The Happy Lawyer The Centerpiece of a Course Every Law School Should Teach

The Happy Lawyer The Centerpiece of a Course Every Law School Should Teach By Todd David Peterson The Happy Lawyer1 The Centerpiece of a Course Every Law School Should Teach Todd David Peterson2 During the past decade a growing number of law professors and psychologists have devoted increasing attention to issues relating to the mental well-being of law students Although earlier studies have shown higher levels of psychological distress, including elevated levels of depression, stress, and anxiety in law students, compared to medical students and other individuals in their age cohort,3 these studies did not generate much momentum to address these issues in the law school environment After the turn of the century, however, law professors and law students began to pay more attention to this issue as a growing number of studies focused on psychological distress among law students, and law professors began to discuss ways to address this problem.4 In particular, Florida State law professor Larry Krieger has worked to bring 1NANCY LEVIT & DOUGLAS LINDER, THE HAPPY LAWYER (2010) 2Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School 3See Andrew H Benjamin et al., The Role of Legal Education in Producing Psychological Distress Among Law Students and Lawyers, 11 AM B FOUND RES J 225 (1986); Marilyn Heins, Shirley N Fahey & Roger C Henderson, Law Students and Medical Students: A Comparison of Perceived Stress, 33 J LEGAL EDUC 511 (1983); Stephen B Shanfield & G Andrew H Benjamin, Psychiatric Distress in Law Students, 35 J LEGAL EDUC 65 (1985) 4See, e.g., Gerald F Hess, Heads and Hearts: The Teaching and Learning Environment in Law School, 52 J LEGAL EDUC 75, 75–111 (2002); Nancy J Soonpaa, Stress in Law Students: A Comparative Study of First-Year, Second-Year, and Third-Year Students, 36 CONN L REV 353, 353-83 (2004) attention to these issues and suggested ways for law students to deal with them,5 and (with psychologist Kennan Sheldon) published a number of influential studies on law student psychological distress.6 Professor Krieger has also created a “humanizing law school” web page to offer students suggestions on how to deal with issues of psychological distress and provide “some perspectives and advice about the issues of health and life/career satisfaction as a law student and lawyer.”7 Other legal academics have also begun to focus on this issue both in writing8 and institutionally The new Section on Balance in Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) was created to address law student mental health concerns.9 Law students themselves have also begun to attend to these issues The Law Student Division of the American Bar Association (“ABA”) recently initiated a Law Student Mental Health Initiative, and it sponsored a “national mental health day” at law schools across the country 10 5See, e.g., Lawrence S Krieger, THE HIDDEN SOURCES OF LAW SCHOOL STRESS (2005), available at http://www.law.fsu.edu/academic_programs/humanizing_lawschool/booklet2.html; Lawrence S Krieger, Human Nature as a New Guiding Philosophy, 47 WASHBURN L J 247 (2008) 6See Kennon M Sheldon & Lawrence S Krieger, Does Legal Education Have Undermining Effects on Law Students? Evaluating Changes in Motivation, Values, and Well-Being, 22 BEHAV SCI & L 261 (2004); Kennon M Sheldon & Lawrence S Krieger, Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory, 33 PERSONALITY & SOC PSYCHOL BULL 883 (2007) 7Humanizing Law School, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW, http://www.law.fsu.edu/academic_programs/humanizing_lawschool/humanizing_lawschool.html (last visited Mar 21, 2012).) 8See, e.g., Matthew M Dammeyer & Narina Nunez, Anxiety and Depression Among Law Students: Current Knowledge and Future Directions, 23 LAW & HUM BEHAV 55 (1999); Hess, supra note 4, at 75; Tim Kasser, Personal Aspirations, The “Good Life” and the Law, 10 DEAKIN L REV 33 (2005); Soonpaa, supra note 4, at 353 9See Todd David Peterson & Elizabeth Waters Peterson, Stemming the Tide of Law Student Depression: What Law Schools Need to Learn from the Science of Positive Psychology, YALE J HEALTH POL'Y L & ETHICS 357, 360 (2009) 10Law Student Division Mental Health Initiative, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, http://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_students/initiatives_awards/lshealth.html (last visited Mar 21, 2012) On a more local level, the student government at The George Washington University Law School has started a weekly series of “Wellness Wednesday” events devoted to issues of student mental health and well-being Coincidentally, during this same ten-year time span, researchers in the newly recognized field of positive psychology produced numerous books and hundreds of articles on the traits and conditions that lead to human thriving.11 Positive psychology began its rapid development as a separate branch of psychological research when Martin Seligman, of the University of Pennsylvania, devoted his first speech as president of the American Psychological Association to the subject and then published a special positive psychology issue of American Psychologist (the official journal of the American Psychological Association) in January 2000.12 Positive psychology has revolutionized the study of human behavior by balancing the empirical psychological research on the causes of mental illness and distress with new research designed to study “positive emotions, positive character traits and enabling institutions.” 