Show t Deep thinkers plumb the root of happiness Stuart Los Angeles Times 1 Giving new meaning to the nickname Dr r Claremont Graduate University is establishing the worlds world's first psychology doctoral program focusing largely on an old age-old question What makes people happy This is no no New Age enterprise The PhD Ph.D. program in the emerging field of positive psychology marks an advance for serious research into human happiness and related quality-of-life quality concerns Its It's an arena drawing the attention of psychologists as well as neuroscientists economists and even political scientists Although the thee desire to live a better life is fundamental for ordinary folks think pursuit of happiness researchers long have devoted their energies elsewhere Most research on human beh behavior vior has focused on what goes wrong in human affairs aggression affairs aggression mental disease failure and so on said Claremont professor Mihaly Mike to his friends He is one of the pioneers in positive psychology and anda a leader of the doctoral program whose 18 books include the 1990 best seller Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience calls the study of human pathologies essential but adds We dont don't know enough about what makes life worth living what gives people hope and energy and nd enjoyment He and his partner in running the new program psychologist Jeanne emphasize that their work is not aimed at a self help audience And they note that when the first few students begin te program this fall their first year of study will be dominated by rigorous work in research methods and statistics One emphasis in the program will be the experience sampling method developed by pronounced sent CHICK-sent- me-high-ee me Such studies can involve tracking hundreds of people over a week and paging them at random times to ask how they are feeling Arc Are they happy Creative Energetic Researchers then correlate those feelings with what the people are doing the settings they are in and who they are with among other things Robert A. A Emmons a University of California Davis psychology professor who last year launched the Journal of Positive Psychology said the Claremont program would fill a needed gap gapin gapin gapin in academia and build credibility for research field that began taking shape in inthe inthe inthe the Everyone has talked about happiness from the beginning of time Emmons said But now psychology is adding addingto to a field previously the domain of philosophers theologians and poets And for the positive psychologists that's a happy thought |