deeply ethical and theological posture. And fourth, it offers a unique, post-Heideggerian interpretation of gratitude, one in which it is understood as a structure of Dasein that is both “always already” and “not yet” operative.

Gratitude and indebtedness are construed as separate constructs in recent research.It is hypothesized by this thesis that self-focused attention affects feelings of gratitude and indebtedness. Focusing less attention on the self, thus turning attention resources outward, may allow for the experience of gratitude, whereas focusing inward may create feelings of indebtedness. Two studies examined how focusing one's attention inward may be related to indebtedness, whereas being focused outward may be related to gratitude. A correlational study showed that people who self-focus tend to feel more indebtedness and less gratitude. An experiment was designed to show that manipulating social anxiety, a specific type of self-focused attention, would increase feelings of indebtedness and decrease feelings of gratitude. However, no significant differences of indebtedness or gratitude were found between the experimental condition and control condition.

Researchers have suggested an increased focus on positive psychological interventions to enhance college students' happiness levels; however, few studies have addressed positive interventions on at-risk college students. Based on the theoretical framework of positive psychology and impact of positive exercises on happiness, this study addressed whether a positive intervention would increase happiness as evidenced by scores on the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). The experimental design included random group assignment and pre- and posttest surveys to collect data from 135 at-risk community college students in Southeast Texas. The experimental group participated in a 1-week intervention consisting of 2 gratitude exercises, and the control group completed early memory journaling. Results indicated significant differences in SWLS and PANAS scores between the two groups with an increase in life satisfaction and positive affect and a decrease in negative affect in the experimental group. Results may be used by institutions seeking positive interventions to increase at-risk college student success and retention.

本研究旨在探討大學生的感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態及幸福感之相互關係，從而建構各變項間可能的影響路徑。研究採問卷調查法，以台灣地區公、私立大學750位大學生為研究對象。研究工具則包含感恩特質量表、社會支持量表、因應型態量表、幸福感量表、GQ-6量表及負向情緒量表等六份量表。本研究採用描述統計、單因子多變量變異數分析及結構方程模式分析資料，研究結果陳述如下： 一、人口變項與感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態、幸福感之關係 （一）不同地區（北、中、南）大學生在感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態及幸福感表現上並無顯著差異存在。 （二）公立學校大學生在感恩特質及社會支持表現上顯著優於私立學校，但在因應型態及幸福感表現上則無顯著差異存在。 （三）不同學院（文、商、理、工、社科、教育、藝術）大學生在感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態及幸福感表現上皆有差異存在。 （四）女大學生在感恩特質、社會支持及因應型態之「情緒取向積極因應」及幸福感得分皆高於男大學生。惟男學大生在因應型態之「問題取向消極因應」得分高於女大學生。 （五）一年級大學生在社會支持之「訊息與實質性支持」得分高於二年級大學生，但在感恩特質、因應型態及幸福感表現上則無顯著的年級差異存在。 （六）不同宗教信仰（無、佛、道、基督/天主、其他）的大學生在感恩特質及社會支持表現上有差異存在，但在因應型態及幸福感表現上則無顯著差異存在。 二、感恩特質與社會支持、因應型態、幸福感之關係 （一）不同感恩特質之大學生在社會支持表現上有差異存在；感恩特質程度較高者，其知覺到「情緒與陪伴性支持」及「訊息與實質性支持」的程度較高。 （二）不同感恩特質之大學生在因應型態表現上有差異存在；感恩特質程度較高者，除較能採取「問題取向積極因應」及「情緒取向積極因應」，亦會較少採取「情緒取向消極因應」。 （三）不同感恩特質之大學生在幸福感表現上有差異存在；感恩特質程度較高者，其知覺到「生活滿意」及「正向情緒」的程度較高。 （四）感恩特質、社會支持及因應型態除對幸福感具正向直接效果，感恩特質也會透過社會支持及因應型態對幸福感產生正向間接效果。此外，社會支持除透過因應型態對幸福感具正向間接效果，因應型態也會透過社會支持對幸福感產生正向間接效果。 最後，根據上述研究結果提出若干意見，以供相關單位與人員在教育及未來研究上之參考。 / The main purposes of this study were to explore the interactive relationships of undergraduates’ gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being, and further to examine a path model of these variables. The participants in this study were 750 undergraduate students in Taiwan. Moreover, the employed instruments included the Inventory of Gratitude, the Inventory of Social Support, the Inventory of Coping Style, the Inventory of Subjective Well-being, the gratitude questionnaire-6, and the Inventory of Negative Emotion. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, one-way MANOVA and SEM. The main findings of this study were as follows: 1. The relationships among demographic variables, gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (1) Areas had no effects on the undergraduates’ gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (2) Undergraduate students from public universities had a higher degree of gratitude and social support than those from private universities. However, no differences were found on coping style and subjective well-being between these two groups. (3) College majors had effects on the undergraduates’ degree of gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (4) While the females had a higher degree of gratitude, social support, and emotion-focused positive coping than the males, the males had a higher degree of problem-focused negative coping than the females. (5) The freshmen had a higher level of informational-tangible social support than the sophomores. However, no differences were found on gratitude, coping style, and subjective well-being among the four grade levels. (6) Religious beliefs had effects on the undergraduates’ gratitude and social support, but did not have effects on their coping style and subjective well-being. 2. The relationships among gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (1) Grateful people had a higher degree of emotional-accompanied and informational-tangible social support than less grateful ones. (2) Grateful people tended to utilize more problem-focused positive coping and emotion-focused positive coping than less grateful ones. However, less grateful people tended to utilize more emotion-focused negative coping than more grateful ones. (3) Grateful people had a higher level of life satisfaction and positive emotion than less grateful ones. (4) While gratitude, social support, and coping style positively influenced the undergraduates’ subjective well-being, gratitude positively influenced their subjective well-being via social support and coping style. In addition, while social support positively influenced their subjective well-being via coping style, coping style also positively influenced subjective well-being via social support. Finally, the researcher proposed some suggestions for education and future research.