13 As Professor Seligman concluded, “the value of the overarching term positive psychology lies in its uniting of what had been scattered and disparate lines of theory and research about what makes life most worth living.”14 By helping to explain what makes people happy and thrive, the field of positive psychology offers a wealth of new empirical research that could be used to address issues of law student mental health and well-being As Professor Seligman himself recognized, “law schools are themselves a potential breeding ground for lawyer demoralization and that makes them – as well as law firms – candidates for reform In these ways the relationship between positive psychology and law becomes a subject for the further study in the legal academy, as well as in 11See, e.g., A PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN STRENGTHS (Lisa G Aspinwall & Ursula M Staudinger eds., 2003); FLOURISHING (Corey L M Keys & Jonathan Haidt eds., 2003); OXFORD HANDBOOK OF METHODS IN POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (Anthony D Ong & Manfred H.M van Dulmen eds., 2007); POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT (Shane J Lopez & C R Snyder eds., 2003); POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IN PRACTICE (P Alex Linley & Stephen Joseph eds., 2004); THE HANDBOOK OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (C R Snyder & Shane J Lopez eds., 2002) 12Martin E P Seligman & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Positive Psychology: An Introduction, 55 AM PSYCHOLOGIST (2000) 13Martin E P Seligman et al., Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions, 60 AM PSYCHOLOGIST 410, 410 (2005) 14Id the profession at large.”15 In their wonderful new book, The Happy Lawyer,16 Professors Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School took up the challenge to apply the new learning from the science of positive psychology to the issues that law students and lawyers face in creating happy and fulfilling careers in the law Although law professors and psychologists (including Levit and Linder themselves) have used principles from the field of positive psychology as the core of articles on law student mental health and well-being, 17 this is the first book-length effort to apply the new science of happiness and well-being to the issue of law students and lawyers having happier and more meaningful lives and careers It is far beyond the capacity of one book to assay the full range of positive psychology research and apply it to the entire range of issues related to the happiness of law students and lawyers, but Levit and Linder have done a marvelous job of culling the most significant principles from the latest psychological research and showing both lawyers and law students how they can use this information to improve the quality of their lives and careers This noteworthy achievement makes The Happy Lawyer essential reading for law students, professors and administrators Moreover, although The Happy Lawyer seems principally addressed to individual law students and lawyers, it can be the cornerstone of law school courses and programs designed to improve student mental health and well being and help students map the course of happy and meaningful future careers 15Martin E P Seligman, Paul R Verkuil & Terry H Kang, Why Lawyers Are Unhappy, 10 DEAKIN L REV 49, 54 (2005) 16LEVIT & LINDER, supra note1 17See, e.g., Peter H Huang & Rick Swedloff, Authentic Happiness & Meaning at Law Firms, 58 SYRACUSE L REV 335 (2008); Peter H Huang, Authentic Happiness, Self-Knowledge and Legal Policy, MINN J L SCI & TECH 755 (2008); Nancy Levit & Douglas Linder, Happy Law Students, Happy Lawyers, 58 SYRACUSE L REV 351 (2008); Peterson & Peterson, supra note 9, at 413; Seligman, Verkuil & Kang, supra note 15, at 54 Unfortunately, few law schools now offer such courses or programs This Article argues that law schools have an obligation to educate law students about how they can achieve meaningful and personally satisfying careers in the law and, in addition, how they can buffer themselves against the stress and depression that far too frequently arise in both law school and the practice of law Experience teaches us that law students are unlikely to be able to accomplish these goals effectively on their own Far too many students suffer through their law school experience only to find that their subsequent legal careers are unrewarding and emotionally stressful Moreover, as this Article discusses in more detail below, the very legal skills law schools teach to help students become effective lawyers are likely to contribute to mental and emotional distress in their private lives Fortunately, we now have sufficient empirical psychological research on happiness that we can teach students how to meet the emotional challenges of law school and the legal profession, and identify the kind of legal practice that will make for a happy professional career This Article proceeds in three main sections In Part I, the Article discusses why law schools have an obligation to teach students how to find happy and rewarding legal careers and deal with the emotional well-being issues that so often arise in law school Ideally, this would involve a course on finding satisfaction in the legal profession, of which The Happy Lawyer could be the centerpiece The course should be just one part of a larger program that could include presentations and programs relevant to the issue and should involve a law school’s career development office, as well as the student advising office In Part II, the Article takes a detailed look at the Levit and Linder book and explains why it has the potential to be the keystone of a law school’s student wellness program Finally, in Part III the Article discusses a number of topics that are not discussed at length in The Happy Lawyer, but which should also be a part of any law school student wellness program I Why Law Schools Have an Obligation to Teach Students How to Have Happy and Meaningful Legal Careers As an initial matter, it is important to establish why every law school should have a program that helps law students understand how to have a happy and meaningful career in the law Although Levit and Linder note that only six law schools offer courses that are even tangentially related to the subject of building a happy legal career,18 they not have an extended discussion of how such a course might be structured, or why law schools might have a moral obligation to help their students achieve a more satisfying