1 Introduction

Teaching about happiness and well-being may have untapped potential for improving the lives of both traditional students and all for whom such courses may be available (Seldon, 2006; Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012). Research in positive psychology has identified a host of exercises and activities that may increase happiness and well-being and can be incorporated into a course (Koydemir et al., 2021; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). Among many others, these have included identifying and using strengths in new ways, noting good things that happen, and expressing gratitude (Seligman et al., 2005). These exercises have been programmed into smart phone and internet apps to remind and enable people to use them (Davis, 2018). In addition, there are books about positive psychology activities (Lyubomirsky, 2007; Niemiec, 2017) and related TED talks (Schwartz, 2014) that can also be a part of a course curriculum.

Although some have raised concerns about teaching happiness in school settings (Suissa, 2008; Wildin & Griffey, 2015), teaching positive psychology may not only boost happiness (Maybury, 2013; Goodmon et al., 2016) but also increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to anxiety and depression (Fredrickson, 2001; Gloria & Steinhardt, 2016). Moreover, these beneficial effects on mental health may carry over into physical health, in as much as they reduce the impact of stress and result in healthier lifestyles (Hernandez et al., 2018; Park et al., 2016; Proyer et al., 2018). While there have been some successful attempts to involve whole educational institutions in positive psychological approaches (Oades et al., 2011; Seligman et al., 2009), the most practical and realistic way to increase the benefits of positive psychology in the context of education may be to develop courses that are readily accessible to a larger audience (Ramachandram, 2016; Russo-Netzer & Ben-Shahar, 2011; Shimer, 2018).

Positive psychology courses at the college level may have especially strong potential for improving human happiness and other aspects of health and well-being (Goodmon et al., 2016; Maybury, 2013; Smith et al., 2021). First, they not only can give students the opportunity to learn about happiness and what may make them happy, healthy, and well, but can also include research-based activities and exercises students can experiment with to find what works best for them (Russo-Netzer & Ben-Shahar, 2011; Shimer, 2018). Second, since positive psychology may be relevant for everyone and not just traditional college students (Peterson & Seligman, 2004; Seligman, 2011), courses can be developed and adapted for different ages, cultural contexts, and life situations. Third, the increasing availability of, familiarity with, and accessibility to online learning may mean that positive psychology courses can reach a much broader audience than traditional face-to-face courses have in the past (Dhawan, 2020).

Although there is initial evidence that face-to-face college positive psychology courses can increase happiness and well-being (Goodmon et al., 2016; Maybury, 2013; Smith et al., 2021), the question remains as to whether online courses may have similar benefits. On the one hand, positive psychology theory and research have emphasized the value of personal relationships (Peterson, 2006; Seligman, 2011) and there is evidence that online settings may make it harder for students to benefit from positive psychology interventions (Koydemir et al., 2021). Research on the kind of social media often used in online courses is mixed (Lacka et al., 2021) and suggests that it can even have negative effects on learner achievement (Haylett, 2016). On the other hand, it is possible that the thoughtful use of new technologies may enhance personal engagement and social presence making online courses as engaging and effective as face-to-face courses (Lehman & Conceicao, 2010; Pei & Wu, 2019; Richardson et al., 2017; Soffer & Nachmias, 2018).

1.1 The Current Study

The purpose of this study was to address the gap in our understanding of the potential of online positive psychology courses for increasing happiness and improving all aspects of health and well-being. We sought to address four questions to help fill this gap. First, can online positive psychology courses have as much of an impact as face-to-face courses (Maybury, 2013)? If so, then they may benefit a much larger audience (Dhawan, 2020). Second, can such a course with a positive focus on happiness and well-being also reduce anxiety, depression, and stress (Goodmon et al., 2016)? If they can, they may have broader implications for mental health (Zautra, 2003). Third, can the effects of a positive psychology course also improve physical health (Park et al., 2016)? If so, this could mean additional benefits for those vulnerable to and suffering from physical disease (Hernandez et al., 2018). Finally, can such courses also impact personal characteristics that may sustain and continue to improve health and well-being (Selvaraj & Bhat, 2018)? If so, their benefits may be more lasting (Luthans & Youssef-Morgan, 2017).

