The Science of You: Exploring the World of Psychology
Introduces psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, exploring its goals, historical development, early schools of thought, modern perspectives, and the nature versus nurture debate.
Examines how psychologists use the scientific method, experimental and non-experimental research designs, variables, correlation and causation, ethical guidelines, and reliability and validity to study behavior.
Explores how biological systems influence behavior by examining neurons, the nervous system, brain structures, the endocrine system, brain imaging technologies, and the role of genetics.
Investigates how humans receive sensory information and interpret it through processes involving vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, perceptual organization, depth perception, and sensory illusions.
Studies different states of consciousness including attention, sleep cycles, dreams, sleep disorders, hypnosis, and the effects of psychoactive drugs on the brain.
Explains how behavior is acquired through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, reinforcement and punishment, observational learning, and cognitive learning processes.
Examines how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved through sensory, short-term, and long-term memory while exploring forgetting, memory errors, false memories, and strategies to improve memory.
Explores mental processes such as problem solving, decision making, creativity, language development, and major theories and measurements of intelligence including IQ and multiple intelligences.
Analyzes how people grow and change across the lifespan by examining prenatal development, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and developmental theories proposed by major psychologists.
Investigates the biological and psychological factors that motivate behavior while examining emotional theories, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, stress, and coping mechanisms.
Examines the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that shape individual personality through psychoanalytic, trait, and humanistic theories as well as personality assessment methods.
Explores how psychologists define and classify abnormal behavior while studying major categories of disorders including anxiety, mood disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders.