Spring 2027

Consuming Happiness

Consuming Happiness explores how consumption, money, and the experience economy intersect with the pursuit of a fulfilling life, covering positive psychology and prosocial spending.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Christine Whelan

Readings felt endless, and students were required to buy the instructor's book, though they only really needed it for papers. Attendance was required for discussion and lecture.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Differentiate between hedonic and eudaimonic happiness, prosocial spending and pure materialism and the pros and cons of the intersection of faith and happiness

  • Theorize via thought-provoking discussions about the quest to “buy happiness” in modern America

  • Contrast advice literature with positive and social psychology research

  • Evaluate through the research whether one can ‘get happier’ through consumer culture

  • Critique diverse materials including popular and academic readings

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
CNSRSCI/RELIGST 173

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CHRISTINE WHELAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAYANA KUPISK is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 500
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 500
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 500
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Christine Whelan

Students found the course interesting and relevant, with engaging lectures that made the material enjoyable to attend.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.67 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=117 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.70 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=116 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.74 GPA, 85.3% A/AB (n=109 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Christine Whelan

Readings felt endless, and students were required to buy the instructor's book, though they only really needed it for papers. Attendance was required for discussion and lecture.

Past student reviews · Christine Whelan

Weekly quizzes on readings affected grades, but tests were easy. One student noted that skipping lectures and readings led to a lower grade.

Topics

  • Happiness, well-being, consumption, money, and the experience economy
  • Positive psychology, prosocial spending, and psychology of persuasion
  • Intersection of faith and happiness

Skills

  • Differentiate between types of happiness and spending behaviors
  • Contrast popular advice literature with academic research
  • Evaluate the relationship between consumer culture and well-being
  • Critique diverse academic and popular source materials

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 3 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

6 earlier forecasts · 0.11 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2024 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1238 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
CNSRSCI/RELIGST 173 · Spring 2027

Consuming Happiness

Recorded 2026-10-14
CNSRSCI/RELIGST 173 · Spring 2027

Consuming Happiness

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:271:024354",
    "course_id": "CNSRSCI/RELIGST 173",
    "course_uid": "course_7ac2bbf13aba874e1522decf",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024354",
    "source_subject_id": "271",
    "title": "Consuming Happiness",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:856:024354",
    "course_id": "CNSRSCI/RELIGST 173",
    "course_uid": "course_7ac2bbf13aba874e1522decf",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024354",
    "source_subject_id": "856",
    "title": "Consuming Happiness",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "84c57e02da34c476c14fa63a426db934b2c2239519a76120e12cff4e1d69fdd3",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}