Introduction to Psychology Course Outline

Psychology, pseudoscience and popular opinion; thinking critically and creatively about psychology; from the armchair to the lab; behavior, body, mind and culture; what psychologists do.

What makes psychological research scientific; establishing the facts; correlational studies: looking for relationships; hunting for causes; evaluating the findings; keeping the enterprise ethical.

Unlocking the secrets of genes; the genetics of similarity; language; courtship and mating; the genetics of difference; the case of intelligence; beyond nature versus nurture.

The nervous system; communication in the nervous system; mapping the brain; a tour through the brain;the two hemispheres of the brain; issues in brain research.

The tides of experience; the rhythms of sleep; exploring the dream world; the riddle of hypnosis; consciousness-altering drugs.

Our sensational senses; vision; hearing; other senses; perceptual powers: origin and influences.

Classical conditioning; operant conditioning; operant and classical conditioning in real life; learning and the mind.

Roles and rules; social influences on beliefs; individuals in groups; us versus them: group identity; group conflict and prejudice; the question of human nature.

Thought: using what we know; reasoning rationally; barriers to reasoning rationally; psychometry; dissecting intelligence; animal minds.

Reconstructing the past; memory and the powr of suggestion; pursuit of memory; the three-box model of memory; the biology of memory; how we remember; why we forget; autobiographical memories.

Elements of emotion: body, mind and culture; putting the elements together: emotion and gender; the dilemma of anger: let it out or bottle it up?

Motives to eat; motives to love; motives for sex; motives to achieve; motives, values and wellbeing.

Psychodynamic theories of personality; the modern study of personality; genetic influences, environmental influences and cultural influences on personality; the inner experience.

From conception through the first year; cognitive development; learning to be good; gender development; adolescence; adulthood; the wellsprings of resilience.

The stress-illness mystery; the psychology of stress; the physiology of stress; coping with stress; how much control do we have over our health?

Defining and diagnosing disorder; anxiety disorders; mood disorders; personality disorders; drug abuse and addiction; dissociative identity disorder; schizophrenia; mental disorder and personal responsibility.

Biological treatments for mental disorders; kinds of psychotherapy; evaluating psychotherapy; the value and values of psychotherapy; how to evaluate self-help groups and books.