Psychology for Beginners

Name: Psychology for Beginners
Rating: 4.4 (87 reviews)

The story of psychology

Created byMatt Kyoto

Last updated 7/2023

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

understand the history of psychology
become familair with core ideas in psychology
identify different approaches to psychology
have an overall understanding of psychology

Course content

1 section • 13 lectures • 5h 13m total length

Introduction3:06
Trace the origins of psychology from philosophy and literature, and explore core ideas, consciousness and the unconscious, key figures, and practical approaches like psychotherapy and cognitive therapy.
Why psychology32:49
Trace psychology's birth from philosophy, from ancient Greek thought to Upanishads and Islamic scholars, and its evolution through Darwin, Wundt, Pavlov, and Freud toward cognitive psychology, behaviorism, and psychotherapy.
What's psychology21:15
Discover what psychology studies: the human mind, consciousness, and how brain hardware interfaces with mental software. Trace materialist roots and key branches like behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and cognitive psychology.
What's consciousness28:02
Compare structuralism’s view of consciousness as a built structure with functionalism’s adaptive, stream-like process; examine representation, willing, and feeling, plus memory and emotion shaping awareness.
Behaviorism21:49
Explore behaviorism as the study of learning through the environment, showing Pavlovian conditioning, Thorndike's law of effect, and Skinner's positive reinforcement shaping adaptive behavior.
Freud vs Jung32:29
Freud illuminates the unconscious, dreams, and the talking cure, while Jung explores the collective unconscious and archetypes shaping dreams, myths, and personal identity.
Psychotherapy31:53
Explore Gestalt, humanistic, and existential psychotherapy as solutions to modern suffering, emphasizing perception, meaning, and personal responsibility.
Cognitive psychology39:08
Cognitive psychology redefines learning by focusing on perception, attention, and memory, contrasting with behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It explains how working and long-term memory shape reasoning, with implications for cognitive therapy.
Social psychology24:27
Discover how the self evolves under group pressure and conformity, from Asch to Milgram and Zimbardo. Explore liberation, choice, and the role of social norms in behavior.
Child psychology30:20
Explore child psychology, covering language learning, attachment styles, and moral development, drawing on Chomsky, Piaget, Vygotsky, Bandura, Kohlberg, Erikson, Bowlby, Ainsworth, and Harlow.
Sex psychology27:08
Examine how sex differences shape mating strategies, hormones, and attraction, from testosterone driven aggression to estrogen influenced bonding, across evolution and culture.
Psychological paradoxes16:24
explores the psychological paradox of studying the mind while the mind changes under observation, highlighting observer effects, Zeno's paradox, and the dynamic nature of personality and intelligence.
Conclusion4:42
Trace psychology's origins from ancient philosophies to modern science, compare psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and cognitive approaches, and examine consciousness, perception, social influence, and psychotherapy.

Requirements

No prior knowldge of psychology is needed.

Description

In this course, I will tell you the story of psychology encompassing an incredible 3000 years of psychological history. By the end of this course, you will know all the basic psychological ideas, schools and approaches, as well as some of the most influential psychologists and psychoanalysts from around the world. The course has 4 major parts and each with 2 or 3 sections.

In part 1, I will tell you about the origin of psychology from ancient Greece and ancient India to modern science. Where does psychology really come from? Two disciplines play a major role in giving birth to psychology. Philosophy is like father and literature is mother. Philosophy is the rational side and literature is the emotional side. In this section I will also answer what's the purpose of psychology?

In part 2, I will look into how psychology understands the human mind including consciousness and the unconscious. First I will look at the pioneers of psychology including William James, Johann Herbart and Wilhelm Wundt who tried to understand consciousness. Then I will look into the behaviourist school of psychology that understands the human mind through our behaviour. In other words, action speaks louder than words. And finally I will look at two of the most influential figures in psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung who each tried to understand the unconscious.

In part 3, I will look at how psychology became a practical tool for diagnosing and treating patients with mental problems. I will look into two distinct approaches. Psychotherapy which has a strong German origin focused on the unconscious, and cognitive therapy which has a more Anglo-Saxon tradition focused on the conscious mind.

In part 4, I will look into other factors in psychology. Outside the human mind in general, factors such as society, age, and sex play a crucial role in our psychology. So in this section, I will discuss social psychology, child psychology and sex psychology. At the end I will also discuss the paradox of psychology and the paradox of personality.

This course is for anyone interested in psychology and wants to have an overview of psychology as an academic discipline. By the end, you should have a clear picture of what psychology is and what it studies and who are some of the key figures.

Who this course is for:

Beginner students of psychology or anyone interested in the story of psychology