law school and legal career They simply rhetorically ask, “How can law schools help students make good career choices if they offer no courses on career satisfaction?”19 Because The Happy Lawyer clearly would be the cornerstone of any course on that topic, it may just be that the authors are modestly avoiding a sales pitch for their own book So, this Article will make that pitch for them Law schools should be creating courses on happy lawyering for a wide range of reasons First, law schools have a moral obligation to their students to help them deal with the challenges to their subjective well-being because law schools play an active role in creating many of those difficulties We teach students to be critical and to find flaws in agreements and opinions We teach them to be pessimistic by training them to anticipate problems and bad outcomes, and plan for any negative eventuality This daily training in negative thinking builds neural pathways in students’ brains that will cause them to evaluate themselves much more critically and be much 18LEVITT & LINDER, supra note 1, at 123 The authors list those courses as Lewis and Clark’s “Lawyering in Society,” Temple’s “Law Happiness and Subjective Well-Being,” University of California at Berkeley’s “Effective and Sustainable Law Practice: The Meditative Perspective,” The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s “Quest for a Satisfying Career in Law,” The University of Virginia’s “Legal Careers and Life’s Satisfaction,” and Yale’s “Happiness and Morality.” Id at 262 n 31 19Id at 124 more likely to adopt a pessimistic, explanatory style that sees difficulties as pervasive and permanent, rather than local and temporary.20 Recent psychological research demonstrates that these ways of perceiving one’s self and one’s personal difficulties are likely to make individuals much more prone to stress and depression.21 These skills may be necessary for effective lawyering, but they also create problems that law schools must address It is simply not morally defensible to ignore the problems that are due at least in part to the training we provide The story of how law schools create conditions that lead to the development of depression begins with a computer game called Tetris Tetris is a game in which four kinds of shapes fall from the top of the screen and the player can rotate and move them until they hit the bottom When the block creates an unbroken horizontal line across the entire screen the line disappears The object of the game is to complete as many unbroken lines as possible so the blocks pile up and reach the top of the screen, at which point the game ends As many gamers discovered, Tetris is a deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive game A group of Harvard researchers studied subjects who were assigned to play Tetris for multiple hours a day, three days in a row.22 For many days after they participated in the experiment, the subjects saw Tetris like shapes everywhere they went and imagined how they could fit them together in the smallest possible space This phenomenon is familiar to many who have obsessively played the game, including one who described his experience this way: “Walking through the aisles at the local Acme, trying to decide between Honey Nut or the new frosted Cheerios, I noticed how perfectly one set of cereal boxes would fit in with the gap on the row below it Running doggedly around 20See SHAWN ACHOR, THE HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE 92-93 (2010) 21See id at 123-24 22R Stickgold et al., Replaying the Game: Hypnagogic Images in Normas &l Amnesics, 290 SCI 350 (2000) the track at the Y, bored out of my mind, I find myself focusing on the brick wall and calculating which direction I’d have to rotate those slightly darker bricks to make them fit with the uneven row of dark bricks a few feet further down the wall Going out to get some fresh air after hours of work, I rub my watery, stinging eyes, look up at the Philadelphia skyline, and wonder, if I flip the Victory building on its side would it fit into the gap between Liberties I and II?” 23 This condition, called the Tetris effect, is just one example of a much larger psychological concept Consistently training your mind to look at things in a particular way leads the mind to look at the world in this fashion, even after the person leaves the context in which the pattern developed.24 So, for example, one Harvard researcher reported that after a marathon session of playing the video game Grand Theft Auto with a group of students in a Harvard dorm, he found himself examining the cars he passed outside the dorm as potential targets for theft and even imagining the theft of a Cambridge police cruiser.25 It turns out that there is a neurological explanation for the Tetris effect Repeated actions over a period of time create new neuropathways in the brain, which create channels the mind has a tendency to follow repetitively Scientists once believed that the brain was fixed after the age of three and that no new brain cells developed thereafter New research, however, has demonstrated the phenomenon of neurogenesis, the development of new neurons in the brain in response to repeated stimuli.26 This discovery has led to an understanding of the concept of neuroplasticity, the idea that the brain can change, grow, and develop new neuropathways For 23Annette Earling, The Tetris Effect: Do Computer Games Fry Your Brain?, PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER, Mar 21, 1996, at [need page number] 24ACHOR, supra note 20, at 89-90 25Id at 87-88 26See, e.g., Richard J Davidson, Affective Style, Psychopathology and Resilience: Brain Mechanisms and Plasticity, 55 AM PSYCHOLOGIST 1196 (2000); Richard J Davidson, Daren C Jackson & Ned H Kalin, Emotion, Plasticity, Context and Regulation: Perspectives From Affective Neuroscience, 126 PSYCHOL BULL 890 (2000) example, in one famous study, researchers looked at the brain of London taxi drivers, who are required to learn their way around the incredibly complex