To address these questions, we designed an online positive psychology course based on a similar face-to-face already shown to increase happiness and well-being (Smith et al., 2021) so we could compare them and compare the online course with students taking other online psychology courses. Both the original face-to-face positive psychology course and the new online course we developed were based on two central, overarching theories of positive psychology about (1) the nature of happiness and well-being and (2) what we can do to foster them. First, we used Seligman’s PERMA theory to frame our thinking about happiness and well-being (Seligman, 2011) because it is broad and inclusive and has been used extensively in research and interventions (Birch et al., 2019; Kern et al., 2015; Tansey et al., 2018). The acronym PERMA refers to five elements encompassing well-being: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. We thought that taking this broad approach would make it more likely that the benefits of such a course would generalize to other aspects of health and well-being (Fredrickson, 2001; Park et al., 2016; Seligman, 2011).

Second, we used the Values in Action (VIA) classification of character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) as the focus for teaching students about what they can do to foster happiness and well-being (Niemiec, 2017). This classification was developed by social scientists who identified 24 strengths and organized them under six overarching categories: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). We selected the VIA classification because it has been central in positive psychology, is broad and comprehensive, and the strengths have been consistently related to better happiness and well-being (Azañedo et al., 2021; Wagner et al., 2019) and interventions have been shown to increase them (Green, 2021; Niemiec, 2017). We thought that focusing on strengths would be more likely to result in lasting changes in key personal characteristics that might sustain and continue to improve happiness, health, and well-being (Luthans & Youssef-Morgan, 2017).

Since we expected a course based on PERMA theory and the VIA classification to have broad effects on the lives of students, we selected measures to assess each area that might be affected. First, we assessed what we refer to as “positive mental health” by including measures of happiness, positive emotions, and the other elements of PERMA (Butler & Kern, 2016). Second, we assessed what we call “negative mental health” including measures of anxiety, depression, and stress (Cohen et al., 1983; Kroenke et al., 2003, 2007). Next, we included a measure of general health designed to include the assessment of physical health (Butler & Kern, 2016). Finally, we assessed personal characteristics shown to be important for sustaining maintaining and improving long-term happiness, health, and well-being. We assessed self-acceptance (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), self-kindness (Smith et al., 2018), and four other variables that together have be called “the pillars of psychological capital”: hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism (Luthans & Youssef-Morgan, 2017).

In designing our study, one of the greatest challenges was identifying a comparison group for the positive psychology course. This was important because of evidence that the health and well-being of college students may frequently decrease towards the end of a semester (Barker et al., 2018) and because including a comparison group would enable us to understand any potential benefits in the context of the normal progression of a  semester. As with other studies of positive psychology courses (Goodmon et al., 2016; Maybury, 2013; Smith et al., 2021), we were not able to randomize students into taking positive psychology vs. taking other courses. However, we were able to recruit students who had self-selected into taking other psychology courses and we were careful to control for important variables upon which the groups might differ.

Thus, based on previous theory and research relevant to positive psychology courses (Goodmon et al., 2016; Maybury, 2013; Smith et al., 2021), we developed hypotheses to address the questions we identified to fill the gap in understanding of the potential effects of positive psychology courses. Our hypotheses were that relative to the students in the comparison group, the students in the online positive psychology class would have significant (1) improvements in positive mental health, (2) reductions in negative mental health including a lower percent of students anxious or depressed, (3) improvements in general health, and (4) increases in the personal characteristics that may sustain and increase long-term happiness, health, and well-being. In addition, although we did not predict significant differences, we expected the improvements in the online positive psychology class to have similar medium-to-large effects sizes as our previously reported face-to-face positive psychology class (Smith et al., 2021).

2 Methods

2.1 Participants

The participants were 128 undergraduate students taking psychology courses, including 65 students in the positive psychology course and 63 students taking other psychology courses. The overall mean age was 23.72 years (SD = 5.87), the mean grade point average (GPA) was 3.36 (SD = 0.65), and the mean credit hours completed was 89.24 (SD = 44.95). The sample was 73.1% women and 70.8% White, 43.0% Hispanic, 8.6% Asian, 8.6% Native American/Alaska Native, 6.3% Black, 2.3% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 7.8% mixed or other ethnicity.

