Doctor Laurie Santos is a psychology professor at Yale University and she has become somewhat of a celebrity due to the popularity of her ‘Psychology and The Good Life’ (PSYC157) course. She stated that she never expected the course would take off the way it has when she introduced it earlier this year.
According to a report by The New York Times, the 300 something students who initially signed up doubled within just three days, and a few days later that figure had reached up to 1200 students.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rs1B8V4vx0
Dr. Santos, who is head of one of Yale’s residential colleges, teaches her course with the aim of helping students how to live more happier and satisfying lives. “Students want to change and to be happier themselves. With one in four students taking PSYC157, if we see things like students showing more gratitude, procrastinating less, increasing social connections, we’re seeding cultural change,” she explained.
According to Santos, the course is a big hit due to the fact that students had to “de-prioritize their happiness” very early to get into good universities which often leads to students adopting various harmful habits which lead to mental health crises.
Nineteen year old freshman, Alannah Maynez said, “In reality, a lot of us are anxious, stressed, unhappy and numb. The fact that a class like this has such large interest reveals how tired students are of numbing their emotions — both positive and negative.” The course has become Yale’s most popular course in the university’s history, beating Psychology and the Law which was first offered in 1992 and had around 1050 students.
Doctor Santos explained, “Ten years ago, scientists didn’t realise that our intuitions about what makes us happy are totally wrong.” She also added that, like maths, learning how to be happy and content with yourself also takes practice.
In the end, she concluded, “We have this moment where we can make a difference – where students feel like they are part of a movement and fighting the good fight.”
