Psychology traverses into other disciplines including but not limited to epidemiology, biology, neurology, and philosophy. Disregarding psychology as a science would reduce its contributions to these fields and to our understanding of mental illness, learning disorders, and general human behaviour. This directly ties into being taken seriously as well; smirks and snide
comments aren’t just irritating, they’re a direct claim of psychology’s inferiority. Research informs clinical knowledge and has applications that even the most sceptical “hard” scientists benefit from. Science is not limited to neat formulas and equations; psychology is messy, but so is the subject matter.
‘The Science of Happiness’: An exclusive interview with Professor Bruce Hood Damyana Raykova and Zosia Gontar
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ewly launched this year is the course the ‘Science of Happiness’, an optional course that aims to teach ways to live a more fulfilling life. It takes its ideals from the positive psychology movement, a discipline which focuses on how psychology research can improve our lives. The course arrived in the context of increasing concern for mental health of students at Bristol, part of the ongoing attempt to increase student wellbeing. We sat down with Professor Bruce Hood, who developed and is running the course, to find out more about the inspiration behind it and its place in the wider field of psychology.
often they’re actually quite different. It’s unfortunate that Psychology doesn’t have the degree of prestige that other sciences have. But actually, the sort of questions that we’re tackling are very complicated, because humans are so complex.
“there are many paths to happiness. Just make sure you choose the right one”
How do you think psychology is portrayed in research and in the general public?
Do you think we have a tendency to focus more on the ‘negative’ side of psychology such as mental health issues?
B: Everyone is a psychologist to some extent. We all walk around with intuitive theories about what makes us who we are. The big difference is that research psychologists don’t rely on intuitions and common wisdom - they test these things out and sometimes they do resonate with what people think, but very
B: I do think there is a focus at the moment on mental health and wellbeing for obvious good reasons. It’s become the number one issue in the west, which is great because it’s becoming much more acceptable to talk about these things.
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