The Science of Well-Being
- Free
- Paid certificate
The Science of Well-Being is Laurie Santos's Coursera course, built from her Yale class on psychology and the good life. Its six modules run from an introduction through misconceptions about happiness, why our expectations are so poor, how we can overcome our biases, what really makes us happy and, finally, putting strategies into practice. Alongside the video lectures the course sets a series of practical challenges, called rewirements, meant to increase your own happiness and build better habits, and you finish by incorporating a chosen wellness activity into your life. The schedule is flexible and self-paced.
Coursera's page lists the course as free, and Yale Online describes the free option as the full course without a certificate; a shareable Coursera certificate can be bought separately, which Yale Online lists at $49 with pricing that varies by location. Financial aid is available. Yale Online also links to a YouTube playlist of the course videos for those who only want to watch, and there is a separate teen version on Coursera.
What you’ll learn
- Identify common misconceptions about what makes people happy
- Explain why our expectations about happiness are often wrong
- Recognise the mental biases that get in the way and strategies to overcome them
- Describe the activities that research links to greater well-being
- Build a personal habit around one wellness practice and track it
Who it’s for
Anyone who wants an evidence-based, practical course on happiness with weekly exercises; it suits complete beginners.
Syllabus
6 sections as listed on coursera.org, 12 h 32 min in total.
- Introduction 1 h 21 min
- Misconceptions About Happiness 1 h 34 min
- Why Our Expectations are so Bad 1 h 43 min
- How Can We Overcome Our Biases 1 h 45 min
- Stuff that Really Makes Us Happy 3 h 4 min
- Putting Strategies into Practice 3 h 5 min
Instructor
- Laurie Santos Professor, Psychology, Yale University
Course details
- Skills covered
- Habit Formation
- Prioritization
- Goal Setting
- Mental Health
- Psychology
- Resilience
- Time Management
- Productivity
- Mindfulness
- Includes
- 6 modules
- Subtitles
- 24 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.9 out of 5 by 40,413 learners; 5,041,929 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Yale Online (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
More free Yale courses
Every Yale course we have verified, with cost and certificate terms compared.
PsychologyAll free Psychology courses
Free and free-to-audit Psychology courses from every provider, ranked.