The basics:

• Centenary University introduces the world’s first Ph.D. in happiness studies
• Program builds on success of 2022 master’s degree launch
• Directed by Tal Ben-Shahar, a leader in positive psychology
• Courses focus on wellbeing, resilience, leadership and research

After successfully unveiling the world’s first Master of Arts in happiness studies three years ago, Centenary University has followed it up by becoming the only school to offer a doctorate for the emerging field.

Tal Ben-Shahar, the director of the Hackettstown-based university’s happiness studies programs, described the development as a “fast and furious” process.

“Or, in our respect, fast and joyful,” he quipped.

While the relatively young academic area doesn’t have a single universally recognized founder, Ben-Shahar is the person most commonly associated with formalizing and promoting it as a distinct discipline.

A positive psychology scholar, New York Times best-selling author, and internationally renowned expert in leadership and wellbeing initiatives, Ben-Shahar believes Centenary’s newly created programs will strengthen the growing movement toward introducing evidence-based interventions within a wide range of industries – including education, business, government, medicine and law – that increasingly acknowledge the importance of mental health for individuals, teams and organizations.

“Organizations recognize the high economic and human costs associated with mental health difficulties and the numerous benefits flourishing employees provide. Employees today are looking for more than a paycheck. They want meaning and purpose, quality of life, and a sense of connection within the workplace. Graduates of Centenary’s Master of Arts in happiness studies and the Ph.D. program will be the leaders who will bring this into the workplace and our society,” Ben-Shahar said.

“Happiness is good in and of itself, of course, because we all want to be happy or happier, and we want the people we care about to be happier … At the same time, it’s a means toward other ends because we know that if we increase levels of happiness, we will be more productive and creative. And if an organization thinks about it, employees will perform better. So, I do hope that more organizations will encourage their employees and their managers to explore the field of happiness studies, because I think that a master’s degree in happiness is no less valuable for a present or future manager than an MBA,” Ben-Shahar said.

Growing area of study

Rising mental health awareness, coupled with demand for life skills and growing evidence that wellbeing supports longtime success, has caused happiness studies to evolve into a respected, research-backed academic discipline offered at a growing number of universities nationally and internationally.

While Ben-Shahar feels Centenary is “at the center of this revolution,” he is quite happy to see it gaining traction at other academic institutions, such as Harvard University, Yale University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Missouri and University of Pittsburgh.

“The field of happiness studies is not just about, ‘OK, let’s increase levels of happiness or pursue happiness.’ It’s also about cultivating resilience — the ability to deal with hardships, difficulties and challenges. And there are many difficulties, hardships and challenges today, whether we’re thinking about things like the world of business, politics, international politics or even children. There’s a great deal of need for resilience … in the boardroom, in the classroom, on the political level and the level of the community,” he said.

Ben-Shahar’s background before Centenary includes 15 years as a professor at Harvard, where his classes on positive psychology and the psychology of leadership were among the most popular courses in the university’s history. He has also taught at Columbia University and appeared as a happiness studies expert on television programs like “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and NBC’s “Today Show.”

As other prestigious schools like Yale and Stanford joined Harvard in introducing classes in positive psychology, Ben-Sharar said it became apparent there “was clearly a demand for it” based on student response. So, when he left Harvard in 2015, he had an “aha moment” while on a transatlantic flight.

“A question came to mind, ‘How is it that there is a field of study for psychology, history, biology, geography, medicine, you name it. But there is no field of study for happiness?’  What I decided to do then on that flight was to help create an interdisciplinary field that brings together all these different approaches from philosophy, from psychology, from neuroscience, from history, from theology, from biology, and ask how do these bear on our understanding, our pursuit and our attainment of happiness?” he explained.

Centenary welcome

Two years later, he co-founded the Happiness Studies Academy, an online-based venture that offers certificates in happiness studies. It has attracted thousands of business executives, therapists, coaches, doctors, lawyers and teachers from over 70 countries who are seeking a mix of personal growth, professional development and desire to positively impact others.

