'After Class' Podcast
The Pursuit of HappinessFinding Fulfillment with Karla Murdock
Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Karla Murdock, teaches us about the most important thing in life: happiness. From marriage “advice” to smartphone technology, Karla provides insight into her research and the research of other scientists who have studied happiness, positive and negative affect and much more.
Recorded June 29, 2020
Airs August 18, 2020
"Investing in experiences is a good choice [for happiness]. Also, in terms of buying things, buying lots of small pleasures can produce more happiness than buying really big things. So, again, we're less likely to adapt to small pleasures if they are kind of interspersed through our day. And that's especially true if they involve things like surprise, or novelty, or uncertainty.... And another thing that the research has shown that is really important is almost without fail, spending money on other people reliably produces more happiness than spending it on ourselves."
Looking for More Fulfillment
VIA Strengths Inventory
Note: To take the survey, you will need to create an account. The survey takes 20-30 minutes to complete, and your results will be available immediately.
- Take the Survey
- Strengths Definitions
- Additional VIA Resources
Materials from The Pursuit of Happiness (Spring Term 2020)
- Syllabus
- Mini-experiments to explore pathways for synthesizing happiness:
- secret good deed
- gratitude letter
- three good things
- self-compassion
- The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay
- Class Blog Collection: a sampling of photographic and written delights and mini-experiments
- Barbara Fredrickson’s Broaden and Build Theory (positive affect)
- John Gottman’s research on marital interactions
- Some guided meditations to try:
- 3-minute guided meditation for mindful breathing
- 5-minute guided meditation from Headspace, an app that Professor Murdock recommends (scroll down a little to get to the link)
- 10-minute guided meditation to foster acceptance
- 15-minute guided loving kindness meditation
Community-Based Learning (CBL) Project in The Pursuit of Happiness (2018)
After the podcast, Professor Murdock told us, "Although I didn’t get a chance to talk about the Eagle’s Nest Mural from the Pursuit of Happiness class in 2018, it is a good example of the type of community-based learning project that I try to incorporate into my teaching." Watch a mini-documentary about the class and mural.
