By Elana Spivack, Inverse, February 21, 2022
IN 2018, Bruce Hood wondered if there was a way to teach well-being. "A lot of universities [are] waking up to the fact that students are experiencing terrible problems with mental well-being," Hood tells Inverse. The University of Bristol, where Hood is a psychology professor, had experienced 11 student suicides between October 2016 and April 2018."I was very concerned."
That same year, Hood's former Ph.D. student, Laurie Santos, pioneered a course at Yale University called Psychology and the Good Life. Hood got in touch, and Santos shared her notes. In the Fall of 2018, Hood began teaching an adapted version of this course called 'The Science of Happiness,' which examines the evidence behind what makes a joyful life.
The course became essential during the pandemic. Hood knows this is true because he studied its impact on his students as they endured Zoom university. The research results were published this week in the journal PLoS One, which found that students who took the 11-week course benefitted from it during quarantine more than those who took it when classes were back in session.
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