Intro to Psychology: Crash Course Psychology #1

Everyone's commenting on how they're watching the videos for school/exams but I'm just genuinely interested

Psychology is basically the brain trying to figure out its self

"Over the next 6 months we'll go over this together" Well actually over the next 4 hours

I remember watching this series when I was 13. It got me so interested in the subject. I made me want to become a psychologist. Now I'm 18 and will graduate from school next year. I've been determined and put down effort into my school work and will (if I keep my grades relatively good), be able to get into the 5 year (+ 1 year of practice) psychology program to become a licensed psychologist. It’s been such a long time since this video was posted so you'll probably not see this, but thank you so much, Hank <3 Love from Sweden

"The brains aren't complex enough to understand themselves" Well said.

anyone not here for exams but because phycology is one of the most interesting things ever :)

who taking psych 2019-2020?

Learning about something is so much more fun when you don't have to give exams for it

So basically, Human minds are one of the most complicated things and the rules that govern it are mysterious & elusive. While the term "psychology" was coined around 16th Century, the practice of science around it was no established until the 1800. The formal definition of psychology has evolved over the last several decades, today we can safely call it the science of behavior and mental processes. Psychology is one of the most extremely diverse in terms of the questions it proposes, the method it applies and the school of though it contains. For instance, right around Freud's(1900-1939) time, there were a lot of different schools of thought of about how the study of the human mind should be tackled. Mainly, there were the ideas of structuralism, functionalism and psychoanalysis. -"Structuralism" in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt & Edward Bradford Titchener: "Structuralism" focusses on how patient feel when they do something like watched the sun set, or smell a coffee, or licked a kitten, or whatever. This relied heavily on introspection and it became too subjective and since it's not possible observe a patient's inner thoughts or feelings, so ultimately, the structuralist school of thought was fairly short-lived. -"Functionalism" in 1890 by William James: Focuses on the "function of behavior", why we think and feel and smell and lick, or whatever. This approach of 'functionalism', was based on Charles Darwin's idea that adaptive behaviors are conserved throughout the evolutionary process. -"Psychoanalysis" in 1900 by Freud: A radical kernel of Psychoanalysis suggests that "our personalities are shaped by unconscious motives" which mean we are all profoundly affected by mental processes that we are not aware of. Another important part of the "Psychoanalysis" is that "unconscious, the thing below consciousness" is still discover-able. An even though we are not aware of it, we can come to understand it through a therapeutic technique using dreams, projections and free association to root out repressed feelings and gain self insight. So what Freud was really saying was that "mental disorders could be healed through talk therapy and self-discovery". And this was a really big breakthrough. After "The Interpretations of Dreams", Freud went on to publish over 20 more books and countless papers with an iconic cigar in hand all the while. -"Behaviorism" by Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner: Behaviorism focuses on the study of observable behavior. The first half of the 20th Century was dominated by "behaviorism" promoted by Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner. -"Psychodynamic Theories" descendant of Freud's Psychoanalysis: Psychodynamic Theories focuses on importance of early experiences in shaping the unconscious and how that process affects out though, feelings, behavior and personalities. By the mid-20th century, there were other major forces in psychology like "Humanist Psychology", which focuses on nurturing personal growth; "Cognitive Science" and "Neuroscience", all of which contributed their own unique takes on the study of mind. Psychology: Modern day definition of psychology "the study of behavior and mental processes", is a nice amalgamation that pulls from all these different schools of thought. It recognizes the need for observing and recording behavior, but it also gives credit to our mental processes, what we think and feel and believe. Psychology is an integrative science and while there are different school of thoughts & theories, the essence of the discipline has everything to do with creating different ways of asking interesting questions and attempting to answer them through all kinds of data-gathering methods. The human mind is complicated. There is no single way to effectively crack it open; it must be pried at from all sides. Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich has gazed into the distant horizon of space, and even he has acknowledged that the human brain is by far the most complex physical object known to us in the entire cosmos, and we all get to have one!

I'm here coz I love psychology and also I don't have to remember all this and write and exam so I don't have to stress myself (it's better when we are learning out of curiosity and not coz we have to)

stop scrolling through the comments and pay attention to the video

who's here during quarantine 2020

People watching this video fall into the categories: 5% saying random paradoxes 60% saying they have an exam tomorrow and are trying to cram 35% saying they have a passion for this subject Whos here in 2019?

I'm 11. I know I might kinda young to study psychology but....I want to know a bit about it. I have a passion to become a therapist or psychologist....I want to help people with their feelings....☺

Who is here in 2025??

That moment when the new Crash Course Intro runs for the first time. God, I love those intros!

It's strange how the the brain doesn't recognize the second "the" after the first "the". Read again.

it's 3am and I've decided I want to be a behavioral psychologist. May change my mind over the course of the next two years of high school, but Psych is convincing

I feel like this Civ V quote is relevant. "If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be so simple that we couldn't." -Ian Stewart

I love how a lot of people are here because of their AP Psychology exams and I'm just here because I like Psychology. 😂