哈佛幸福课 01 Positive Psychology at Harvard Chi Eng 640X480 YYeTs人人影视制作

[Music]

hi good

morning it's wonderful be to be back

here wonderful to see you

here I'm teaching this class because I

wish a class like this had been taught

when I was sitting in your seats as an

undergrad here this does not mean that

it's a class you wish to be taught nor

does it mean that it's the right class

for you what I hope to do in the next

couple of lectures is give you an idea

of what this class is about so that you

can decide whether or not it is for

you I came here in

1992 and started off as a computer

science

concentrator and then had a mini

Epiphany halfway through my sophomore

year I realized that I was in a

wonderful place with

wonderful students around me wonderful

teachers I was doing well academically I

was doing well in

athletics was playing varsity squash at

the time I was doing well socially

everything was going well except for the

fact that I was

unhappy and I didn't understand

why and it was then in a matter of

moments that I decided that I had to

find out why and become happier and

that's when I switched my concent ation

from computer science to philosophy and

psychology with a single question how

can I become

happier over time I did become happier

what had contributed most to my

happiness was when I

encountered a new emerging field at that

time didn't have the name that it has

today but essentially research that

falls under or within the field of

positive psychology

positive psychology studying it applying

the ideas to my life has made me

significantly happier it Contin

continues to make me happier and it was

when I realized the impact that it had

on me that I

decided to share it with others that's

when I decided that I wanted to be a

teacher and teach this

field so this is positive psychology

psychology

1504

and we will be exploring this new

relatively new and fascinating field and

hopefully we will be exploring more than

the field

ourselves when I first taught this class

it was back in 2002 I taught it as a

seminar and had eight

students two dropped

out that left me with

six the year

after the class became slightly larger I

had over 300

students and then the third year when I

taught it which was the last time I had

um 850

students in the class making it at that

point the largest course at Harvard and

that's when the media became interested

because they wanted to understand why

they wanted to understand this

phenomenon that here you have a class

that's larger than introduction to

economics

how could that be so I was invited by

the media for interviews whether it was

newspapers radio

television and I started to notice a

pattern during those interviews so I

would walk into the interview we'd have

the interview and afterward the producer

or the interviewer would walk me out and

say something to the effect of well

thank you T for the interview but you

know I expected you to be different

and I would ask as nonchalantly as I

could of course as if I didn't really

care but had to ask anyway uh how

different and they would say well you

know we expected you to be more

outgoing next interview at the end of

the interview same thing thank you for

doing the interview but you know T I

expected you to be different and once

again nonchalantly of course I would ask

so how

different and here or she would say well

you know we expected you to be less less

introverted next

interview same thing how different well

you know more extroverted more

outgoing next interview well you know

less Shy cuz you know I I get very

nervous in

interviews interview after interview

literally

dozens more outgoing more cheerful less

introverted more

extroverted and on and on but here is

the best one so this is one of the local

channels here in um around Boston and

going to the interview we have quite a

long interview which I thought was

actually pretty

good and at the end of the interview the

interviewer who's a very jolly guy walks

me out puts his hand on my shoulder and

says tal thank you very much for doing

the

interview and then the usual comes but

you know T I expected you to be

different and I

said how different now just so that you

understand by this time my self-esteem

is shot but still but still with some

semblance of nonchalance ask how

different and he looks at me and says

well I don't know T I expected you to be

taller taller what 57 or okay 5'6 and a

half is not enough to teach

happiness and I thought about it and I

thought about it a lot the whole pattern

from the

beginning and I think I understand why

they expected someone different you see

they had to explain to themselves as

well as the audience how come this class

is larger than introduction to

economics and the way to explain it must

be that the teacher is very outgoing

extremely charismatic very cheerful and

extrovert and of course

tall

well there was one L missing there

but

yeah if only

so the problem though is that they were

looking in the wrong place for the

explanation in other words they were

looking at the messenger where they

needed to look at was at the message now

how do I know that you see because I see

other positive psychology classes on

other campuses around the country and

around the world there are over 200

campuses here in the United States that

teach positive psychology on almost

every campus where this class is taught

it's either one of the or the largest

class it's about the message I see more

and more organizations taking up

positive psychology in their as

consultant companies some of the leading

the big Consulting companies are taking

it on more and more high schools are

introducing positive psychology classes

elementary schools are introducing it

governments around the world are

expressing an interest in this new and

emerging

field why because it works because it

really works you see this whole realm of

life flourishing of Happiness of

well-being has been until recently

dominated by the self- health movement

what do we have in the self- health

Movement we have books that are very

interesting that are very accessible we

have speakers who are very outgoing very

charismatic and Tall attracting in the

masses into these workshops and seminars

and

lectures but and there is a very big but

here many of these books many of these

works shops and

seminars lack substance very often over

promising and underd delivering so these

are the five things you need to know to

be happy the three things to be the

great

leader the one

secret of success happiness and the

perfect love life over promising under

delivering on the other hand we have

Academia what do we have in Academia we

have a lot of rigor a lot of substance

we have data that's analyzed reanalyzed

and meta analyzed things that actually

work good stuff but and there is also a

very big but

here very few

people read refereed academic journals I

mean think about it how many people

outside of this room of course have read

the last 12 issues of the Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology

