The Science of Happiness

Catalog description

This course focuses on the science of happiness, integrating findings from positive psychology, psychiatry, behavioral genetics, neuroscience and behavioral economics. Over the course of the quarter, students will consider the genetics of happiness including the notion of a biologically determined hedonic set point, the brain's pleasure circuitry, and the mind's power to frame events postively, a tool used with great success in cognitive therapies. Students will question an idea that has gained prevalence since the Enlightenment: that pleasure and happiness are our purpose.