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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Science of Well-Being by Yale University

4.9
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37,282 ratings

About the Course

NEW TEEN VERSION AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being-for-teens In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life. THE SCIENCE OF WELL BEING WAS PRODUCED IN PART DUE TO THE GENEROUS FUNDING OF THE DAVID F. SWENSEN FUND FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHING....

Top reviews

JH

Jun 5, 2020

I couldn't have asked for a better class to be offered during this time. Got to learn a lot about myself and why I think or do certain things without even thinking about it. Thank you for this course!

MV

Jan 30, 2019

This is an outstanding course! I was able to change into a more positive and productive mindset as taught in this course. I highly recommend it to everyone regardless of your profession or background.

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501 - 525 of 10,000 Reviews for The Science of Well-Being

By Ana M P

May 28, 2020

I want to Thank Professor Santos for offering such a great course which really helped me and I'm sure so many other people and students. Especially students, I hope they put it into practice "The Science of Well-Being" because we need good, compassionate Leaders in the near future. Even for us over 60+ who needed it to re-inject our experiences with so many great tools we can put into practice. The best part for me besides the learning, it was sharing with the international community. We all humans, who have so much in common, wanted to be "Happy" than being different. Thanks again Professor Santos. Continue success.

By sanjana s

Apr 23, 2021

The course has really helped me think about a lot of important things differently. It has guided me to understand what is actually important and the reasons behind it. The rewirements pushed me to create an environment of growth around me so that I could successfully complete what I aimed for. Some of the methods and techniques which I have learnt in this course have helped me bring about changes holistically. It has boosted my ability to be more grateful, to connect better, to mediate, to savour, to be kind, to exercise. It has brought about a change in day to day life and I am on a journey to make this change permanent.

By KalmanRupp

Sep 1, 2020

Amazing course providing a conceptual framework of "Positive Psychology", a wealth of fact based evidence and weekly "rewirements" designed to assist the students learn and practice effective tools of improving your effectiveness as a person and improving your emotional well-being in the long run. The structure of the course is very clear, the delivery of lectures and interactive discussions with students and a number of other components of a well-designed on-line delivery architecture are superb. Professor Santos communicates clearly, directly, with kindness and humility that adds up to a wonderful experience. Thank you!

By VIRIDIANA O

Jun 1, 2020

This course helped me to see clearly my strengths and also those of those around me. It gave me skills to generate new habits, all based on scientific research. It is a key to open a thousand doors of knowledge. My quarantine has been great thanks to The Science of Well-Being. Thanks Laurie Santos !!

Este curso me ayudo a ver claramente mis fortalezas y también las de los que me rodean. Me brindó habilidades para generar nuevos hábitos, todo basado en investigaciones científicas. Es una llave para abrir mil puertas de conocimiento. Mi cuarentena ha sido grandiosa gracias a The Science of Well-Being. Gracias Laurie Santos!!

By Noreen S

Nov 17, 2021

The Science of well - being is an enlightening course. It provides you with some tools that lead you towards a more satisfying happy life. It offers a place to start and a method by which to achieve

your goal. Professor Santos is both enlightening and informative in her presentations. Her voice in the videos is calm, matter of fact , melodic and inspiring.

I appreciated her encouragement and positiveness. This course was well set - out, well - organized and easy to follow with many scientific studies quoted in the process to back the information she shares.

A wonderful experience and encouragement for the future.

By Kyra

May 28, 2020

At first, I took this class because like many other’s I was bored in quarantine. I read about this course in a Buzzfeed article, and decided “Hey that would be cool to say I took a class at Yale while in quarantine”. I quickly discovered after taking the PERMAHNLO survey, that maybe I wasn’t as happy as I thought I was. Week after week, I begin to think about what Laurie was saying in my everyday life. I began telling my friends and family how amazing this class was that I was taking. I realized there were things about my life I was unhappy with, and wanted to change. Thanks to Laurie, I was able to accomplish just that!

By Deanna J

May 25, 2020

I loved this course. Professor Santos is not only an excellent academic instructor but relatable to students of all ages. I chose to take this class because the world was at the beginning of a pandemic. I needed something to not only keep my mind active but a focus on something else besides what was happening. I am grateful for all that I learned especially the strategies that will help me to be happy no matter what situation I find myself in. I now have the tools to not only cope but to be a happier person overall. Thank you to the professor, Yale University and coursera for the wonderful opportunity to take this class.

