What psychology concepts are covered in this Introduction to Psychology course?

The course covers the brain and unconscious, Freud and Skinner, child development, language, perception, emotion, evolution, personality differences, social behavior, mental illness, and happiness.

What is the difference between dualism and Francis Crick's Astonishing Hypothesis?

Dualism treats the mind and body as separate, while Crick's Astonishing Hypothesis argues that mental life arises from the physical activity of the brain.

What does the endowment effect mean in psychology?

The endowment effect is the tendency to value something more highly simply because we own it.

Free Course Image Introduction to Psychology

Free online course Introduction to Psychology

Duration of the online course: 18 hours and 43 minutes

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Strengthen your understanding of human behavior with a free online psychology course—brain, development, emotion, and mental health, plus a shareable certificate.

In this free course, learn about

Core questions and methods of Intro Psychology; why study unusual disorders and case studies
Brain/mind foundations: dualism vs physicalism; Crick’s Astonishing Hypothesis
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory: id/ego/superego, unconscious processes, conflict and behavior
Skinner/behaviorism and how evolutionary arguments explain unconscious processes and deception
Piaget’s cognitive development: stages, assimilation/accommodation, and object permanence
Language basics: morphemes; evidence for innate language capacities and brain/mouth mechanisms
Limits of perception and attention: why perception is hard; change blindness and visual awareness
Social attraction: factors influencing liking; mere exposure effect; pratfall effect and competence
Decision biases and evolution: endowment effect; ultimate vs proximate explanations of behavior
Evolution and emotion: adaptive fears (snakes/spiders), smiles in humans vs primates, honor culture
Behavioral genetics: genes vs environment; what shared family environment contributes least
Sex and mating strategies: parental investment; time-use data on sexual behavior
Morality and social influence: Milgram obedience; self/other differences and Pygmalion effect
Clinical psychology: defining/diagnosing disorders; challenges; regression to the mean in therapy evaluation

About the free online course

Why do we feel what we feel, think the way we do, and act against our own intentions? This course offers a clear, science-based introduction to psychology that helps you make sense of everyday behavior as well as the most puzzling corners of the mind. You will build a practical foundation for understanding how the brain supports experience, how the idea of an unconscious mind developed, and why modern psychology draws evidence from laboratories, real-world observation, and careful measurement rather than intuition alone.

As you progress, you will connect core debates about mind and body with major perspectives that shaped the field, then see how learning, development, and language reveal what it means to be human. You will explore how infants grow into thinkers, how people acquire and use language, and why perception can be surprisingly unreliable even when it feels vivid and certain. Along the way, you will practice questioning first impressions and replacing them with testable explanations.

The course also examines how emotion and reason interact, including how evolution can illuminate love, fear, cooperation, and conflict. You will look at the ways culture and context shape social behavior, how we form judgments about ourselves and others, and why simple forces like familiarity can influence preference. These topics are tied to research findings and classic studies that continue to guide how psychologists understand morality, persuasion, and the boundaries of personal responsibility.

Finally, you will gain a thoughtful introduction to clinical psychology: how professionals define abnormality, why diagnosis is difficult, what mental disorders can look like across a spectrum, and how researchers evaluate whether therapies genuinely work. You will also learn how common statistical and psychological effects can mislead us when we try to interpret change, improvement, and happiness. By the end, you will have a grounded framework for reading psychology claims critically, communicating about mental life more accurately, and applying psychological insight to health, work, and daily decisions.

Course content

Video class: 1. Introduction 29m
Exercise: What type of unusual motivations do some students have when they come to Intro Psychology that the course may actually help with?
Exercise: In an introductory psychology course, what is a likely reason for studying cases involving unusual mental disorders?
Video class: 2. Foundations: This Is Your Brain 53m
Exercise: _What is the main difference between dualism and the Astonishing Hypothesis?
Exercise: What is the 'Astonishing Hypothesis' proposed by Francis Crick?
Exercise: What is the Astonishing Hypothesis as described in the lecture on the Introduction to Psychology?
Video class: 3. Foundations: Freud 56m
Exercise: _Who developed an encompassing theory of mind over the span of many decades?
Exercise: In Freud's psychoanalytic theory, which component of the personality is responsible for dealing with reality?
Exercise: According to Freud, what are the three distinct processes going on in the unconscious mind that influence behavior?