ology well most people don't even know

what that

means the head of um my PhD program

actually estimated that the average

academic Journal article is read by

seven

people you

know and that includes the author's

mother

so you know and I say it half in Gest

but but it's actually really sad because

certainly sad for me as an academic

because these things are good they're

important things that make a difference

can make even more of a

difference but not accessible to most

people and this is where positive

psychology comes in and this is also

where this class comes in the explicit

Mandate of positive psychology as well

as of this class is to create a bridge

between the Ivory Tower and Main

Street in other words it is to bring the

rigor the substance the empir iCal

Foundation the science from Academia and

merge it with the

accessibility of the self-help or New

Age

movement in a way The Best of Both

Worlds and this

explains the popularity of the field of

positive

psychology science that

works this class will be taught on two

levels the first level it will be taught

like any other class in Psychology or

any of the the classes you have taken

here you'll be introduced here to

studies to

research to rigorous academic work you

will be writing p p a paper and academic

paper you'll be taking exams just like

every other

class but then it will also be taught at

a second level which is for every paper

that you'll read every paper that you

will write you will always be thinking

okay so how can I take these ideas and

apply them to my life how can I apply

them to my relationship how can I apply

them to my

community two levels the academic

applied I did not just introduce whether

it's in the readings or in lectures

ideas just because they're interesting

for the sake of the idea it's always an

idea that is both rigorous and can be

applied just a few words about

housekeeping some of the questions that

I've already received from you uh before

the class started so this unfortunately

is the last time that I'm teaching uh

positive psychology or or any other

class for that matter at Harvard um

hopefully within 2 years probably not

next year but within 2 years there will

be positive psychology class offered but

uh I certainly cannot guarantee it

um about feedback and

questions if you have any question if

anything is not clear if you agree or

disagree with something email me or

email your TF and we'll always respond

sometimes if the question is asked by

enough people we'll respond to it

publicly always anonymously unless you

specify specifically that your name uh

can be

mentioned but sometimes you may be

listening to a lecture and then halfway

through it there's an

emergency there is something that you

really have to ask something that cannot

wait in that case please just put your

hand out because you know it's like when

when you just have to go to the bathroom

just you know can't stop can't wait and

when you got to go you got to

go so we'll take a positive psychology

break for

that and just stop me halfway through

and um and and I'll answer any

question all the Powerpoints as well as

the videos of the classes will be online

will be available Within couple of days

well the Powerpoints will be available

before except for this lecture will be

available before so that uh you can use

them in class uh the the videos

unfortunately cannot be made available

before we tried couldn't couldn't figure

it out so they will be available um

within a day or two after and um the

reason why they're they're up there

first of all I do prefer that you attend

lecture I do prefer that you're

physically

here um you get things in the energy of

the room with you know with so many

students that you wouldn't get just in

front of your computer but the reason

why I do put them up is so that you have

an opportunity if you want to see it

again or if you happen to miss a class

that's that's perfectly fine um and also

because and this is also the reason why

the Powerpoints are always available I

want you to be engaged in the material I

want you to be engaged in whatever it is

that we're discussing in class not

necess neily thinking about getting down

every word that I say on paper

remembering everything memorizing

everything I want you to take rather

than passive notes of writing down what

it says on the PowerPoint or every word

that I say I'd like you to take active

notes and that means being engaged with

the material for example if you hear

something an idea that you say oh that's

interesting you know start it write it

down or okay I think I'm going to start

applying this write it down

or I want to tell my my mom about this

later or I want to talk to my roommates

or my team about this idea write it down

active not taking as opposed to passive

not taking for two reasons first of all

as I said this class is a class about

making a difference in people's lives I

would not be teaching the class just for

its academic beauty though there is a

lot of academic Beauty in the in this

field so write down if you have ideas

that you think you can apply the second

reason why you we should do that is

because it's more um you'll remember

more better retention better

understanding of the material if you're

actively engaged as opposed to just

taking down passive

notes throughout the

class starting next week we'll take what

I call time ins as opposed to time outs

it's like a time out it's a time where

we start stop the the class and you look

Inward and this is literally a time of

Silence in the class I will stop for a

minute or two and you'll have a chance

either to

just stare at me or anyone else or think

about what we've just discussed or have

a guiding question that I will um

provide you that you will address during

the class the reason why I have timings

and this is something that I'm

introducing this year for the first time

we didn't have it last time is because

over the last 2 years since I last

started I've done a lot of work in the

area of

Silence I've read a lot of research in

this area about the importance of quiet

times whether it's in a class in a

lecture whether it is at home whether

it's for a leader in a business for a

relationship for

children starting from

preschools now many of you as you're

going through these um timings if you

decide to take the class may think well

you know is this what I'm paying $40,000

a year for to sit in a class and be

quiet well first of all it will only be

a minute or two at a time maybe once or

twice a lecture but second it may be the

most important thing that you take from

this class the notion of embracing

Stillness let me read to you um an

excerpt from a study that was run by two

MIT professors by the way all the names

that I read that are not on the

Powerpoints you don't need to to

remember or write down this is just for

your edification but um so David Foster

and Matthew Wilson um both of them are

from from MIT and did the following

study that I think confirms the

importance of a time in time to look

inside what they did was they scanned

the brains of

rats while they were in a maze and after

they were doing they were they went

through the Maze and here is what what

they

found what the results suggest is that

while there certainly is some record of

your experience as it is occurring in

other words when they were doing the

maze the actual learning when you try to

figure out what was important what

should I keep and throw away that

happens after the fact during periods of

quiet wakeful introspection what they

showed was rats who went through the

Maze and then went through the maze

again and again learned far less than

rats

who took time aside chilled out a little

bit after a maze had a

margarita experienced embraced

