'The Science of Happiness': An exclusive interview with Professor Bruce Hood

‘The Science of Happiness’: An exclusive interview with Professor Bruce Hood

Damyana Raykova and Zosia Gontar

Newly 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.

How do you think psychology is portrayed in research and in the general public?

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 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”

Do you think we have a tendency to focus more on the ‘negative’ side of psychology such as mental health issues?

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.

Emma Pirozzi

Why do you think nowadays it’s so hard to be happy and what are the main obstacles?

B: There is a greater awareness regarding unhappiness. I think there are systematic problems in our society at the moment which are making us concerned about the future. Humans have this phenomenon called ‘declinism’ which makes us think things are getting worse. We have a real distortion of memories; we tend to see things as being much better in the past - that’s just part of our mental machinery to always be on the lookout for potential problems. It often seems things are getting much worse when in fact they’re not.

“you should pursue the good life – a meaningful life”

What was your inspiration for this course?

B: The inspiration really came from my former graduate student, Laurie Santos, who is now a professor at Yale University. She took over as a head of the residential college in Yale, and she had to mentor students who had emotional problems and she noticed that so many students were unhappy. She felt that she needed to do something about it, so she immersed herself in the literature of positive psychology and created a course called The Good Life. And the reason it’s called The Good Life comes from Greek philosophies. Rather than pursuing happiness, you should pursue the good life – a meaningful life. So, she started this course which became a phenomenon – the most successful course in Yale’s history.

I read about it earlier this year and I was very aware of the problems at Bristol and the fact that some students were unhappy here, and the university was trying to do things. I thought that as well as trying to intervene after the problem has started, it might be good to give students a protective strategy through teaching them positive psychology activities to see if they make a difference. That’s why we started this course!

“it’s just part of our mental machinery to always be on the lookout for potential problems”

So, prevention rather than cure?

B: Prevention rather than cure, yeah. Because truthfully, most students don’t go and see a counsellor until it’s too late. I’m not criticising the university, I think we need more of a coordinated strategy to deal with the acute situation but also to try and create a culture that is better geared towards us living happier lives – that’s the message I’m attempting to get across on the course. I know some of it is very familiar, but when you look at it all together, I think it’s a very strong message to re-evaluate how we spend our lives.

The fact that the students have got behind it is a very strong indicator that this is well-appreciated and well needed. And there are plans to make it part of a credit -bearing unit next year as an open unit.

What do you want your students to take away from your course?

B: Very important question. I wish I thought about that, then I would say something witty. I think… ‘There are many paths to happiness. Just make sure you choose the right one.’

Emma Pirozzi