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Harvard Medical School Psychologist to Speak at Lebanon Valley College March 20 at 5 p.m.

ANNVILLE, PA (02/27/2013)(readMedia)-- Harvard Medical School psychologist Nancy Etcoff will speak at Lebanon Valley College Wednesday, March 20 at 5 p.m. in Zimmerman Recital Hall of Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery. Her presentation, titled "Maxims or Myths: Six Ideas about How to Increase Happiness in Daily Life," is sponsored by the HAPPINESS Colloquium Series and is free and open to the public.

During her presentation, Etcoff will consider a half dozen common ideas and discuss whether evidence from positive psychology and other sciences confirms or denies their importance to happiness and well-being. She will focus on college-related topics.

Etcoff is the director of the Program in Aesthetics and Well Being at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. She has conducted extensive research on the perception of beauty, emotion, and the brain for over 15 years. Etcoff's book, "Survival of the Prettiest," refutes social origins of beauty in favor of more evolutionary explanations.

"We are thrilled to present Dr. Etcoff because of her psychology background and national reputation as an author and researcher," Dr. Robert Valgenti, LVC associate professor of philosophy, said. "Her record is impressive; she is a really dynamic speaker."

HAPPINESS is a year-long integrated series of guest speakers, roundtable discussions, films and courses that will consider the meaning and importance of happiness as a psychological, physiological, social and cultural phenomenon. It involves presentations by speakers from a number of disciplines who approach the theme from the standpoints of the arts, the wellness of body and mind, the demands of a consumer economy, the expectations and duties of political life, and the broad philosophical questions of human flourishing. For more information visit www.lvc.edu/live-calendar.