March 7, 2008
By HURLEY GOODALL
Harvard University has taken happiness global.
"Positive Psychology," one of the university's most popular courses, is now being offered by the Harvard Extension School as a Web-based distance-learning course for the spring semester.
Students from as far away as Argentina, New Zealand, and Turkey have signed up for a dose of happiness.
First offered in the fall of 2005, the course became something of a celebrity by taking a scientific approach to what many find elusive. Students write papers, take exams, and read academic journals but come out of the course feeling good despite all that, says Tal Ben-Shahar, the author and psychology lecturer who originally designed the course.
"My goal is not to make it hard or easy," he says. "My goal is to make it rigorous and useful. The usefulness is what attracts students."
Despite what one might think, not everyone who takes the course is miserable.
"We have many people who are very happy who just want to be happier," says Mr. Ben-Shahar. "We have the whole gamut."
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