Course on Stress, Health, & Resilience

This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provides an evidence-based, introductory overview to the topics of life stress, health, and resilience for students, professionals, and the public. Stress is a common experience that can greatly impact your life trajectory, mental, and physical health. In this MOOC, you can expect to learn what stress is, how it is differentially experienced by different individuals and communities, how it affects the human brain and body, and how individuals and communities can bolster their resilience to stress using different types of interventions and health practices. The course takes a life course perspective, meaning that we will evaluate these topics across the entire lifespan—from in utero through older adulthood—and it is also integrative, meaning that we will draw links between different levels of analysis (e.g., social behavior, physiology, cells, molecules, genes) and also different perspectives on stress (e.g., psychological, sociological, biological).

The learning objectives of the course are 1). Understand how stress and resilience are conceptualized and assessed, and how these conceptualizations have changed over time. 2). Understand how stress “gets under the skin” to affect human health, well-being, and behavior across the lifespan. 3). Understand how various interventions and resilience processes can mitigate the negative effects of stress and enhance well-being.

Our course is currently in development and is set to launch in early 2024. Sign-up for our newsletter to receive the latest updates!