2.2 Procedures

The study was conducted at a state university in a medium-sized southwestern U.S. metropolitan area and was approved by the campus Institutional Review Board. The participants were not randomly assigned but self-selected into taking the 8-week online positive psychology course or another 8-week online psychology course. They completed questionnaires during the first and last week of class. Below we report how we determined our sample size and all the measures that were included in the study. There were no data exclusions or manipulations.

The students in the online positive psychology course were recruited by an email and a notice on the course webpage and were offered extra credit for participating in the study. There were 143 undergraduates enrolled at the beginning of the course with six students submitting no assignments after the first week and another eight submitting none after the sixth week of the course. Of the remaining 129 students who completed the course, 73 gave their consent to be in the study and 65 of those students completed both the initial and final questionnaires. During the course, the instructor and teaching assistants were kept blind to who was in the study to reduce the chance of preferential treatment or any pressure students might feel to be in the study.

The comparison group for the positive psychology online course was students taking one of the following other 8-week online psychology courses: Introduction to Psychology, Psychology Research Techniques, or Brain and Behavior. Just as with the positive psychology course, the instructors recruited their students by an email and a notice on the course webpage and were offered extra credit for participating in the study. Of the 186 students who registered for these three other psychology courses, 72 students gave their consent to be in the study and 63 of these completed both the initial and final questionnaires.

In addition, we compared the online positive psychology course to the previously reported results of a similar face-to-face positive psychology course (Smith et al., 2021). This face-to-face course had 112 students with no significant differences in age, GPA, or gender from the online class. The courses were similar in that they covered the same topics in the same order with most of the same videos, involved a comparison with students in other psychology courses, and completed the PERMA Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016) measure of well-being during the first and last week of the course. The courses were different in that the online course was 8 weeks rather than 16 weeks, was taught during the spring of 2019 rather than the fall of 2016, and included additional assignments to compensate for not having real-time class meetings.

2.3 Positive Psychology Course Description

The course was designed with the twin goals of enabling students (1) to learn about positive psychology and (2) apply it to their lives to improve their happiness and well-being. It included eight week-long modules with each week beginning on Monday and assignments due on Thursday and Sunday (see Appendix A). The ways students were exposed to the course material each week included (1) three 15–20 min lecture clips by the instructor, (2) three to five TED talks or other videos related to the weekly topics, and (3) readings from the textbook written for the course (Smith, 2018).

The course began with an introduction to positive psychology and what happiness and well-being are in the context of PERMA theory (Seligman, 2011). For the rest of the course, students learned about and were challenged to put into practice ways of building and using each of the VIA strengths to increase happiness and well-being (Niemiec, 2017; Rashid & Seligman, 2018). The course focused on the strengths as a framework for the attitudes and behaviors that can be used to improve their lives (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). To increase motivation and engagement, students were encouraged to identify elements of PERMA and aspects of their lives that they would like to improve during the course. In addition, the idea of a hero’s journey was used to enable students to relate what they were learning to their own goals for increasing their happiness and well-being (Campbell, 2004). For example, they were encouraged to frame their goals for their journey in terms of the elements of PERMA and think about how they could use the strengths they were learning about to make the journey. Also, students were encouraged to use the idea of a hero’s journey to see parallels and draw inspiration from others they know or admire in how they may use the strengths to reach their goals.

The assignments students completed each week included answering questions about the lecture clips, textbook, and videos and discussion questions by Thursday and completing a practice exercise, weekly quiz, responding to the discussion posts of classmates, and answering questions about applying what they learned by Sunday. The practice exercises (see Appendix B) were based on positive psychology activities with empirical support for increasing happiness and well-being (Koydemir et al., 2021; Rashid & Seligman, 2018; Seligman et al., 2009; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009) and had been highly rated in our face-to-face positive psychology course. The application questions challenged students to identify something they learned about during the week and write about how they could use it to improve their happiness and well-being.

