备课吧积极心理学英文字幕

2020年12月29日发(作者：段墀)

积极心理学英文字幕

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 sitting 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 what 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 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 was 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. 311 ----------------------- 页面 2----------------------- And that was when
I switched my concentration from computer science to philosophy 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 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 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 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
dropped 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 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 you have a class,
that's larger than Introduction to Economics
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at the messenger. What they needed to look at was 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 hundred campuses here in United States
that teach positive 313 ----------------------- 页面 4-----------------------
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 them the leading big
consultant companies are taking it on. More and more high schools are introducing
positive psychology class. ***** Elementary schools are introducing it. The governments
around the world are expressing interest in this new emerging field. Why? Because it
works. Because it really works. You see this whole realm on life flourishing, on
happiness, on 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 the masses into these workshops, seminars and lectures. But, there
is a very big
lack substance. 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. Overpromising. 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 work, good stuff. But, and there is also a very big 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 Journal 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 that 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 are important. These things make a difference, can even make more
of a difference. 314 ----------------------- 页面 5----------------------- But not
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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 Ivory tower and 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 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 as any other class in psychology or any of the classes
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 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,
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 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 class 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 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, email me or email your TF
(Teaching Fellow at Harvard, just like TA at other schools) and we'll always respond.
Sometimes if the question is asked by enough people, we'll respond 315
----------------------- 页面 6----------------------- to it publicly. Always
anonymously. Unless you specified specifically that your name can be mentioned.
Sometimes you may be listening to a lecture and then half way through it there is an
emergency. There is something that you really have to ask, something that cannot wait.
In that case, please just put your hand up. Coz it's just like when you have to go to
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the bathroom. Just can't stop. Can't wait. And when you gotta go, you gotta go. So we'll
take a positive psychology break for that. And just stop me half way through and I'll
answer any question. All the power points, as well as the videos of the classes will
be online. Will be available within couple of days. Well the power points will be
available before, say for this lecture it will be before so that you can use them in
class. The videos, unfortunately, cannot be made available before. We tried. Couldn't
figure it out. So it will be available within a day or two after. And the reason why
they are up there. First of all, I do prefer that you attend lecture. I do prefer that
you are physically here. You get things in the energy of the room with so many students
so you wouldn't just get from your computer. The reason why I do put them up is so that
you have the opportunity if you want to see it again or if you have to miss a class.
That's perfectly fine. And also because, and this is also the reason why the power points
are always available, I want you to be engaged in the material. I want you to be engaged
in whatever it is that we are discussing in class. Not necessarily 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 is on the power point
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 heard something and idea and you say, that's
interesting.
it down. I want to tell my mom about this want to talk to my roommates
or my team about this idea.
note-taking for two reasons. 316 ----------------------- 页面
7----------------------- 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, although there is a lot of academic beauty in this field. So write down if you
have an idea that you think you can apply. The second reason why we should that is because
you'll remember more. Better attention, better understanding of the material if you
are actively engaged, as opposed to just taking down passive notes. Throughout the class,
starting next week, we'll take what I called,
it's like a time-out. It's the time where we stop the class and you look inward. And
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this is literally a time of silence in a 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 provide you that you'll
address during the class. The reason why I have
I am introducing this year for the first time. We didn't have it last time. It's because
over the last two years since I last taught it, I've done a lot 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 is for a leader
in the business, for relationship, for children starting from pre-schools. Now many
of you, as you are going through these this class may
think,
be quiet?First of all, it will only be a minute or two at a time, maybe once or twice
a lecture. But second, it is maybe the most important thing you'll take from this class.
The notion of embracing stillness. Let me read to you an excerpt from a study that was
run by two MIT professors. By the way, all the names that I read and that are not on
the power points, you don't need to remember or write down. This is just for your
edification. So David Foster and Matthew Wilson. Both of them are from MIT. Indeed the
317 ----------------------- 页面 8----------------------- following study that I
think confirms the importance of time to look inside. What they did is they
scanned the brains of rats while they were in a maze and after they went through the
maze. And here's what they found. 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, when you try to figure out: 'What was important? What should I keep
and throw away?' during periods of quiet wakeful introspection. What they show was rats
who went through the maze and 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 more margarita.
Experience, embrace stillness. This has implications and they showed implications to
human beings as well. Not only those of the rat race, all human beings. So what they
say is that might constitute a general mechanism of learning and memoryBoth
learning, understanding, as well as memory, retention. When we reflect, when we replay
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the material, we are much more likely to retain, to remember what we have just been
through. So the importance of time aside cannot be over-emphasized. In his wonderful
book of teaching, 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 matrix for the inner work
students must do, a medium for learning of the deepest e is something that
is missing from our culture. I know that many of you have probably read Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig. He had a second book out, less
well-known, called Lila (Lila: an Inquiry into Morals). And Lila is an anthropological
study of Native Americans. And one of the distinguishing characteristics between these
two cultures is their approach were silence. What he found was when he went and sat
around with Native Americans. 318 ----------------------- 页面
9----------------------- They would sit around the fire and hang out for two, three
hours without saying a word. Just sit around. Look at one another. Smile. Have a good
time. Introspect. Just be there for hours. While 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. This is an important cultural difference. And we pay
a price for this lack of stillness. A price that we'll talk about a lot, when I talk
about relationships, when I talk about virtue and morality and when we talk about
happiness and wellbeing in general. Let me give a little bit background on positive
psychology: how we came about and how this class came about. In many ways, positive
psychology is the brainchild, the product and 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 third forceWhy the forceBecause the first
force was behaviorism. The work of Skinner (B. F. Skinner), the work of Watson (John
B. Watson), the work of Thorndik (Edward Thorndik). This was the first force. The second
force was psychoanalysis. The work of Freud (Sigmund Freud), Jung (Carl Jung), Adler
(Alfred Adler) to some extent. This was the second force. And the third force, humanistic
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psychology came as a reaction to it. First it is a reaction to behaviorism. Behaviorism
looks at the human entity, at the person as basically a collection of behaviors as a
box, like a billiard ball knocked around by reinforcements, by punishment, by reward.
And what humanistic psychology said was that we are much more than a billiard ball being
knocked around. We have spirit. We have a soul. We have cognitions and thoughts that
matter. It's not just behavior that is important for understanding as well as improving
life. And then psychoanalysis, the second force. The psychoanalysis is about basically
understanding mostly through the subconscious: that's how you understand it; that's
how you improve the quality of life. There are defense mechanisms, there are biological
319 ----------------------- 页面 10----------------------- instincts, neurosis-- and
if you understand these very often dark forces, were better able to deal with life:
understand as well as improve the quality of life. Humanistic psychology says human
beings are much more than that. Much more than biological instincts, much more than
neurosis, much more than the person who exists in a Newtonian 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 humanistic psychology
is said lacked the rigorous methodology. While it brought in many wonderful ideas,
talked about the study of well-being, talked about the study of optimism, of kindness,
of morality, of virtue, of love, of 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
largely more of into the self-health movement. Interesting ideas, good ideas, important
ideas, certainly good intentions, but to some extent, without the academic rigor. And
that's why it lacked the impact on academia. That's why we don't have partly any
humanistic psychology classes offered in 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 ways fathered and mothered, as we'll see,
positive psychology. So let's meet the grandparents. People like Rollo May. People like
Carl Rogers. And more than anyone, Abraham Maslow. Was the American Psychological
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Association President. Was the professor just down the road here at Brandeis (Brandeis
University). And he introduced this humanistic psychology in 1954. He wrote a chapter,
called
kindness, goodness and happiness and optimism. In many ways it was way ahead of his
time. 320 ----------------------- 页面 11----------------------- Then if Maslow is
the grandfather, then Karen Horney is the grandmother. Initially a psychoanalyst,
trained through the works of Freud, she realized the focuses had 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 on human organism. We have to work and 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 Antonovsky, 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-- his own neologism,
is) health; geneis (which is) origin. The origin of health. And this was an alternative
model, to the conventional ways 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 prevented medicine is about. So
this was a novel idea back in 1970s when he introduced it. And we'll talk a lot about
Aaron Antonovsky. Now the parents. Martin Seligman, considered the father of the
positive psychology, network of scholars, started the field in 1998. Like Maslow, he
too, was the President of American Psychological Association. And as his mandate, during
his presidency, he had two aims: the first aim-- to make academic psychology more
accessible, -- in other words-- bridge Ivory tower and mainstreet. This was the first
aim of his presidency. The second aim was introduce a positive psychology. A psychology
that will look at also things that work, that were not just study-- depression, anxiety,
schizophrenia and neurosis. A psychology a network of scholars who will focus on --
love, relationships, self- esteem, motivation, resilience and well-being. And he
introduced these ideas and it's all been literally uphill from then. Before Martin
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Seligman, this all happened in 1998 and we'll talk about it a little bit more next time.
321 ----------------------- 页面 12----------------------- This all happened in 1998.
Long before 1998, our very own professor Ellen Langer did research in all these areas,
bringing the humanistic spirit and combining it with the academic scientific rigor.
We'll be talking probably more than any other scholar about her work 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. Both Langer and Stone were my physicist
advisors, introduced me to the field of positive psychology into this research. In 1998
when I had the first positive psychology summit, Professor Stone took me along with
him. I was a 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. A couple of years
later, he taught it again. Again I was his teaching fellow. And then when I graduated,
he suggested 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 an hour and so, a sense of what you expect in this
class. The first thing is 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 container, which is our mind. And
information is about taking data, taking science, taking information and putting it
inside the form. That is information. Now when this form is filled, that's when we are
educated. More information, more data, better. Not enough. Because it's not just
information that determines our wellbeing, 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,
(which is) change, form, (which is) shape. Change the form. This is transformation.
This is the distinction that I learned first from at the school. Professor Robert Kegan
who taught about this. Information in and of itself is not 322 -----------------------
页面 13----------------------- enough. Think about this example. You go for an 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's the interpretation? -- Terrible. I just failed. You feel
deflated. Enervated. On the other hand, the exact same event. You came eight when you
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expected to be top three. You can interpret it as
to work even harder.
other words, the same objective information which is got eighth; I expected 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
increasing 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 are unhappy. And then there are people around the world who
have very little. And yet they never cease, never stop to celebrate life. And we have
another way around as well. People who have everything and appreciate it and enjoy life.
People who have very little and 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, I had
everything. Doing well (in) sports, academics and socially. And yet my perception, my
focus, my interpretation of life-- not that great. I 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 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 wellbeing.
What that will look like in practice is that we'll cover not so much information. We'll
uncover much more and I don't mean that in the Berkeley (George Berkeley) sense of the
word. 323 ----------------------- 页面 14----------------------- I mean that in the
academic sense of the word. In other words, what we'll do is uncover potential that
we have inside, that we have inside of us all along. Maybe we just didn't see. Or maybe
it's obscured by something or another. We'll uncover it so that we can utilize it, so
that we can focus on it, so that we can perceive it. Here is a story just to illustrate
it. So this is Michelangelo. One day he was asked by a journalist of his time,
did you create this most amazing masterpiece, David?to which Michelangelo responded,

