Introduction to Psychology – Paul Bloom

About the Course

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.

About Professor Paul Bloom

Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. He was born in Montreal, Canada, was an undergraduate at McGill University, and did his doctoral work at MIT. He has published in scientific journals such as Nature and Science , and in popular outlets such as The New York Times and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and the author of two books: How Children Learn the Meanings of Words and Descartes’ Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human. His research explores children’s understanding of art, religion, and morality.

Sessions

Lecture 01 Introduction
Lecture 02 Foundations: This Is Your Brain
Lecture 03 Foundations: Freud
Lecture 04 Foundations: Skinner
Lecture 05 What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought
Lecture 06 How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth and the Hands
Lecture 07 Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language (cont.); Vision and Memory
Lecture 08 Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Vision and Memory (cont.)
Lecture 09 Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by Professor Peter Salovey)
Lecture 10 Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality
Lecture 11 Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I
Lecture 12 Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II
Exam 1 Midterm Exam
Lecture 13 Why Are People Different?: Differences
Lecture 14 What Motivates Us: Sex
Lecture 15 A Person in the World of People: Morality
Lecture 16 A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I
Lecture 17 A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II; Some Mysteries: Sleep, Dreams, and Laughter
Lecture 18 What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I (Guest Lecture by Professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema)
Lecture 19 What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II
Lecture 20 The Good Life: Happiness
Exam 2 Final Exam