The Pursuit of Happiness

Season 1, Episode 5

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W&L at Home

The Pursuit of Happiness

Finding 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
Aired 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."
Cognitive and Behavioral Science Professor, Karla Murdock

Looking for More Fulfillment

VIA Strengths Inventory
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Materials from The Pursuit of Happiness (Spring Term 2020)

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.

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Photo of Art Goldsmith chatting with a student

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