‘Happiness 101’ Courses Are a Necessary Stop-Gap for the Campus Mental Health Crisis

This semester, every Tuesday and Thursday at 1 p.m., about a quarter of Yale's student population flocks to Woolsey Hall—the university's concert hall and only space on campus big enough to accommodate a course roster of 1,182 students—to learn how to be happy. Over the course of an hour and 15 minutes, psychology professor Laurie Santos tries to teach her students how to lead more satisfying lives through activities like "rewirement" assignments—exercises like savoring a beautiful day or making a new social connection that are aimed at making students happier, healthier, and more resilient—and, in place of a final exam, a "Hack Yo'Self" self-improvement project. The foundations of the class, called "Psychology and the Good Life," can be found in a sub-discipline called positive psychology, which, according to the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, holds "that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play."