Introduction to Psychology — Open & Free – OLI

This course offers students an engaging, interactive introduction to the essential topics in psychology. Learn about Open & Free OLI courses by visiting the “Open & Free features” tab below.

As the name suggests, Introduction to Psychology offers students an engaging introduction to the essential topics in psychology. Throughout this study of human behavior and the mind, you will gain insight into the history of the field of psychology, as well as explore current theories and issues in areas such as cognition, motivation, and wellness. The course has been updated to align with DSM-5.

The importance of scientific methods and principles of research design is emphasized throughout this course and presented in a way that will enrich your study of individuals as thinking, feeling, and social beings.

This course is part of our Community College (CC-OLI) series. Although courses in this series are particularly well-suited to the needs of introductory community college courses, the course materials have been used successfully by learners and educators at a broad array of institutions.

It consists of 16 units, each with an average of four modules. The content of each module is driven by a set of student-centered learning objectives.

Along with expository text, videos, animations, interactive exercises, and self-assessments form the framework for students to actively discover, acquire, and personally relate to the concepts and ideas offered in this course. For example, students will actively encounter material through “Learn By Doing” activities that facilitate and support learning with hints and immediate, targeted feedback. Coupled with these activities are “Did I Get This?” self-assessments that give students the opportunity to gauge their understanding of the material. The Open & Free version of Introduction to Psychology does not include the scored assessments at the end of each module, nor are the instructor tools available.

Unit 2: Introduction

Unit 3: Methods

Unit 4: Brains, Bodies, and Behavior

Unit 5: Sensing & Perceiving

Unit 6: Learning

Unit 7: Memory

Unit 8: Language

Unit 9: Intelligence

Unit 10: Lifespan Development

Unit 11: Emotion and Motivation

Unit 12: Personality

Unit 13: Psychology in Our Social Lives

Unit 14: Wellness

Unit 15: Disorders

Unit 16: Treatment

Unit 17: Consciousness

UNIT 1: Learning Strategies

UNIT 2: Introduction

Module 1: Welcome to Psychology

Module 2: History and Perspectives

UNIT 3: Methods

Module 3: Scientific Method

Module 4: Research Designs

UNIT 4: Brains, Bodies, and Behavior

Module 5: Neurons: The Building Block of the Nervous System

Module 6: Brain Regions

Module 7: Methods for Studying the Brain

Module 8: The Nervous System and the Endocrine System

UNIT 5: Sensing & Perceiving

Module 9: Introduction to Sensing & Perceiving

Module 10: Seeing: The Visual System

Module 11: Audition & Other Senses

Module 12: Perception: Interpreting Sensation Based On Knowledge

UNIT 6: Learning

Module 13: Classical Conditioning

Module 14: Operant Conditioning

Module 15: Learning By Insight and Observation

UNIT 7: Memory

Module 16: Types and Stages of Memory

Module 17: How We Remember: Cues to Improving Memory

Module 18: The Biology of Memory

Module 19: Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition

UNIT 8: Language

Module 20: Communicating With Others: The Development and Use of Language

UNIT 9: Intelligence

Module 21: Defining and Measuring Intelligence

Module 22: Bell Curve

Module 23: Sternberg & Gardner

Module 24: Issues and Controversies Related to Intelligence

UNIT 10: Lifespan Development

Module 25: Introduction to Lifespan Development

Module 26: Prenatal and Early Development

Module 27: Cognitive Development In Childhood

Module 28: Social & Personality Development in Children

Module 29: Development During Adolescence

Module 30: Adulthood: Early, Middle, and Late

UNIT 11: Emotion and Motivation

Module 31: Experience of Emotion

Module 32: Positive Emotions

Module 33: Human Motivation

UNIT 12: Personality

Module 34: Personality and Behavior: Approaches and Measurement

Module 35: The Origins of Personality

Module 36: Is Personality More Nature or More Nurture? Behavioral and Molecular Genetics

UNIT 13: Psychology in Our Social Lives

Module 37: Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselves and Others

Module 38: Interacting With Others: Helping, Hurting, and Conforming

Module 39: Working With Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups

UNIT 14: Wellness

Module 40: Having Balance in Your Life

Module 41: Maintaining Balance and Optimal Wellness in Your Life

Module 42: Being Out of Balance

Module 43: Stress

Module 44: Pain Management

Module 45: Mindfulness

UNIT 15: Disorders

Module 46: Defining Psychological Disorders

Module 47: Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorders

Module 48: Mood Disorders

Module 49: Schizophrenia

Module 50: Personality Disorders

Module 51: ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Module 52: Dissociative Disorders

UNIT 16: Treatment

Module 53: Psychotherapy

Module 54: Biomedical

Module 55: Social

Module 56: Prevention

UNIT 17: Consciousness

Module 57: Introduction to Consciousness

Module 58: Sleeping and Dreaming Revitalize Us for Action

Module 59: Altering Consciousness With Psychoactive Drugs

UNIT 18: Acknowledgments

This course is designed to be equivalent to one semester of college level Introductory Psychology. To finish the entire course, it will take approximately 14 weeks, assuming you do about one unit per week.

August, 2017

This Introduction to Psychology course was developed as part of the Community College Open Learning Initiative. Using an open textbook from Flatworld Knowledge as a foundation, Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative has built an online learning environment designed to enact instruction for psychology students.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

OLI system requirements, regardless of course:

Some courses include exercises with exceptions to these requirements, such as technology that cannot be used on mobile devices.

This course’s system requirements:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

OLI’s website has undergone a refresh, and so has the student registration process. Watch the video to see how easily students can register with a Course Key.