Freud in One Yale Hour

≡ Category: Psychology, Yale |Comments

Freudianism may no longer be in vogue. But, even so, Sigmund Freud remains one of the most envelope-pushing thinkers of the past century, someone still worth getting to know. In this lecture, Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom offers a primer on Freud and Freudian thought. The lecture is part of a larger free course (20 [...]

Pico Iyer on “The Joy of Less”

≡ Category: Life, Psychology |Comments

Pico Iyer, the British-born essayist, has a nice reality check in today’s New York Times, and it’s now the most emailed article of the day. Here are a few key passages:
“I’m not sure how much outward details or accomplishments ever really make us happy deep down. The millionaires I know seem desperate to become multimillionaires, and [...]

Malcolm Gladwell: What We Can Learn from Spaghetti Sauce

≡ Category: Psychology |Comments

Speaking at the TED conference in 2007, Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers: The Story of Success) introduces you to the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce, which ultimately tells you something essential about human choice and happiness.

The Science of Happiness

≡ Category: Psychology |Comments

As we’re all wishing one another a “Happy New Year,” it seems like a good time to dwell on the whole concept of happiness. Is happiness hardwired? Does it depend on circumstance? Or on us? Can we will ourselves to happiness? And just what is happiness? Aired right after Christmas, this interview features Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [...]

The New Psychology of Time

≡ Category: Psychology |Comments

The Time Paradox, a new book by Philip Zimbardo & John Boyd, puts forth an intriguing argument — our attitudes toward time, often unconscious ones, can strongly shape our personalities and the kind of lives we lead. They can contribute to our happiness and success, or our unhappiness and depression.
The argument goes something like this: Not [...]

Creativity, Flow and the Source of Happiness

≡ Category: Psychology |Comments

Speaking at the TED Conference, famed psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks what’s the source of happiness? And his answer comes down to this: Beyond a certain point (and it’s not very far), money doesn’t affect happiness too much. Rather, as his research shows, we tend to be most happy when we get immersed, almost lost in, being creative [...]

Top Ten Psychology Videos

≡ Category: Psychology, Science, Video - Science |Comments

PsychCentral has posted its list of the ten best psychology videos available on the web. Below, we have posted links to the videos themselves. But if you want a quick description of each clip, then definitely read through the original post. Thanks to Kottke.org for bringing this to light.
1. An Unquiet Mind: Personal Reflections on [...]

The Psychology of Evil: The Stanford Prison Experiment to Abu Ghraib

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Psychology, Video - Politics/Society |Comments

Back in 1971, Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychology professor, set up an experiment that quickly and now famously went awry. Here, Zimbardo had undergraduates play the role of prisoners and prison guards in a mock prison environment. Meant to last two weeks, the experiment was cut short after only six days when, as The Stanford [...]

Our Ancestral Mind in the Modern World: An Interview with Satoshi Kanazawa

≡ Category: Books, Most Popular, Psychology, Science |Comments

Human behavior is notoriously complex, and there’s been no shortage of psychologists and psychological theories venturing to explain what makes us tick. Why do we get irrationally jealous? Or have midlife crises? Why do we overeat to our own detriment? Why do we find ourselves often strongly attracted to certain physical traits? Numerous theories abound, [...]

Climate Crisis, the Happiness Conundrum & the Evolution of Religions: TED Talks on YouTube

≡ Category: Psychology, Video - Arts & Culture |Comments

 
 

Once upon a time we told you about TED Talks, the annual conference that brings together the world’s “thought-leaders, movers and shakers.” These talks have been available on iTunes in both audio (iTunes – Feed) and video (iTunes – Feed). And now you can apparently find some on YouTube. Below we highlight a few.
First up, [...]

The New Psychology of Success

≡ Category: Psychology, Science |Comments

The latest issue of Stanford Magazine features an intriguing article worth a little bit of your time. Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford, has spent much of her career looking at the psychological underpinnings of success, and her research has pointed to one broad conclusion: Those who believe their intelligence is fixed — who [...]




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    Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best cultural and educational media. He finds the books you want, the classes you need, and plenty of enlightenment in between.