Great Ideas of Psychology

by Daniel N. Robinson

Streaming video, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

150.9

Publication

Great Courses (1997), 24 hours, 48 lectures, 193 pages

Description

Psychology. Nonfiction. HTML: If you've ever wanted to delve more deeply into the mysteries of human emotion, perception, and cognition, and of why we do what we do, these 48 lectures offer a superb place to start. With them, you'll see the entire history of psychology unfold. In the hands of Professor Robinson, these lectures encompass ideas, speculations, and point-blank moral questions that might just dismantle and rebuild everything you once thought you knew about psychology. In fact, you'll not only learn what psychology is, but even if it is, as Professor Robinson discusses the constantly shifting debate over the nature of psychology itself. Lecture by lecture, Professor Robinson navigates from one subject to the next, and you'll follow along as he recreates a Platonic dialogue; explains brain physiology; or explores the intricacies of middle ear construction, the psychological underpinnings of the Salem witch trials, and the history of the insanity defense. Among other things, you'll learn: How a brilliant young scientist's temporary blindness led to pioneering research in sensory psychology How the once-prestigious, now-derided, "sciences" of phrenology and mesmerism contributed to psychological knowledge What happened when a Stanford psychologist and his students decided to study "being sane in insane places" by getting themselves committed to a mental institution How the brain is able to "rewire" itself to compensate for particular traumas at an early age If high heritability determines how much the environment influences the value of a trait, and more. .… (more)

Subjects

Psychology History

Language

English

Original language

English

Local notes

[01] Defining the Subject [02] Ancient Foundations-Greek Philosophers and Physicians [03] Minds Possessed-Witchery and the Search for Explanations [04] The Emergence of Modern Science-Locke's "Newtonian" Theory of Mind [05] Three Enduring "Isms"-Empiricism, Rationalism, Materialism [06] Sensation and Perception [07] The Visual Process [08] Hearing [09] Signal-Detection Theory [10] Perceptual Constancies and Illusions [11] Learning and Memory: Associationism-Aristotle to Ebbinghaus [12] Pavlov and the Conditioned Reflex [13] Watson and American Behaviorism [14] B.F. Skinner and Modern Behaviorism [15] B.F. Skinner and the Engineering of Society [16] Language [17] The Integration of Experience [18] Perception and Attention [19] Cognitive "Maps," "Insight," and Animal Minds [20] Memory Revisited-Mnemonics and Context [21] Piaget's Stage Theory of Cognitive Development [22] The Development of Moral Reasoning [23] Knowledge, Thinking, and Understanding [24] Comprehanding the World of Experience-Cognition Summarized [25] Psychobiology-Nineteenth-Century Foundations [26] Language and the Brain [27] Rationality, Problem-Solving, and Brain Function [28] The "Emotional" Brain-The Limbic System [29] Violence and the Brain [30] Psychopathology-The Medical Model [31] Artificial Intelligence and the Neurocognitive Revolution [32] Is Artificial Intelligence "Intelligent"? [33] What Makes an Event "Social"? [34] Socialization-Darwin and the "Natural History" Method [35] Freud's Debt to Darwin [36] Freud, Breuer, and the Theory of Repression [37] Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development [38] Critiques of Freudian Theory [39] What Is "Personality"? [40] Obedience and Conformity [41] Altruism [42] Prejudice and Self-Deception [43] On Being Sane in Insane Places [44] Intelligence [45] Personality Traits and the Problem of Assessment [46] Genetic Psychology and "The Bell Curve" [47] Psychological and Biological Determinism [48] Civic Development-Psychology, the Person, and the Polis