Psychology of Happiness

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to the field of Positive Psychology and invite students to think critically about concepts of happiness. We will examine understandings of happiness across time and cultures, familiarize ourselves with Positive Psychology’s growing influence on clinical practice, and engage discussion around diverse representations of happiness. We will evaluate constructions of happiness, including those emerging from popular culture and the media, the field of psychology, and other discipline-specific discourses, seeking to make distinctions between personal experience, science, and cultural myth. Students will be invited to draw connections between course readings on happiness and wellbeing and their own lived experiences. The course will involve discussion of both scholarly readings on the science of happiness and more popular texts (often as targets for critical evaluation); relevant film and video; small group work, interactive exercises, an interview assignment, and the designing of a happiness project.