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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.
Not obviously easier said than done. But the story captured 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 often hurts us. It's about chipping away
our ability for success, because maybe we are afraid of success. Maybe we feel guilty
about some of the things that we have in our life, and that in turn limits us. Maybe
it's about chipping away the limitations on our relationships in while we don't thrive
within them. This is what this class is mostly about. As Dero (?) says,
more by subtraction than by additionby getting rid of these limitations, limitations
that are preventing us from fulfilling our potential. Because our potential is in there
in nature. We 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 we fix (?) stone
of voices with being part of our culture that very often these limitations are put on
top of us just like the excess stone. Lao Tzu,
something is acquired. In pursuit of wisdom, every day something is dge
is 324 ----------------------- 页面 15----------------------- 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,
what tools can you give from positive psychology?
greatest hits
talked about the importance of spending time on our relationships, about taking time
aside and simplifying and so on and so on. As I was going through my long list, she
stopped me and she said,
know. But our readers already know that. I am looking for the Wow factor. Come on,
surprise me. What can you tell our readers?
minute and I realized that there is no Wow. And I told her that,
is a wow, the wow is that there is no 's it. Because the
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over-not-transformation emperor, the emperor of quick fixes has no clothes. It doesn't
exist. it's over-promising and under- delivering. A life, a fulfilling life, a rich life
includes ups and downs, includes pain and getting up again, 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 you will learn in this class, you've heard of before. Probably
nothing new to you. You already know it inside of you. And you are going to say,
it is common yes, a lot of it is common sense. However, it is Voltaire once
said,
So the aim of this class is to make common sense more common, especially in the real
world application. At the end of the class, here's what I am hoping for, at the end
of the class, if you decide to take it. At the end of the semester, I don't think—I
am not expecting you to come and tell me,
's not what I am 325 ----------------------- 页面
16----------------------- expecting. I don't think that is what will happen. What I
hope will happen is for you to come and say, rather than
something you would say you for reminding me of something that I've already known
And this is what this class is about. It's 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 to help you chip away some of these limitations,
whether it's limitation, cognitive limitations that prevent you from seeing what you
already knew, emotional limitations that are preventing you from deriving the benefits
of what you already know, or behavioral limitations. The ABC: affect, behavior, and
cognition that we'll talk about during the change week. So I'm 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 high way, or transformation back roads, to come through 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 global epidemic. And to deal with it, more information will just not do. Just
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not enough. Here is Archibald MacLeish. He was a poet, was a Harvard professor,
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 it and filling up our 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 a humanistic approach. Let me read you a quick excerpt by Abraham Maslow
who talks about this approach, 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 as the acquisition of
associations, of skills and capacities that are external and not intrinsic to the human
326 ----------------------- 页面 17----------------------- character, to the human
personality, to the person himself.
to the transformation, the changing of the form. And when we talk about transformation,
actually mean it quite literally-- changing of the form, changing of the brain as we'll
talk about. We'll talk about meditation for instance. We know our brain today can
actually change through MRI studies since 1998. A new concept came up which is
Neurogenesis or Neuroplasticity, meaning our brain actually changes and transforms.
It changes its form throughout our life. So I don't just mean it metaphorically, I also
very often mean it literally. Abraham Maslow continues, 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