Stillness this has implications and they

showed implications to human beings as

well not only those who are on the red

race all human beings so what they say

is that replay might constitute a

general mechanism of learning and memory

both learning understanding as well as

memory retention when we reflect when we

replay the material we're much more

likely to

retain to

remember what we have just been through

so the importance of time aside is

cannot be o

overemphasized in his wonderful book on

teaching um Parker Palmer it's called

the courage to teach

says the

following words are not the sole medium

of Exchange in teaching and learning we

educate with silence as well silence

gives us a chance to reflect on what we

have said and heard in authentic

education silence is treated as a

trustworthy worthy metrics for the inner

work students must do a medium for

learning of the deepest

sort silence is something that's missing

from our culture I know that many of you

have have probably read Zen In The Art

of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert

Mig well he has a second book out less

less welln called Lila and Laya is an

anthropological study of Native

Americans and what he does there is

compare their culture to Americans from

European

ancestry and one of the distinguishing

characteristics between these two

cultures

is their approach toward silence what he

found was when he went and sat around

with Native Americans they would sit

around the fire and hang out for 2 3

hours without saying a

word just sit around look at one

another smile have a good time

introspect just be there for hours

whereas he points out that in our

culture we feel very

uncomfortable with the absence of words

with the absence of sound or noise

we have to fill up all the

gaps and this is an important cultural

difference and we pay a price for this

lack of

Stillness a price that I will talk about

a lot when I talk about

relationships when I talk about virtue

and morality and when we talk about

happiness and well-being in

general

let me give you a little bit of

background on positive psychology how it

came about and how this class came about

in many ways positive psychology is the

brainchild the product the grandchild of

humanistic psychology what we have in

humanistic psychology is essentially

a reaction to the existing psychologies

of the

time the Founders considered the

founders of humanistic psychology in

fact called it the third Force why the

third Force because the first force was

behaviorism the work of Skinner the work

of Watson the work of

Thorndike this was the first Force the

second force was

psychoanalysis the work of Freud Yung

Adler to some extent this was the second

for force and the third Force humanistic

psychology came as a reaction to it

first as a reaction to behaviorism

behaviorism looks at the human entity at

the person as basically a collection of

behaviors as a box like a bil bilard

bolt knocked around by

reinforcements by punishment by

reward and what humanistic psychology

said was that we're much more than just

a billiard ball being knocked

around we have a spirit we have a soul

we have cognitions and thoughts that

matter it's not just Behavior that's

important for understanding as well as

improving

life and then psychoanalysis the second

Force what

psychoanalysis is about basically

understanding mostly through the

subconscious that's how you understand

and that's how you to improve the

quality of life there defense mechanisms

there are biological instincts neurosis

and if we understand these very often

dark Forces we're better able to handle

and deal with life understand as well as

improve the quality of

life humanistic psychology human says a

human being is much more than that much

more than biological instincts much more

than

Neurosis much more

than person who exists in a UT

tonian reality like a billiard

ball we need to Value much more the

human being we need to give much more

dignity and

freedom to the

person there was a problem the problem

was with humanistic psychology is that

it lacked the rigorous

methodology while it brought in many

wonderful ideas talked about the study

of where wellbeing talked about the

study of optimism of kindness of

morality of virtue of love relationships

of peak experiences of

self-actualization of empathy all these

wonderful Concepts that we'll talk about

throughout the semester it wasn't as

rigorous about its epistemology about

how we form ideas and how we learn and

that's why in many ways largely not

completely but it largely morphed into

the self-help movement interesting ideas

good ideas important ideas certainly

good

intentions but to some extent without

the academic rigor and that's why it

lack to have the impact on Academia

that's why we don't have hardly any

humanistic psychology classes offered at

universities today there are very few

still around and this is why also a lot

of it became the new age

essentially but still it's humanistic

psychology that has in many way fathered

and mothered as we'll see POS postive

psychology so let's meet the

grandparents people like R people like

Carl Rogers and more than anyone Abraham

masslo was the American Psychological

Association president was a professor

just down the road here at

brandise and he introduced this

humanistic psychology in

1954 he wrote a chapter called toward a

positive

psychology 1954 in a he said we need to

also research kindness and goodness and

happiness and

optimism many ways the you know was way

ahead of his

time then if maslo is the grandfather

then Karin horny is the

grandmother initially a psychoanalyst

trained through the works of Freud

realized that the focus has been too

much on the negative on Neurosis on

psychosis and said we also not only but

also have to focus on what is working in

the human organism we have to work look

at the fine qualities and cultivate

those because part of being human is

being those things as

well in many

ways brought about the movement toward

humanistic psychology and through that

positive

psychology Aaron andonovski the third

person I would consider the

grandfather brought in the idea of

focusing on health he has a new

concept or he introduced A New Concept

I'm still here don't

worry he introduced A New Concept which

he

called it's his own

neologism

saluto

Genesis saluto Genesis saluto Health

Genesis origin the origin of health and

this was an alternative model to the

conventional wisdom model of

pathologies so instead of just studying

pathologies whether it's in physical

health or psychological Health we should

also study the origin of Health in many

ways that is what preventative Med

medicine is about so this was a novel

idea back in the 1970s when he

introduced it and we'll talk a lot about

Aaron

andonovski now the

parents Marty Seligman considered the

father of the positive psychology

network of Scholars started the field in

1998 like maslo he too was the president

of the American Psychological

Association and as his mandate during

his PR presidency he had two aims the

first

aim to make academic psychology more

accessible in other words Bridge Ivory

Tower and Main Street this was the first

aim of his presidency the second aim was

to introduce a positive psychology a

psychology that will look at also things

that work that will not just study

depression anxiety schizophrenia or

Neurosis a psychology a network of

Scholars who will focus on love

relationship self-esteem motivation

resilience and well-being and he

introduced produc these

ideas and it's all been literally uphill

from then before Marty Salman this

happened all in 1998 and we'll talk

about it a little bit more next time

this all happened in 1998 long before

