塔尔博士毕业于哈佛大学，他拥有心理学硕士、哲学和组织行为学博士学位。他所开设的“积极心理学”和“领袖心理学”，被哈佛学生们推选为最受欢迎率排名第一和第三的课程。选修这两门课程的哈佛学生超过了总人数的20%。

我们来到这个世上，到底追求什么才是最重要的？塔尔博士坚定地认为：幸福感是衡量人生的唯一标准，是所有目标的最终目标。

今天这段是Tal老师介绍课程的基本设置，里面有句话Tal有点隔囵，见Hints.
Hints:
You will be writing a paper, an academic paper.
This class will be taught on two levels. The first level, it will be taught like any other class in psychology or any of the classes you have taken here. You will be introduced here to studies, to research, to rigorous academic work. You will be writing a paper, an academic paper. You will be taking exams, just like every other class. But then it will also be taught at a second level, which is for every paper that you'll read, every paper that you'll write, you'll always be thinking, okay, so how can I take these ideas and apply them to my life? How can I apply them to my relationship? How can I apply them to my community? Two levels, the academic, applied. I did not just introduce, whether it's in the readings or in lectures, ideas, just because they are interesting for the sake of the idea. It's always an idea that is both rigorous and can be applied.
这门课程将分为两个阶段教学。第一阶段的教学将和其他心理学课程或者你们在这儿上过的其他课程一样，我会在这里给你们上课，引导你们进行研究，向你们介绍严谨的学术工作。你们要写一篇论文，学术论文。像其他课程一样，你们也要参加考试。而第二阶段则是，你们每读一篇文章，每写一篇文章，你们要时刻想着，我要如何才能汲取这些思想并应用到自己的生活中，如何应用到我的交往中，如何应用到我的社交中。两个阶段，学术阶段，应用阶段。我所讲到的观点，无论是在阅读材料中还是在讲座上提及的，都不仅仅是因为他们有趣。这些观点既严谨又实用。