The Subject of Yale’s Most Popular Class is Happiness and it's Now Freely Available Online

Kids, it’s story time: For centuries on end, philosophers would mentally rummage through concepts of happiness and what it actually means to be happy. From Socrates' theory in finding happiness by wanting less, to Nietzsche's idea that happiness is found in having power over one's surroundings, musings on the subject have gone on for ages. In traditional psycho-philosophical fashion, a Yale professor unveiled a new course about happiness in 2018 so her students can contemporarily address and similarly question the notion. The course was called Psychology and The Good Life. 

As intriguing as the title makes it out to be, the course had initially garnered a rough and underwhelming 300 signups. But in a major twist of events, by the time the course touched off, an entire fourth of Yale undergraduates had enrolled, making it the most popular course in Yale’s entire history.

Through combining positive psychology and behavioural change, the psychology professor’s course just taught students how to be...happy. That's it. It laid out how you can lead a more satisfying life with premises far from being detached from our actual everyday lives. It was realistic, it was useful. It was the perfect blend of abstract and concrete. And importantly, it served to the greater good of doing something about the mental health crisis that loomed over the Yale campus at the time.

So in today’s happy news (get it?), an online iteration of the course is now available for free for everyone on Coursera under the title of The Science of Well-Being. And with what’s happening now, learning how to formulate happier and better life habits couldn’t be more relevant. Invitingly shot in the professor’s own home, the course intimately discusses topics like misconceptions about happiness and how we can overcome our biases. Warm and conversational video lectures, optional reading supplements, and ‘rewirement’ activities are set to help us actively build happier habits. 

At the time we signed up for the Coursera course, there were already more than a million signups. With loads of happy testimonials, this is one class we're looking forward to studying for.