Finally, to maximize student engagement and learning, there were undergraduate peer teaching assistants (peer TAs) assigned to groups of 15–20 students. These peer TAs had taken the course and were enrolled in a two-credit hour teaching practicum also taught by the instructor. The peer TAs monitored the discussion board, answered student questions, and provided feedback on assignments. The instructor met with the peer TAs each week to review student progress and make a brief video (3–6 min) illustrating how students could put what they were learning into practice. For example, the TAs gave examples of good things to look for in the “Seeing and Creating the Good”  practice exercise (see Appendix B).

2.4 Measures

The following measures were administrated online during the first week (Time 1) and the last week (Time 2) of the course.

2.4.1 Positive Mental Health

The PERMA Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016) was used to assess happiness and the elements of Seligman’s PERMA theory of well-being (Seligman, 2011; e.g., Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment). The PERMA Profiler and each of its scales (including the general health scale presented below) have demonstrated adequate model fit, internal and cross-time consistency, and content, convergent, and divergent validity in 11 validation studies with over 39,154 participants (Butler & Kern, 2016). Each of the items were responded to on an 11-point scale.

  • Happiness—this was assessed by the item, “Taking all things together, how happy would you say that you are?”.

  • Positive Emotion—this was assessed by the three item Positive Emotion scale (e.g., How often do you feel joyful?). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.872.

  • Engagement—this was assessed by the three item Engagement scale (e.g., How often do you become absorbed in what you are doing?). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.635.

  • Relationships—this was assessed by the three item Relationships scale (e.g., How satisfied are you with your personal relationships?). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.810.

  • Meaning—this was assessed by the three item Meaning scale (e.g., “To what extent do you lead a purposeful and meaningful life?”). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.869.

  • Accomplishment—this was assessed by the three item Accomplishment scale (e.g., “How often do you achieve the important goals you set for yourself?”). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.799.

  • Overall well-being—this consists of the mean of 16 items including the happiness item and the 15 items assessing the five elements of PERMA. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.918.

2.4.2 General Health

This was assessed by the three item general health scale of the PERMA Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016; e.g., “In general, how satisfied are you with your current physical health?” Cronbach’s alpha was 0.891.

2.4.3 Negative Mental Health

Anxiety and depression were assessed as two common forms of mental distress and perceived stress as a common negative aspect of human experience.

  • Anxiety—this was assessed by the two items (e.g., “Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge”) of the GAD-2 (Kroenke et al., 2007) on a four-point scale (0 = not at all to 3 = nearly every day). The suggested cut-off score for clinically significant anxiety symptoms is 1.5 on the 0–3 scale. The GAD-2 questionnaire has been validated in multiple studies and retains the excellent psychometric properties of the GAD-7 (Sapra et al., 2020). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.854.

  • Depression—this was assessed by the two items (e.g., “Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless.”) of the PHQ-2 (Kroenke et al., 2003) on a four-point scale (0 = not at all to 3 = nearly every day). The suggested cut-off score for clinically significant depression symptoms is 1.5 on the 0–3 scale. While the PHQ-2 may not be as sensitive as the larger PHQ-9, it has been recommended for screening for depression in primary care settings (Levis et al., 2020). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.708.

  • Perceived Stress—this was assessed by the four item (e.g., “How often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?) Perceived Stress Scale 4 (Cohen et al., 1983) on a five-point scale (0 = never to 4 = very often). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.717.

2.4.4 Personal Characteristics

To keep the questionnaire to a reasonable length and reduce participant burden, the personal characteristics measures did not include all the items on the validated scales. Rather, beginning with the items with the strongest factor loadings in the validation studies of the scales, we selected the minimum number of items needed to reach a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.750 in previous studies using the full scales in a similar student sample.

  • Hope—this was assessed by five items (e.g., “I meet the goals that I set for myself.”) from the Dispositional Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991) on an eight-point scale (1 = definitely false to 8 = definitely true). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.878.

  • Self-Efficacy—this was assessed by three items (e.g., “I am confident that I could deal efficiently with an unexpected event”) from the General Self Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995) on a five-point scale (1 = not at all like me to 5 = very much like me). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.792.

