Self-paced, Online, Lessons
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
Approximate Hours of Course Media
Knowing basic psychology can help you in all areas of your live, both personally and professionally. The ability to understand how and why others think, behave, and even feel is clearly useful, but the the ability to understand ourselves is even more useful. Although the human mind does not come with a manual, this course may be the next best thing!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Psychology!
This course comprises the topics found to be most important based on a survey of 761 introductory psychology teachers at 490 schools (Miller & Gentile, 1998). These topics include introduction/methods, neuroscience, sensation/perception, learning, memory, thinking/intelligence, developmental psychology, personality, social psychology, and abnormal psychology. In addition, I have worked in sections on cognitive biases, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, along with the debunking of popular psychology myths that just don't seem to die.
By the end of this course, you should have a strong understanding of psychology and be able to put this knowledge to work in your life.
In this lesson, we will go over an introduction to the course. I will give an introduction to psychology, and a summary of the content. There are two textbooks for this course, both are optional:
Griggs, R. (2014). Psychology: A Concise Introduction (Fourth Edition). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Get on Amazon for $30-$40 (ebook or paperback is fine): http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Introduction-Richard-A-Griggs/dp/1429298901
Lilienfeld, S. (2009). 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior (1st edition). Chichester, West Sussex : Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
{i}Get on Amazon for $18-$20 (ebook or paperback is fine):{/i} http://www.amazon.com/Great-Myths-Popular-Psychology-Misconceptions/dp/140513111X
As for discussion questions, answer as many or as few (none or all) as you like!
TEDxYouth@Manchester is proud to present its 6th TEDxYouth conference on Wednesday 5th November 2014. Our event is presented to 450 post 16 students from The Fallibroome Academy in Macclesfield, UK and to over 150 invited students from local schools. We live stream our conference around the world and our theme is ‘Reset’ and the exciting programme includes brilliant speakers, and stunning student performances.
Ben Ambridge is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Liverpool, where he researches children’s language development. He is the author of Psy-Q, which introduces readers to some of the major findings in Psychology via interactive puzzles, games, quizzes and tests.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Rather than focusing on what we traditionally think of as psychology, therapy, this text seeks to highlight psychology as a science and begins by exploring the four major research perspectives: biological and cognitive, which focus on internal factors, and behavioral and sociocultural, which focus on external factors. We then move onto descriptive, correlational, and experimental research methods, all used by psychologists to study human behavior and mental processing. Finally we look at how to understand the results of this research.
The word "placebo," Latin for "I shall please," is generally understood in modern terminology as an inert (inactive) substance or procedure that affects the outcome of a treatment. The placebo effect (or placebo effects) is generally understood as the improvement in a person's condition due to the presence of the placebo. However, this concept is far more complex than most people realize, but it is within this complexity we find understanding. There has been an enormous amount of research over the past 50 years on placebos, and while the exact mechanisms are not fully understood, we do know enough to separate the facts from myths and the science from the "woo."
In this chapter we look at just how the brain and nervous system are able to control nearly everything we do by starting with the smallest piece, a nerve cell or neuron, and then looking at the structure of the entire nervous system and its subsystems, the central and peripheral nervous systems. Along with the nervous system we will consider the endocrine glandular system, the body’s other major communication system. We will also look in-depth at the brain and its major parts, focusing especially on the cerebral cortex, and then considering consciousness and brain activity during sleep.
What do we know about the inner workings of the human mind?
Surely everything that humans do from designing skyscrapers to composing symphonies... is not the product of simple cellular interactions.
People perceive articles with images of brains that summarizing cognitive neuroscience research more scientifically credible than articles with no images or images other than brains.
The Curious Case of Phineas Gage. A railway worker in the 1800s, a iron rod passed through his head, and he recovered almost fully in a matter of months. I just wanted to tell you the story, no analysis or anything...it's just amazing, take what you want from it.
Split-brain patient 'Joe' being tested by Michael Gazzaniga who worked with Roger Sperry.