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.
you can what the class is about. It's the humanistic approach. It's 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 and
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discuss the importance of idealism and maintaining idealism if we are to introduce
personal change, inter-personal change, or community or society change. This class is
not about providing answers, concerning the good life and happiness. It is about
identifying the right questions.
This class is what I think education is all about, which is that the quest for information
and transformation must begin with the question. Quest, question, there is no
coincidence that there is an etymological link between the two. In this class we'll
be asking, you'll 327 ----------------------- 页面 18----------------------- be asked
many questions, questions that as you'll see, create reality. We'll talk about it
already next time. The importance of the questions you ask of 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 Drucker, ―The most
common source of mistakes in management decisions Peter Drucker, considered the most
important management scholar of 20th century, just recently passed away, saying 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 in managing organizations, whether
it's managing our lives. Now. When I said that questions are important and answers matter
less, I am not coming from a point of relativism. I'm not a relativist. I think they
are ... To some questions definitive answers that are important to know. However, what
I'm saying is that it's important, not less important to focus on questions when it
comes to education. The educator, Neil Postman once said,
question marks and they leave as periods.
more question marks than periods. Once again, it's about chipping away the excess stone
because as kids, we are always asking questions. We are always curious. Let me show
you a quick excerpt from a video of one of my favorite psychologists, actually the
comedian, Seinfeld. We will watch a lot of excerpts throughout the semester. Talking
about what we were like as kids. See is this in your way the first couple of years
I made my own costumes which of course sucked: the ghost, the hobo... Then, finally,
the third year, begging the parents, I got the Superman Halloween costume. Not
16


surprisingly. Cardboard box, self-made 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 328 -----------------------
页面 19----------------------- staple they put it in there with. You go to your first
house:
fix it! Hey wait up! Wait up!don't say
Coz when you are little your life is up. Your future is up. Everything you want is up.

just the opposite. Everything is down. calm down! Slow down! Calm down here! Sit
down. Put that down!
opposed to closing down that kids have. This notion. This is what I hope will happen
in this class. The one real objective of education is to leave a man in the condition
of continually asking questions. So here is a longitudinal study that was done by John
Carter. John Carter, professor of leadership management of the business school across
the river, came to Harvard in 1972, joined the faculty and started to follow Harvard
class, MBA class of 1973 and followed them through 20 years. And what he was interested
in was to find all the information he could about this class. What he found 20 years
later, early 90s when this study ended was these students were extremely successful,
Or ex-students were extremely successful, students were extremely successful, very
wealthy, having a lot of impact, whether it's on the organizations, on the community.
They did extremely well. But within the large group of highly successful Harvard MBAs,
he found a small group that was extraordinarily successful, more successful than the
rest of group, whether in terms of income, whether in terms of impact, whether in terms
of overall quality of life. Extraordinarily successful. 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, pre-MBA, what they did had nothing to do with it. Two and
two things along mattered in terms of determining who will be the 329
----------------------- 页面 20----------------------- extraordinarily successful
17


and the rest: the first thing was the extraordinarily successful groups really believe
in themselves. They thought they could do well. They were driven. They were motivated.
And we'll talk about it in future lecture as belief in self-fulfilling prophecies. They
thought going to make it. I'm going to 's the first thing. The sense
of the confidence. The second thing that he found was this group, they were always asking
questions, --always asking questions, initially of their boss, later of their employees,
of their partners, children, parents, friends. They were always asking question. They
were always at the state of curiosity. Always looking up, opening up, wanting to
understand the world the more. They didn't say
enough.
distinguishing characteristics account for the difference between the extraordinarily
successful and those who were successful. The question that has guided me whether 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
help ourselves 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,
answer that question. I don't know what it means. How do I determine whether or not
I am happy? Is it compared to someone else? Is there a certain point beyond which I
become happy? Happiness is not a binary either-or, zero-one-- either I'm happy or I'm
unhappy. Happiness resides on a continuum. So my answer to this question-- 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 lifelong
pursuit. Hopefully this class is part of that pursuit, but just part. You'll not be
happy at the end of class. Hopefully you'll be happier. Cos many people sit here 330
----------------------- 页面 21----------------------- during the lectures on
self-esteem, for example, or when we talk explicitly about happiness, they say,
Do I have self-esteem?
self-esteem?Irrelevant. Impossible to answer also. The question is can I improve
my self-esteem, my healthy self- esteem, not narcissism of course? How can I become
18


happier?
class is not a survey of positive psychology. If you want a survey on positive psychology,
I can recommend some excellent textbooks whether it's by Lopez (Shane J. Lopez) or by
Peterson (Chris Peterson). Great textbooks. There is also The Handbook of Positive
Psychology which is a huge book with most what you want to know about this field. You
can also use it in self- defense. Very useful in that respect. But a wonderful book,
very well-written, very accessible in the spirit of positive psychology. But this is
not that. This is not a survey of positive psychology. What it is is a selective
exploration of the question of the questions. In that way, it is eclectic. My background
is in psychology and philosophy. I studies organizational behavior. I worked as a
consultant in business for a few years. Still do some work there. I worked in the field
of education, doing a lot of work in field of education. And I take from all these areas.
I also draw on not just from 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 would contribute to
happiness?And if something within psychopathology I thought could contribute to our
wellbeing, I took that and used that. And if something from the field of consulting
in organizational behavior could contribute, that became part of the class, as much
as I could fit in of course in one semester. So the class is eclectic. The class is
not cross-cultural. I will bring in ideas from eastern thoughts. I lived in Asia for
a few years. I worked there. Studied and continue to study the eastern philosophies
and 331 ----------------------- 页面 22----------------------- psychologies. But my
train 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. There was recently a meeting between senior scientists,
psychologists from the west, people like Paul Ekman, Richard Davidson- some of the most
important minds in the field of psychology meeting with the Dalai Lama and some of his
monks. They were talking about the future of psychology, about the research, and how
can you research meditation and so on. And one of the things they were talking a lot
about is the cultural differences. And when that came up, the Dalai Lama suddenly seemed
19


uneasy. And when Daniel Goleman who was writing about this whole event and it was held
in India asked him what's wrong, Dalai Lama said that he was not comfortable with talking
and emphasizing so much cultural differences. You can say many things about Dalai Lama.
One thing you cannot say about him is that he's culturally insensitive, arguably one
of the most sensitive people alive. And yet he said we are focusing too much on cultural
differences and he added not because there are no cultural differences. Of course there
are and they are important. But there are many more similarities than differences. And
we shouldn't ignore those similarities. Daniel Goleman about the Dalai Lama, were
a little bit surprised by the Dalai Lama's seeming resistance to the notion of cultural
differences. So I am willing to introduce these ideas but A, because it's not my training
and people who are focusing on cultural differences will do a much better job than I
do; and second, because what I hope to look into is the universal, things are common
across cultures. So we'll study research in this area. But even more than that, we'll
become even more particular than just talking about psychology in this part of the world.
We'll study yourselves. We are going to go that particular. Now why? When I put this
class together, I didn't think to myself,
introduce 332 ----------------------- 页面 23----------------------- in order to
please the participants in the class, the students?
I thought about was 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 from my perspective from very personal perspective. In this class I
am going to encourage you. 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 papers that will be due weekly starting in 2 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 favorite topic or the topic that matters most to you;
whether it's in sections that you'll be talking about how can I apply these ideas to
my life. The time- ins are about thinking about how can I take in the ideas and use them.
It's about studying ourselves. Because as Carl Rogers says,
most general.
20