and disordered structure of the London streets The researchers discovered that in these taxi drivers the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with visual memory, was significantly enlarged.27 The daily exercise of navigating the London streets had created new brain cells to perform the task effectively Similarly, when one develops a habitual way of looking for particular patterns, whether it is the way falling blocks fit together in a line or a particular way of analyzing logical problems (thinking like a lawyer), the brain builds neuropathways that tend to channel our thinking through the same pathway, even when we are not engaging in the activity that created the neuropathway to begin with So, we should ask, what neuropathways we create in law school? What habitual patterns of thought we create and reinforce so that, in another example of the Tetris effect, students will be likely to habitually follow that pattern of thinking even when they are outside of the classroom? First, law school classes relentlessly pursue the identification of flaws and problems in legal arguments and opinions We identify the flaws in the cases we teach and use the Socratic method to help students identify the flaws in their reasoning and understanding This relentless training in fault-finding inevitably carries over into the way students look at themselves and their lives outside the classroom Because of this training they are more likely to emphasize their shortcomings and mistakes and less likely to focus on their achievement and talents Inevitably, if we train our brains to look for flaws, we will find them wherever we look, and we will be looking for them all the time because that is the neuropathway that we constructed As countless psychological studies have shown, this kind of fault-finding is a recipe 27See ACHOR, supra note 20, at 28; ED DIENER & ROBERT BISWAS-DIENER, HAPPINESS: UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WEALTH (2008) 10 series of pictures and asked to identify and recall various aspects of the images The subjects who were negatively primed missed significant parts of the pictures’ background, while those positively primed did not.124 My personal favorite study of the broadening effect of positive emotions involved a group of doctors who were divided into three groups and tested on their ability to make a difficult medical diagnosis.125 Before the diagnostic exercise, one of the groups was primed to experience a positive emotion by a gift of candy, one group was read a series of statements about the importance of humanistic medicine, and one was a control group The diagnostic exercise was designed to test both how quickly the doctors could perform the proper diagnosis and how well they resisted “anchoring,” which is the tendency to focus on the first available data and resist moving off one’s initial analysis.126 The doctors who were positively primed with candy made the right diagnosis significantly faster (nearly twice as fast as the control group), and showed 60 percent less anchoring than the control group as well.127 Lawyers equally may benefit from broader and more creative thinking, and positive emotions can help them achieve that goal The second aspect of the broaden and build theory is the idea that positive emotions also serve to build our emotional and physical resilience and lead to an upward spiral of additional positive feelings.128 Researchers have established how negative feelings cause measurable physical changes in a person, including increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, and peripheral vasoconstriction.129 Positive emotions have the capacity to reverse these adverse 124Id 125See Carlos A Estrada, Alice M Isen &Mark J Young, Positive Affect Facilitates Integration of Information and Decreases Anchoring in Reasoning Among Physicians, 72 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAV & HUM DECISION PROCESSES 117 (1997) 126Id at 119 127Id at 126-27 128See FREDRICKSON, supra note 28 129See Barbara L Fredrickson et al., The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions, 24 MOTIVATION & EMOTION 237 (2000) 32 physical effects and, in the words of researcher Barbara Frederickson, have an “undoing effect” that returns the body to a more peaceful state.130 As Fredrickson has concluded, “evidence for the undoing effect of positive emotions suggests that people might improve their psychological well-being, and perhaps also their physical health, by cultivating experiences of positive emotions at opportune moments to cope with negative emotions.”131 Positive emotions help one become more resilient and “bounce back from stressful experiences quickly and efficiently, just as resilient metals bend but not break.”132 Most importantly, although negative emotions can create a downward spiral that leads to increased stress and depression, positive emotions can have the opposite effect and create an upward spiral of increased mental health and well-being.133 Fredrickson has “found that what matters most is your positivity ratio It is a way to characterize the amount of your heartfelt positivity relative to the amount of your heart-wrenching negativity Stated formally, your positivity ratio is your frequency of positivity over any given time span, divided by your frequency of negativity over that same span.”134 The key factor in determining whether one begins a downward or an upward spiral is this ratio of positive emotions to negative emotions Frederickson has found that if the ratio is below to 1, “people get pulled into a downward spiral fueled by negativity Their behavior becomes painfully predictable—even rigid They feel burdened; at times, even lifeless Yet above this same ratio, people seem to take off, drawn along an upward spiral energized by positivity Their behavior becomes less predictable and more creative They grow The feel uplifted and alive.”135 130Id 131Barbara L Fredrickson, The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology, 56 AM PSYCHOLOGIST 218, 222 (2001) 132Id 133Id 