Yale / Psychology

Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I

By Paul Bloom | Introduction to Psychology Lecture 11 of 20

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Lecture Description

This class is an introduction to the evolutionary analysis of human emotions, how they work, why they exist, and what they communicate. In particular, this lecture discusses three interesting case studies, that of happiness (e.g., smiling), fear and the emotions we feel towards our relatives. Finally, this lecture ends with a brief discussion of babies' emotional responses to their caregivers.

Course Description

What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.

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Lecture Transcript and Reading Assignment

Course Index

  1. Introduction to Psychology
  2. Foundations: This is Your Brain
  3. Sigmund Freud
  4. Foundations: Skinner
  5. What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought
  6. How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth and the Hands
  7. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language (cont.); Vision and Memory
  8. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Vision and Memory (cont.)
  9. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by Professor Peter Salovey)
  10. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality
  11. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I
  12. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II
  13. Why Are People Different?: Differences
  14. Psychology, Sex, and Evolution
  15. A Person in the World of People: Morality
  16. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I
  17. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II
  18. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I
  19. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II
  20. The Good Life: Happiness
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