Calendar

Week 1:
08/29

INTRODUCTION
What is happiness?

Lecture
» Course overview, enrollment
» Defining happiness

» Expert Interview: Gilbert

Lab
» Exercise: Big 3 Empirical Questions
» Ethics Quiz
» Research Project: Ranking
» Lab Tour & Keys

Required
» Buss. (2000). The evolution of happiness.
» Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction.
» Fredrickson. (2003). The value of positive emotions.

Optional
» Nozick. (1989). The examined life (ch. 10: happiness).

Week 2:
09/05

EXPERIENCING HAPPINESS:
Self-Report Instruments
How to report happiness?

Lecture
» Self-report instruments, psychometrics
» Reading summary overview
» Research Project: Meet & Greet Partners

» Expert Interview: Fredrickson

Lab
» Qualtrics scale programming, data collection, & analysis

Required
» Lyubomirsky & Lepper. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation.
» Buhrmester, Kwang & Gosling. (2011). Amazon's mechanical turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high quality data?
» Pennebaker et al.(2007). Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-2007): Operator's manual.

Optional
» Gosling et al.(2004). Should we trust web-based studies?
» Kashdan.(2004). The assessment of subjective well-being.

Week 3:
09/12

EXPERIENCING HAPPINESS:
Experience Sampling & Diary Methods
Happiness: the real world?

Lecture
» Daily Diaries
» ESM
» DRM

» Expert Interview: Mauss

Lab
» ESM Data Collection

Required

*RS DUE [Example Article: Cohn et al., 2009]*

» Cohn et al. (2009). Happiness unpacked: Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience.
» Scollon, Kim-Prieto & Diener (2003). Experience sampling: Promises and pitfalls, Strengths and weaknesses.
» Kahneman et al. (2004). A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The Day Reconstruction Method.

Optional
» Feldman-Barrett & Barrett (2001). An introduction to computerized experience sampling in psychology. » Goetz et al. (2010). Antecedents of everyday positive emotions: An experience sampling analysis.

Week 4:
09/19

RESEARCH ETHICS
How to conduct research ethically?

Lecture
» Conducting Research: Yale IRB

» Expert Interview: Allen

Lab
» Statistics quiz
» Ethics quiz

Required

*RS #1 DUE*

» Doing Psychology Experiments. How to be fair with participants (pp. 68-86)
» Doing Psychology Experiments. How to do basic statistics (pp. 310-324).

Optional
» Goodwin. Statistical analysis (pp. 141-165).
» APA Ethics Code

Week 5:
09/26

NEUROSCIENCE OF HAPPINESS
Intro to Affective Neuroscience
Your brain on happiness?

Lecture
» fMRI & MRI

» Expert Interview: Carstensen

Lab
» Research project: Creating project outline

*RS #2 DUE*

Required
» Johnstone, Kim, & Whalen. (2009). Functional magnetic resonance imaging in the affective and social neurosciences.
» Samanez-Larkin & Carstensen (2011). Socioemotional functioning and the aging brain
» Kringelbach & Berridge. (2010). The functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and happiness.

Optional
» LeDoux. (1995). Emotion: Clues from the brain.
» Burgdorf & Panksepp. (2006). The neurobiology of positive emotions.

Week 6:
10/3

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Conceptual Foundations
Blood, sweat, and tears??

Lecture
» Autonomic Nervous System
» Research Project: Methods Drafts

» Expert Interview: Levenson

Lab
» Psychophysiology acquisition

*RS #3 Due*

Required

Required
» Levenson (2003). Blood, sweat, tears, and fears: The autonomic architecture of emotion.
» Cacioppo & Tassinary (1990). Psychophysiology and psychophysiological inference
» Kreibig (2010). Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: A review.

Optional
» Curtin, Lozano, Allen. (2007). The psychophysiological laboratory.
» Ekman et al. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions.

Week 7:
10/10

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Cardiovascular System
Is goodness located in the heart?

Lecture
» ECG, HR, HRV/RSA, PEP
» Research Project: Introduction drafts

» Expert Interview: Mendes

Lab
» Set OH time for data analysis

» Cardiovascular data analysis (HRV)

*RS #4 Due*

Required
» Berntson, Quigley, & Lozano. (2007). Cardiovascular psychophysiology.
» Shiota et al. (2011). Feeling good: Autonomic nervous system responding in five positive emotions.
» Berntson et al. (1993). Respiratory sinus arrhhthmia: Autonomic origins, physiological mechanisms, and psychophysiological implications.

