The Yale Course, "Science of Well-Being," Notes

Science Of Well-Being Course Notes | Software Meadows

Week 1 - Introduction

Why take this course?

Objectives

• Assess your current level of well-being and produce a baseline measurement of well-being
• Discover your signature strengths and apply them in your life for at least one week

Happiness Can Be Learned

• The course is not only about science, but also practice.
• The course was designed to be self-validating, determining if the course was efficaceous, by measuring happiness before and after the course.
• Topics:
  1. Misconceptions About Happiness
  2. Why Our Expectations Are So Bad
  3. What Stuff REally Increases Happiness
  4. Strategies to Reset Our Expections
  5. Putting Strategies Into Practice
• Why now?
  1. The science of psychology has lots of new insights into happiness
  2. We need these insights pretty badly
  3. I [Laurie Santos] need these insights, too

GI Joe Fallacy

• "Learning is half the battle" is false

• Merely knowing something is not enough to put it into practice.

• Optical illusions demonstrate that even knowing "both lines are the same" doesn't prevent seeing them as different. You can't teach your eyes to see it differently.

  • Muller-Lyer Illusion. The lines between the arrows are the same length.

    

  • Shepard's Tables Illusion. The table tops are the same dimensions.

    

• However, you can learn techniques habits to improve well-being.

Rewirements

• Measure Your Baseline Happiness Using the PERMA Profiler
• Measure Your Baseline Happiness Using the Authentic Happiness Inventory