1998 our very own own Professor Alan

Langer did research in all these areas

bringing the humanistic spirit and

combining it with the academic

scientific

rigor we're going to be talking probably

more than about any other scholar about

her work in in this class and another

person from Harvard one of the parents

of positive psychology was Philip Stone

who passed away two years ago

yesterday and both Langer and stone were

my thesis advisers introduced me to the

field of positive psychology into this

research in

1998 when they had the first positive

psychology Summit Professor Stone took

me along with him I was his graduate

student in 1999 he taught the first

positive psychology class at Harvard one

of the first in the

world I was his teaching fellow few

couple of years later he taught it again

again I was his teaching fellow and then

when I graduated he suggested that I

take over his

class and here we are

today so this is 1504 let me give you a

sense of in the next half hour or so a

sense of what to expect in this class

the first thing is that this class is

not just about information it is also

explicitly about

transformation what do I mean by that

you see most of Education today is about

information what is

information so we

have a content

container which is our mind and

information is about taking data taking

signs taking in information and putting

it

inside the form that is information now

when this form is

filled that's when we're

educated more information more data

better not

enough because it's not just information

that determines our well-being our

success our self-esteem our motivational

level the relationship and the quality

of our

relationships it's much more than

information

transformation is about taking this form

and changing it trans change

form shape change the form this is

transformation this is a distinction

that I learned first from at school

Professor Robert Keegan who talks about

this information in and of itself is not

enough think about this

example you go for a athletic meet your

aim is to get into the top three to be a

medalist you come in number

eight what's the analysis what is the

interpretation terrible I just failed

you feel

deflated

enervated on the other hand the exact

same event you came eighth when you

expect to be top three you can interpret

it as okay so what have I learned I need

to work even harder you become even more

energized you learn from the experience

in other words the same objective

information which is I got eighth I

expect a top three the same

information very different

interpretation one is a disaster the

other interpretation is an opportunity

one leads to loss of energy the other

one to an increase in energy or think

about another very common example we

know of many people around the world who

seemingly have everything who are doing

well who have more than they need and

yet they're unhappy and then there are

people around the world who have very

little and yet never seize never stop to

celebrate life and then we have the

other way around as well people who have

everything and appreciate it and enjoy

life and people who have very little who

see themselves as

victim in other words it's not just the

information that goes in it's also the

shape the interpretation the perception

the

focus and that is determined by the

shape of the

form this is what I realized when I was

an undergrad here seemingly looking in

from the outside had everything doing

well Sports academics socially and yet

my perception my focus my interpretation

of life not that great wasn't

happy the

interpretation matters very often a lot

more as we'll see than the information

that goes

in one of the sentences that I'll repeat

throughout the class is that happiness

is much more contingent on our state of

mind than on our status or the state of

our bank

account and that's where transformation

comes in and that's why it's so

important for

well-being what that will look like

in

practice is that we will

cover not so much not so much

information will uncover much more and I

don't mean that in the Berkeley sense of

the word I mean that in the academic

sense of the

word in other

words what we'll do is uncover potential

that we have inside us that we've had

inside us all along maybe we just didn't

see or maybe it was obscured by

something or another will uncover it so

that we can utilize it so that we can

focus on it so that we can perceive

it here's a story just to to illustrate

this so this is um

Michelangelo one day he was asked by a

journalist of his time

um how did you create this most amazing

how did you create this most amazing

Masterpiece

David to which Michelangelo responded it

was easy I went to the Quarry I saw this

huge piece of

marble and in it I saw David all I

needed to do was to chip away the excess

Stone to get rid of the marble that

shouldn't have been there and when I got

rid of this excess Stone there was David

now obviously you know easier said than

done but the story captures the metaphor

of what this class very much is about

it's about chipping away the excess

Stone it's about getting rid of

limitations of barriers whether it's the

fear of failure something that we didn't

have as kids but today most people in

our culture have it it's about chipping

away

perfectionism that is debilitating and

that often hurts us it's about chipping

away our ability for success success

because maybe we're afraid of success

maybe we feel guilty about some of the

things that we have in our lives that

are and that in turn limits us maybe

it's about chipping away the limitations

in our relationships and why we don't

Thrive within

them this is what this class is mostly

about as thoro says the soul grows more

by a

subtraction than by

addition by getting rid of these

limitations limitations that are

preventing us from fulfilling our

potential because our potential is in

there in nature and we'll talk a lot

about human nature it's there whether

it's through God whether it's through

Evolution we have a lot of potential

that over time with external voices with

being part of of our culture that very

often these limitations are put up put

on top of us just like the excess

Stone Lau in pursuit of knowledge every

day something is acquired in pursuit of

wisdom every day something is

dropped knowledge is about information

wisdom is about

transformation I was recently

interviewed for

a newsletter on

coaching before a large conference on

the topic and the

interviewer asked me so what tips what

tools can you give from positive

psychology so I talked about some of the

quote unquote greatest hits the

importance of gratitude the importance

of physical exercise I talked about the

importance of spending time on our

relationships about taking time aside

and simplifying and so on and so

on and as I was going through my long

list sh she stopped me and she said you

know you know this is all good you know

important stuff I know but our readers

already know that I'm looking for the

wow factor you know come on surprise me

what can you tell our

readers and I thought about this

question for a minute and I realized

that there is no

wow and I told her that you know if

there is a wow the wow is that there is

no

wow that's it you see

because the overnight transformation

Emperor the Emperor of quick fixes has

no clothes doesn't exist it's over

promising and underd delivering you know

a good life a fulfilling life a rich

life includes ups and downs includes

pain and getting up again it includes

failure and getting up again it includes

success and celebrating it victories and

losses ups and downs as we'll talk about

next week

it's not about this one secret one wow

to the good life and many of the things

