Introduction to Psychology

What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why cant we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.

1. Introduction.
2. Foundations: This Is Your Brain.
3. Foundations: Freud.
4. Foundations: Skinner.
5. What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought.
6. How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth.
7. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language.
8. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past:.
9. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by.
10. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality.
11. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I.
12. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II.
13. Why Are People Different?: Differences.
14. What Motivates Us: Sex.
15. A Person in the World of People: Morality.
16. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I.
17. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II;.
18. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I.
19. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II.
20. The Good Life: Happiness.