To understand and live in the world around us we must first gather (sense) and then interpret (perceive) the information presented to us. We begin our study of sensation and perception by looking at the three psychophysical questions: the questions of detection, difference, and the scaling. Then we look at just how our sense organs, especially the eyes and ears, do their work. Lastly, we look at how we process visual information by detailing how the brain organizes incoming visual stimuli.
A brief introduction.
Have you ever come home after a long day, realized your house smells bad, but it goes away after a few minutes? Why can’t we smell our own home? Tara is here to explain a phenomenon known as “sensory adaptation.”
A brief introduction.
A brief introduction.
A brief introduction.
A brief introduction.
In this section we look at how psychologists have studied learning and what we know about how humans learn looking at how both biological and cognitive psychologists have studied learning. We look in detail at classical conditioning, in which we learn that one stimulus signals the arrival of another connecting events in our environment, and at operant conditioning, which focuses on connections between our behaviors and their consequences. The chapter also focuses on both the biological and cognitive aspects of learning, looking at biological predispositions and then latent and observational learning.
Video on Classical Conditioning
The history of psychology is rife with frightening tales of unethical experiments. The 1919 case of Little Albert is particularly disturbing. Josh fills you in on the dark origins of one of the major breakthroughs in behavioral psychology.
A look at the the social learning theory of aggression with original footage the the 'bobo' doll experiment.
Memory is essential for life as we currently experience it, allowing us to use what we know to interpret the world. This study of memory will help you to understand how your own memory works, beginning with a discussion of the three-stage model of memory, which involves sensory, short term (or working), and long-term memory. The focus then moves to encoding, or the process by which information is transferred into memory. In the last section we look at retrieval or bringing information from long-term back into short-term memory, discussing not only how retrieval works, but also failure of retrieval, or forgetting. This chapter also discusses how and why our memories are not always perfect reconstructions of the events we experience.
This is an edited version of the BBC documentary 'Man without a memory' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNDRDJy-vo). It shows the essence of Clive's disability (and it's pretty sad to watch too!).
Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories. More precisely, she studies false memories, when people either remember things that didn't happen or remember them differently from the way they really were. It's more common than you might think, and Loftus shares some startling stories and statistics, and raises some important ethical questions we should all remember to consider.
As critical thinkers, it's important to understand how we OUGHT to reason. This is what we learn when we study logic, argumentation and other normative theories of reasoning. But it's equally important to understand how we IN FACT reason, how our minds ACTUALLY work.
I argue that, once we understand how cognitive biases lead us into error, and how scientific methods are designed precisely to neutralize these errors, then we have a compelling argument for accepting the authority of science (especially on matters where there's a consensus among the relevant experts in the scientific community).
Building on sensation and perception, learning, and memory, this chapter discusses how we think, that is how we process information to solve problems and make judgments and decisions. In this chapter we discuss how our brains work through problems, use probability, and test hypotheses, all important aspects of intelligent thinking. There is also discussion of intelligence testing and how these tests are conducted and used. There are many theories on human intelligence and this chapter looks at the similarities and differences in these, from Spearman’s general intelligence (the g factor) to Gardner and Sternberg’s different theories of multiple intelligences.
So, how many different kinds of intelligence are there? And what is the G-Factor? Eugenics? Have you ever taken an IQ Test? All of these things play into the fascinating and sometimes icky history of Intelligence Testing. In this episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank talks us through some of the important aspects of that history... as well as Nazis. Hey, I said some of it was icky.
If you want a suggestion for the free audiobook or for reading a book, here's FightMediocrity beginner's reading list: http://fmediocrity.com/reading-list/
The scientific study of biological, cognitive, social, and personality development throughout the life span is known as developmental psychology. Developmental psychologists usually divide the life span into different stages, beginning with the prenatal stage and ending with late adulthood. This chapter looks at different types of development through these life stages by discussing major theorists’ views such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, and Erikson, and touching on the main developmental theories.
This video, created by Nucleus Medical Media, shows human fertilization, also known as conception. Shown at a cellular level magnification, sperm struggle through many obstacles in the female reproductive tract to reach the egg. Then genetic material from the egg and a single sperm combines to form a new human being.
This is a collection of clips demonstrating Piaget's Stages of development. For Health and Social Care and Psychology.