134FREDRICKSON, supra note 28, at 16 135Id at 16, 128-29 33 Interestingly, Marcial Losada, the researcher who came up with the exact ratio that proves to be the tipping point,136 developed his theory in the context of studies of successful business teams.137 Losada examined the interactions within different business teams and recorded the number of positive and negative interactions within the groups Groups in which the positive-to-negative ratio was above his calculated ratio (now known as the “Losada Line”) were significantly more likely to attain objectively successful business results 138 Positivity, thus, works not only for individuals, but for groups as well Lawyers, who frequently must work in teams, would well to heed the Losada Line and understand the importance of cultivating positive emotions, not only for individual flourishing, but also for success in their team endeavors.139 Most importantly, individuals can change their positivity ratio, develop more psychological resilience, and broader and more flexible thinking.140 Frederickson’s own website makes it possible to measure one’s positivity ratio and guide one’s self to experience more positive emotions and minimize the effect of negative ones.141 Because of the significant benefits of improving one’s positivity ratio, the broaden and build theory of positive emotions should be a part of any law school course on happiness C Using One’s Signature Strengths Levit and Linder briefly discuss the concept of identifying and practicing one’s signature 136The precise ratio as determined by Losada is 2.9012 See Marcial Losada & Emily Heaphy, The Role of Positivity and Connectivity in the Performance of Business Teams: A Nonlinear Dynamics Model, 47 AM BEHAV SCIENTIST 740 (2004) 137Id 138Id 139For what it’s worth, a similar positivity ratio predicts the success or failure of marriages and long-term relationships See FREDERICKSON, supra note 28, at 131-32 140FREDERICKSON, supra note 28, at 146-47 141Id.; see POSITIVITY RATIO, http://www.positivityratio.com (last visited Mar 27, 2012) 34 strengths.142 This brief discussion takes place in the context of a broader discussion of why it is important to identify one’s skills as part of an exercise to help students focus on the type of legal practice that may be most satisfying and meaningful to them.143 In particular, as previously noted, Levit and Linder discuss Tal Ben-Shahar’s suggestion that students draw a Venn diagram with three circles, one representing things that give the student pleasure, the second, things that give the student meaning, and the third, things at which the student excels 144 The problem with discussing the concept of signature strengths in the context of identifying one’s abilities is that readers are likely to equate the concept of signature strengths with the identification of one’s abilities even though the two concepts are significantly different The idea of strengths as discussed in Ben-Shahar’s Venn diagram, as well as in the colloquial meaning of the term, focuses on an individual’s performance and how that performance might be measured by other people Psychologists generally refer to this conception of strength as “extrinsic strengths” because they focus on how others measure one’s abilities and performance.145 As two of the leading researchers on the subjects of extrinsic strengths put it, “[a] strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity An individual strength might be the person’s ability to manage several activities at the same time flawlessly, or an organizational strength might be its capacity for constant innovation Once dominant talents are refined with knowledge and skills, they can become strengths.”146 It is certainly important to understand one’s extrinsic strengths in order to identify 142See Levit & Linder, supra note 1, at 146-147 143Id at 145-49 144See BEN-SHAHAR, , supra note 75, at 54 The place where these three circles intersect is likely to be the most promising area of work In the context of this suggestion, it is clear that Tal Ben-Shahar is discussing strengths as one’s abilities 145See MARCUS BUCKINGHAM & DONALD O CLIFTON, NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS (2001) 146Id at [need pincite] 35 the kind of work that may be the core of a satisfying career, and there are methods for students to identify and understand where they have such extrinsic strengths.147 The positive psychology concept of signature strengths, however, is quite different from the notion of extrinsic strengths The concept of signature strengths, which may be called intrinsic rather than extrinsic strengths, is more akin to the idea of subjectively meaningful personal virtues William James, the father of American psychology, captured this concept when he wrote, “I have often thought that the best way to define a man’s character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensively active and alive At such moments, there is a voice inside which speaks and says, “‘This is the real me.’” 148 Christopher Peterson of the University of Michigan and Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania developed a list of twenty-four cross-cultural character strengths that most contribute to human flourishing.149 This classification, called Values In Action (“VIA”), is intended to be the counterpart of the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (“DSM”).150 While the DSM catalogs the range of psychological problems, the VIA describes and classifies “strengths and virtues that enable human thriving.”151 The VIA sets forth six categories of virtues that meet a series of criteria and are recognized in nearly every culture across the globe: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence.152 Peterson and Seligman identify in the VIA twenty-four 147For example, students can use the Gallop Organization’s strength-finder survey in order to identify these kinds of extrinsic strengths See CLIFTON STRENGTHS FINDER, http://www.strengthsfinder.com (last visited Mar 27, 2012) 148ROBERT D RICHARDSON, WILLIAM