Course description:

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.

Course topics:

Introduction. Foundations: This Is Your Brain. Foundations: Freud. Foundations: Skinner. What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought. How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth and the Hands. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language (cont.); Vision and Memory. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Vision and Memory (cont.). Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by Professor Peter Salovey). Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality.. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions. Midterm Exam. Guest Lecture: Brain and Perception (Guest Lecture by Professor Marvin Chun). Why Are People Different?: Differences. What Motivates Us: Sex.Guest Lecture: The Psychology, Biology, and Politics of Food (Guest Lecture by Professor Kelly Brownell). A Person in the World of People: Morality. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II; Some Mysteries: Sleep, Dreams, and Laughter. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I (Guest Lecture by Professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema). What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II. The Good Life: Happiness. Final Exam.

Course description:

This course encompasses the study of eating as it affects the health and well-being of every human. Topics include taste preferences, food aversions, the regulation of hunger and satiety, food as comfort and friendship, eating as social ritual, and social norms of blame for food problems. The politics of food discusses issues such as sustainable agriculture, organic farming, genetically modified foods, nutrition policy, and the influence of food and agriculture industries. Also examined are problems such as malnutrition, eating disorders, and the global obesity epidemic; the impact of food advertising aimed at children; poverty and food; and how each individual's eating is affected by the modern environment.

Course topics:

Introduction: What We Eat, Why We Eat and the Key Role of Food in Modern Life. Food Then, Food Now: Modern Food Conditions and Their Mismatch with Evolution. Biology, Nutrition and Health I: What We Eat. Biology, Nutrition and Health II: What Helps Us and Hurts Us. Biology, Nutrition and Health III: The Psychology of Taste and Addiction. Culture and the Remarkable Plasticity of Eating (Presentation by Ashley Gearhardt). Hunger in the World of Plenty. Nutrition Transition and Global Food Issues. From Ancient to Modern Farming: The Green. Revolution and the Prospect of Feeding the World. Sustainability I: The Impact of Modern Agriculture on the Environment and Energy Use. Sustainability II: The Impact of Modern Agriculture on Biodiversity, Genetic Modification and Animal Welfare. Public Health vs. Medical Models in Nutrition Change: Saving Lives One or a Million at a Time. Eating Disorders and Obesity (Guest Lecture by B. Timothy Walsh). Perspectives of the Food Industry (Guest Lecture by Derek Yach). Economics, Nutrition and Health: Subsidies, Food Deserts and More. Everyone but Me: The Pervasive Reach and Powerful Influence of Food Marketing on Food Choices. The Politics of Food I: How Politics Affects National Nutrition Policy (Guest Lecture by Rogan Kersh). The Politics of Food II: The Issues, the Fights and Who Controls the Frame. The Law and Opportunities to Improve Nutrition and Health (Guest Lecture by Stephen Teret). Schools and Nutrition: Where Health and Politics Collide (Guest Lecture by Marlene B. Schwartz). The Morphing of the Modern Diet (Guest Lecture by Brian Wansink). Sustainability and Health Food Access (Guest Lecture by Melina Shannon-DiPietro and Jennifer McTiernan). Success Stories, Innovation and Change from the Grass Roots.

Course description:

This course provides an overview of major works of social thought from the beginning of the modern era through the 1920s. Attention is paid to social and intellectual contexts, conceptual frameworks and methods, and contributions to contemporary social analysis. Writers include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim.

Course topics:

Introduction. Hobbes: Authority, Human Rights and Social Order. Locke: Equality, Freedom, Property and the Right to Dissent. Montesquieu: The Division of Powers. Rousseau: Popular Sovereignty and General Will. Rousseau on State of Nature and Education. Mill: Utilitarianism and Liberty. Smith: The Invisible Hand. Marx's Theory of Alienation. Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism. Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism (cont.). Marx's Theory of History. Marx's Theory of Class and Exploitation. Nietzsche on Power, Knowledge and Morality. Freud on Sexuality and Civilization. Weber on Protestantism and Capitalism. Conceptual Foundations of Weber's Theory of Domination. Weber on Traditional Authority. Weber on Charismatic Authority. Weber on Legal-Rational Authority. Weber's Theory of Class. Durkheim and Types of Social Solidarity. Durkheim's Theory of Anomie Durkheim on Suicide. Durkheim and Social Facts.

Course description:

This course will examine the nature of human consciousness from the interdisciplinary perspective of cognitive science. It will cover topics from the philosophy of mind, cognitive linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and computational models.

Lectures include:

Pay for Performance or Performance for Pay. Education and Equality. Elections and Strategic Voting. State-Shaped Identity and Inequality in India. Secularism and Human Rights: Basic Human Rights in History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology. Relevance of the Classical World to Current Political Phenomena. Historical Studies and Social Science: An Illustrated History. Conspiracy Theories in Medicine. Bethlehem: American Utopia, American Tragedy. Leon Levy Lecture - Mass Higher Education and the Dropout Problem. Critique of Humanitarian Reason. Leon Levy Lecture - Honor and International Violence. Behavior Change as a Psychological Enterprise. Justice, Culture, and Tradition: The Work of Michael Walzer. Mechanism Design. The Lot of the Unemployed. What to Do with Sound-Bites: On Politics and Propaganda in the 21st Century. Terrorism and Just War. Remembering Clifford Geertz. Why Haven't Global Markets Reduced Inequality.

Course description:

Professors Benjamin Karney and Thomas Bradbury lecture on families and couples. This course examines relationships and their connection to individual psychopathology, marital discord, and family disruption.

Course topics:

Families and Couples. Methods of Studying Families and Couples. Theories of Intimate Relationships, Part 1. Theories of Intimate Relationships, Part 2. Sex and Gender Orientation. Attraction. Individuals in Intimate Relationships. Attachment. Marriage.

Documentary description:

Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty. To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud. Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal.

Lecture description:

What if your attitudes toward time could explain why you are chronically late, why you're likely to fight for rainforest preservation, or why you might be predisposed to addictions? Philip Zimbardo, renowned for his notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiments, will discuss how internal time perspectives determine every single one of our thoughts, feelings and actions.





Lecture topics:

Introduction. Time Perspective. Every Day Decisions. Time Orientation and Temptation. Source of Time Biases. Scale of Time Zones. Past Time Orientation. Present Hedonism and Fatalism. Teaching Children to Be Future Oriented. Placing People on a Scale. Positive and Negative Traits of Time Perspectives. Comparison of Future and Present Oriented People. The Time Crunch. Influences on Time Perspective. Modifying Personal Time Perspective. Time Orientation of Presidential Campaign. Inherited or Learned Time Perspective. Distribution of Americans. How Time Perspective Fits into Different Therapies. Time Perspective in Advertising. Chronic Lateness.

Hello everyone! This month I've a bunch of new psychology video lectures. They include: Introduction to psychology, Psychology of food, Modern social theory, Cognitive science, Psychology lectures for Institute of Advanced Study, Psychology of conflicts in couples, Psychology of controlling the masses, and Psychology of time.