- Tools for promoting one’s sense of well-being can deliver a long lasting benefit if one continues to use them, according to a new study.
- Years after learning about such “science hacks” at the University of Bristol, roughly half of students continued to feel happier.
- The school’s “Science of Happiness” course helps students to see problems in a less self-centered context that tends to make difficulties seem less monumental and worrying.
It seems the simplest of tasks: Be happy. It is not a directive to be hedonistic or shallow. Rather, it is about living our years on Earth wisely, calmly, and at best, joyfully. Yet, many people have trouble reaching the feeling or sustaining it in the face of life’s complications.
A new study from the University of Bristol, in the U.K., discusses outcomes from their “Science of Happiness” program that has been endeavoring since 2018 to help students achieve a sense of well-being.
The study finds that personal happiness can be achieved through evidence-informed habits. The effect can be long lasting as well if one continues to practice what they have learned.
Other educational institutions have similar curricula, but this study is the first to track the long-term success of such practices
The study questioned 228 undergraduates who had taken one of the university’s positive psychology courses a year or two earlier. The students reported a 10% to 15% improvement in their well-being immediately after taking the course.
However, the researchers found that 51% of the group — 115 students — had maintained their positive attitude by continuing to practice during the following years tools they had been taught in class.
The study is published in the journal Higher Education.
Dr. Bruce Hood, senior author of the study, and author of “The Science of Happiness: Seven Lessons for Living Well,” listed what he called “happiness hacks” taught in the “Science of Happiness” coursework:
- Performing acts of…
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