哈佛大學(xué)—幸福課英文字幕

1、Positive Psychology – Lecture 1 Tal Ben-Shahar Hi Good morning. It's wonderful 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 sitti

2、ng in your seat as an undergrad here. This does not mean it is a class you wish to be taught, nor does it mean that it is the right class for you. But I hope to doing the next couple of lectures is giving you an idea wha

3、t this class is about so that you can decide whether or not it is for you. I came here in 1992 And then I had a mini epiphany half way through my sophomore year. I realized that I was in a wonderful place with wonderful

4、students around me, wonderful teachers. I was doing well academically. I was doing well in athletics. I was playing squash at that time. I was doing well socially. Everything was going well. Except for the fact. That I w

5、as unhappy. And I didn't understand why. It was then in a matter of moments, that I decided that I had to find out why and become happier. And that was when I switched my concentration from computer science to philos

6、ophy and psychology with a single question: how can I become happier? Over time I did become happier. What contributed most to my happiness was when I encountered a new emerging field But essentially research that falls

7、under or within the field of positive psychology. Positive psychology, studying it, applying the ideas to my life has made me significantly happier. It continues to make me happier. And it was when I realized the impact

8、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 in this field. So this is positive psychology, psychology 1504. And we'll be exploring this

9、new, relatively new and fascinating field. And hopefully, we will be exploring more than the field ourselves. When I first taught this class that was back in 2002, I taught it at a seminar and had eight students. Two dro

10、pped out. That left me with six. The year after, the class became slightly larger. I had over three hundred students. And then third year when I taught it which was the last time, I had 850 students in the class, making

11、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 la

12、rger 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 w

13、alk into the interview. We would have the interview. And afterwards, the producer or the interviewer would walk me out and say something to the effects of “well thank you Tal for the interview. But you know I expected yo

14、u to be different“. And I would ask, as nonchalant as I could of course. I didn't really care but had to ask anyway, “how different?“ And they would say, “Well you know, we expected you to be more outgoing.“ lack su

15、bstance. Very often, overpromising and under-delivering. So these are five things you need to know to be happy. The three things to be the great leader. The one secret of success, happiness and a perfect love life. O

16、verpromising. 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 datas analyzed, reanalyzed and meta-analyzed. Things that actually wor

17、k, 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 this room of course have read the last twelve issues of the Jou

18、rnal of Personality and Social Psychology? Most people don't even know what that means. The head of my PHD programs actually estimated the average academic journal article is read by seven people. You know... And tha

19、t includes the author's mother. So you know I say half in jest but it's actually really sad. Because...certainly sad for me, as an academic. Because these things are good. They But not accessible to most people.

20、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 Ivory tower and

21、mainstreet. In other words, it is to bring the rigor, the substance, the empirical foundation, the science from academia and merge it with accessibility of the self-help or New Age movement. In a way the best of both wor

22、lds. 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 as any other class in psychology or any of the cla

23、sses you've taken here. You'll be introduced here to studies, to research, to rigorous academic work. You'll be writing paper, academic paper. You'll be taking exams. Just like every other class. But then

24、 it will also be taught at the second level, which is for every paper that you'll read, every paper that you'll write, you'll always be thinking, “Ok, how can I take these ideas and apply them to my life? How

25、 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 the lectures ideas just because

26、they are interesting for the sake of the idea. It is always an idea that is both rigorous and can be applied. Just a few words about housekeeping. Some of the questions that I have already received from you before the cl

27、ass started. So this, unfortunately, is the last time that I am teaching positive psychology or any other class for that matter at Harvard. Hopefully within two years, probably not next year, but within two years, there

28、will be positive psychology class offered, but I certainly cannot guarantee it. About feedback and questions. If you have any questions, anything that's not clear, if you agree or disagree with something,