remember that knowledge of one's own deep nature is also simultaneously knowledge of
human nature in we understand ourselves better, when we identify
ourselves, we are better able to identify with others. In fact, this is in many ways
the source of empathy, of the healthy empathy. And there are some studies 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 counter-intuitive to some extent.
to study the other so that you can be more sensitive to others?
it's not enough. It is important to also study ourselves, because when we see our deep
nature, what we encounter there is part of the universal nature, the similarities among
us all, regardless of where we are from. And this was what Dalai Lama was talking about:
not stop cross-cultural. Do it. 333 ----------------------- 页面
24----------------------- Important. But at the same time, not ignore the self. Not
ignore the universal within each one of us. C.S. Lewis,
one in the whole universe which we know about that we could learn from external
observation. That one thing is ourselves. We have, so to speak, inside information;
we are in the know.
why it's not enough to just study the self. It's important to counter it, to add to
it, academic work, studying others. That's why we'll 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 potentially can be made, it doesn't mean
we need to throw out the baby with the bath water and stop studying ourselves. So we'll
do that or rather you'll do that probably more than any other class on campus. Finally
this may be news to you, but this is not English 10A or Math 55, meaning you'll not
have to read as much as you will read for 10A or for a history class, and this class
is not as difficult as Math 55 so you rest. 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 research. Now many of the ideas that you'll encounter in this class are very simple,
21


very accessible. Common sense. However they are simple, not simplistic. And here is
the difference. Oliver Wendell Holmes NOliver Wendell Holmes-- this court is attributed
to him, not 100% sure it's his-- said,
this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side
of complexity.
easy, off-the-cuff, whimsical ideas. What he does care about though is the simplicity
that comes after. We have chewed the idea, after we have digested it, after we have
334 ----------------------- 页面 25----------------------- thought about it. Ideas
that have been worked on. And if on the other side of complexity we can read simplicity
and common sense, that's great. That's what he's interested in. That is also positive
psychology researchers that we'll discuss throughout the semester are interested in.
The simplicity on the other side of complexity. And there is a very big difference
between these two simplicities, even though on the face of it, they may at times look
similar. What this class requires is a very different kind of effort. A very different
kind of effort to other class. Again it doesn't require the effort that you'll need
in 55 or in English 10A. The kind of effort that it does require is the effort of
application, of applying into your life, 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 Drucker. Peter Drucker, who I quoted
earlier, father of study of management in modern times. Peter Drucker lived to the grand
old age of 94, passed away just a couple of years ago. 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 to come to his home. And he had Presidents, Premier Ministers of
countries. He had CEOs of Fortune 500 companies coming spend the weekend with him. And
on Friday, this was how we started with every session, with every world leader, whether
in business, whether in non- for-profit, whether in politics. He would say to them the
following, I don't want you to call me up and tell me how wonderful it was,
meaning how wonderful the weekend was, Monday I want you to call me up and tell
me what you are doing differently.
22


lecture, if you enjoyed it, by all means tell me that you enjoyed it, that you had fun.
But more important, it is what you are doing differently, how this has an impact on
your life and that takes effort. We are going to spend a whole week talking just about
change, nothing directly related to positive psychology. 335 -----------------------
页面 26----------------------- Just about change. Because it is so difficult to change.
Because we know most organizational change fails, because we know more 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 you
are doing differently. To do things differently very often takes courage. Some of your
response papers that you'll hand in-- none of them are graded; they are all just graded
you'll have to hand them in and then you'll pass. But some of them may
be the most difficult papers that you've 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 class to make a difference
in your life, it's up to you. I'm going to introduce to you the material. I'm going
to introduce to you this wonderful new field of positive psychology. what is up to you
is to then take it and apply it. I want to talk a little about the syllabus and the
requirements. And I'll give you a little time for questions. But before I do that, I
would also like to welcome-- I know that some of you are watching this from home, to
the extension school students, it's wonderful to have you here. Do come and visit once
a while. And you'll be working with obviously part of this class, but also with Deb
Levy who is the, they had teaching fellow for the extension school. They had teaching
fellow for the FAS class is Sean Achor and I'd like just to invite him for just a few
words, just to introduce himself to you. And you'll be introduced to other TFs we have.
We have an amazing team this year. This is Sean. Sean:Hey good morning. Can you guys
hear me? Can you hear me now? Great. This is absolutely honored to be back teaching
positive psychology again. Tal is too humble. This is not only extraordinary that he
is sharing his time with us, but he's actually moved here back, moved his family back
from Israel for the entire semester,-- 336 ----------------------- 页面
23


27----------------------- his wife and his two little children just so he can teach
this class with us. And this is absolutely an extraordinary opportunity for us to share
this moment with them. And I'm really excited about it. Last time we taught this class,
we did a survey to find out what type of people were sitting in this room-- they are
just like yourselves-- and find out why you'll be taking this class. Coz the comment
that we get so often about this class is why would Harvard students possibly be unhappy?
what do they have to be unhappy about? They thought everyone who'd be taking this class
would be taking it because they are already really happy and they want to study about
how amazing they are. And they'd like to learn things that they can tell the roommates
so clearly that (?) themselves. But it turns out actually over a third of people who
took this class last year took the class because they felt depressed. And they were
trying to learn about the research about positive psychology. And another third because
they wanted to learn about optimism. Another third did it for completely different
reasons. I think. Additional third this year did it because Tal was on the Jon Stewart
Daily Show. I am absolutely thrilled about this class. The syllabus which Tal is about
to tell you about is.. Actually we learned a couple of other things about you guys.
Did you know that of people who take positive psychology, 75% of you are officers of
club, 35% of you are the highest ranking officers of club, which means that you think
there are about 2000 clubs at Harvard, you are in club of three, and you happen to be
the president. We learned other reasons why you are not happy. we learned that the
average number of romantic relationships for people to take positive psychology in 4
years is between zero and one. Zero and one. (Tal: No! I don't believe it.) Don't leave.
- But that was before taking positive psychology class.N- That was before taking the
class. We are going to test you afterwards. The average number of sexual partners is
between zero and .5. I have no idea what .5 sexual partners is. This class is going
to be amazing. It was amazing in the past and Tal we actually have extraordinary teaching
staff here with us. It's a large teaching staff. 337 ----------------------- 页面
28----------------------- And Tal has actually already given us home works so the
teachers are going to be learning not only the material you are doing and talk you about
which the experts (?), but learning how to be better teachers. He's given us books to
24