JAMES: IN THE MAELSTROM OF AMERICAN MODERNISM 181 (2007) 149See CHRISTOPHER PETERSON & MARTIN E P SELIGMAN, CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND VIRTUES: A HANDBOOK AND CLASSIFICATION (2004) 150Id 151Seligman, supra note 13, at 411 152Id 36 strengths or virtues that fall within these six broad categories.153 These intrinsic character strengths are identified as follows Virtue and strength Definition Wisdom and Knowledge Creativity Curiosity Open-mindedness Love of learning Perspective Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge Thinking of novel and productive ways to things Taking an interest in all of ongoing experience Thinking things through and examining them from all sides Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge Being able to provide wise counsel to others Courage Authenticity Bravery Persistence Zest Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal Speaking the truth and presenting oneself in a genuine way Not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain Finishing what one starts Approaching life with excitement and energy Humanity Kindness Love Social Intelligence Interpersonal strengths that involve “tending and befriending” others Doing favors and good deeds for others Valuing close relations with others Being aware of the motives and feelings of self and others Justice Fairness Leadership Teamwork Civic strengths that underlie healthy community life Treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice Organizing group activities and seeing that they happen Working well as members of a group or team Temperance Forgiveness Modesty Prudence Self-regulation Strengths that protect against excess Forgiving those who have done wrong Letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves Being careful about one’s choices; not saying or doing things that might later be regretted Regulating what one feels and does Transcendence Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide 153As described by Seligman, the criteria for inclusion in the VIA are (1) ubiquity—widely recognized across cultures, (2) fulfilling—contributes to individual fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness broadly construed, (3) morally valued—valued in its own right and not as a means to an end, (4) does not diminish others—elevates others who witness it, producing admiration, not jealousy, (5) non-felicitous opposite—has obvious antonyms that are “negative”, (6) traitlike—an individual difference with demonstrable generality and stability, (7) measurable—has been successfully measured by researchers as an individual difference, (8) distinctiveness—not redundant (conceptually or empirically) with other character strengths, (9) paradigms—strikingly embodied in some individuals, (10) prodigies—precociously shown by some children or youth, (11) selective absence—missing altogether in some individuals, and (12) institutions—he deliberate targeting of societal practices and rituals to try to cultivate it Id 37 meaning Appreciation of Noticing and appreciating beauty, excellence, and/or skilled Beauty and Excellence performance in all domains of life Gratitude Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen Hope Expecting the best and working to achieve it Humor Liking to laugh and tease; bringing smiles to other people Religiousness Having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of life 154 Which particular strengths from this list are most meaningful to a particular individual is a subjective and intrinsic matter, and the importance of any particular intrinsic strength varies from person to person Peterson and Seligman developed a survey instrument that helps an individual identify those strengths that are most meaningful and important to their own lives This instrument, called the VIA inventory of strengths, does not identify the virtues or strengths that an outside evaluator would identify as an individual’s abilities, but rather it identifies those strengths that are most meaningful and subjectively important to an individual These “signature strengths” remain relatively fixed over time, although they can be influenced by outside events and focused efforts to change one’s lifestyle.155 Thus, the concept of signature strengths, or intrinsic strengths, helps to identify a “preexisting capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is authentic and energizing to the user, and enables optimum functioning, development, and performance.”156 Intrinsic strengths provide meaning and focus to one’s life, and using them frequently contributes to a sense of authenticity that leads to greater energy, 157 goal attainment,158 and well-being.159 Identifying one’s signature strengths can have important benefits for law students First, 154 PETERSON & SELIGMAN, supra note 149, at 29-30 155See id at 643; Christopher Peterson & Martin E P Seligman, Character Strengths Before and After September 11, 14 PSYCOL SCI 381 (2003) 156ALEX LINLEY, AVERAGE TO A+: REALIZING STRENGTHS IN YOURSELF AND OTHERS (2008) 157Id at 12 158Id at 45-47 159Id at 154 38 it can aid the identification of the particular jobs that may provide the most satisfying career for a particular law student This is the context in which Levit and Linder discuss the concept, and it is clearly relevant to achieving that goal In addition, however, it is equally important for law students to identify their signature strengths for a more immediately pressing reason: using signature strengths on a daily basis may help to buffer them against stress and depression One study showed that individuals who identified their top five strengths and used them in a new and different way every day for one week were significantly happier and less depressed than those using a placebo exercise.160 In addition, these benefits persist even after the exercise has been completed, up to six months after the one week exercise.161 In addition, a study of law students showed that students who found ways to use their top strengths were less likely to suffer from