Overview

Course No. 10060

From Freud to fMRIs, explore the fascinating world of psychology and its complex history—and gain a few tips to improve your mindset and optimize your life. Psychology in the 21st century is not the seemingly static clinical field that you may have learned about in high school. Now there’s a substantial focus on “mindset” and the malleable nature of our experiences. When we understand how our mindset works, we can influence our behavior. There is also a greater emphasis on how the principles of psychology can help you to improve your everyday life, including how understanding your perceptions can help you to better understand the world.

Human beings are endlessly fascinating. Our social organization, our perceptions of the world, our emotional range, and our inner thoughts all define what it means to be human. The field of psychology has always been the scientific study of mental processes and behavior, helping us to understand ourselves and the world around us. How do we think, feel, and remember? Why do we act the way we do? And, most important, is there any way we can train our minds to improve our lives?

What’s new in the field of psychology is that many answers to these questions are beginning to be well understood. From the days of Freud and Skinner to the modern science of fMRIs and genetics, Introduction to Psychology is a grand introduction to one of the most captivating fields of inquiry—where the subject is you, and everyone around you. Taught by Professor Catherine A. Sanderson of Amherst College, these 36 insightful lessons not only give you a panoramic grounding in the history, methods, and fundamental findings of psychology, but they also introduce you to the most up-to-date 21st-century research and discoveries—including strategies to increase your happiness and to improve how to live your life.

When you complete Introduction to Psychology, you will come away with a new way of looking at the human experience. You will have gained insights to help you better understand yourself. And your new wealth of strategies will help you to think more clearly, be more courageous, strengthen relationships, and generally experience greater psychological and physical well-being.

Course Structure

1. Psychology, You, and Your World

Your survey begins with an introduction to the field of psychology and an overview of the major ideas of the field, examining how modern psychology is practiced now versus in the past, and why it is so fascinating. Find out what psychology is—and is not—and get a sense for how findings from psychology can influence how we think about ourselves and the world around us.

Duration: 29 min

2. How and Why Psychology Matters

Psychology has the power to provide answers to important questions about human nature. Investigate the real-world impact of psychology and the methods psychologists employ to understand the world. You’ll look at the role of observation, as well as challenges of bias in psychological experiments. Then get a taste for how nature and nurture affect our behaviors.

Duration: 30 min

3. Positive Psychology: A Science of Happiness

“Positive psychology” is a relatively new field that emphasizes the value of positive emotions such as joy, satisfaction, and happiness—in other words, mental wellness. Uncover the elements of positive psychology and how 21st-century psychology offers strategies for increasing your well-being.

Duration: 29 min

4. Your Brain: A User’s Guide

Thanks to modern genetics research and imaging techniques, our understanding of the brain is more powerful than ever. Delve into the secrets of this mysterious organ with an insightful tour based on the field of neuroscience that helps us understand not only the functions of the brain, but also learning, behavior, and development.

Duration: 31 min

5. Your Nervous System, Hormones, and Behavior

Continue your study of the human hardware with a survey of the nervous system. Zoom in on neurons and explore the ways neurotransmitters connect your mind to your body. Then review a variety of neurochemicals and hormones that are responsible for everything from our mood to our body’s growth and decline. Close with a study of stem cells.

Duration: 32 min

6. Understanding and Managing Stress

One fundamental aspect of stress is that different people respond to similar events in different ways. To understand why, Professor Sanderson examines the nature of stress—in relationships, in work, and in the environment—and shows how stress can be helpful (e.g., fight or flight) or harmful (e.g., PTSD). See how to better manage your stress.

Duration: 31 min

7. Sensation: How You Gather Information

“Sensation” refers to the physical input we receive from the environment; “perception” is the process by which we make sense of this input—how the brain organizes and interprets these inputs. Delve into the field of “psychophysics” to examine the link between physical stimuli and psychological experience.

Duration: 31 min

8. Perception: Illusions and Interpretations

How we perceive the world is often driven less by our objective reality than by psychological factors that influence our interpretation of the world. Understanding this key idea—that we interpret the world—is the subject of this lesson. Professor Sanderson takes you through an eye-opening world of illusions, gestalts, and subliminal messaging.

Duration: 31 min

9. Pain and Placebos

Our experience of pain is heavily influenced by psychology; so this lesson examines how we perceive pain—and what we can do about it. Learn about the peak-end theory of experience, as well as techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation and biofeedback to treat pain. You’ll also reflect on the effect of placebos.