that you will learn in this class you

would have heard of before probably

nothing new to you you already know it

inside of

you and you're going to say well this is

common sense and yes a lot of it is

common

sense however as voler once said common

sense is not that common and this is

especially applies to application so the

aim of this class is to make Common

Sense more common especially in the

realm of

application at the end of the class here

is what I'm hoping for at the end of the

class if you decide to take it the end

of the

semester I don't think and I'm not

expecting you to come and tell me wow T

thank you for teaching me so many new

things that's not what I'm expecting I

don't think that is what will happen

what I hope will happen is for you to

come and say rather than thank you for

teaching me something

new you would say thank you for

reminding me of something that I've

already known and this is what the class

is about it's a constant reminder twice

a

week constant reminder of what you

already know of what is inside you the

David that is inside you and what this

class will hopefully do is help you to

chip away some of these limitations

whether it's limit cognitive limitations

that prevent you from seeing what you

already

knew emotional limitations that are

preventing you from deriving the benefit

of what you already know or

behavioral limitations the ABC effect

behavior and cognition that we'll talk

about during the change

week it's about making common sense more

common information in and of itself is

simply not enough it's not enough and

what we need in addition to our

information highway is a transformation

Highway transformation highway or

transformation back roads to counter the

fast increasing Pace because as we'll

talk about next time rates of depression

are on the rise rates of anxiety are on

the rise not just in this country

globally it's literally a global

epidemic and to deal with it more

information will just not do just not

enough here is um archal Mich who's U

was a poet was a Harvard

Professor what is wrong is not the great

discoveries of science information is

always better than ignorance no matter

what information or what ignorance what

is wrong is the belief behind the

information the belief that information

will change the

world it won't just adding and filling

up our content containers with more and

more

stuff more and more information more and

more data it's just not enough we need

more than that this class will take the

humanistic approach and let me read you

a quick excerpt by Abraham maslo who

talks about this this

approach if one took a course or picked

up a book on the psychology of learning

most of it in my opinion would be beside

the point that is beside the humanistic

Point most of it would present learning

is the acquisition of associations of

skills and capacities that are external

and not intrinsic to the human character

to the human personality to the person

himself external refers to information

internal refers to the transformation

the changing of the form and when we

talk about transformation I actually

mean it quite literally changing of the

form changing of the brain as well will

talk about when we talk about meditation

for instance our brain today can

actually we know that our brain today

can actually

change and through fmri studies since

1998 A New Concept came up which is

neurogenesis or neuroplasticity meaning

our brain actually changes transforms

changes its form throughout our life so

I don't just mean it metaphorically I

also very often mean

it um literally

Abraham maslo continues humanistic

philosophy offers a new conception of

learning of teaching and of Education

stated simply such a concept holds that

the function of Education the goal of

Education the human goal the humanistic

goal the goal so far as human beings are

concerned is ultimately the

self-actualization of a person The

Becoming fully human the development of

the fullest height that the human

species can stand up to or that the

particular individual can come to

in a less technical way it is helping

the person to become the best that he is

able to

become and this was before the ad came

out for the Army I'd be all you can be

this is what the class is

about it's the humanistic approach is

about fulfilling our potential chipping

away those

limitations now to many of you this may

sound naive

idealistic naive it is not idealistic it

is and we'll talk about the and discuss

the importance of idealism and

maintaining idealism if we are to

introduce personal change interpersonal

change or Community or society

change this class is not about providing

answers concerning the good life or

happiness it was about identifying the

right

questions ask and you shall receive say

the scripture this class is what I think

education is all about which is the

Quest for information and

transformation must begin with a

question Quest question it's no

coincidence that there is an eological

link between the two in this class you

will be asking you will be asked many

questions questions that as you will see

create reality we'll talk about that

already next time the importance of the

question you ask of your yourselves

first and foremost of your partner of

your students of your parents of your

employees in the future teammates and so

on questions make a

difference Peter drer the most common

source of mistakes in management

decisions is the emphasis on finding the

right answer rather than the right

question Peter Ducker considered the

most important uh management scholar of

the 20th century just recently passed

away saying that the biggest mistake is

not asking the right questions as we'll

see next time this is the biggest

mistake in research potentially this is

the biggest mistake in

application not asking the right

questions as

well whether it's we managing an

organization whe whether it's managing

Our

Lives now when I said that questions are

important and that answers matter less

I'm not coming from a point of

relativism I'm not a relativist I think

that there are to some questions

definitive answers that are important to

know however what I'm saying is that

it's important no less important to

focus on questions when it comes to

education the educator Neil Postman once

said that kids enter schools as question

marks and they leave as

periods My Hope in this class is to

bring up many more question marks than

periods once again it's about chipping

away the excess Stone because as kids

we're always asking questions we're

always curious let me show you a quick

excerpt from a video of um one of my

favorite psychologists well actually

he's a comedian um Seinfeld here he is

talking about and we'll we'll we'll

watch a lot of excerpts during

throughout the semester um talking about

what we were like as

kids is this in your way

so the first couple years I made my own

costumes which of course suck the ghost

the hobo no

good then finally third year beg and the

parents got the Superman Halloween

costume not

surprisingly cardboard box cellophane

top mask

included remember the rubber band on the

back of that mask that was a quality

item there wasn't

it that was good for about 10 seconds

before it snapped out of that cheap

little staple they put it in there

with you go to your first house trick or

snap it broke I don't believe

it wait up you guys I got to fix

it hey wait

up wait

up that's what kids say they don't say

wait they say wait up hey wait

up cuz when you're little your life is

up the future is up everything you want

is up wait up hold up shut

up mom I'll clean up let me stay

up parents of course it's just the

opposite everything is down just calm

down slow down come down here sit down

put that

[Applause]

