How do psychologists classify thinking and behavior as “abnormal”? In this chapter we discuss just that by looking at the criteria used by psychologists to determine whether or not a person may have a mental disorder. We examine the three major categories of mental illness: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenic disorders. There is also discussion of the various treatments used for these disorders, both biomedical therapies, including drug therapies, electroconvulsiv This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

Social psychology is the study of humans as social animals, that is the way that we influence one anothers’ behavior and thinking. We begin our discussion of this subject by looking at how others’ influence our behavior by examining three types of social influence: conformity, compliance, and obedience. We then look at how we think about behavior, both our own and that of others. All of this is put into a real life context by looking at two historical events, the murder of Kitty Genovese and This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

While psychologists cannot entirely agree on one definition of personality, this text uses the definition most people think of when the word personality is used – a person’s internally based, characteristic ways of acting and thinking. In addition to the definition there has been much speculation about and study of personality throughout history, leading to divergent ideas on the subject within psychological science. In this chapter we explore the major theoretical approaches to the study of This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

The scientific study of biological, cognitive, social, and personality development throughout the life span is known as developmental psychology. Developmental psychologists usually divide the life span into different stages, beginning with the prenatal stage and ending with late adulthood. This chapter looks at different types of development through these life stages by discussing major theorists’ views such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, and Erikson, and touching on the main developmental t This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

Building on sensation and perception, learning, and memory, this chapter discusses how we think, that is how we process information to solve problems and make judgments and decisions. In this chapter we discuss how our brains work through problems, use probability, and test hypotheses, all important aspects of intelligent thinking. There is also discussion of intelligence testing and how these tests are conducted and used. There are many theories on human intelligence and this chapter looks a This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

Memory is essential for life as we currently experience it, allowing us to use what we know to interpret the world. This study of memory will help you to understand how your own memory works, beginning with a discussion of the three-stage model of memory, which involves sensory, short term (or working), and long-term memory. The focus then moves to encoding, or the process by which information is transferred into memory. In the last section we look at retrieval or bringing information from lo This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

In this section we look at how psychologists have studied learning and what we know about how humans learn looking at how both biological and cognitive psychologists have studied learning. We look in detail at classical conditioning, in which we learn that one stimulus signals the arrival of another connecting events in our environment, and at operant conditioning, which focuses on connections between our behaviors and their consequences. The chapter also focuses on both the biological and co This is a short preview. Continue with the full course: https://www.virversity.com/intro-psychology-listeners?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=intro_psychology

To understand and live in the world around us we must first gather (sense) and then interpret (perceive) the information presented to us. We begin our study of sensation and perception by looking at the three psychophysical questions: the questions of detection, difference, and the scaling. Then we look at just how our sense organs, especially the eyes and ears, do their work. Lastly, we look at how we process visual information by detailing how the brain organizes incoming visual stimuli.