20 episodes

(PSYC 110) 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 can’t 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.

This class was recorded in Spring 2007.

Psychology - Video Paul Bloom

    • Science
    • 4.3 • 258 Ratings

(PSYC 110) 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 can’t 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.

This class was recorded in Spring 2007.

    • video
    20 - The Good Life: Happiness

    20 - The Good Life: Happiness

    The last lecture in the course wraps up the discussion of clinical psychology with a discussion of treatment efficacy. Does therapy actually work? Professor Bloom summarizes the different types of influences that clinical interventions might have on people who receive therapy.
    Professor Bloom ends with a review of one of the most interesting research topics in "positive psychology," happiness. What makes us happy? How does happiness vary across person and culture? What is happiness for? Students will hear how the most recent research in psychology attempts to answer these questions and learn how people are surprisingly bad at predicting what will make them happiest.

    • 2 sec
    • video
    19 - What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II

    19 - What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II

    This lecture continues to cover one of the most salient areas within the field of psychology known as psychopathology, or clinical psychology. Following a discussion of the different ways of defining mental illness, Professor Bloom reviews several classes of clinical diagnoses including schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, and personality disorders. The lecture concludes with a brief introduction to therapy.

    • 3 sec
    • video
    18 - What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I (Guest Lecture by Professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema)

    18 - What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I (Guest Lecture by Professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema)

    Professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema describes how modern clinical psychology both identifies and treats various mental disorders. Particular focus is placed upon mood disorders such as bipolar disorder and depression, including current diagnostic criteria and current practices for treatment.

    • 3 sec
    • video
    17 - A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II; Some Mysteries: Sleep, Dreams, and Laughter

    17 - A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II; Some Mysteries: Sleep, Dreams, and Laughter

    This lecture begins with the second half of the discussion on social psychology. Students will learn about several important factors influencing how we form impressions of others, including our ability to form rapid impressions about people. This discussion focuses heavily upon stereotypes, including a discussion of their utility, reliability, and the negative effects that even implicit stereotypes can incur.

    The second half of the lecture introduces students to two prominent mysteries in the field of psychology. First, students will learn what is known and unknown about sleep, including why we sleep, the different types of sleep, disorders, and of course, dreams, what they are about and why we have them. Second, this half reviews how laughter remains a mysterious and interesting psychological phenomenon. Students will hear theories that attempt to explain what causes us to laugh and why, with a particular emphasis on current evolutionary theory.

    • 3 sec
    • video
    15 - A Person in the World of People: Morality

    15 - A Person in the World of People: Morality

    Professor Bloom provides an introduction to psychological theories of morality. Students will learn how research in psychology has helped answer some of the most central questions about human morality. For instance, which emotions are "moral" and why did these moral feelings evolve? What factors guide our moral judgments? And what factors predict when good people will do bad things?

    • 3 sec
    • video
    16 - A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I

    16 - A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I

    This is the first of two lectures on social psychology, the study of how we think about ourselves, other people, and social groups. Students will hear about the famous "six degrees of separation" phenomenon and how it illuminates important individual differences in social connectedness. This lecture also reviews a number of important biases that greatly influence how we think of ourselves as well as other people.

    • 3 sec

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5
258 Ratings

258 Ratings

bridgetteeeee ,

Awesome

Started to listen to this on iTunes university and found it on here... a little more convenient on here but they have the assignments and slides on iTunes university sooooo it depends on how much you wanna look into it... started to listen to it bc I was feeding my brain crap with social media during quarantine. I have taken a few psycho courses before and wanted to refresh my mind before starting grad school in the fall. Great professor !!!

ZiggyGoom ,

Great

It’s great to have this available in general. I want to let people know if they have access to itunes U you can get the slides, the mid term and final, the syllabus, a link to one of the books on google, and the answer key there for free. My only complaint would be that there seems to be the same three students who are deathly ill and are constantly coughing through every single lecture incessantly.

Coreydreidy ,

Recommend!

Such a great free course. The lectures are a compelling introduction to Psychology. I’m grateful to Yale for sharing them with the public.

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