PSYC 3000 (Psychology) Course Guide: Videos

There is a thin line between genius and madness, it is said. This documentary examines the elevated and uncommon minds of such geniuses as inventor and designer Buckminster Fuller, physicist Robert Goddard, writer Virginia Woolf, composer Ludwig van Beethoven, and scientist Isaac Newton, among others. Many thrive despite extreme conditions and problems; others crumble under the pressure of their success. Mystery of Genius takes us to the labs of MIT and interviews magicians Penn & Teller.

This program brings to life five of psychology’s most significant studies: Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment, 1961; Milgram’s Study of Obedience, 1963; Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Experiment, 1971 and 1978; Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, 1973; and Loftus’s Eyewitness Testimony Experiment, 1974. Footage from the original experiments and from contemporary reconstructions is featured throughout, along with expert commentary and analysis. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. A part of the series Understanding Psychology. (38 minutes)

What happens to people who suffer from mental illnesses and commit violent crimes? Where do they go? How are they treated? Little is known about the facilities—once called asylums for the criminally insane—to which some of these patients are sent. Now known as forensic psychiatric hospitals, these are institutions inside which patients disappear, away from public view for years. Four-time Emmy winner John Kastner has been granted unprecedented access to one such hospital: the Brockville Mental Health Centre. He filmed inside this facility for 18 months, allowing 46 patients and 75 staff to share their experiences with stunning frankness. The result is two remarkable documentaries. The first, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible (Item #58175), premiered at Hot Docs in the spring of 2013 and follows the story of a violent patient released into the community, much to the alarm of his victim and her family. Kastner’s film returns to the Brockville Mental Health Centre to follow treatment processes normally hidden from the public, profiling four patients—two men and two women—as they struggle to gain control over their lives, so they can return to a society that often fears and demonizes them.

What makes a person walk into a theater or a church or a classroom full of students and open fire? What combination of circumstances and genes compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? Can science in any way help us understand these horrific events and provide clues as to how to prevent them in the future? As the nation tries to understand the tragic events at Newtown, NOVA correspondent Miles O'Brien separates fact from fiction, investigating new theories that the most destructive rampage killers are driven most of all, not by the urge to kill, but the wish to die. Could suicide - and the desire to go out in a media-fueled blaze of glory - be the main motivation? How much can science tell us about a brain at risk for violence? Most importantly, can we recognize dangerous minds in time--and stop the next Newtown?

Prompted by the surprising comments of her own daughter, director and lesbian mother Sandra Williams made this program to give voice to the thoughts, emotions, and positive and negative experiences of seven children who are being raised by gay or lesbian parents. The children, ranging in age from 8 to 16, speak about their parents' sexuality and how it makes their own lives complicated and often difficult. What comes through in these sometimes painful disclosures is the strength of the bond between child and parent

How do multiple intelligences and different thinking styles relate to traditional IQ scores? What role should teacher creativity and the family play in shaping student intelligence? In this interview by Phillip Harris, of Phi Delta Kappa, Robert Sternberg—IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University—answers questions about the IQ-based "single trait notion of intelligence"; the application and implementation of his triarchic theory of intelligence; and the implications of school reform on the future of public education. (30 minutes)

When are humans most happy? To gather data on that question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, which he discusses in this TEDTalk. Among the surprising results: we're often happiest when we're lost in the moment. And the flip side: the more our minds wander, the less happy we may be.