down so again this curiosity this

looking up this opening up as a supposed

to closing down that kids have this

notion this is what I hope will happen

will happen in this class the one real

object of

education is to leave a man in the

condition of continually asking

questions so here's a longitudinal study

that was done by John Cotter John Cotter

professor of leadership and management

at the business school across the

river came to Harvard in 1972 joined the

faculty and started to follow follow

Harvard class MBA class of 1973 and

followed them for 20 years and what he

was interested in was to find out all

the information that he could about this

class what he found 20 years later early

'90s when the study ended was that these

students were extremely Su or ex

students were extremely successful very

wealthy having a lot of impact whether

it's on their organization the community

did extremely well but within in the

large group of highly

successful Harvard

mbas he found a small

group that was

extraordinarily successful more

successful than the rest of the group

whether it's in terms of income whether

it's in terms of impact whether it's in

terms of overall quality of life

extraordinarily

successful and what he wanted to

identify was why what distinguishes this

small group from the rest of the pack

very successful but not quite as

successful as that small

group and he found only two things it

was not their IQs that made no

difference whatsoever to their long-term

success it was not where they came from

pmba what they did had nothing to do

with

it two and two things alone mattered

terms of determining who will be the

extraordinarily

successful and the rest the first thing

was that the extraordinarily successful

groups really believed in themselves

they thought they could do well they

were driven they were

motivated and we'll talk about that in

future lecture as beliefs are

self-fulfilling prophecies they thought

I'm going to make it I'm going to

succeed that's the first thing this

sense of of

confidence the second thing that he

found was that this

group they were always asking questions

always asking questions initially of

their boss later of their employees of

their partner children parents friends

they were always asking question they

were always at this state of curiosity

always looking up opening up wanting to

understand the world more they didn't

say okay now I have my

MBA that's it I know enough

they were lifelong Learners they were

always asking questions these two

distinguishing

characteristics account for the

difference between the extraordinarily

successful and those who were

successful the question that has guided

me whether in it's in writing the book

whether it's in creating this class

whether it's first and foremost my

personal life is what I call the

question of question which is how can we

help our and others individuals

communities and Society become

happier note that it is not about

helping ourselves and others become

happy it is about becoming happier why

because many people ask me so T are you

happy and I can't really answer that

question I don't know what it

means why be I mean how do I determine

whether or not I'm happy is it compared

to someone else is it um is there a

certain point Beyond which I become

happy happiness is not a binary either

or zero1 either I'm unhappy or I'm happy

happiness resides on a

Continuum So my answer to this question

am I happy is today I'm happier than I

was 15 years ago when I started focusing

on this Pursuit 15 years from now I

certainly hope to be happier than I am

today happiness is a lifelong Pursuit

and hopefully this class is part of that

Pursuit but just part you will not be

happy at the end of the class hopefully

you will be happier cuz many people sit

here you know during the lectures on um

on self-esteem for example or when we

talk explicitly about happiness and they

say wait do I have high self-esteem you

know thinking about themselves do I have

high self-esteem or low self-esteem

irrelevant important impossible to

answer

also the question is how can I improve

my self-esteem my healthy self-esteem

not narcissism of course how can I

become happier that's the important

question and this is the question of

questions this class is not a survey of

positive psychology if you want a survey

of positive psychology I recommend I can

recommend some excellent

textbooks whether it's by Lopez or by

Peterson great textbooks there's also

the handbook of positive psychology

which is a huge book with most of what

you want to know about the field you can

also use it in in self-defense very

useful in that respect but a wonderful

book very well written very accessible

in the spirit of positive psychology so

but this is not that this is not a

survey of positive psychology what it is

it's a selective exploration of the

question of

questions in that way it is

eclectic my background is in Psychology

and philosophy I studied organizational

behavior I work worked as a consultant

in business for for a few years still do

some work there I worked in the field of

education do a lot of work in the field

of education and I take from all these

areas I also draw on not just on

positive psychology I draw on Clinical

Psychology in this class I draw on

cognitive psychology social

psychology and so on it's an Eclectic

class because my question my guiding

question was what would contribute to

happiness and if something within

Psychopathology I thought could

contribute to our well-being I took that

and used that if something from the

field of Consulting and organizational

behavior contributes that became part of

the class as much as I could fit in of

course in in one semester so the class

is

eclectic the class is not cross-cultural

I will bring in ideas from from Eastern

thought I lived in Asia for a few years

worked there studied and continued to

study um the Eastern philosophies and

psychologies but my training primarily

is in Western psychology and the focus

of the class will be

that however that doesn't mean that

positive psychology doesn't apply to

people from different places in the

world now there was a recently a a

meeting between um senior scientists

psychologists from the West people like

Paul emman Richie Davids and some of the

most important Minds in the field of

psychology meeting with the Dal Lama and

some of his his monks and um they were

talking about the future of psychology

about research and how can you research

meditation and so on and one of the

things that they were talking a lot

about is cross-cultural

differences and when that came up the

Dal Lama suddenly

seemed

uneasy and when Daniel Goldman who was

um writing about this whole event which

was held in India asked him what's

what's wrong the Dal Lama said that he

was was not comfortable with talking and

emphasizing so much cultural differences

now you can say many things about the

Dal Lama one thing you cannot say about

him is that he's culturally

insensitive arguably you know one of the

most sensitive people alive and yet he

says that we're focusing too much on

cultural differences and he added not

because there are no cultural

differences of course there are and

they're important but there are many

more

similarities than differences and we

shouldn't ignore those similarities

Daniel Goldman about the Dal Lama we

were a little surprised by the Dal

Lama's seeming resistance to the notion

of cultural differences so I will

introduce these ideas but a because it's

not my training and there are people who