read. He's actually given us assignment. It's a big extraordinary class in that sense.
In terms of the syllabus, it's going to be online. Tal just described now we've decided
to go green, so no trees are in making of this class except the large auditorium made
of wood. Sections-- we are going to try sections online next weekend. So we are going
to get the numbers on Wednesday. On following weekend we will be doing sectioning that
gives you a very short of turnaround time. But that way you can give me Monday to change
your section if you need to, which I hope you won't. And sections will start the following
week. Thank you very much. If you have any questions, send me an email. Ok, so... I
think I don't need to explain to you why there is one lecture in the semester that I
don't teach and Sean will teach it. And that is the lecture on humor. Figure out why
yourselves. I do think you'll have to walk and talk if you are teaching something. The
syllabus. The class, is to introduce you to my thinking about the class, is what I call
it, integrated class. What that means is that integrated vertically as well as
horizontally. Vertically means that every class connected to the next class is connected
to every class throughout the semester around a spiral. So what we'll talk about next
week, we'll revisit it again in lesson 7, lesson 17 and lesson 24. Everything is
interconnected on the higher level on a spiral-- in other words will lead to deep
understanding and hopefully assimilation of the material. So it's vertically
interconnected. It's also horizontally interconnected. That means every part of the
class reinforces and influences the other part. 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 your response papers that many student claim the most important
part of the class. Because 338 ----------------------- 页面 29-----------------------
that's where you get the 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'll write
out. You don't actually give it but 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 hand in, what you submit. And the reason why there is a 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 -- any material that you are
25


interested in your presentation. So the readings, very much connected and take you to
the next level of understanding and assimilation. So any questions before I finish up?
Any question from you? Alright. So let me just say-- one second finishing words. I am
very excited to be back here. My families are very excited to be back here. Looking
forward to a meaningful, pleasurable, enjoyable and happier semester with you. Thank
you. 339 ----------------------- 页面 30----------------------- Positive Psychology
–Lecture 2 Hi. Good morning. I'm so glad that you came. I was worried that no one would
show up in this weather. I'm glad you are Ok. Just a couple of announcements. Questions
that I received via email. A few things before we jump into the material. First of all,
I was asked,‖ who is this class for? Is it for people-- you know it's positive
psychology -- people that are very unhappy? Is it only for people who are depressed?
Who is this class for?
psychology and anyone who wants to be happier. If you are extremely happy, you can still
be happier. If you are very unhappy, you can still be happier. So the class essentially
is for anyone who's interested in the material. And I would add someone who is really
interested to work, to put the kind of effort that we talked about last time. Just not
the kind of effort that we would require you to wreck your head about understanding
certain concept, but it is effort in terms of applying these ideas to your lives. Now
you may want to take this class, because you are interested on academic level in positive
psychology that's perfectly fine. And you'll get many-- we'll talk about numerous
studies in every lecture, starting next time. We'll talk about study after study after
study, so you'll get that element as well. However, if you are thinking about taking
positive psychology for personal benefits, you need to put the effort in. And I'll talk
more about that today. So the class is for everyone. Anyone who's extremely happy and
wants to be happier and anyone who's not happy and wants to be happier. Passfail--
perfectly fine. Again the idea about this class is first and foremost for you. So I
would urge you if you do take pass and fail to put in the work, and that's why the one
element of passfail is not negotiable is that all the response papers have to be
submitted. Now the response papers, as you know, are not graded. They are basically
reflection papers. Will you reflect about the ideas about things that can be 340
26


----------------------- 页面 31----------------------- applied to your life? But they
are required. So you hand them in, you pass. If you don't hand them in, you fail. But
other than that, by all means, if you want to take this class passfail, it’s perfectly
fine. Third thing, you'll be exposed to many theories, to many ideas in this class.
Not everything would resonate of you. There's a wonderful book just came out in 2008,
just two weeks ago, called
talks about the concept-- she's a professor at Riverside (UC), Harvard college graduate
and went to Stanford for graduate school she talks about the importance of finding fit,
meaning the fit between certain technique, or tool, or idea, and yourself. Not every
idea, not every study that you've heard about, not every intervention that you actually
practice and you will practice interventions in your life, whether it's doing acts of
kindness, whether it's expressing gratitude, whether it's physical exercising, whether
it's journaling. You will do all these things throughout the semester. Not everything
would be right for you. You'll be exposed to it. You'll try it. And then you'll make
up your mind, this is what I want to incorporateor this is just not relevant
for me.
by research, but the research doesn't say its right for everyone. It says it's for most
people or for many people; this has worked or it is working. So again be an active
participant in this class as opposed to passive recipient of a doctrine. And identify
the things that work for you-- not everything. I guarantee not everything will work
for you, but a lot of things will. Your response papers that I just mentioned earlier:
they are due at 5 pm, sorry, you'll get them by 5 pm on Tuesday, starting next Tuesday.
And they will be due at 5 pm on Sunday to your TF. Again the response papers are usually
for most people fun, interesting and engaging activities. Not graded, just basically
for you to reflect, for you to grow through them. Thesis writers. How many of you are
thesis writers? Just so I get a show of hand here. Ok, I am sorry. No I'm kidding. Thesis
writers: you'll not need to take the midterms. I 341 ----------------------- 页面
32----------------------- know it's crunch time around that time- being through it
myself here. So you'll not have to take the midterm. Your final will account for more.
Unless you want to take the midterm, of course you'll more than welcome to. we won't
27


throw you out of the classroom. Your thesis writers may. There'll be many announcements
online. Do check the website on the regular basis. We communicate a lot of things.
Instead of sending you emails, we'll have the announcements. Check them regularly, about
6 7 times a day. Just kidding. Once a day or once every two days is more than enough.
I'd like Before I do jump into the material and we have a very exciting lecture today,
to invite Deb Levy who is the head TF for extension school-- so extension school students,
I know there are a couple of you here, those of you at home-- here she is. Deb Levy.
Deb Levy: Alright. I have about 20, 30 minutes to talk so I'm gonna start with my
childhood. I am just kidding. I am the head TF for the extension school and we are
thrilled. We have 296 extension students taking this course online, which means they
are going to watch videos, and then extension students you'll be in sections on
teleconference, When people are gonna call in, there are gonna be teleconferences which
is going to be a great opportunity. Let's say hi to people out there in New Zealand.
Hi. France. Kentucky. Lexington. It's really unbelievable. So the other thing is I want
to take a picture actually. (Tal: No pictures in the classroom.) You'll take a picture
Tal. So I am not going to do any lecturing. But since Tal and I have very similar
systematic stuff, so if Tal is absent for any reason, I'll be doing the lecture for
you. (Tal: Good.) The other is: people who are extension, I want to you be patient.
We are going to get information out there as soon as we can. And you'll all be sectioned
in next week or so. And feel thrilled to be here. Great. Thank you Deb. So I want to
start with a story, something that happened to me exactly 2 years ago, just about to
the day, when was the last time when I taught positive psychology. As the semester
started, it was a very stressful period also, my mentor, who I am 342
----------------------- 页面 33----------------------- dedicating this class as well
as all my future positive psychology class is to, Philip Stone passed away just the
day before the class started. Very stressful period. And I got sick. And I got very
sick. Somehow I got through the class. I taught the Thursday class. That started 2 years
ago. It started on Tuesday. So I taught on Tuesday. Somehow Thursday, completely drugged.
This lecture I made it through somehow. And I went to home and I couldn't fall asleep.
I was in real pain. I went to the doctors. That was on Friday afternoon, just saying
28