By Deleted A

May 15, 2020

I love this class, and Dr. Laurie Santos! I signed up for this course, because I kept having a lot of negative emotions, I was internally beating myself up, and talking down to myself, especially during the first two months of COVID. This class has definitely made me happier, and less stressed/anxious. I'm currently working on goal setting, and WOOP, which is hard at first to get in that mindset of actually practicing it, but it really helps, in whatever you want to do!! I'm very glad that I took this class!!! Dr. Laurie Santos is a great professor, who is very relatable! I learned, and am still learning a lot from her!!

By Queenie M

Apr 22, 2020

Excellent course! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn about why our minds think the way they do and methods on how to improve your well-being/happiness. I noticed that my mood has improved and I feel a lot better about myself from being more aware about how my brain works and by implementing some of the techniques mentioned into my daily life.

The course was very informative and interesting the entire time. The professor was friendly, well-spoken and engaging. The slides were put together very well. It provided a good overview of concepts and references to additional material you can read on your own time.

By Linda G

Jun 3, 2021

The course, The Science of Well-Being, was an opportunity that showed up in my life at exactly the right time. The experience was outstanding for me. The course was beautifully organized and presented. It required me to make a strong commitment both in thought and in time. The course inspired me to contribute to a meaningful community project. I gained tools and confidence to soar. Our professor, Dr. Laurie Renee Santos, is an outstanding professor and scientist. I am appreciative and grateful to have had the opportunity to take a course with Yale, free, which has made a tremendous impact on more than 3 million people. 

By Megan M W

Jul 9, 2020

This course really changed how I think about happiness. It made me realize that happiness doesn't have to be something I need to wait for, and it doesn't require being rich or having the best house and car. Happiness is something I can have right now, just by "rewiring" my behavior and perspective. I am so glad I took this course, and so grateful that it was offered for free! It has had a very positive effect on my life and I will continue to use the information and strategies I learned to increase my happiness, and hopefully bring happiness and positivity to my family, friends and acquaintances as much as possible.

By Philamer T

Aug 5, 2020

I liked the flexibility of this online class. When I first started, I had lots of time on my hands. Then I started teleworking and I was too busy to maintain my regular study time. After extending my deadline, I was able to complete the course. I found it very interesting and I started listening to The Happiness Lab podcast, which I found to be informative as well as entertaining. The podcast helped me understand the course by reinforcing the key elements of the weekly topics. I highly recommend this course because the price was right and since I successfully passed, I can wear my Yale t-shirt with pride. Go Bulldogs!

By Alexander H

Apr 18, 2023

Professor Santos sets an excellent tone for the course -- this is about the science and the work of promoting and sustaining higher levels of well-being. Lectures are just enough to help the student understand barriers to well-being and methods to remove of reduce those barriers. The optional readings represent easily accessible sections of the cannon and allow students to dig further into topics of interest.

More to the point, it works. By applying the rewiring exercises and taking an incremental approach, the course created a more buoyant and durable sense of amusement, happiness, and well-being for yours truly.

By Lisa D

Oct 3, 2020

This course was fun and packed with research and practical learning experiences to practice what was learned. The lectures were easy to listen to and the discussion forum was helpful to get others ideas to support my work on my Rewirement for improving sleep habits. The lectures on learning the Annoying Features of the mind were eye opening, and the practical learning to combat the faults of the mind set up for success with the Rewirement project. I recommend this class for young adults and people of all ages. Engaging with students from 18 to the far end of age range was fantastic. Life long learning is important!

By Tim B

Jul 3, 2020

This is the best Coursera course I have ever done. I started it because, while in lockdown due to Covid-19, the title caught my eye. The instructor is brilliant and has put together an extremely well thought out course. The format is varied and engaging. It gives a fascinating insight into the science behind what makes us happy and why we don't necessarily wish for the right things. But what really makes it is the great advice for putting this into practice and making changes to improve your wellbeing. The rewirement exercise has made a massive and long-lasting change to my life. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

By Monika W

Jun 29, 2020

I never thought well-being and happiness can be scientifically taught. When I recited the title of the course to friends their amazement was just like mine. They couldn't believe it. I generally don't care for statistics, but for the first time in my life I enjoyed all statistics presented in this course. It strengthened my intuition on beliefs I had, and gave me enough time to process the information which was given. Strategies, and tools on how to attain, and maintain well-being given were packaged in one course. Just amazing!!!! This course was proof that just knowing things is not enough. One has to practice them.

