Human Psychology Course

Lesson 1 • Defining Psychology as a Science

Covers psychology's definition, scope, and scientific status. Anchors the chapter by distinguishing psychology from folk wisdom and adjacent disciplines.

Lesson 2 • Core Theoretical Frameworks

Compares psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural models. Students apply each lens to the same case to see divergent explanations.

Lesson 3 • Historical Roots and Major Schools

Traces structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, and humanism chronologically. Provides the intellectual lineage needed to evaluate modern theories critically.

Lesson 1 • Genetics, Heredity, and Behavior

Covers gene expression, heritability estimates, and gene-environment interaction. Connects twin and adoption study findings to personality and psychopathology.

Lesson 2 • Neurons and Neural Communication

Explains neuron anatomy, action potentials, and synaptic transmission. Grounds all later biological content in the fundamental unit of nervous-system function.

Lesson 3 • Hormones and the Endocrine System

Describes major hormones and their behavioral effects, including stress and reproductive hormones. Bridges biological and psychological explanations of mood and motivation.

Lesson 1 • States of Consciousness

Compares waking awareness, sleep stages, dreaming, hypnosis, and altered states. Connects consciousness research to attention and cognitive control covered next.

Lesson 2 • Visual and Auditory Perception

Details the visual pathway, Gestalt principles, depth cues, and auditory scene analysis. Demonstrates how the brain constructs coherent percepts from ambiguous input.

Lesson 3 • Principles of Sensation

Covers transduction, thresholds, and signal detection theory across sensory modalities. Establishes the physiological limits within which perception operates.

Lesson 1 • Retrieval, Forgetting, and False Memory

Analyzes retrieval cues, interference, decay, and constructive memory errors. Highlights practical implications for eyewitness testimony and learning design.

Lesson 2 • Observational and Cognitive Learning

Examines Bandura's social learning, latent learning, and insight. Bridges behaviorism to cognitive approaches introduced in Chapter 1.

Lesson 3 • Memory Systems and Encoding

Distinguishes sensory, working, and long-term memory, then covers encoding strategies and levels of processing. Prepares students to understand forgetting and retrieval failures.

Lesson 4 • Thinking, Reasoning, and Decision-Making

Covers concept formation, heuristics, biases, and dual-process theory. Connects cognitive science to everyday judgment errors and professional decision-making.

Lesson 1 • Nature and Theories of Emotion

Contrasts James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, two-factor, and appraisal theories of emotion. Builds the conceptual vocabulary for analyzing emotional experience and expression.

Lesson 2 • Theories of Motivation

Compares drive-reduction, arousal, incentive, and self-determination theories. Establishes a multi-level framework for analyzing why people pursue goals.

Lesson 3 • Hunger, Sex, and Achievement Motivation

Examines biological and social regulators of hunger, sexual motivation, and achievement needs. Applies motivational theory to concrete behavioral domains.

Lesson 4 • Stress, Coping, and Health

Analyzes stressors, the general adaptation syndrome, appraisal models, and coping styles. Links psychological stress to physical health outcomes and resilience.

Lesson 1 • Social and Emotional Development

Examines attachment styles, parenting approaches, moral development, and gender identity formation. Links early relational experiences to adult personality patterns.

Lesson 2 • Adulthood and Aging

Analyzes physical, cognitive, and social changes across early, middle, and late adulthood. Addresses successful aging, wisdom, and end-of-life psychological adjustment.

Lesson 3 • Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Covers puberty, identity formation, risk-taking, and the transition to adulthood. Applies Erikson's stages and neuroscience of the adolescent brain.

Lesson 4 • Cognitive Development in Childhood

Applies Piaget's stages and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory to childhood cognition. Connects theoretical predictions to classroom and parenting practices.

Lesson 1 • Social Cognition and Attribution

Covers impression formation, attribution theories, and cognitive biases in social judgment. Grounds social behavior in the cognitive processes established in Chapter 4.

Lesson 2 • Attitudes and Attitude Change

Examines attitude structure, cognitive dissonance, and persuasion routes. Equips students to analyze propaganda, advertising, and behavior-change campaigns.

Lesson 3 • Prosocial Behavior and Aggression

Contrasts bystander effect, altruism, and empathy with theories of aggression. Applies findings to conflict resolution and community intervention design.

Lesson 4 • Social Influence and Conformity

Analyzes conformity, compliance, and obedience through classic experimental evidence. Connects social pressure mechanisms to real-world ethical decision-making.

Lesson 1 • Theories of Personality

Compares psychodynamic, trait, humanistic, and social-cognitive personality models. Builds on all prior theoretical frameworks to offer a unified view of individual differences.

Lesson 2 • Psychotic, Personality, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Examines schizophrenia, cluster personality disorders, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. Highlights neurobiological and developmental factors from Chapters 2 and 6.

Lesson 3 • Classifying Psychological Disorders

Introduces diagnostic classification systems, the biopsychosocial model, and stigma. Establishes a principled framework for understanding abnormality without reductionism.

Lesson 4 • Anxiety, Mood, and Trauma Disorders

Covers GAD, phobias, panic disorder, major depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. Applies biological and cognitive models to explain symptom patterns and vulnerability.