some blood tests. And finally after days I couldn't sleep because of pain, fell asleep.
This was Friday night. In the midnight, there was a phone call. I don't hear it. I am
fast asleep. My wife picks it up. Tommy picks it up. It's the doctor. And the doctor
says to Tommy, test results just came in. And Tal should get to the hospital now.
She said to the doctor,
till tomorrow morning?‖ No. And he has to go to Beth Israel,
because they have the best labs for what he needs right she doesn't elaborate
it any more. Tommy wakes me up, retells me the story of what's happening. Somehow I
get up. She can't take me to the hospital because David, at that time one year old,
is asleep. We don't want to wake him up. So we get a cab to take me to Beth Israel.
On the way-- so this was the year after I was no longer resident tutors in Leverett.
We were (?), driving down the Charles River. Up and drive and then next to Harvard.
I look at Harvard. I look at the beautiful river. It's very quiet. Not many cars just
after midnight after a Friday night. And I can't help myself but think, if there's
something really terrible going on?
hospital-- Beth Israel, insisting on just one specific hospital? There must be something
really wrong. And my mind begins to wander. And I say, if I only have a year left?
What would I do in that year?I become very sad because I think I won't see David grow
up. I won't see-- I won't have any future children. Be careful up there. And I become
very 343 ----------------------- 页面 34----------------------- wistful and sad. And
then I ask myself,
So I know personally exactly what I'll do. I'll spend all the time that I can with my
family. But professionally what do I want to accomplish in this year? And my immediate
response was I want to leave behind a coherent body of work, a coherent course
introducing people to positive psychology. While I arrived at the hospital, I had some
more checks. It ends up being nothing too serious. They put me on antibiotics. And within
a couple of days I am on the way to recovery. I want to share with you today though
why. Why is it the most important thing for me at that time and still today, is to leave
behind a coherent body of work about positive psychology, to introduce you to this
29


wonderful field? Why positive psychology? Why is it? Its own field? Why is it not--well,
just study happiness, wellbeing as part of social psychology or clinical psychology?
Why have so many scholars around the world united around this concept of positive
psychology? So this is what I want to do today. In the year of 2000,a research was done
by David Myers. Davis Myers, from Hope College-- some of you who've studied social
psychology may have read his textbook, did research, looking at psychological abstracts.
What he looked at was the ratio between
Here is what he found. From 1967 to year of 2000- this was around the time when positive
psychology started, what he found in the 33 years are over 5000 articles on anger, 5000
research articles on anger. He found over 41000 research articles on anxiety and over
50000 articles on depression. And then he looked at the positive words, positive
research. He looked for research on joy. And he found staggering 415 studies. It does
get better. He looked at research on happiness and he found close to 2000 articles on
happiness in 33 years. Life satisfaction came on top: over 2500 studies. Still, if you
look at that, the negative studies versus the positive studies, the ratio that you get
is 21 to 1. For every 344 ----------------------- 页面 35----------------------- one
article on some positive aspect, some positive element of life, wellbeing, satisfaction,
joy, happiness, you get 21 articles on depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, neurosis
and so on. Ratio of 21 to 1. Very depressing ratio, I must admit. In fact, it made me
very angry and anxious. Studies focus on, primarily on what doesn't work, mostly on
what doesn't work. And this is not a new phenomenon. Here is something from Abraham
Maslow, who we mentioned last time, talking about this phenomenon in 1954: science
of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side.
It has revealed to us much about man's shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little
about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations or his psychological
height. It is as if psychology had voluntarily restricted itself to only half its
rightful jurisdiction and that darker, meaner half.
I mean the psychology concentrators here know that, probably guess that. We study a
lot of prejudice. We study a lot depression and anxiety. We study a lot about conformity.
We study a lot about misjudgments and errors, very much focusing on this aspect and
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very little-- again, 21 to 1, very little-- on the positive. And when I look at this
ratio and I think about it, this is 1954-- hasn't changed much since. And when I think
about it and I look into it, I think that psychology needs help. I really do. I mean
think about it at a personal level. That if you had a person who 21 hours a day was
depressed and one hour in a day felt good? Or one day feeling good and then 21 days
feeling anxious and depressed? You would say that this person would need help. And the
field I think needs help. But the question becomes
we look at it this way? Because the 21 ratio is unhealthy, certainly would be so on
the individual level, but it reflects reality in many ways. Because what we are seeing
today in more and more research showing that there is more and more depression around
the world, that there is more and more anxiety, east, west, north, south-- around the
world. And one could argue-- people who argue for continuing to do research in this
area, for doing less in positive 345 ----------------------- 页面
36----------------------- psychologies, -- well we should be doing even more than the
21 to 1 ratio, because we want to alleviate the anxiety and depression that people
experience. Today depression is 10 times higher than it was in 1960. Now part of it
is because there's more awareness, because we measure better. But that's not all. It's
also simply because objectively there's more depression. And one way of knowing that
is that the most objective that we have is unfortunately suicide. And numbers
have risen significantly around the world, not just in the United States-- whether it's
in China, whether it's Australia-- as well as here. The mean age for depression today
is less than 15. Kids at very young age are introduced to the
And very often, they are not prepared, not able to deal with it in an effective way.
So when we look at this data, we say we do need more research to help people overcome
depression, to help people overcome anxiety. And I don't want to belittle that. That
is important. It is extremely important. What I'm arguing, what I will argue for, is
the shift of the pendulum. So it's no longer 21 to 1. There are more, many more studies
in positive psychology, -- not to the exclusion of, not at all, but just shifting the
pendulum. How about here? In our local village? This article, -- I couldn't find a study
that is more recent, this was published in 2004. Harvard Crimson
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(http:). This article says that, in their 6 months study of this,
80% of Harvard students experienced depression over the past year. Now we are not talking
about the regular ups and downs that most people have ten times a day-- I certainly
do. We are talking about depression here. For an extended period of time. 47% of Harvard
students, according to this, -- and grant it: this is not academic study, but I will
share with you academic study in a minute, published in a top-tier refereed journal.
But Crimson has founded in its survey that 47% Harvard students over the past year have
experienced depression to the point of not functioning. So they couldn't leave home.
They were really struggling to just basically 346 ----------------------- 页面
37----------------------- get through the day. 47%. Now when people look at this, they
say
30 to 1 sounds more like see it around campuses. This is not peculiar to Harvard.
Not at all peculiar to Harvard. Richard Kadison, who is the head of mental health
services here, in the New England Journal of Medicine-- probably the leading journal
in the field of Medicine, recently published an article, where he talked about a survey
that was done among 13500 college students nationwide, different kinds of colleges,
universities, states schools, private schools. And what they found in this very
significant study was that 45% of college students nationwide over the past year have
experienced depression to the point of not functioning. So The Harvard Crimson found
47; nationwide, it was 45-- essentially identical, no significant difference among the
two. This is a nationwide phenomenon. In this study, 94% of college students nationwide
feel overwhelmed and stressed by everything that they have to do. 94% I mean these are
supposed to be the best four years of our lives. Something is going on here. Now this
is not unique to United States. I just recently came back from a tour. I was in-- spent
time in Europe-- in the UK, France; spent a lot of time in China and some time in Australia.
In every one of these places, the governments are really concerned; university
presidents are very concerned about the growing level of depression, anxiety and general
mental disorder, rise of suicide rates in all of these countries that I mentioned. So
we have a global epidemic here. And once again going back so: Is it the 21:1 ratio good?
Is it important? Shouldn't it be increased? How can we even think about studying
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happiness and well-being and love and joy? Shouldn't we first deal with the real pressing
problem of depression, anxiety, neurosis and so on? Some truth to that, but again what
I'm going to argue for in this class is that we 347 ----------------------- 页面
38----------------------- do need to also, not only, not exclusively, not even
necessarily primarily; we need to also focus on the positive. I am going to talk about
three reasons why we should do that. The first reason is that it is important to focus
on what works, because what works or what we focus on rather creates reality. If we
focus on what is working, we'll have more working in our world, more working in ourselves,
more working in our relationships. The second reason why positive psychology as an
independent field of study as a course in and of itself is important is that being happy
is not just the negation of happiness. It doesn't mean just get rid of depression or
anxiety that I am experiencing, I spontaneously become happy. That's not the case.
That's not how it works. And finally, prevention which is very important today, the
most effective way of preventing hardship, -- whether it's depression, whether it's
anxiety, -- is actually by focusing on and cultivating the positive. Now I will share
with you some studies about this. So for these three reasons, we need positive psychology.
Let me begin with the importance of focusing on what works. In the introduction to the
Handbook of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman who we talked about last time,
considered the father of positive psychology, network of scholars, says this: aim
of positive psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only
with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life.
Note that he says also. He doesn't say exclusively or even primarily. It's important
to focus on what works, -- whether it is in our relationship, whether it's in ourselves,
whether it's in others, whether it's in Harvard, whether it's in United States or the
world-- in order to have more what works. Now the question is do we focus on what
works?
illustrate through a case study. Psychologists, starting in the late 1940s, studied
at-risk population. More and more money-- government money, university money,
philanthropist money-- went into study in the cities or places where generally the kids
were considered at risk-- more prone to dropping out of school, 348
33


