Great Course - Psychology of Human Behavior

What it’s about

This guidebook offers a sweeping, accessible tour of psychology as a science of human behavior, guided by an award-winning professor who treats the field with both rigor and humor. It begins with the historical roots of psychology and the logic of research methods—experimentation, correlation, and qualitative designs—before exploring Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the classification and treatment of mental illness, and the experimental core of the discipline: motivation, emotion, drugs, social influence, learning, memory, and perception. It closes with the emerging field of evolutionary psychology and applied engineering psychology, arguing throughout that behavior is best understood as the product of biological predispositions interacting with environment and learning. Readers come away able to think critically about claims of causation, recognize the constructive nature of memory and perception, understand how the brain and drugs interact, and see why many of our modern problems are mismatches between ancient adaptations and current environments.

The through-line

Who it’s for

A curious learner who wants to understand why people—including themselves—think, feel, and behave the way they do.

The problem

Human behavior is complex, often misunderstood, and surrounded by pop-psychology myths and false causal claims. The learner feels confused or intimidated by psychology and unsure how to separate science from speculation.

The plan

1. Establish a foundation in scientific research methods and what counts as evidence.
2. Learn the major theories of personality and the classification and treatment of mental illness.
3. Study the experimental core: motivation, emotion, drugs, social influence, learning, memory, and perception.
4. Apply evolutionary and engineering psychology to understand and improve real behavior.

The payoff

The reader thinks critically about causal claims and distinguishes science from pseudoscience. · They understand the roots of their own emotions, learning, perception, and behavior. · They recognize manipulation and influence tactics and can resist them.

See our guide

• Understand Human Behavior From The Foundational Canon →
• The Four-S Discipline — One System, Four Capabilities →
• Study People And Organizations With Scientific Rigor →
• The Behavioral Science Underneath It All →
• Build A People Analytics Function →
• Design The Organization And Change It →
• Do Research That Holds Up →
• Design Surveys People Answer Honestly →
• Understand What Drives Individual Performance →

Related profiles we’ve built

• A Theory of Human Motivation →
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion →
• Invisible Influence_ The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior →
• Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade →
• Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition →
• The basic principle of people analytics learn how to use hr data to drive better outcomes for your business and employees →
• Handbook of Regression Modeling in People Analytics →
• An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization →

Additional reading

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion · Robert Cialdini

  The book is the primary source for the course's detailed exploration of social influence and persuasion, covering the six key triggering mechanisms.

• Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind · David M. Buss

  Cited as essential reading for understanding the modern evolutionary approach to topics like altruism, mating, aggression, and family dynamics.

• Doing Psychology Experiments · David W. Martin

  Written by the course professor, this book provides the foundational knowledge on experimental research methods discussed early in the course.

• Abnormal Psychology · James Butcher, Susan Mineka, and Jill Hooley

  Listed as essential reading for multiple lectures covering the classification, symptoms, and causes of various mental disorders.

• On the Origin of Species · Charles Darwin

  The foundational text for the theory of evolution, which is a key theoretical lens used throughout the course, especially in the later lectures.

Featured in these guides

• Understand Human Behavior From The Foundational Canon →Cited source
• The Behavioral Science Underneath It All →Cited source
• Build A People Analytics Function →Cited source
• Design The Organization And Change It →Cited source
• Study People And Organizations With Scientific Rigor →Cited source
• Do Research That Holds Up →Cited source
• Design Surveys People Answer Honestly →Cited source
• Understand What Drives Individual Performance →Cited source