{"id":2109,"date":"2018-05-21T08:05:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T12:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=2109"},"modified":"2018-05-21T10:55:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T14:55:18","slug":"popularity-of-happiness-course-shines-a-spotlight-on-student-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/05\/21\/popularity-of-happiness-course-shines-a-spotlight-on-student-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Popularity of Happiness Course Shines a Spotlight on Student Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yale University\u2019s most popular course ever may be one of the best indicators of the mental health of incoming and current college students.<\/p>\n

Psyc 157, \u201cPsychology and the Good Life,\u201d a twice-weekly lecture that tries to teach students how to live happier lives, enrolled nearly a quarter of the entire student body this semester. It is reportedly the most popular course in Yale\u2019s 316-year-long history.<\/p>\n

The course is led by psychology professor Laurie Santos who speculates that the college admission process and the high-pressure campus environment it fosters are behind the class\u2019s popularity. In high school, she said, students had to deprioritize happiness to gain admission to school, leading them to adopt unhealthy and harmful life habits that culminate in \u201cthe mental health crises we\u2019re seeing at places like Yale.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents want to change, to be happier themselves, and to change the culture here on campus,\u201d Santos told The New York Times<\/em><\/a>. \u201cWith one in four students at Yale taking it, if we see good habits, things like students showing more gratitude, procrastinating less, increasing social connections, we\u2019re actually seeding change in the school\u2019s culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a university has seen a huge interest in a so-called happiness class. In 2006, a similar course at Harvard enrolled\u00a0more than 900 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, a lot of us are anxious, stressed, unhappy, numb,\u201d said Alannah Maynez, a freshman in the Yale course told The New York Times<\/em>.<\/a> \u201cThe fact that a class like this has such large interest speaks to how tired students are of numbing their emotions \u2014 both positive and negative \u2014 so they can focus on their work, the next step, the next accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent survey\u00a0<\/a>by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors found that anxiety was the top concern of students seeking mental health services on campus.<\/p>\n

About 51 percent of college students who visited an on-campus counseling center in 2015-16 reported struggling with anxiety. The other most common concerns were depression (41 percent), relationship issues (34 percent), suicidal ideation (20.5 percent), self-injury (14 percent), and alcohol abuse (10 percent), according to the survey.<\/p>\n

Ashley Dobson is NACAC\u2019s communications manager for content and social media. You can reach her at\u00a0<\/em>adobson@nacacnet.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yale University\u2019s most popular course ever may be one of the best indicators of the mental health of incoming and current college students. Psyc 157, \u201cPsychology and the Good Life,\u201d a twice-weekly lecture that tries to teach students how to live happier lives, enrolled nearly a quarter of the entire student body this semester. It … Continue reading Popularity of Happiness Course Shines a Spotlight on Student Mental Health<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Dobson","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/ashley-dobson\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-y1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}