The work of Lev Vygotsky is increasingly cited as we reconsider the theory and practice of constructivist education. This program introduces the life, vocabulary and concepts of Lev Vygotsky. The video illustrates four basic concepts integral to his work: Children construct knowledge, learning can lead development, development cannot be separated from its social context, and language plays a central role in cognitive development. Elena Bodrova brings an easy familiarity to these concepts. Deborah Leong's commentary and the lively classroom examples enable students, teachers in training, and classroom teachers to incorporate these concepts into their understanding of child development.
Comparing these two research methods within developmental psychology.
Examples of the stages in his theory. Comments are now moderated so pointless mean comments will be completely ignored. If you have meaningful criticism for the sake of all of us please post. Have a good day.
In 1958, psychologist John Bowlby pioneered "attachment theory," the idea that the early bond between parent and child is critical to a child's emotional development. Since then, scientists have discovered that insecure attachment during formative years can significantly stress both the developing brain and body, resulting in long-term psychological and physical ailments. For example, low levels of attachment security have been linked to diminished levels of cortisol, a steroidal hormone released in response to stress that is critical in reducing inflammation in the body. Watch the latest Human Feature from the Museum's Science Bulletins program to see how recent studies are using cortisol levels as a marker to determine the success of early intervention in building stronger attachments between struggling parents and children. Visitors to AMNH may view the video in the Hall of Human Origins until January 2, 2012.
While psychologists cannot entirely agree on one definition of personality, this text uses the definition most people think of when the word personality is used – a person’s internally based, characteristic ways of acting and thinking. In addition to the definition there has been much speculation about and study of personality throughout history, leading to divergent ideas on the subject within psychological science. In this chapter we explore the major theoretical approaches to the study of personality: the psychoanalytic approach originated by Freud, the humanistic approach focusing on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Rogers’ self theory and the social-cognitive approach.
Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, appreciated the many ways in which our minds are troubled and anxious. It isn't us in particular: it's the human condition. Find out more by reading our book ‘Life lessons from Sigmund Freud’ (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/YLdSjU
Laci Green looks at Costa & McCrae's Big 5 Personality Test, exploring how society may affect the expression of personality traits.
Social psychology is the study of humans as social animals, that is the way that we influence one anothers’ behavior and thinking. We begin our discussion of this subject by looking at how others’ influence our behavior by examining three types of social influence: conformity, compliance, and obedience. We then look at how we think about behavior, both our own and that of others. All of this is put into a real life context by looking at two historical events, the murder of Kitty Genovese and the Jonestown massacre.
Ken shares the implications of 'the bystander effect' for communities and individuals, including how to get help if you need it, but also how major movements begin and create change.
Dr. Philip Zimbardo walks us though a lesson in Cognitive Dissonance. Dr. Leon Festinger's theory shows us the precursor to Justification of Effort.
In the 1970's there was a test done where the people were told they were either prison guards or prisoners.
This is that story and how it came to be.
A study in Psychosis.
How do psychologists classify thinking and behavior as “abnormal”? In this chapter we discuss just that by looking at the criteria used by psychologists to determine whether or not a person may have a mental disorder. We examine the three major categories of mental illness: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenic disorders. There is also discussion of the various treatments used for these disorders, both biomedical therapies, including drug therapies, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery, as well as the major types of psychotherapy.
Every day is a struggle, but I come out on top.
Some schizophrenia symptoms, diagnostic criteria, etc
Bo Bennett's personal motto is "Expose an irrational belief, keep a person rational for a day. Expose irrational thinking, keep a person rational for a lifetime." Much of his work is in the area of education—not teaching people what to think, but how to think. His projects include his books, The Concept: A Critical and Honest Look at God and Religion, Logically Fallacious, the most comprehensive collection of logical fallacies, and Year To Success, a full year course in success. Bo has a podcast/blog called "The Dr. Bo Show" at http://www.TheDrBoShow.com where he takes a critical thinking-, reason-, and science-based approach to issues that matter with the goal of educating and entertaining.
Bo holds a PhD in social psychology, with a master's degree in general psychology and bachelor's degree in marketing. His complete bio along with current projects can be found at BoBennett.com.