Optional
» Cacioppo et al. (1997). Psychophysiology of emotion.

Week 8:
10/17

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Electrodermal system
Physiological arousal = happiness?

Lecture
» GSR principles, SCL, SCR/NSCR
» Research Groups: Results Data Analysis

» Expert Interview: Cacioppo

Lab
» Electrodermal data analysis

Required

*PROJECT: METHOD DRAFT DUE*

» Dawson, Schell & Filion (2007). The electrodermal system. Handbook of psychophysiology.
» Fowles. (1981). Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements.

Optional
» Demaree et al. (2004). Behavioral, affective, and physiological effects of negative and positive emotional exaggeration.
» Gendolla & Krusken (2001). The joint impact of mood state and task difficulty on cardiovascular and electrodermal reactivity in active coping.

NO CLASS WEEK 9: HAPPY FALL BREAK!

Week 10:
10/31

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Neuroendocrinology
Hormonal happiness?

Lecture
» Introduction to endocrinology
» Endocrine system & emotion

» Expert Interview: Mehta

Lab
» Research project: Data Analysis

Required
» Nelson. (2005). An introduction to behavioral endocrinology.
» Stansbury & Gunnar. (1994). Adrenocortical activity and emotion regulation.

Optional
» Kudielkaa et al. (2008). Why do we respond so differently? Reviewing determinants of human salivary cortisol responses to challenge » Rubinow & Schmidt (1996). Androgens, brain, & behavior.

Week 11:
11/17

ATTENTION TO HAPPINESS
Eye-Tracking Methodology
Is happiness in the eye of the beholder?

Lecture
» Eye-Tracking
» Expert Interview: Isaacowitz

Lab
» Research project: Prepare group presentation

*PROJECT: RESULTS DRAFT DUE*

Required
» Isaacowitz. (2005). The gaze of the optimist.
» Wallinger & Isaacowitz. (2008). Looking happy: The experimental manipulation of a positive attention bias.

Optional
» Stanners et al. (1979). The pupillary response as an indicator of arousal and cognition.
» Salvucci & Goldberg. (2000). Identifying fixations and saccades in eye-tracking protocols.
» Isaacowitz et al. (2008). Looking while unhappy: Mood-congruent gaze in young adults, positive gaze in older adults.

Week 12:
11/14

SHARING HAPPINESS
Dyadic interaction methods
If you're happy then you share it?

Lecture
» Dyadic & social interaction paradigms

» Expert Interview: Coan

Lab
» Research Project: Drafting conference talks

*PROJECT: DISCUSSION DRAFT DUE*

Required
» Roberts, Tsai, & Coan. (2007). Emotion elicitation using dyadic interaction tasks.
» Gable, Gonzaga, & Strachman. (2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Supportive responses to positive event disclosures.

Optional
» Berry & Hansen (1996). Positive affect, negative affect, and social interaction.
» Gottman & Krokoff (1989). Marital interaction and satisfaction: A longitudinal view.
» Yuan et al. (2010). Physiological down-regulation and positive emotion in marital interaction.

Week 13:
11/21

HAPPINESS AND HEALTH
How to cultivate healthy happiness?

Lecture
» Healthy & unhealthy happiness

» Expert Interview: Tamir

Lab
» Research project: Conference talks

*PROJECT: SLIDES FULL DRAFT DUE*

Required
» Gruber, Mauss & Tamir. (2011). A dark side of happiness?
» Oishi, Diener, & Lucas (2007). The optimal level of well-being: Can we be too happy?
» Sheldon & Lyubomirsky. (2004). Achieving sustainable new happiness.

Optional
» Davidson et al. (2003). Alternations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation.
» Brown, Ryan, & Creswell. (2007). Mindfulness: Theoretical foundations and evidence for its salutary effects.

NO CLASS WEEK 14: HAPPY BREAK!

Week 15:
12/05

HAPPINESS PRESENTATIONS
Presenting Research
Time to say goodbye?

Lecture
» Conference talks

Lab
» None.

*PROJECT: FINAL PAPERS DUE IN CLASS*

"Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness"

--John Stuart Mill, Autobiography