“But, it was very clear to us that we wanted much more than just offering certificate programs. We wanted to make this an academic field and in order for it to become an academic field, we wanted to offer an academic degree or degrees,” Ben-Shahar said.

Employees today are looking for more than a paycheck. They want meaning and purpose, quality of life, and a sense of connection within the workplace.
– Tal Ben-Shahar, director Centenary University’s happiness studies program

From there, he began to seek out an academic partner for HSA to develop something further and found his way to Centenary after a friend who worked at the university suggested pitching the idea there.

“The minute I walked into Centenary University I just fell in love with the place. It’s both beautiful and humble … And then what I also found out was that Centenary, even though not a new institution – it’s been around since 1867 – it still functions as a small, new, flexible, nimble organization. And I like that. And we have been doing things very, very fast. Very often in academia, processes are slow, cumbersome and glacial.

“So, we created a master’s program knowing that it would just be the beginning and that it would, hopefully, be the first of many,” he explained, adding, “We were already thinking about the Ph.D., but we’re also hoping that other schools will create degrees, whether it’s graduate degrees or undergraduate degrees in happiness studies. We want to create a field. And just like you have thousands of psychology programs, both graduate or undergraduate, you’ll also have happiness studies programs.”

Come on, get happy

Launched for the Fall 2025 semester, the fully virtual, four-year doctoral degree program aims to create experts in the science of wellbeing and happiness who understand its implications for individuals, workplaces and society. According to Centenary, the program is geared toward those “who aspire to make a difference in diverse contexts — from government to education, from business to academia.”

The evidence-based and research-focused program requires 66 credits in a range of areas, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, finance, literature, religion and more. During the first three years, students will take courses focusing on research, teaching skills, human flourishing and leadership. They’ll begin working on dissertations toward the end of their second year and dedicate the final year to completing them.

Through rigorous research and meaningful application, doctoral students in the program will advance knowledge and reimagine how human flourishing influences individual wellbeing, societal progress and global transformation.

According to Ben-Shahar, courses draw on a wide range of texts, such as ones from Aristotle, Lao Tzu and Helen Keller; examine historical figures, like Nelson Mandela and Maria Montessori; and focus on real-world case studies. Work will range from a “very straightforward academic paper” to projects like designing an evidence-based intervention program, he said.

Applicants for the Ph.D. program must have a master’s in happiness studies or a related field, the school said. Centenary also said it will provide opportunities for other aspiring applicants to complete a series of prerequisite courses to be eligible for the program.

Battling the skeptics

When Centenary began its online Master of Arts in happiness studies in Fall 2022, interim Academic Vice President Robert Battistini admitted “there were a lot of skeptics.”

“Yet, at Centenary we’re seeing a real hunger for deeply informed mindfulness. Dr. Ben-Shahar combines the latest research with ancient wisdom from around the world, making the content highly relevant to people today,” he said, adding, “The master’s program has been far more successful than many people expected.”

Approved by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the program is “designed for leaders who are committed to personal, interpersonal, organizational and societal happiness.”

Using a curriculum that incorporates aspects of diverse disciplines – psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, finance, business, literature, coaching, religion, music and more – the 30-credit degree is designed to prepare graduates to cultivate personal and professional wellbeing and resilience, according to Centenary.

Since its inception, the two-year program has enrolled 205 students who hail from 23 states across the U.S. and more than two dozen countries around the world, including Brazil, Israel, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Vietnam, Japan, Italy, Ukraine, China, Russia, South Africa, Colombia, Haiti, Spain, India, the United Kingdom, Poland and the Netherlands.

In the spring of 2024, Centenary made history when it awarded the world’s first Master of Arts in happiness studies to 87 graduates who registered for the program’s first cohort.

