Introduction to Psychology: A Free Course from Yale University

Taught by Yale pro­fes­sor Paul Bloom, this course presents an Intro­duc­tion to Psy­chol­o­gy and tries to explain what makes us tick:

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.

You can watch the 20 lec­tures from the course above, or find them on YouTube and iTunes. To get more infor­ma­tion on the course, includ­ing the syl­labus, vis­it this Yale web­site.

The main texts used in this course include:

• Gray, Peter. Psy­chol­o­gy. New York: Worth Pub­lish­ers, 2007.
• Mar­cus, Gary, ed. The Nor­ton Psy­chol­o­gy Read­er. New York: W. W. Nor­ton & Com­pa­ny, 2006.

Intro­duc­tion to Psy­chol­o­gy will be added to our col­lec­tion, 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties. There you can find a spe­cial­ized list of Free Online Psy­chol­o­gy and Neu­ro­science Cours­es.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

A Crash Course on Psy­chol­o­gy: A 30-Part Video Series from Hank Green

The Neu­ro­science & Psy­chol­o­gy of Pro­cras­ti­na­tion, and How to Over­come It

How To Think Like a Psy­chol­o­gist: A Free Online Course from Stan­ford