<p>The interpretation of this qualitative study indicates that individuals, teams and the organisation can benefit through allowing focus of unlocking that which provides a positive stimulus during challenging times in organisational settings. For social scientists, and in particular behavioural scientists, including industrial psychologists that are interested in positive psychology, it is hoped that there is an invitation to grow this area of research further and to gain new insights and direction for what are the enablers to experience positive change and gratitude.</p>

<p>Marketers seek to create and consumers seek to cultivate a variety of positive emotional experiences. Despite their importance to consumer behavior, researchers have lacked a clear understanding of the distinct behavioral consequences of specific positive emotions. My dissertation examines how different positive emotions (e.g., hope, love, and pride) can differentially affect consumers' decisions and behaviors. I find that positive emotions can not only be differentiated but also that specific positive emotions lead to distinctly different patterns of consumption behavior, such as considering more options, donating in different ways, engaging in more effortful actions, or performing more socially conscious consumption behaviors benefiting distant others. I find important differences both with momentary emotional experiences and downstream consequences of chronic emotional experiences. </p><p>Positive emotions differ reliably in the degree to which they create a lens of problem-solving, social connection, and perceived control. For example, I find that positive emotions characterized by a social connection lens (e.g., love and gratitude) lead to increases in socially conscious behaviors benefiting distant others. The tendency to perceive one's environment through a problem-solving lens (which characterizes hope and interest but not love and gratitude) leads to larger consideration sets and engagement in more effortful environmental actions. I also examine how positive emotions characterized by different lenses, such as perceived control (e.g., pride) and social connection (e.g., love), produce distinct behaviors within the same consumption context (e.g., giving in different ways in response to a fundraising appeal). Five studies demonstrate that positive emotions can be characterized in ways that allow prediction of distinct forms of broadening and specific consumption behaviors.</p> / Dissertation

Abstract Positive psychology encourages a focus on identifying and promoting wellness in individuals rather than analyzing psychopathology. Although decades of research shows that mental illness is in part environmental and hereditary, little is known about the relationship between parental levels of positive emotions such as gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope, and their children's levels of the same constructs. This study utilized a past, present, and future framework of positive emotions to explore parental and child levels of gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope. This quantitative study analyzed correlations between self-reported levels of gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope among a sample of 153 fourth and fifth grade students and their parents (143 female caregivers, 119 male caregivers). Findings include statistically significant relationships between (a) mother and child gratitude (but not father and child gratitude) and (b) child life satisfaction with both mothers' and fathers' life satisfaction. No relationships emerged between parental hope and child hope. The study has important implications for school psychologists, including sharing with caregivers' the relationships between parental positive emotions and their children' levels of wellness. Future research is needed to investigate the causes of the links identified in the current study, as well as to explore the relationship between parental and child hope.

<p>The interpretation of this qualitative study indicates that individuals, teams and the organisation can benefit through allowing focus of unlocking that which provides a positive stimulus during challenging times in organisational settings. For social scientists, and in particular behavioural scientists, including industrial psychologists that are interested in positive psychology, it is hoped that there is an invitation to grow this area of research further and to gain new insights and direction for what are the enablers to experience positive change and gratitude.</p>