Introduction to Psychology (9.00)

Course Information

• Instructor: John Gabrieli
• Course Title: Introduction to Psychology
• Course Code: 9.00

Course Overview

This course is about understanding human nature, minds, and brains through scientific methods. It covers how people feel, think, and act based on scientific evidence and experiments. Key topics include:

• Perception and cognition
• Emotions and personality
• Social interactions
• Developmental psychology
• Mental health and psychopathology
• Neuroscience and brain function

Key Topics and Concepts

1. Perception and Cognition
   • How we perceive the world visually and auditorily
   • Influence of context and expectation on perception
   • Visual illusions and what they reveal about perception
   • The role of attention and its limitations
2. Illusions and Perception
   • Importance and examples of visual illusions
   • Demonstrations of how context affects perception
   • Examples: Length of lines, size of objects, brightness, and movement illusions
3. Expectations and Interpretation
   • How expectations shape interpretation of scenes
   • Experiment: Trained seal act vs. costume ball interpretation
4. Attention and Limited Resources
   • The impact of divided attention
   • Experiment: Counting passes and missing unexpected events (e.g., gorilla video)
5. Memory and Interpretation
   • Gist vs. details in memory recall
   • Experiments demonstrating false memories (e.g., “sweet” list)
6. Automaticity in Perception and Thought
   • Efficient automatic processes and their pitfalls
   • Examples: Reading words, missing repeated words
   • Stroop effect: Naming ink colors of incongruent color words
7. Geographical Knowledge and Mental Maps
   • Common misconceptions about geography based on mental maps
   • Examples: Misjudging locations of cities based on heuristic thinking
8. Happiness and Future Predictions
   • Studies on anticipation and actual experience of events and their impact on happiness
   • Findings on long-term happiness after significant life events (e.g., winning the lottery, accidents)
9. Social Psychology and Action vs. Attitudes
   • Research on the gap between stated values and actual behavior
   • Example study on reactions to witnessing racism and actual choices vs. predicted actions

Conclusion

• The course will explore various facets of human nature and behavior through scientific studies
• Focus on how scientific evidence sheds light on different aspects of being human

Session Wrap-Up

• Emphasis on psychological insights being relevant to various personal and societal issues
• Encouragement to continually think critically about perception, memory, thought processes, and social behavior.