Course status. All eight modules are open for review. There are no accounts, no saved progress and no certificate issuing yet: everything you answer stays in your browser tab and is not stored.
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Course Passport
| Item | Entry |
|---|---|
| Course title | The Psychology of a Flourishing Life: Evidence-Based Habits |
| Track | University Track, one of four (Foundation, University, Professional and Executive) |
| Intended learner | Undergraduates and early-career graduates, plus any adult reading at that level. No psychology background is assumed. |
| Length | 8 modules, one per week, about 6 study hours each: about 48 hours in total |
| Format | Interactive visual lessons (animated infographics, tables, graphs). No video lectures or podcasts. |
| Prerequisites | Comfort reading a simple graph and a table, and working with percentages. Nothing else. |
| Language and tone | Formal academic English. Every technical term is defined at first use. |
| Assessment | Practice sets 10%, module checkpoints 40%, labs and cases 15%, capstone 35% |
| Pass rule | 70% overall, and the capstone rubric passed separately. Checkpoints unlock the next module at 80%, with unlimited retakes. |
| Credential | Certificate of Completion. It states that it is not an accredited qualification. |
Why this course exists
Popular accounts of happiness mix solid findings with weak ones. This course separates them. Learners meet the main claims, see the evidence behind each, and learn how strong that evidence is and where it stops.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, a learner can:
- O1. Define flourishing, and distinguish hedonic from eudaimonic accounts and life satisfaction from affect.
- O2. Evaluate how well-being is measured, including the validity and limits of self-report.
- O3. Explain what research says predicts well-being, and state the strength and limits of each finding.
- O4. Explain the mechanisms and evidence behind five habit families: attention, positive activities, social connection, body and rhythm, and meaning.
- O5. Read a primary study critically: sample, design, effect size and replication.
- O6. Design, run and report a four-week personal habit experiment, with an honest statement of its limits.
Course map
Eight modules build from definition and measurement, through the evidence on what predicts well-being, to five families of habits, and end with the learner’s own tested habit.
| Module | Big idea | Hours | Outcomes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1. What Flourishing Means and How It Is Measured | Well-being has several meanings, and each is measured differently. | 6 | O1, O2, O5 | Open for review |
| M2. What Predicts Well-Being: Circumstance, Money and Adaptation | Circumstances matter less, and more unevenly, than people expect. | 6 | O2, O3, O5 | Open for review |
| M3. Attention and the Wandering Mind | What we attend to shapes how we feel. | 6 | O4, O5, O6 | Open for review |
| M4. Positive Activities: Gratitude, Kindness and What Works for Whom | Small deliberate activities help, by modest and varying amounts. | 6 | O4, O5, O6 | Open for review |
| M5. Connection: Relationships, Belonging and Loneliness | Relationship quality is among the strongest predictors we have. | 6 | O3, O4, O5, O6 | Open for review |
| M6. Body and Rhythm: Sleep, Movement and Time in Nature | Mood and body are one system. | 6 | O4, O5, O6 | Open for review |
| M7. Meaning, Purpose and Motivation | Feeling good and living well are related but not the same. | 6 | O1, O4, O5, O6 | Open for review |
| M8. Making a Habit Stick and Reporting Your Evidence | A habit is a behaviour repeated in a stable context; a claim needs evidence. | 6 | O5, O6 | Open for review |
Capstone thread (proposed). The capstone is a personal four-week habit experiment: baseline in Module 3, protocol designed in the Module 3 lab, run through Modules 4 to 7, reported in Module 8.
Limits of this course
The course teaches psychology as a field of study. It is not therapy, diagnosis or medical advice. A learner who is struggling is told, at the start and in every module, to speak to a qualified professional or a trusted person.
Our standard
Numbers are checked and sources are named by title and publisher. Limits are stated. The course awards no degree and no academic credit. Completing it will earn a Certificate of Completion only, which states plainly that it is not an accredited qualification. Certificates are not issued yet.