  • Resilience—this was assessed by three items (e.g., “I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times”) from the Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008) on a five-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.699.

  • Optimism—this was assessed by three items (e.g., “I’m always optimistic about my future”) from the Life Orientation Test (Scheier et al., 1994) on a five-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.728.

  • HERO Composite—Since Luthan and Youssef-Morgan’s (2017) conception of psychological capital combines hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism in what they refer to with the acronym “HERO,” we first standardized and then computed the mean of these four variables to form this composite variable. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.802.

  • Self-Acceptance—this was assessed by three items (e.g., “In general, I feel confident and positive about myself”) from the Self-Acceptance Scale (Ryff & Keyes, 1995) on a six-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.753.

  • Self-Kindness—this was assessed by two items (“How much are you loving and kind to yourself when you fail or make a mistake?”) from the Unconditional Self-Kindness scale (Smith et al., 2018) on a seven-point scale (1 = not at all to 7 = a great deal). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.850.

2.5 Data Analysis

Independent samples t-tests compared students who completed both questionnaires with those only completing the first questionnaire. Paired t-tests compared the pre and post scores in both groups. The effect size used for these within-subjects comparisons was the repeated measures Cohen’s drm recommended by Lakens, (2013), which controls for the correlation between the pre and post scores. Cohen’s (1988) guidelines were used for interpreting the effect sizes (small: d = 0.20, medium: d = 0.50, large: d = 0.80). Chi square tests examined pre-post scores in the percent students meeting cut-offs for anxiety and depression. Repeated measures GLMs compared the online positive psychology course with the comparison groups on pre-post changes. The alpha for statistical tests was p < 0.05. SPSS Version 27 was used for all analyses.

3 Results

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the online positive psychology course and comparison groups at Time 1 during the first week of the courses. The descriptive statistics for those completing both questionnaires and those completing only the first questionnaire are shown along with the results of independent samples t-tests comparing these two groups. Out of 21 total measures there were four significant differences between the completers and the first only group in the positive psychology course. The completers were higher in overall well-being, engagement, and general health and there was a smaller proportion of women than in the first only group. In the comparison group, there were two significant differences with the completers being higher on positive emotion and happiness than those in the first only group.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests for the positive psychology and other online psychology courses at Time 1
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Table 1 also shows the results of independent samples t-tests comparing the completers in the positive psychology and comparison groups and comparing those who only did the first questionnaire in the positive psychology and comparison groups. In comparing the completers, the positive psychology course group had more credit hours and were higher in accomplishment than the comparison group. In comparing the first only groups, the positive psychology group had a higher proportion of women and lower general health than the comparison group.

Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the positive psychology and comparison groups at Times 1 and 2, the paired t-tests comparing the change for each group from Time 1 to Time 2, and the results of the GLM analyses comparing the changes between the positive psychology and comparison groups controlling for age, gender, GPA, and credit hours.

Table 2 Comparison of the students in the positive psychology and other online psychology courses in changes on the dependent variables during the courses.a
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3.1 Positive Mental Health

For the positive psychology group, the t-tests showed that there were significant increases (ps < 0.001) in all seven positive mental health measures while there were no changes in any of these measures for the comparison group. The effect sizes for pre-post improvements in the positive psychology course were in the medium-large to large range (mean d = 0.891) with the largest in positive emotions, happiness, and overall well-being (ds = 1.213, 0.975, and 0.953, respectively) and the smallest in engagement and meaning (ds = 0.689 and 0.723, respectively).

The GLMs showed that the differences in the changes between the groups were all significant (ps < 0.001) supporting the hypothesis that the positive psychology group would have improved positive mental health relative to the comparison group. The effect sizes were generally large (mean d = 0.907) with the largest in overall well-being, accomplishment, positive emotions (ds = 1.148, 1.066, and 0.907, respectively) and the smallest in engagement and happiness (ds = 0.691 and 0.739, respectively).