who focus on cultural differences who

would do a much better job than I do and

second because what I hope to look into

is the universal things that are common

across

cultures so we'll study and we study

research in this area but even more than

that we'll become even more particular

than just talking about you know the

psychology in this part of the world

we'll study

yourselves we're going to go that

particular now

why you see when I put this class

together I didn't think to myself okay

so what are the things that I need to

introduce in order to

please the um participants in class the

students that's not what I thought what

I thought about what what was the class

that I would have wanted to take as an

undergraduate here what would help me

become happier if I were sitting there

in other words thinking about it from my

perspective from a very personal

perspective in this class I'm going to

encourage you of course you look at

research and read research about other

people about large sample sizes but I'm

going to encourage you more than

anything to look inside yourselves to

study yourselves whether it's through

response paper ERS that will be due

weekly starting in in two weeks whether

it's in your final project that will be

a presentation that you won't have to

give but you'll have to write out a

presentation about your um your

favorite topic or the topic that matters

most to

you whether it's in sections that you'll

talking be talking about how can I apply

these ideas to my life the timein are

about thinking about how can I take the

these ideas and use them it's about

studying ourselves because as KL Roger

says what is most personal is most

general what is most personal is most

General and as maslo adds we must

remember that knowledge of One's Own

deep nature is also simultaneously

knowledge of human nature in

general when we understand ourselves

better when we identify ourselves we're

better able to ident identify with

others in fact this in many ways is the

source of empathy of healthy

empathy and there's some studies on this

showing that people who know themselves

who study themselves who are

self-reflective display less egregious

Behavior less immoral Behavior toward

others behavior that would fall under

say

racism and it's counterintuitive to some

extent wait don't you need to First

study the other so that you can be more

sensitive to other yes that too but it's

not enough it's important to also study

ourselves because when we see our deep

nature what we encounter there is

actually part of the universal nature

the similarities among us all regardless

of where we're from and this is what the

Dal Lama was talking about not stop

cross-cultural do it important but at

the same time not ignore the self not

ignore the universal within each one of

us

us CS Lewis there is one thing and only

one in the whole universe which we know

more about than we could learn from

external observation that one thing is

ourselves we have so to speak inside

information we are in the

know now there are of course biases when

we study ourselves which is why it's not

enough to just study the self it's

important to counter it to add to it

academic work studying others and that's

why we will do some research or study

research as well as do some search

searching inside us both are important

we shouldn't just because there are

biases and mistakes that are potentially

can be made it doesn't mean we need to

throw out the baby with a bath

water and stop studying

ourselves so we'll do that or rather you

will do that that probably more than in

any other class on

campus finally this may be news to you

but this is not English 10A or math

55 meaning you will not have to read as

much as you would read for 10A or for a

history class and this class is not as

difficult as math 55 so you can be you

can rest rest assured though I'm sure

there are some people here who took the

class this class at the same time is

about rigorous fun fun because it's fun

to study ourselves sometimes it hurts

and sometimes we see things that we may

not like but overall it's fun it's

interesting and at the same time it's

rigorous based on on

Research

Now many of the

ideas that you will encounter in this

class are very simple very

accessible Common Sense however they're

simple not simplistic and here is the

difference here is the difference

see Oliver Wendel Holmes at least this

quote is attributed to him not 100% sure

it's his said I would not give a fig for

the Simplicity on this side of

complexity but I would give my life for

the Simplicity on the other side of

complexity what Holmes means here is

that he doesn't care about just

Simplicity you know easy offthe cuff

Whimsical

ideas what he does care about though a

Simplicity that comes after we have

chewed the idea after we have digested

it after we have thought about

it ideas that have been worked on and if

on the other side of complexity we can

reach Simplicity and common sense that's

great that's what he is interested in

that is also what positive psychologist

researchers whom we'll discuss

throughout the semester are interested

in the Simplicity on the other side of

complexity and there's a very big

difference between these two kinds of

simplicities even though on the face of

it they may at times look look

similar what this class requires is a

very different kind of effort a very

different kind of effort to other

classes again it doesn't require the

kind of effort that you would need in 55

or in in English 10A the kind of effort

that it does require is the effort of

application

of applying it to your lives of

introducing behavioral actual change to

your life and before we go into some of

the technicalities of the class such as

the

syllabus I want to end with a

story about Peter Ducker Peter Ducker

whom I quoted earlier father of the

study of Mo of management in modern

times Peter duer lived to the grand old

age of 94 passed away just a couple of

years ago and toward the end of his life

while he was still 100% Lucid it was

more difficult for him to be mobile and

to go into organizations so what he did

was invite people who wanted Consulting

from him wanted to learn from him would

come to his home and he had presidents

and Prime Ministers of countries he had

um CEOs of Fortune 500

companies come and spend the weekend

with him and on Friday this is how we

would start every session with every

world

leader whether in business whether in

non

for-profit whether in

politics he would say to them the

following on

Monday I don't want you to call me up

and tell me how wonderful it

was meaning how wonderful the weekend

was on Monday I want you to call me up

and tell me what you're doing

differently at the end of the

semester or at the end of a

lecture if you enjoyed it by all means

you know tell me that you enjoyed it

that it was fun but more

important it is what you're doing

differently how this has an impact of

your life and that takes effort we're

going to spend a whole week talking just

about change nothing directly related to

positive psychology just about change

because it is so difficult to change

because we know that most organizational

change fails because we know that more

most individual change fails unless we

introduce behavioral change along with

our cognitive and emotional

change affect and cognition is not

enough Behavior has to be there as well

what are you doing

differently now to do things differently

very often takes

courage some of your response papers

