Yale Can Make You Happy!

You may have read about Dr. Laurie Santos’ offering, in the Spring of 2018, Psych 157a, Psychology and the Good Life.  It was the most popular course ever taught at Yale, necessitating it being moved to Battell Hall and having Dr. Santos scramble for another couple dozen grad students to serve as section leaders!    It was covered by the New York Times, and got lots of other national and international attention.

Very quickly, Santos decided to offer the course more broadly, ultimately creating a free course on Coursera, entitled The Science of Well-Being.   Despite the promise in Bright College Years that undergrad years are “with pleasure rife, / The shortest, gladdest years of life,” the reality is that growing up, away from home for the first real time, not knowing who you are, and facing loads of uncertainty creates an enormous amount of stress and  unhappiness.  Yalies, despite the priviledges, still kill themselves, still deal with addiction and depression, and suffer from the human condition like most everyone else.

Dr. Santos, who is Head of Silliman College as well as a respected member of the faculty, is quick to point out that SCIENCE has actually learned quite a bit about human happiness and well-being over the past couple of decades.  Simply learning about what works and what doesn’t work should reduce some of the suffering in the world.  And it turns out that the course is not the “gut” that it sounds like.  Not only is the cognitive load equivalent to other courses, but there are requirements for practice exercises, e.g., meditation, which take students outside their comfort zone.  The course has been characterized by many as “one of the most difficult yet most rewarding” courses they’ve ever taken.

Yale students Reflect On Happiness Course (2:30)

I’m listening to the podcasts now.  Good stuff!  It’s a worthy use of your time, my friends.