Video class: 4. Foundations: Skinner 58m
Exercise: _According to some psychologists and biologists, why would an unconscious evolve from an evolutionary standpoint?
Exercise: Why does the concept of the unconscious challenge the idea that all mental processes are conscious?
Exercise: According to the discussed psychological concepts, why might deception evolve as an unconscious process?
Video class: 5. What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought 48m
Exercise: _According to Piaget, what are the two mechanisms of learning that drive a child through different stages of cognitive development?
Exercise: Which theoretical concept did Piaget contribute to psychology that involves the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can't be seen?
Exercise: What term describes the process where children change their system of knowledge to incorporate new experiences?
Video class: 6. How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth 56m
Exercise: What is the term used to describe the smallest meaningful unit in a language?
Exercise: What evidence supports the idea that the ability to use language is part of human nature, according to the lecture on language?

Video class: 7. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language 59m
Exercise: Based on the lecture content, which statement accurately reflects the nature of human perception?
Exercise: Which of the following is a reason why human perception is considered a difficult problem to solve?
Video class: 8. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: 59m
Exercise: What is the concept of change blindness in psychological studies?
Exercise: What does the term 'change blindness' describe in psychological research?

Video class: 9. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by 1h09m
Exercise: According to psychological research presented by Dean Peter Salovey, which of the following is NOT one of the factors that significantly influences the initial attraction between people?
Exercise: What concept in social psychology suggests that we are more attracted to competent individuals who occasionally make mistakes, boosting their likability?
Video class: 10. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality 59m
Exercise: What does the 'endowment effect' suggest about how we value possessions?
Exercise: What is the primary difference between ultimate and proximate causation in evolutionary psychology?
Video class: 11. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I 53m
Exercise: _What is one advantage of an evolutionary perspective on the mind, according to Professor Paul Bloom?
Exercise: Why do evolutionary psychologists believe humans have instinctual fears of animals like snakes and spiders?
Exercise: What is one key reason why evolutionary psychology is important in understanding human emotions according to the text?
Video class: 12. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II 56m
Exercise: _What is the main difference between nonhuman primate smiles and human smiles according to the second world's expert on smiling?
Exercise: According to the studies by Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen, which region in the United States is more associated with a 'culture of honor'?
Exercise: What do the behaviors of nonhuman primates, such as chimpanzees or gorillas, primarily use smiles to convey?

Video class: 13. Why Are People Different?: Differences 1h05m
Exercise: According to contemporary research in behavioral genetics, which factor has been found to contribute the least to individual human differences in traits such as intelligence and personality?
Exercise: Which of the following is most likely an environmental factor contributing to differences in intelligence among individuals?
Video class: 14. What Motivates Us: Sex 52m
Exercise: According to the data presented by Professor Paul Bloom, how much time does the average American spend on sex per day?
Exercise: What is the concept of 'parental investment' as described in biological terms?

Video class: 15. A Person in the World of People: Morality 1h01m
Exercise: Which of the following concepts were discussed by Professor Paul Bloom in his lecture on the Introduction to Psychology?
Exercise: What does the Milgram experiment illustrate about human behavior?
Video class: 16. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I 58m
Exercise: _What is the individual difference in our social natures that Professor Paul Bloom talks about before introducing the test?
Exercise: Based on the psychology lecture, which of the following factors is typically NOT associated with why we like other people?
Exercise: What is the 'mere exposure effect' in social psychology?
Video class: 17. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II; 1h04m
Exercise: Based on the Introduction to Psychology course lecture, which of the following aspects about dreams is NOT accurate?
Exercise: What is the Pygmalion effect as discussed in the context of social psychology?

Video class: 18. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I 54m
Exercise: _What is the most fundamental question in clinical psychology according to Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema's lecture?
Exercise: What are some of the characteristics that are used to label behaviors as abnormal or unhealthy in the field of clinical psychology?
Exercise: What is a significant challenge in diagnosing mental disorders according to the lecture on modern clinical psychology?
Video class: 19. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II 56m
Exercise: _What is the scope of mental disorders discussed in the lecture?
Exercise: Which of the following statements best reflects the topic that is greatly emphasized in the final part of the Introduction to Psychology course?
Exercise: In relation to the historical understanding of mental illnesses, which of the following statements is true?

Video class: 20. The Good Life: Happiness 47m
Exercise: _What is the "regression to the mean" phenomenon in psychology?
Exercise: Based on the content provided regarding clinical psychology and the evaluation of therapy's effectiveness, which of the following best describes the concept of 'regression to the mean' in the context of psychological therapy?
Exercise: What is one method researchers use to determine if therapy is effective?