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Yale University · on Coursera

The Science of Well-Being

4.9(72,000)·4.6M enrolled
Beginner 19 hours English Course Certificate Certificate
Editor's Pick
The course Yale students most want to take — and the research on happiness is consistently more surprising than people expect.

About this course

The Science of Well-Being is Yale's most popular course ever — it was taken by nearly a quarter of Yale's student body when offered on campus. Laurie Santos covers the psychology research on happiness: what the science says actually makes people happy (spoiler: not what most people think), the cognitive biases that cause us to misjudge what will make us happy, and the evidence-based practices that produce sustained improvement in well-being — gratitude, social connection, meditation, exercise, and sleep.

It's the most enrolled course ever offered on Coursera with over 4.6 million learners, and the content is directly applicable to the professional context — burnout, productivity, focus, and sustainable work practices are all addressed through the lens of what the science actually says rather than self-help intuition.

What you'll learn

Understand what psychological research says actually drives well-being
Recognize cognitive biases that cause systematic mispredictions about happiness
Apply evidence-based practices: gratitude, social connection, and mindfulness
Build habits that produce sustained well-being improvement
Understand the relationship between productivity, focus, and sustainable well-being

This course includes

19h
On-demand video
Yes
Certificate
Yes
Mobile access
English
Language
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Instructor

LS
Laurie Santos
Coursera instructor
4.6M+ learners3 courses4.9 instructor rating

Taught by Laurie Santos, Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale, whose research focuses on comparative psychology and the science of happiness.

Requirements

  • None — fully accessible to any learner

Who this course is for

  • Anyone who wants evidence-based (rather than intuition-based) approaches to well-being
  • Professionals experiencing burnout who want research-backed sustainable practices
  • Anyone curious why positive psychology research results are surprising

About this provider

CO
Coursera
University-backed online learning platform. 142M learners, 7,000+ courses from 325+ institutions.
Visit Coursera →

Frequently asked questions

The opposite — Santos explicitly addresses why common positive-thinking advice often doesn't work, drawing on peer-reviewed psychology research rather than popular self-help.
About 19 hours across ten weeks of content, though it's fully self-paced.
Paid
Free to audit, paid certificate
Enroll now