Additional description

This course is about how organisms learn - how behavior is acquired, maintained and changed as a result of our experiences. Virtually all of our behavior, it may be argued, is affected by prior experience, so learning is necessarily a broad topic. Our focus will be on general principles of behavior that apply across a variety of species (human and nonhuman).

Additional description:

In particular, the course is designed to create a sense of the total functioning of the individual by understanding how the parts of personality interact to bring it about.  There are a number of more specific objectives that will help develop such understanding, parallel to the divisions of the course: (a) to master the definition of personality, and basic concepts in personality theory and measurement, (b) to learn about the major parts of personality, (c) to learn about the ways in which personality is organized, both structurally and dynamically, and (d) to survey personality development and the ways in which various theorists have recommended that personality develop.  Through understanding this material and how it applies to our own personalities and those of the people we know, our thinking about ourselves and why we are the way we are should become more sophisticated.

Additional description:

This course provides an introduction to the historical and current views on abnormal behavior and psychological disorders. Students will learn to distinguish between the major psychological disorders, including symptoms, causes, consequences, and treatments, identify and understand current approaches to diagnoses based on diagnostic criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 5^th edition (DSM-5), and analyze disorders and their treatments from various theoretical approaches, including psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic-existential, and biological.