3.2 Negative Mental Health

For the positive psychology group, the t-tests showed there were significant decreases (all ps < 0.001) in each of the negative mental health measures while there were no changes in any of the measures in the comparison group. The effect sizes of the pre-post changes in the positive psychology group were medium-to-large (mean d = 0.676) with the largest for the reduction in perceived stress (d = -0.747) and the smallest for the reduction in anxiety (d = -0.625). The GLMs showed that the differences in the changes between the groups were all significant (ps < 0.001) supporting the hypothesis that the positive psychology group would have decreases in negative mental health relative to the comparison group. The effect sizes were generally large (mean d = 0.779) with the largest for perceived stress (d = 0.815) and the smallest for depression (d = 0.739).

3.3 General Health

As with the measures of positive and negative mental health, the positive psychology group also showed a significant improvement in general health (p < 0.001) while the comparison group showed no change. The effect size for the pre-post increase in general health was large (d = 0.913). In addition, the GLM showed that the difference in the change between the groups was significant (p < 0.001) supporting the hypothesis that the positive psychology group would show increased general health relative to the comparison group. The effect size for this relative difference was in the medium-to-large range (d = 0.674).

3.4 Personal Characteristics

The positive psychology group showed significant pre-post increases on all measures of personal characteristics and the comparison group showed a significant increase in self-kindness. The effect size for the increases in the personal characteristic measures for the positive psychology group were all in the medium-to-large range (mean d = 0.715) with the largest in the HERO composite and resilience (ds = 0.943 and 0.775, respectively) and the smallest in hope and self-efficacy (ds = 0.561 and 0.653, respectively). The GLMs showed that all the differences in the change between the groups were significant (p < 0.001) supporting the hypothesis that the positive psychology group would show increases in personal characteristics relative to the comparison group. The differences were medium-to-large (mean d = 0.590) with the largest in the HERO composite and self-kindness (ds = 0.711 and 0.668, respectively) and the smallest in optimism and self-efficacy (ds = 0.491 and 0.514, respectively).

3.4.1 Change in Anxiety and Depression Cases

For the positive psychology group, there was a significant decrease in the percent anxious from 49.2% at Time 1 to 23.1% at Time 2 (χ2 (1, N = 65) = 9.631, p = 0.002) and a significant decrease in the percent depressed from 18.6% at Time 1 to 6.2% at Time 2 (χ2 (1, N = 65) = 4.561, p = 0.033). For the comparison group, there was no significant change in the percent anxious with 52.4% at Time 1 and 47.6% at Time 2 (χ2 (1, N = 63) = 0.286, p = 0.593) or the percent depressed with 23.8% at Time 1 and 36.5% at Time 2 (χ2 (1, N = 63) = 2.412, p = 0.120). Thus, the hypothesis  about changes in the percent anxious and depressed was also supported.

3.4.2 Comparison with Face-to-Face Positive Psychology Course

Table 3 shows a comparison of the online positive psychology course with our previously reported study of a face-to-face positive psychology course (Smith et al., 2021) on the equivalent measures used in each study. There is a comparison of the pre-post changes, the changes relative to their respective control groups, and the changes relative to each other. First, regarding the pre-post comparisons, there were significant improvements on each of the measures in both the online and face-to-face positive psychology courses. The effect sizes were generally large for the online course (mean d = 0.891) and small-to-medium for the face-to-face course (mean d = 0.501).

Table 3 Comparison of the 8-week online positive psychology course in this study with our previous 16-week face-to-face positive psychology course
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Second, regarding comparisons with their respective control groups, there were again significant improvements on each of the measures in both the online and face-to-face positive psychology courses. The effect sizes ranged from medium-to-large the online course (mean d = 0.878) and from small to large in the face-to-face course (mean d = 0.593). Third, regarding the direct statistical comparison between the online and face-to-face courses, the online course had a significantly greater improvement in positive emotions and accomplishment and trends (ps < 0.10) for more improvement in overall well-being, engagement, and general health. The mean effect size for the difference between the two courses was d = 0.232 favoring the online over the face-to-face course.