depression and stress and more likely to report satisfaction with their life.162 Thus, identifying and using one’s signature intrinsic strengths is an important addition to the list of positive psychology interventions that should be a part of any law school course on happiness in one’s legal career D The Importance of Teaching Specific Positive Psychology Interventions Levit and Linder focus most of their attention in the book on how lawyers can build more satisfying careers When they discuss law students, they similarly focus on how law students can direct their education towards finding careers that are more satisfying and fulfilling They not, however, spend much time examining specific positive psychology interventions that might help law students avoid the stress and depression associated with law school It is important for any course on happiness in law school and in one’s subsequent career to explore certain key positive psychology interventions that are expressly designed to counter the kinds of problems 160Seligman et al., supra note 13, at 415-16 161Id at 418-19 162See Peterson &Peterson, supra note 9, at 413 39 that, as discussed above, law school tends to create A few key positive psychology principles drawn from recent research are discussed below The ABCD Model of Interpretation As discussed above, the Tetris effect created by legal education causes law students to focus inordinately on their own flaws and perceived shortcomings, as they tend to see problems as pervasive and permanent rather than local and temporary.163 One way to help students counteract that tendency is to teach them the ABCD model of interpretation, which is a cognitive exercise that allows students to challenge the negative assumptions they may bring to their own self assessment The ABCD model “has a long and rich history starting with Albert Ellis, father of cognitive therapy, then adapted by Martin Seligman (see Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness) and also put to great use by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte in their excellent book, The Resilience Factor.164 In this model, “A” stands for adversity, the event that students cannot change, whether it is a bad performance in class, a bad grade in the course, a series of bad grades in one semester, or an entire law school career of sub-par grades The B stands for one’s belief or reaction to the event, why we think it happened and what we believe it means for our future It is this belief, often not consciously identified by students, that leads them to conclude the setback is either local and temporary or permanent and pervasive and permanent The belief one holds leads to C, the expected consequence—what is the likely result of the negative event A bad day in class means that the student has no aptitude for legal analysis and will never become a good lawyer A bad grade means that the student will not be able to get a job A bad semester means that the student will never be able to recover and earn better grades A bad law school GPA means that 163See supra text accompaying notes 28-34 164ACHOR, supra note 20, at 219 n 27 40 the student might as well quit because he or she will never become a successful lawyer The answer to these negative thoughts (thoughts that are likely to be accentuated by the negative Tetris effect of law school education) is D or disputation, which involves first identifying the belief as a subjective determination and not an immutable fact that inevitably leads to a bad consequence Psychologists suggest that we can effectively dispute our belief and change the perceived consequence by externalizing the negative voice (by pretending to hear it from another person) and then arguing against that voice on behalf of a more optimistic and less negative belief.165 So, in this mode of analysis, students would respond to a bad day in class by disputing the negative conclusion and arguing to themselves that a bad day in class is simply one bad day in class that will not necessarily reoccur and does not necessarily predict anything about their success in law school Everyone has bad days; everyone makes mistakes; everyone can recover and better the next time around In the case of a bad grade, it is simply one grade out of many in law school and does not predict failure in other courses or in a job search Few people have perfect law school records, and it is simply not reasonable to aspire to one Similarly, one bad semester does not necessarily mean that a student who remains committed to the legal education process and continues to work hard cannot improve one’s grades over the rest of law school Finally, even an entire law school career of bad grades does not mean that one cannot become a successful lawyer Law school teaches only a small slice of the skills necessary to become a successful lawyer, and there are plenty of students with poor law school records who have gone on to brilliant legal careers It is simply a matter of developing those skills in areas where a student has a particular aptitude, and pursing a legal career that will take advantage of those particular skills The Gratitude Exercise 165See id at 125 41 The tendency of law school to create pessimistic approaches to life that look for and anticipate problems and faults can also be countered through exercises that build alternative neuropathways, which make it easier for law students to identify and value the many good things in their lives The best-known positive psychology intervention is an exercise that requires students at the end of each day to write down in a journal three to five things that happened during the day for which they are grateful As Sonja Lyubomirsky argued, “adaptation to all things positive is essentially the enemy of happiness, and one of the keys to becoming happier lies in combating its effect, which gratitude does quite nicely By preventing people from taking the good things in their lives for granted from adapting to their positive life circumstances, the practice of gratitude can directly counteract