----------------------- 页面 39----------------------- more prone to later-on crime,
teen pregnancy and so on. So this study they put in a lot of money, a lot of effort
into this. The question that the psychologists asked was do these individuals fail?
why does such a high percentage of students in that as-risk population end up dropping
out of school? Getting pregnant? Crime?
on next week.
good intentions of the psychologists, smart people, lot of money, lot of resources going
in. However, very little change was introduced. Very little change came about as results
of these studies. And the situation in many areas continued to exacerbate. Certain
didn't get any better, despite the good intentions, despite the resources, despite the
brain power that twined into the researching into this question. Interesting answers--
well, we need better education, we need better buildings, we need more resources, but
very little change actually in practice came about. And then there was a paradigm, quite
literally a paradigm shift in the 1980s. Through the work of Antonovsky who I mentioned
last time and I'll mention again today, through the work of Antonovsky, and other people
like Ellen Langer, other people like Alice Isen, different questions started to be asked
by psychologists. Instead of asking what did these individuals fail, positive
psychologists started to ask what made some individuals succeed despite unfavorable
circumstances? Maybe it was the case that many failed, but not everyone. Some succeeded
and succeeded big time. And what psychologists started to do then was to ask why. What
is it about them that is so successful? And that, in the words of Frost, made all the
difference. The psychologists started to identify elements, aspects of these
individuals and studied them in depth, starting to study the successful individuals,
and identify elements that they could then teach later in creating interventions based
on what they had studied. And suddenly, there were results, real results, tangible
results, after decades of 349 ----------------------- 页面 40-----------------------
virtually zero results, simply based on the question. And the main concept that came
out at that time, through the research of these psychologists who started to ask the
positive question, started to focus on what is working on the successful children. The
concept that came out was the concept of resilience. Now today everyone talks about
34


resilience. We talk about resilience in school, at work, in the job, in the bedroom.
Everywhere resilience. However, at that time in the 1980s, very few people even talked
about or knew what that means. When they studied resilience, which is defined as
following, it made all the difference. Resilience,-- a class of phenomena characterized
by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk.
These kids, who succeeded-- ended up succeeding, and they look through longitudinal
studies-- 5 years later,10 years,30 years later, the kids who succeeded, were resilient.
Initially, when they studied these kids, the assumption was these must be super kids,
extraordinary kids, one in a hundred, one in a thousand- not really replicable,
therefore. However, what they found when they continued to study those people who work,
those people who succeeded, despite the unfavorable circumstances, -- what they found
was these were not super kids. In fact these were ordinary kids with ordinary
characteristics that led to extraordinary results. For example, let me share with you
some of the things. These kids were optimistic, -- not optimistic in the detached
Pollyannaish sense, -- optimistic in that they believe in things that would work out
well, and we'll talk a lot about optimism as an interpretation style, in the work of
Martin Seligman and Karen Reivich. They were optimistic in the sense of thinking,
it may not work well this time. It will work out later. I have learned from what had
just had faith and sense of meaning in life. Sometimes it was religious
faith, not always. It was doing something that they really believed in. Many of them
were idealistic. One of main topics we will discuss in this class is that to be idealistic
is to be realistic, because we have a real internal need, innate need for idealism.
So these kids 350 ----------------------- 页面 41----------------------- experienced
sense of meaning, whether it was meaning in terms of personal success and how I will
make it, or sense of meaning in their community contributing, something meaningful in
sense of purpose. By the way, when I go through all these, these are no less important
for any other person in the world. This resilience as we mentioned earlier is just not
important for the at-risk population. It's as important at Harvard. And not just during
exam period. It's important that resilience is associated with wellbeing. So think about
these characteristics and you display them. And the interesting thing about all these
35


characteristics they can all be learned. that I'll mention here is that they can all
be taught; In many ways, this class is about that. And when the psychologists identified
these, they started to teach them and the individuals started to learn and that made
all the difference. In addition to the faith and sense of meaning, pro-social behavior,
helping other people, shifting from helplessness to helpfulness, they were significant.
One of the things that we'll talk about is how meaningful it is to help other people.
And how much it doesn't just only help others, it also helps us. And we enter an upward
spiral between self-help and other- help. Because when we help others, we are helping
ourselves. When we help ourselves, we help others. And so on and so on. So they were
pro- social. They were helping other people. They focused on their strength rather than
primarily deficiencies. They did not ignore their weaknesses, but they asked,
am I good at? What am I really, really good at?And again, part of this course, you'll
identify your strength, whether it's through online test, whether it's through
reflection papers, whether it's in section. You'll think about it whether it's through
your readings. Identify the strength. What are they good at? They set goals for
themselves. They were future- oriented, not just thinking about how bad things are today
perhaps, but also thinking about
now.
resilience. They had a role model. Someone who they said about want to be like her;
I want to be 351 ----------------------- 页面 42----------------------- like
could be a teacher. It could be a parent, sibling, and friend. Sometimes, it was a
historical figure or a fictional character, someone that they want to emulate, to be
like. That gave them strength. That gave them sense of direction. And finally, most
significantly, they did not bowl alone. They had social support. They did not say :
I am tough enough to do it by they said:tough enough to reach
out for help.
weaknesses as well, the strength to admit a need. Now think about these: do you have
these things here for yourself at Harvard in life? And if not, you can cultivate all
of these things, whether it's a social support-- and it doesn't have to be a hundred
people whom you talk to everyday; it can be one or two close friends, mom, dad,
36


