Quiz blog

Mental health class at yale: Psychology and the Good Life

Students at yale thought that there was a lot of stress, can’t get the full usage of college, little time to do what they want

It takes a crisis to realize something is wrong

40% of college students are stressed above normal

1/3 of college students are “depressed to the point they cant function”

40% of college students feel hopeless

just under 50% say they experience overwhelming anxiety, and this has gone up to 60% in 2017

This is really bad, especially if these students are going to the workforce

Yale realized that they could attempt to fix this by psychology research

Researching on the mental of happy people

Teach students on how to become more like these people

This class has 2 parts, the psychology behind it and how to apply it

do the same practices that happy people do as part of the syllabus

A lot of students took this class, showing that it was really beneficial

What this class teaches:

  • we can controls a lot more of our happiness than we think
  • half glass or half empty type of person
  • there is some part of happiness is controlled by genes, the other half is controlled by you
  • we need to take the initiative to controls it and make ourselves happy
  • What we think makes us happy doesn’t actually make us happy and vice versa
  • ex: lottery winner is happy on the day of, then not after
  • it takes a lot of effort to make us happy
  • to be more happy you need to make changes that take effort every day
  • GI joe fallacy, knowing is part of the battle but not half
  • you need to work to build upon the knowledge
  • Our minds lies to us about whenever we are happy
  • EX: our minds forecast we need money so we can be happy, then that determines you job but it doesn’t actually make you happy
  • Our mind is greedy
  • The “limit” to how happy salary can make you is 75k, after that a jump in salary doesn’t make you happier
  • Forecasts of happiness are mostly fake, actual happiness doesn’t come from forecasting
  • happy people prioritize people in their life
  • Experiment about being social vs avoiding social contact
  • Forecast how the subject thinks its going to go
  • said that talking would make them less happy and solitude would make them more happy
  • results were the exact opposite
  • to be happier, spend time trying to be happier
  • helping others will help you be happier
  • very happy people spend time with and for others
  • another study with money and spending it for yourself or spending money for someone else and the amount of money they spent
  • Results: amount of money doesn’t matter, spending money for others makes you happier than spending it for yourself
  • treating ourselves doesn’t actually make us happier
  • make time for gratitude
  • our minds fixate on negative things
  • talking about negative things will reduce your happiness
  • talking about good things even just once a week will increase your happiness
  • Thanking someone randomly isn’t awkward, it bumps up both person’s happiness
  • healthy practices matter much more than we think
  • EX: excessive
  • excessive helps our physical and mental health
  • cardio makes people happier for 24 hours
  • high school students sleep 4-5 hours a night
  • this has a negative impact on their mood
  • having low amounts of sleep causes most mental health crises
  • Being present in the moment helps boost your mood
  • having your mind wandering to happy things, sad things, or even neutral things will hurt your mental
  • Notice what you are doing when you do something happy
  • savor the good things in life
  • meditation helps you reduce the areas in your brain that wander
  • be wealthy in time
  • people who have more time are happier
  • sacrificing time to have money makes you more depressed
  • sacrificing money to have time makes you less depressed
  • students were much happier when they had an hour to themselves, not allowed to do other homework

We need to change the culture about mental health everywhere

we need to take the idea that something is wrong and do something about it

For college students alcohol is a problem because of coping with their mental

As we get older we get happier, this is because after you retire you have more time, have more time for connections, etc.