4 Discussion

This study investigated the effects of an 8-week online positive psychology course on happiness, health, and well-being. There were improvements in all measures of positive mental health, negative mental health, general health, and personal characteristics for the students taking the positive psychology relative to those taking other psychology courses. In addition, the percent of students anxious or depressed in the positive psychology course decreased while they did not change in the comparison group. Finally, the effect sizes for improvements on the measures of positive mental health and general health were generally larger in the online positive psychology course when compared with the results of a previous study of a similar face-to-face positive psychology course (Smith et al., 2021). 

There are several ways that this study helps to fill an important gap in our understanding of the potential benefits of a positive psychology course. First, it demonstrated that a relatively short online course may have as much of an impact on happiness and well-being as a longer face-to-face course. Indeed, the effect sizes for positive and negative mental health were large while those for general health and the personal characteristics were medium-to-large, which compares favorably with many positive psychology interventions (Koydemir et al., 2021; Sin & Lyubormirsky, 2009). The findings suggest that online environments may have potential for increasing happiness and well-being, even in domains that may suffer the most from the loss of face-to-face contact (Lehman & Conceicao, 2010; Richardson et al., 2017). For example, even though the online course had no required meeting times, when compared with the similar face-to-face course there was a similar, significant improvement in the engagement and relationships elements of PERMA.

Second, this study demonstrated the potential for positive psychology courses not only to improve positive mental health, but also to reduce important aspects of negative mental health. In a previous study of our face-to-face course, positive psychology students had a medium reduction in negative emotions (d = 0.368) relative to the comparison group. In this study, there were larger decreases in measures of anxiety, depression, and perceived stress (ds = 0.784, 0.739, and 0.815, respectively) and the percent anxious was more than cut in half (from 49.2% to 23.1%) while percent depressed was reduced to one third of what it was at the beginning of the course (from 18.6% to 6.2%). This supports theories emphasizing the effects of positive mental health in increasing resilience and reducing the negative effects of stress (Fredrickson, 2001; Zautra, 2003). It also suggests that an online positive psychology course may be beneficial for those who may be anxious or depressed in times a social isolation, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic (Twenge & Joiner, 2020).

Third, the study showed that the benefits of a positive psychology course may also extend beyond mental to physical health. While not as large as the effects on the positive mental health measures relative to the comparison group, the pre-post improvement was surprisingly large (d = 0.913) and the improvement relative to the comparison group was still in the medium-to-large range (d = 0.674). While this initial finding may be encouraging, there are a few caveats to keep in mind and address in future research. The general health measure is a self-report measure and there were no physiological measures of health. Also, the measure did not include questions about specific domains or aspects of physical health. Finally, the participants were relatively young and not as vulnerable to some of the serious health problems that may increase with age.

Fourth, this study showed that a positive psychology course may improve personal characteristics in addition to improving mental and general health. Although the effect sizes for the increases were generally not as large as the improvements in positive and negative mental health, they were all significant, at least in the medium range (mean d = 0.588), with the improvement in the HERO composite being the largest (d = 0.711). In addition, these personal characteristics represent more stable factors that may be more difficult to change or may not change as much or as quickly. Most important, as suggested by Luthans theory and research on psychological capital (Luthans & Youssef-Morgan, 2017; Selvaraj & Bhat, 2018), the increase in hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism may have long term benefits for sustaining and improving happiness and well-being.

With these contributions in mind, this study leaves us with the questions of why the positive psychology students improved so much in so many areas of their lives and why many of the improvements may have been greater than in the face-to-face course. We think that the size of improvements across all of these domains may be in large part due to the focus on two central aspects of positive psychology: (1) the broad conception of well-being captured in the PERMA theory (Seligman, 2011) and (2) the VIA strengths as ways to increase well-being (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). We think that focusing these two things may have been particularly effective because of how students were challengedto think about the course as a “hero’s journey” (Campbell, 2004) where they framed the destinationin terms of the elements of PERMA and what could help them make the journey in terms of the VIA strengths. Lastly, we think that having peer TAs who had taken the class may have helped increase the personal engagement and social presence that may be critical for an effective online class (Lehman & Conceicao, 2010; Richardson et al., 2017).

