Laurie Santos is a Professor of Psychology at Yale University.  Her class on Psychology and the Good Life was the most popular class Yale has ever offered.  She points out that depression and anxiety are on the rise among our students.  The level of depression among students has doubled over the past nine years.  We are in a mental health crisis that undermines the ability of our students to learn.

     Professor Santos was asked in an interview what is a behavioral change that can help young people decrease depression and increase their level of happiness.  Her first answer was increasing social interaction.  She argues the evidence clearly suggests it has one of the biggest impacts on decreasing depression and increasing happiness.

     Flipping our classes, at least in part, and including group activities on a regular basis provides our students more opportunities to interact.  When students have a number of classes that have study groups, it helps them establish relationships with other students.  They become part of a number of teams that work together.  This can help our students learn from each other and it can reduce levels of depression, which, in turn, can help them perform better academically.

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Yale’s most popular class ever is now available for free online — and the topic is how to be happier in your daily life, Business Insider, Mara Leighton, Apr. 4, 2019, 12:45 PM