Evidence-Based Happiness: Uncovering the Science of Positive Psychology for a Better Life

Probably the most important question we can ask is “how can I be happier?” Some people might find this question overly self-centered, but becoming happier is not only good for us, but everyone we come into contact with as well. Others, while agreeing that individual happiness is important, may nevertheless think it is impossible to be any happier than one’s genes or childhood determine. That is a myth. In fact, over the last fifty years, an entire field of psychological science (and more recently, neuroscience) has been created in order to understand and maximize individual human flourishing—positive psychology. In this episode, we will focus on some of the science behind positive psychology, but we will spend a lot of the time talking about how you can use this knowledge to create more happiness for yourself. We will also talk about some of the emerging neuroscientific literature, but we will go much deeper into this topic on a future episode.