roommates-- makes a big difference. No. 1 contributor to resilience. Now the important
thing about social support is identifying the right people. People who, when you reach
out to them, will reach back to you and will be able to give back. I want to show you
an example now of a not so good role model for social support. And that is an interaction
between Grace and Karen from Will and Grace. Will and Grace (From Episode 309) SALESMAN:
This video game makes a nice birthday gift. Do you think your stepson would like that?
KAREN: I don't know, honey. Can he eat it or rub up against it? SALESMAN: Let's come
at this a different way. What are his interests? KAREN: Ham. SALESMAN: Why don't I just
let you browse awhile? KAREN: Yeah. Thanks. Ooh, and, uh, do you think there's anything
you could do about all these kids in here? 352 ----------------------- 页面
43----------------------- SALESMAN: Ma'am, it's a toy store. KAREN: Yeah. See what you
can do. Move it, Shorty. GRACE: Hi, Karen. Um... I can't help you shop today. I've got
to go. KAREN: What's going on? What's happening? What's with the geisha hand? GRACE:
Nothing. I just had something zapped at the dermatologist's, and it looks kinda funky,
and I just don't want anyone to see it right now. KAREN: Grace, I'm sure it's not nearly
as bad as you think it is. It's probably nothing, a little dot. Come on. Show mama.
KAREN: Aah! Whoa! Oh! Oh,my God! Oh! GRACE: Shh! Shhhhh! Karen, Will you calm down?
KAREN: How do you expect me to calm down when I can see its heart beating right in front
of me?! Aah! GRACE: Shh! KAREN: Well, uh, alright. Alright, I'm sorry. So how long have
you had the herpes? GRACE: It's not herpes. It's not even herpes adjacent. KAREN: Oh,
yeah? Well, it's close enough to be invited to the herpes family picnic. GRACE: It was
a weird freckle, and the doctor wanted to freeze it, and then he told me that it was
going to take 10 days to heal. I mean, what made him assume that I could look awful
for 10 days? Respond to that, and I will rub it all over your Prada. KAREN: What are
you lookin' at, prego? Haven't you ever seen herpes before? 353 -----------------------
页面 44----------------------- Jeez. Fat people are so insensitive. GRACE: Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Would you look at it in this little toy mirror? It's gotten...bigger. It's
like Barbie's dream zit. Thank God I canceled my date with Mark. KAREN: Yeah, 'cause
that thing looks like it needs orange cones and police tape around it. GRACE: Come on.
Let's get outta here. So Karen may not be a good choice for social support. But there
37


are many people who are. Now think about the power of the question. Think about what
a question did. For decades, many kids who potentially could have been helped weren't
helped, because the right question was not asked as well. And it was only after positive
question, the focusing on the positive question was asked that suddenly psychologists
were able to see what was right in front of them for decades. It was right there, apparent
evident, waiting to be discovered, but they completely missed it. Smart,
well-intentioned, well-funded, but also didn't ask the right question. Questions create
reality. They create possibilities. A question begins a quest. What they did in positive
psychology again, a great deal through the work of Antonovsky was move us from the
pathogenic model to the salutogenic model. Salutogenes is the foundation, the origin
of health. And Antonovsky was talking about, he said that it's important to study illness,
mental illness, physical illness, but it's equally important to study the healthy people,
the healthy individuals to see how they make it, whether it's people at Harvard. Harvard
is a stressful environment. However, there are some people who are able to go through
it, to do well, to thrive, flourish and-- well still going through the ups and downs,
we all do-- overall experience it as a much more positive experience as a happy
experience overall. How do they do that? Why? 354 ----------------------- 页面
45----------------------- Antonovsky said we need to study that so that we understand
the origin of health. And he studied these things and it made a big difference in the
field as a whole. Quote Antonovsky:
are aware that important advances come with the formulation of the new questions. The
question is the breakthrough; the answer comes with difficulty, but it is the new
question that is important. The salutogenic question, I submit to you, (that is what
is working) is a radically new question, which provides the impetus for formulating
a new paradigm to help us understand health and illness. It has serious implications
for researcher and clinician, biological and social scientist alike.
question that essentially created the field of positive psychology as well as positive
sociology. He was a sociologist by training as well as many other fields. Questions
make a difference. Questions create reality. I want to do an exercise with you now.
We'll do quite a few exercises in class. Here's the first one. To illustrate the
38


importance of question, now I'm going to ask you to count the number of geometric shapes
that you see on the screen-- no, not this screen, the next screen. And you are Harvard
students. It's fine. The next screen, I am going to ask you to count the number of
geometric shapes that you see on the screen. It's a very difficult question. I've given
it to people around the world. I've given it to mathematicians, to artists who are very
visual. And the challenge here is you are only going to have 30 seconds in which to
do it, 30 seconds to tell me how many geometric shapes you see on the screen. Ready?
30 seconds. How many geometric shapes do you see on the screen? Go. Ok. So that's 31
seconds. So there should be no problem. Now if you haven't done- I know a couple of
you have done this exercise before, but if you haven't done- this exercise before, --
and that's most of you, I'd like you to participate. So how many geometric shapes could
you count on the screen? Throw out the numbers. 6 8 48 58 44 36 110 38N6. 8. 48. 58.
44. 36. 110. 38. How many? Up there? You have a good perspective. 8. Anyone more than
110? Yeah, how many? 300? 355 ----------------------- 页面 46-----------------------
200. Anyone more than 200 or less than 6? Ok. So quite a range. But I grant you that
it's a tough question. By the way if you have it on your power points that you downloaded,
I took it off on the later downloading, but if you downloaded it, don't look at it now
please. So we have the rate between 6 and 200. Now it's a tough question. In fact, it
is so tough that I have no idea how many geometric shapes there are on the screen. But
I have another question for you. Now if you know the answer to this question, just put
your hand up --and if you haven't done this exercise before, -- just put your hand up.
Don't shout it out. If you know the answer, put your hand up: what time was it on the
clock? If you know the answer, put your hand up. If you think you know the answer, half
way up. Maybe, quarter. And the rest of you may leave now. Ok, so we have a few halves.
So out of the room, --how many were there-- probably 600,700 students here, out of 700
Harvard students, five and a half people can read the time on the clock. But I understand,
we all have digital watches today. It's difficult. So let me ask you an easier question.
If you know the answer, just put your hand up. That's right! How many kids were visible
on the bus? If you know the answer, put your hand up. If you think you know, half way
up. Maybe, quarter. Yeah, most of you think,‖ what bus?!You know. kids?Well
39


it was there. So out of a room of --again -- 700 Harvard students, there are approximately
11 and 34. Who can count? But that's Ok. That's not my 55 (Math 55 course in Harvard)
here. I understand. Another question. A little bit easier. What was the color of, the
dominant color of the left-most geometric shape on the screen? Not the big one on screen,
but the left-most geometric shape on the screen. What was the


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