As for why the students in the online positive psychology course did so well relative to the face-to-face course, there may be several explanations. First, the online course included additional ways to make the material available including a new textbook (Smith, 2018), lecture videos to highlight the most important topics, and posting links for engaging videos illustrating the lessons. Second, even though the online course was only 8 weeks vs. the 16 weeks for the face-to-face course, the students had a greater number of assignments that were due at more frequent and regular intervals. While the students in the face-to-face course had to come to class twice-a-week, complete a practice exercise each week, and take three tests together in classroom; the online students had to turn in two assignments every Thursday and four every Sunday. In essence, the online students had to process what they were learning more often and had more ways to do it. Third, there were additional components of the online course specifically designed to foster personal engagement to compensate for the lack of face-to-face contact and real-time interaction. These included the discussion board with a small group of classmates, answering questions about applying what they were learning, and watching videos created by the instructor and peer TAs.

4.1 Implications

Despite our preference for teaching and getting to know students face-to-face, we cannot deny the surprisingly strong and broad effects that the online positive psychology course had on students. With the way that the COVID-19 pandemic has bought online learning to a broader audience (Dhawan, 2020), this study offers hope for those wanting or needing to teach or take a positive psychology course online. Just as students have reported increased happiness and well-being during previous face-to-face positive psychology courses (Goodmon et al., 2016; Maybury, 2013; Smith et al., 2021), online courses may offer the opportunity to improve happiness and well-being as well as other important aspects of our lives. One implication is that more positive psychology courses could be offered online in a variety of settings and across more diverse samples. A second implication is that special efforts could be made to reach those who are not able to take a face-to-face class and/or those especially vulnerable to stress or at risk for illness. Finally, if the benefits of teaching positive psychology online generalize to broader and more diverse groups of people, a useful next step may be to work at a public policy level to make them more frequently available to the public and/or at a reduced cost.

4.2 Limitations

There are several limitations to this study. First, the students were not randomly assigned to the groups and there may be important differences between the positive psychology and comparison groups. Second, the improvements in the positive psychology students may have been affected by expectations that they would improve. Third, the participants were all psychology students. Although comparing the positive psychology course with other psychology classes may have the advantage of matching groups on interest in psychology, future research could increase generalizability by broadening the comparison group and targeting a broader audience with the positive psychology course. Fourth, although the positive psychology course was designed to enable students to sustain any benefits after the course, we did not include a follow-up and do not know how stable or lasting the changes may be. Fifth, although there were many similarities between the online and face-to-face positive psychology courses, the face-to-face course was twice as long and research shows that longer positive psychology interventions may be more effective (Boiler et al., 2013). Sixth, although the personal characteristics measures had good internal consistency, they may not fully represent the original constructs because they did not include all items on the validated scales. Finally, the results regarding the depression measure may be limited by its relatively low sensitivity (Levis et al., 2020).

4.3 Future Directions

There are several directions that we see for future research. First, studies could follow students over a longer time-period to see how improvements may evolve or change. Second, potential mediators of improvements could be assessed and followed over a series of time points to see what changes may precede improvements in the measures of happiness, health, and well-being. Third, the comparison between online and face-to-face courses could be more directly matched on the length of the course and the number and nature of the assignments. Fourth, additional personal and situational factors could be assessed to determine which might moderate the effects of the course on various aspects of happiness, health, and well-being. Finally, more geographically, demographically, and culturally diverse samples could be studied to determine how the results may differ and generalize across groups.

5 Conclusion

Overall, this study helps bridge an important gap in our understanding of the potential impact  of positive psychology courses and the value of teaching about happiness and well-being. First, as with face-to-face courses, our findings suggests that teaching positive psychology online may also have substantial benefits for the lives of students. Second, it shows that online courses may not only increasing happiness and positive emotions, but also reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, and possibly even improve physical health. Third, it shows that even a relatively brief online course may have a positive impact on stable characteristics, such as resilience and hope, that may be important for sustaining and continuing to improve happiness, health, and well-being. Together, our findings provide encouragement and support for expanding the teaching of positive psychology to online settings, bringing positive psychology to broader and more diverse samples, and for teaching it in a way that enables students to both learn about it and put it into practice.