Dr. Laurie Santos
Dr. Laurie Santos is Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Professor and podcast host Dr. Laurie Santos is an expert on human cognition and the…
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You can make yourself happier today. Your life circumstances and personality aren’t nearly as important as you think in deciding how happy you can be. Dr. Laurie Santos explains how understanding the latest science will point you in the right direction and make you more satisfied with your life. Are you ready to feel better?
• Harvard Study of Adult Development
• Laurie Santos’s class on Coursera.org
“Only about 6 percent of applicants will get good news.”
McCooey, S. (2019). Yale admits 5.91 percent of applicants. Yale Daily News, 3/28/19
“In the last five years, rates of college mental health problems have skyrocketed nationally.”
• Rates of college students feeling anxiety and overwhelmed:
• Depression rates doubling in the last decade:
“So I decided to develop a new class on the science of happiness”
Shimer, D. (2018). Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness. New York Times. 1/26/2018.
“She wrote two classic texts on the science of well-being.”
“Researchers have checked the validity of scales like these in lots and lots of ways.”
• Self report scales correlate with emotional experience:
• Self report scales correlated with family reports and smiling:
“Feeling happy leads to good life outcomes.”
• Happiness is correlated with higher income later in life:
• Happiness is correlated with better relationships later in life:
• Positive mood leads to catching fewer colds:
• Happiness leads to later job interview success:
• Happiness in nuns correlated with longevity:
“Identical twins are much more alike in their happiness levels than our fraternal twins.”
“I direct a study called the Harvard Study of Adult Development.” https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/
“Bob’s study showed that the keys to happiness don’t involve what we often put time into to become happier.”
“There’s no quick fix for happiness. But science shows there is a fix, if you put in a little time and effort.”
“The ones that I tend to focus on are gratitude and kindness.”
“Science shows us lots of really simple habits we can add to our lives to feel better”
• The importance of social connection:
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological science, 13(1), 81-84
• Positive mood and connecting with random people on the street:
• Reducing choices and well-being:
Schwartz, B. (2004, January). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: Ecco.
• Count your blessings and happiness:
• Becoming more accepting of emotions:
• Becoming more accepting of obstacles:
Oettingen, G. (2015). Rethinking positive thinking: Inside the new science of motivation. Current;
• Focusing on the end goal and think more about the journey:
“There are now hundreds of such studies.”
“We put the class online completely for free.”
https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being
“The specific one we used is called PERMA.”
Dr. Laurie Santos is Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Professor and podcast host Dr. Laurie Santos is an expert on human cognition and the…