| Date |
Topic |
Readings |
Week 1:
08/30 |
INTRODUCTION
What is happiness?
Lecture
» Course overview, enrollment
» Defining happiness
Lab
» Exercise: Big 3 Empirical Questions
» Research Project: Group 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:
09/06 |
RESEARCH ETHICS
How to conduct research ethically?
Lecture
» Conducting Research: Yale IRB
(Carrie McDaniel)
Lab
» Statistics quiz
» HSC/HIC Ethics quiz (finish) |
Required
» Doing Psychology Experiments. How to be fair with participants (pp. 68-86)
» Doing Psychology Experiments. How to do basic statistics (pp. 310-324).
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 1
» Goodwin. Statistical analysis (pp. 141-165).
» APA Ethics Code
|
|
Week 3:
09/13 | EXPERIENCING HAPPINESS:
Self-Report Instruments
How to report happiness?
Lecture
» Self-report instruments
» Psychometrics
» Research Project: Meet & Greet Partners
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
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 2
» Gosling et al.(2004). Should we trust web-based studies?
» Kashdan.(2004). The assessment of subjective well-being.
|
|
Week 4:
09/20 | EXPERIENCING HAPPINESS:
Experience Sampling & Diary Methods
Happiness: the real world?
Lecture
» Daily Diaries
» ESM
» DRM
Lab
» ESM Data Collection
» Research Project: Discuss options, Identify working groups |
Required
*RS DUE [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
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 3
» Goetz et al. (2010). Antecedents of everyday positive emotions: An experience sampling analysis.
» Feldman-Barrett & Barrett (2001). An introduction to computerized experience sampling in psychology.
|
|
Week 5:
09/27
| NEUROSCIENCE OF HAPPINESS
Intro to Affective Neuroscience
Your brain on happiness?
Lecture
» fMRI & MRI (Sunny Dutra)
Lab
» MRRC Tour & fMRI Study Demo
» Research project: Creating project outline |
*RS DUE [ARTICLE #1]*
Required
» Johnstone, Kim, & Whalen. (2009). Functional magnetic resonance imaging in the affective and social neurosciences.
» Burgdorf & Panksepp. (2006). The neurobiology of positive emotions.
» Kringelbach & Berridge. (2010). The functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and happiness.
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 4
» LeDoux. (1995). Emotion: Clues from the brain.
» Berridge & Robinson. (2003). Parsing reward.
|
|
Week 6:
10/04
| ATTENTION TO HAPPINESS
Eye-Tracking Methodology
Is happiness in the eye of the beholder?
Lecture
» Eye-Tracking (Monika Lohani)
Lab
» Eye-tracking exercise
» Research project: Prepare group presentation (4 parts of project: Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion) |
*RS DUE [ARTICLE #2]*
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 7:
10/11 | PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Conceptual Foundations
Blood, sweat, and tears??
Lecture
» Overview of Autonomic Nervous System
» Autonomic Nervous System & Emotion
» Research Groups: Methods Drafts
Lab
» Psychophysiology acquisition |
*RS DUE [ARTICLE #3]*
Required
Required
» Cacioppo & Tassinary (1990). Psychophysiology and psychophysiological inference
» Kreibig (2010). Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: A review.
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 5
» Curtin, Lozano, Allen. (2007). The psychophysiological laboratory.
» Ekman et al. (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions.
|
|
Week 8:
10/18
| PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Cardiovascular System Pt I
Is goodness located in the heart?
Lecture
» ECG, HR, HRV/RSA, PEP, CO
» Research Groups: Introduction drafts
Lab
» Cardiovascular data analysis (HRV)
|
*PROJECT: METHODS DRAFT DUE*
Required
» Berntson, Quigley, & Lozano. (2007). Cardiovascular psychophysiology.
» Oveis et al. (2009). Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia is associated with tonic positive emotionality.
» Kok & Fredrickson (2010). Upward spirals of the heart: Autonomic flexibility, as index by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness.
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 6
» Berntson et al. (1997). Heart rate variability; Origins, methods, and interpretive caveats.
|
NO CLASS MARCH 8 / MARCH 15 - HAPPY SPRING BREAK! |
|
Week 9:
03/22
| PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Electrodermal system
Physiological arousal = happiness?
Lecture
» GSR principles
» Quantifying SCL & SCR/NSCR
Lab
» Collect & analyze GSR data
» Conference poster guidelines | *PROJECT: METHODS DRAFT DUE*
Required
» Dawson, Schell & Filion (2007). The electrodermal system. Handbook of psychophysiology.
» Fowles. (1981). Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements.
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 8
» 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.
|
|
Week 10:
03/29
| PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Blood flow and temperature
Happiness heating up?
Lecture
» Skin temperature
» Vasoconstriction & vasodilation
Lab
» Collect & analyze SKT/FPLE data
» Research project: Go over papers & posters | *PROJECT: INTRO DRAFT DUE*
Required
» Swain & Grant. (1989). Methods of measuring skin blood flow.
» Levenson. (2003). Blood, sweat, and fears: The autonomic architecture of emotion.
» Mauss et al. (2005). The tie that binds? Coherence among emotion experience, behavior, and physiology.
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 9
» MacFarlang. (1985). Relationships of skin temperature changes to emotions accompanying music.
|
|
Week 11:
04/05
| PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
Affective neuroscience
Your brain on happiness?
Lecture
» fMRI & MRI (MRRC Classroom)
Lab
» MRRC Tour & fMRI Study Demo
» Research project: Analyze data, write-up results | *PROJECT: RESULTS DRAFT DUE*
Required
» Johnstone, Kim, & Whalen. (2009). Functional magnetic resonance imaging in the affective and social neurosciences.
» Burgdorf & Panksepp. (2006). The neurobiology of positive emotions.
» Kringelbach & Berridge. (2010). The functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and happiness.
Optional
» Lyubomirsky. How of Happiness, Ch 10
» LeDoux. (1995). Emotion: Clues from the brain.
» Berridge & Robinson. (2003). Parsing reward.
|
|
Week 12:
04/2
| HAPPINESS AND HEALTH
How to cultivate healthy happiness?
Lecture
» Healthy happiness
» Unhealthy happiness
Lab
» Meditation exercise
» Research project: Wrapping up loose ends
» Practice Q & A for poster session
| *PROJECT: POSTER DRAFT DUE*
Required
» Sheldon & Lyubomirsky. (2004). Achieving sustainable new happiness.
» Brown, Ryan, & Creswell. (2007). Mindfulness: Theoretical foundations and evidence for its salutary effects.
» Gruber, Mauss & Tamir. (2011). A dark side of happiness?
» Oishi, Diener, & Lucas (2007). The optimal level of well-being: Can we be too happy?
Optional
» Davidson et al. (2003). Alternations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation.
» Online meditation exercises: www.shinzen.com - www.mkzc.org/beginzen.html - www.how-to-meditate.org |
|
Week 13:
04/19
| HAPPINESS PRESENTATIONS
Presenting Research to the Public
Time to say goodbye?
Lecture
» Conference Poster Session, Final Paper Due
Lab
» Farewell party!
» (Dinner at Prof Gruber's house) |
"Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness"
--John Stuart Mill, Autobiography |