Duration: 32 min

10. Attention, Sleep, and Dreaming

Humans experience numerous states of consciousness, from focused attention to autopilot to dreaming. Sleep, in particular, offers intriguing insights into the relationship between our brains and consciousness. Here, you will analyze our mental processes during sleep and some of the theories to explain what’s going on when we dream.

Duration: 30 min

11. Consciousness Modified: Drugs to Mindfulness

There are extreme ways to alter consciousness, but as you will find out in this lesson, there are plenty of ordinary ways to change how you think and increase mindfulness. Delve into the human mind as modified by stimulants, depressants, hypnosis, meditation, and more.

Duration: 32 min

12. Performance Psychology in Sport and Life

One recurring theme of this course is how psychology can help you improve your life, and this is arguably no more apparent than in the world of sports. How do athletes get into the flow? How can you optimize your performance? Studying “drive theory” can help you on the field, in the office, and everywhere else, as well.

Duration: 31 min

13. Cognitive Development across the Lifespan

We are all familiar with the way learning grows exponentially in childhood and then slows as our brains become more fixed in adulthood. But of course, learning and mental growth can continue across your lifetime. Here, investigate the states of cognitive growth in children, and then turn to strategies to change your perspective on aging.

Duration: 28 min

14. How Language Develops and Why It Matters

One important component of mental development is our acquisition of language, both verbal and written. Walk through the building blocks of learning a language, from phonemes and morphemes to grammar and semantics. Then consider what it takes to be bilingual and what people who speak multiple languages can tell us about the human mind.

Duration: 29 min

15. Attachment Bonds from Infancy to Adulthood

Continue your study of human development, beginning with the way infants form attachments in the first few weeks of life. Explore the relationship between children and their parents, and the role of the environment on development in childhood and adolescence.

Duration: 29 min

16. Moral Development and Situational Ethics

What do you do when you witness bad behavior? Do you stand up to say something, or do you remain silent? This lesson examines what researchers in psychology say about how people approach moral decisions—and why they choose to act. Survey models and theories of moral development.

Duration: 28 min

17. Learning: Conditioned, Reinforced, Observed

“Learning” refers to a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience, and psychologists have three distinct theories to explain how humans learn: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning and modeling. Unpack these theories and see them in action.

Duration: 28 min

18. Memory and Forgetting

We may think of memory as a video of things we have experienced, but in reality, memory is a constructive process, meaning that we organize, shape, and even change information as we store it. In this lesson, Professor Sanderson delves into the types of information processing in our brains and the way memories are constructed.

Duration: 29 min

19. Problem-Solving and Errors of Thinking

Psychologists describe thinking as forming concepts to organize our world, solve problems, and make judgments and decisions. In some cases, our thinking strategies can pay off, but errors in thinking can lead us astray. Discover some new ways of approaching problems to help you think more clearly and make better decisions.

Duration: 29 min

20. Psychology of Eyewitnesses and Confessions

The implications of psychology—our faulty perceptions, slippery memories, and more—can have serious repercussions for ourselves and the world at large. Consider what happens if an eyewitness to a crime identifies the wrong person? How easy is that to do, and how can law enforcement guard against it? Take a look at the legal implications of psychology.

Duration: 29 min

21. Intelligence and Creativity

How do you define intelligence and creativity? And how can they help us manage our environment and achieve greater success? Here, Professor Sanderson explores the multifaceted dimensions of intelligence and shows you techniques to help you improve your natural creativity.

Duration: 31 min

22. Emotional Intelligence and Success

One dimension of intelligence is your emotional intelligence—your awareness that emotions can drive behavior, coupled with an ability to manage emotions. Find out how you can increase your emotional intelligence, improve your relationships and social skills, and work more effectively under pressure.

Duration: 29 min

23. Adversity and Resilience

Life inevitably comes with challenges, and some can be quite extreme—job losses, serious injuries, the loss of a loved one. But people have the remarkable ability to adapt to adversity and even to potentially find something positive developing from even the most dire life events. This lesson reflects on “resilience” and how we can cultivate our inner strength.

Duration: 28 min

24. Motivation: Eating, Sex, and Achievement

Motivation refers to the set of factors that activate and direct our behavior, usually toward a goal. Here, you will survey a range of theories for what motivates us, and how understanding motivation can help in all sorts of ways. Reflect on diets, dating, and “lighting a fire in your belly” to achieve more in life.

Duration: 29 min