the effects of hedonic adaptation.”166 This exercise has a remarkable record of producing positive results, including reduced stress and depression, compared to control groups who not use the exercise.167 In one study participants were asked to write down three things that went well each day for a one week period and “asked to provide a causal explanation for each good thing.”168 The result of the exercise was “increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for six months.”169 The key finding of this study, and numerous other studies with similar results, is that the daily identification of good things in one’s life does not simply provide an immediate infusion of happiness Eating a chocolate bar would that, but it would provide no lasting benefits The gratitude exercise forces individuals to develop a habit of looking for good things in their own lives This habit builds a new neuropathway to compete with the neuropathways generated by 166LYUBOMIRSKY, supra note 47, at 95 167See Seligman et al., supra note 13; see also Sonja Lyubomirsky, Kennon M Sheldon & David Schkade, Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change, REV GEN PSYCHOL 111 (2005) 168Seligman et al., supra note 13, at 416 169Id 42 law school education When this competing neuropathway is habitually developed and exercised, individuals are more likely to think of their lives in a positive way and more likely to resist the negative Tetris effect of their law school education.170 The key to the usefulness of this exercise in law school is that it uses the principle of the Tetris effect to directly counteract the negative training that students receive in their legal education Goal Setting Students could be taught a whole series of well-validated techniques for managing the work of their legal education, but one in particular stands out because of its extensive empirical testing It is well-established that individuals who develop self-concordant goals can increase their happiness in ways that are not only immediately noticeable but persist over long periods of time.171 Psychologists who have studied goal-setting theory have established a number of important conclusions that can usefully guide law students in their legal careers First, goals serve an important “directive function; they direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.”172 Second, goals serve to energize people and lead them to greater efforts.173 Third, goals have an influence on persistence and one’s ability to stay with a difficult task.174 Finally, goals help people focus on the specific tasks that need to be performed in order to reach a desired result.175 Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky not only documented the important benefits of 170See Robert A Emmons & Michael E McCullough, Counting Blessings Verses Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life, 84 J PERSONALITY & SOC PSYCHOL 377 (2003) 171See Kennon M Sheldon & Linda Houser-Marko, Self-Concordance, Goal Attainment, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Can There Be an Upward Spiral?, 80 J PERSONALITY & SOC PSYCHOL 152 (2001) 172Edwin A Locke & Gary P Latham, Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey, 57 AM PSYCHOLOGIST 705, 706 (2002) 173Id at 707 174Id 175Id 43 “committed goal pursuit,” but also identified a series of important variables affecting the kinds of goals that are most likely to bring positive lasting benefits to individual happiness 176 Lyubomirsky argues that goals need to be intrinsic, authentic, positive (in the sense of seeking a desirable outcome rather than avoiding an undesirable outcome), harmonious, flexible and appropriate, and focused on activities rather than changed circumstances.177 Full exploration of these principles would enable law students to achieve a happier law school and, ultimately, career experience IV Conclusion The Happy Lawyer is a tremendous boon for law students, and law schools should jump at the chance to use it to introduce law students to the important new psychological research on happiness and how it impacts students’ careers The case for the creation of courses on how to find a satisfying career in the law is too strong to dispute Law schools teach skills that are essential for any lawyer, but leave law students more likely to suffer from stress and depression We need to balance the analytical skills we teach with skills that will help students to find greater happiness in their personal lives and more rewarding careers as lawyers Fortunately, The Happy Lawyer provides an excellent foundation for a course on how to accomplish those goals The authors have done the hard work of scouring the scientific literature on happiness to lay out a solid understanding of what the latest research tells us about what makes individuals thrive in their personal and professional lives They have thoughtfully applied this literature to a wide range of issues faced by law students and lawyers as they struggle to build satisfying careers Every law student would benefit from the research and important insights the book presents, and every law school should see to it that their students learn from it 176LYUBOMIRSKY, supra note 47, at 208-15 177Id 44 and the other positive psychology research Together, the book and the positive psychology research has the potential to make every student’s law school experience and subsequent legal careers much happier and more meaningful 45 ... grades over the rest of law school Finally, even an entire law school career of bad grades does not mean that one cannot become a successful lawyer Law school teaches only a small slice of the. .. Legal Careers As an initial matter, it is important to establish why every law school should have a program that helps law students understand how to have a happy and meaningful career in the law. .. discussed at length in The Happy Lawyer, but which should also be a part of any law school student wellness program I Why Law Schools Have an Obligation to Teach Students How to Have Happy and Meaningful