By Natasha P

Aug 1, 2022

This course came highly recommended during a very stressful time in my life. Professor Santos has developed a wonderful and engaging course. The subject matter greatly helped my personal well being, and further extended my knowledge of positive psychology. Her lectures and readings are comprehensive, her assessments and activities are appropriate and aid in not only retention of the material, but also in improving your own well being. I liked seing her lecture to students where you hear their questionss and discussions. The interview with experts in the latter part of the course were also informative and memorable.

By Deleted A

Sep 3, 2020

It changes my habits, my negative and anxiety levels decrease substantially, I feel energized and more happy about me, and my decisions. I highly recommend this course, it has been something amazing for me. WOOP tool, ReWi app is amazing. my financial goal set up to 6.5K above this will give me hedonic adaptation and best of all, I have the ingredients for happiness: 1. Kindness, 2. Savoring 3. Gratitude 4. Social connections 5. Time affluence and finally and more important 6. healthier practices such as meditation and sports. The best act suited for me is social connections, acts of kindness, and healthier habits.

By Andra C

May 31, 2020

I am deeply grateful for having found this course and deciding to enrol!

The application on Positive Psychology is presented in such a way that is easy to be shared with others, so they can actually put it into practice in their lives, if they want to.

Having studies Positive Psychology at Masters level, I sometimes found the theory too academical to introduce it to my clients. This course has filled in those gaps for me and given me the bite-sized sciency info I can take to my clients, so they can start making positive changes in their lives.

Prof Laurie Santos is amazing!

Thank you!!!

Andra - wellbeing geek 🤓 :)

By Pimchanok N

Jul 6, 2020

The course is very interesting to learn happiness through many data and researches leading to understand more about factors and results. It is practical and adaptable to your daily life. With all tools the class suggested, it's all up to your efforts putting the data your receive into practices. For me, it was quite good experience to try it especially the WOOP method even it is relate to some knowledge from my religion or other lecturers. However I would recommend this class for anyone, it is beneficial to learn through other experiences and our own experiences which make us realise how to live our lives better.

By Dottie T

May 31, 2020

This course has been a life enhancer, especially in this difficult time of lockdown due to Covid 19! Life in the future will be a “new normal” and the information and skills that I have gained have increased my sense of well-being and helped me focus on the true meaning of life and how powerful we are in finding happiness in practicing kindness, exercising, meditating, getting enough sleep, connecting socially, practicing gratitude, savoring the now, and setting clear, specific goals. Dr. Laurie Santos was an excellent instructor and a wonderful coach on this journey. I cannot recommend this course enough!

By Andrea S

May 27, 2020

This was such a great course that came at the perfect time for me. The online course was so easy to follow and really brought all different learning methods into play. For me, this course was the best course I have ever taken and has significantly changed my outlook on happiness. It brought theory to practice and allowed me to change behaviours/habits that have improved my happiness. I now understand how happiness is achieved and have the skills to make changes that will have a profound effect on my life. Thank you Dr. Santos and team for a wonderful eye opening course delivered in a very creative way!

By Siqi H

May 13, 2020

I almost have my PhD in Clinical Psychology (i.e., I've taken a lot of courses in psychology!), yet I found this course to be one of the most useful and engaging courses I've ever taken. I just had to take notes for myself and for my clients in the future. The information is so concrete, practical, and applicable. It's real content about how you can help yourself to feel happier (rather than vague advice to exercise more, look for the silver lining, etc). I also really appreciated the clear discussions of relevant scientific evidence. Thank you so much Dr. Santos, and everyone who made this course available!

By Lina M

Aug 29, 2022

The professor adds great value to the course. Her energy, enthusiasim & sense of humor melds with the great quality of the material to produce a master piece of a class. I work as HR handling more than 30 countries in the Middle East, been around the world for trainings. But this course is by far the best course I have ever had in my entire life. I compared the results of my survey before the course and after, to my great surprise my scores has way improved. I never knew that time affluence ever existed so thanks to you professor, you made my life happier for sure and I will never forget this course ever!.

By Maria T d C G

Jul 29, 2022

O curso da felicidade nos ensina a pensar de forma diferente sobre nossas vidas, mudando a maneira como se percebem as situações e eventos. Em vez de me concentrar em coisas negativas, essa mentalidade me encoraja a olhar para o que eu quero e o que eu preciso em cada situação. Isso se torna muito mais fácil e faz com que eu me sinta bem com minha vida. Quando paramos de nos concentrar no que está negativo e passamos a olhar para as coisas positivas que acontecem, essa mentalidade nos torna mais felizes removendo emoções negativas de nossas mentes e substituindo-as por entusiasmo e otimismo para o futuro.