21 Aug Teaching happiness
I have, for a year or two now, been teaching happiness (or more accurately, Positive Psychology) at UTS Business School.
From next year (2009) I’ll be teaching happiness (and positive psychology coaching) at RMIT in a new Wellness degree.
Tal Ben-Shahar has, for quite some time, been teaching happiness at Harvard. In Tal Ben-Shahar’s positive psychology class, students learn that happiness isn’t just an accident, it’s a science.
An entire industry has been built up around the pursuit of happiness. A stroll past any bookstore window demonstrates the explosive popularity of the feel-good, self-help movements of recent years. And whether these products are genuine paths to ultimate happiness or just pleasure-peddling scams, the trend seems likely to hold.
Now, even the Ivy League is getting in on the act, layering serious academic research onto the pop-psychology phenomenon to develop a ‘science of happiness.” Known as “positive psychology,” the field was pioneered at the University of Pennsylvania and came to Harvard a decade ago when an elective course on the topic was first taught.
To read more of this Business Week article on teaching happiness and positive psychology – click here