12.0 Introduction

In the last chapter, we looked at the role of emotions and motivation in human experience. In this chapter, we will expand on these topics by examining more closely at the emotion of happiness and the relatively new scientific study of happiness — what can it tell us about maximizing our wellbeing, being more productive, and becoming happier. Of course, the human experience is not just one big happy place; stress plays an enormous role in our lives, and our abilities to cope with stress affect our health and wellbeing in many ways. We will examine some of the common stressors that people face and look at some specific ways to relieve stress.

Image Attributions

Figure 12.1. Old Woman’s Smile by Huyen Nguyen is used under the Unsplash license.