What is Going On Here?

Have you ever found yourself performing an ordinary task or chore, such as, perhaps, driving, getting ready for school, or cleaning, and while you are doing that task you ponder something you learned, read or heard at school? This is when you know learning has taken place. You begin to associate and apply new knowledge to different situations in your head and you contemplate the validity of that knowledge.

I remember when I was in high school and I was taking my first year of German. After learning the basics of the language I found myself thinking in German, trying to speak the language as I thought! This is when I knew that I had learned something.

The principle that I am proposing for you is the same. I want you to be thinking about this subject - the science, physiology, theory, and dimensions - of psychology as you are performing regular activities. Because we know that much of your learning takes place outside the classroom, I want to facilitate that for you.

Below you will find four different series’ of lectures. These are actual courses in psychology offered by various universities and the lectures are given by professors in the field. Each course has been selected because it will challenge your thought and expand your knowledge of the subject. They have been made accessible through iTunes U, a portion of Apple’s iTunes that brings to the public educational and intellectual material free of charge. I found myself listening to hours of audio this summer on topics from social psychology to Thomas Jefferson, simply because the material offered an extension of my education.

What Do I Need To Do?

Review the following lecture series’ and read the description of each. Choose any two lectures per semester to listen to. These audio files can be downloaded (ask me in class how) and burned to CD, placed on any MP3 player, or listened to via computer online. After listening to a lecture, write a one page synopsis (single-spaced) of the material therein. Include in your synopsis:

1. ‣Title of the lecture
   

2. ‣Title of the series (course) and the lecturer (professor)
   

3. ‣A description of the topic
   

4. ‣Application and transfer of what you heard/learned in the lecture to your education, life, or this class
   

These can be submitted to me at any time, but you must complete any five lectures per semester. Avoid overloading yourself in December and May by starting early!

Introduction to Psychology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jeremy Wolfe

General Psychology

University of California - Berkeley

John Kihlstrom

Research and Data Analysis in Psychology

U.C. Berkeley

Frederic Theunissen

Social Psychology

U.C. Berkeley

Dacher Keltner

Last notes about these lectures/courses: what you will hear is the actual lecture given by the university to students who have enrolled in the course. These lectures, therefore, include dialogue and discussions that pertain to course materials and assignments, as well as visual demonstrations that you can obviously not see. It is because of this that I chose not to offer lectures that were designated as test review, introductions or conclusions, or that which included material not relevant to your learning.