Ben-Shahar said, “The graduates of this program are making an impact in a wide range of fields in countries around the world … We have graduates who are in business with quite a few in management positions. We have quite a few who are in some form of classroom, whether it’s in teaching at a university or even some elementary school teachers. We have therapists and coaches. We have community leaders, we have a couple of mayors, and we have some in the medical field. It’s very difficult to categorize our graduates because they’re quite literally from across the board.”

After expanding happiness studies to include a doctoral degree, Centenary’s strategic plan includes the launch of a bachelor’s degree in the field within the next year, according to Ben-Shahar. The university is preparing “an affordable short course to introduce basic elements of the field,” too.

‘Worldwide movement’

For Centenary President Dale Caldwell, the happiness studies degree programs align with his mission of empowering students to flourish – emotionally, intellectually and culturally – while expanding access; demonstrating the value of higher education; and positioning the school as an innovative, community-connected institution.

When Caldwell began as the university’s 15th president in July 2023, he became the first African-American to lead Centenary. Trustees cited his 25-plus years in education and government service, as well as a focus on fostering innovation and diversity. This past summer, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill said she selected Caldwell as her lieutenant governor pick because of his “commitment to public service and challenging the status quo.”

Commenting on the happiness studies offerings, Caldwell said, “Centenary University is the center of this growing worldwide movement, and it’s getting bigger every day. We have become a role model for other institutions in the United States and other countries, and now our graduates will be the ambassadors who go out to spread this important intellectual, emotional and psychological movement around the world.”

As the demand for “expertise in happiness and human flourishing” grows among multinational corporations, school districts, nonprofits and governments, Caldwell said the program’s graduates “will be uniquely equipped to serve as chief wellbeing officers, policy advisors, educators, researchers, consultants and mental health advocates.”

Ben-Shahar shared, “President Caldwell has always focused on resilience and on growth through hardness. And, as I mentioned, happiness studies is not just about the happy-go-lucky approach, everything’s great and let’s smile and live happily every after. It’s about so much more than that – it’s about cultivating resilience on the individual level.”

Sharing the ideas through leadership

“A significant part of the master’s program as well as the Ph.D. of course, is leadership studies. Why? Because it’s one thing understanding and applying these ideas in your life, but what we want to see is you taking these ideas out there to the world and sharing them. So, for that leadership is essential,” he said.

“I would like to see more academic institutions take up the field of happiness,” Ben-Shahar said, noting that colleges and universities have traditionally “had a very explicit mandate to create a better society.”

“And I think focusing on happiness has to be part of an institution’s offering that is dedicated to the betterment of society. Because when we’re talking about a better society, we’re not just talking about increasing GDP [gross domestic product] or GNP [gross national product] — which is important, of course, we’re also talking about increasing wellbeing or what Bhutan refers to as GNH [gross national happiness].”

Introduced in 1972 by King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan, GNH aims to measure progress by how happy and healthy people are — instead of by how much money the small Asian country makes. The index is used to guide government policies, as well as balance those decisions with wellbeing, cultural preservation and environmental care.

Bhutan’s GNH has since inspired other countries, organizations, companies and institutions to think beyond money and focus on wellbeing as a measure of success.

Strategic business drivers

Numerous studies have shown that employee happiness and engagement aren’t just “feel good” factors but are also strategic business drivers. Companies that make an effort to invest in wellbeing, culture and engagement typically see growth in productivity, retention, innovation and overall financial performance.

Salesforce, Microsoft, Patagonia, Zappos and Google are among the big names that have reported measurable business benefits by prioritizing employee happiness.

With a new generation of workers that have an increasing desire for work-life balance and mental health support, organizations across the U.S. are expected to spend close to $100 billion over the next decade scaling up employee wellbeing programs to meet the demands of the post-pandemic era, according to a report from corporate health care platform Wellable.

Ben-Shahar said, “This is especially important today with the great resignation. Turnover goes down when wellbeing goes up. In general, we know that there is a high ROI on happiness. So, there’s all these financial reasons to invest in happiness beyond, of course the humanistic reason.”