that you will hand in

are I mean none of them are graded

they're all just graded pass

fail you have to hand them in and then

you pass but some of them will be maybe

the most difficult papers that you have

written here for some they'll be the

easiest and things will just flow

out that's about introducing change

that's about reflecting that's about

taking time in that's about chipping

away the excess Stone and it can only be

done through this kind of

effort so if you really want to make

this class to make a difference in your

life it's up to you I'm going to

introduce you to the material I'm going

to introduce you to this wonderful New

Field of positive psychology what is up

to you is to then take it and and apply

it I want to talk a little bit about the

syllabus and and the requirements and

then I'll give some time for uh for

questions um but before I do that I

would also like to welcome I know that

some of you are are watching this from

home to the extension school students is

wonderful to have you uh here do come

and visit once in a while and um you'll

be working with

um obviously as part of this class but

also with Deb Levy who is um the had

teaching fellow for the extension School

the had teaching fellow for um the FAS

class is uh Sean aor and um I'd like

just to invite him for just for a few

words uh just to uh to introduce himself

and to you and you'll be introduced to

all the other TFS we have um an amazing

team amazing team this

year and this is Sean hey good morning

can you guys hear

me can you hear me now yes great this is

absolute honor to be back teaching for

positive psychology again um this tall

is too humble um this is not only

extraordinary that he's sharing his time

with us but he has actually moved here

back moved his family back from Israel

for the entire semester his wife and his

two little children just so that he

could teach this class with us so it's

an absolutely an extraordinary

opportunity for us to share this this

moment with him and I'm really excited

about it um last time we taught this

class we did a survey to find out what

type of people were sitting in this room

they're just like yourselves uh to find

out why you'd be taking this class

because a comment that we get so often

about this class is um what why do why

would Harvard students possibly be

unhappy what do they have to be unhappy

about they thought that everyone that be

taking this class would be taking it

because they're already really happy and

they want to study about how amazing

they

are and they like to learn things that

they can tell their roommates are

clearly less well off than themselves

but it turns out actually over a third

of the people that took the class last

year took the class actually because

they felt depressed and that they were

trying to learn and learn about the

research about uh positive psychology

another third did it because they wanted

to learn more about optimism another

third did it for completely different

reasons I think an additional third this

year did it because uh because T was on

John Stewart in The Daily Show so um I

I'm absolutely thrilled about this class

um the syllabus which uh T is about to

tell you about is uh oh actually you

know we learned a couple other things

about you guys did you know that of the

people that took positive psychology 75%

of you um are an officer of a club 35%

of you are the highest ranking officer

of a club which means you think there

are about 2,000 clubs at Harvard you're

on a club of three and the you happen to

be the president we we learned other

reasons why you're not happy we learned

that uh uh the average number of

romantic relationships for people to

take positive psychology over the four

years is between zero and one zero and

one no don't believe it don't

leave wait but that was before taking

class that was before taking the class

we're going to test you

afterwards the average number of sexual

partners which is between 0 and5

um I have no idea what 0. five sexual

partners

is

um this class is going to be amazing it

was amazing in the past and tall is

actually we have an extraordinary

teaching staff that's here with us today

it's a large teaching staff and Tall has

actually already given us homework so

that the teachers are going to be

learning not only the material that

you're doing and talking about which

they experts that but learning how to be

better teachers he's given us books to

read he's actually given us an

assignment so it's going to be

extraordinary class in that sense in

terms of the syllabus it's going to be

online T's about to describe that now we

decided to go green uh so no trees were

killed in the making of this class

except for the extraordinarily large

Auditorium made out of wood

[Laughter]

um sections we're going to try we're

going to section online next weekend so

once we get the numbers in on Wednesday

that following weekend we will be doing

sectioning that gives you a very short

turnaround time but that way that you

can give me Monday to change your

sections if you need to which we hope

you won't and sections will start that

following week so um thank you very much

and if you have any questions send me an

email okay so I don't think I'll have to

explain to you why there's one lecture

in the in the semester that I don't

teach and Sean will teach it and that is

the lecture on humor

figure out why

yourselves um I do think you have to

walk your talk if you're teaching

something um the syllabus the class

pedagogically just to introduce you to

my thinking about the class is uh what I

call an integrated class what that means

is that it's integrated horizontally uh

sorry vertically as well as horizontally

vertically it means that every class is

connected to the next class is connected

to every class throughout the semester

around a spiral so what we talk about

next week we'll revisit again in lesson

7 lesson 17 and lesson

24 everything is interconnected only at

a higher level of the Spiral in other

words will lead to deeper understanding

and hopefully assimilation of the

material so it's vertically in um

interconnected it's also horizontally

interconnected that means that every

part of the class reinforces and

influences the other parts the lectures

not enough you'll get a lot more in

sections sections are mandatory you'll

do a lot of work in your sections very

much related to what your response

papers that many students claim are the

most important part of the class because

that's where you get to time in that's

when you really get to chip

away very much connected to the final

project the final project is a

presentation that you will write out you

will actually give it but only give it

to a couple of friends just to get

feedback not graded on that part the

final project is graded as a final paper

but just what you had in hand in what

you submit and the reason why there is

the final paper because the best way

which is like a presentation because the

best way to learn is to teach and you'll

be teaching these materials to other

people or any material that you're

interested in in your um in your

presentation so the readings very much

connected and about taking you to the

next level of understanding and

assimilation so any questions before I

finish up any questions from

you all right so let me just say I'm one

second finishing words I'm very excited

to be back here my family is very

excited to be back here looking forward

to

um a meaningful pleasurable enjoyable

and happier semester with you thank

[Applause]

[Music]

you