11. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I

Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 110)

This class is an introduction to the evolutionary analysis of human emotions, how they work, why they exist, and what they communicate. In particular, this lecture discusses three interesting case studies, that of happiness (e.g., smiling), fear and the emotions we feel towards our relatives. Finally, this lecture ends with a brief discussion of babies' emotional responses to their caregivers.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The Different Functions of Emotions
09:06 - Chapter 2. Phineas Gage and The Loss of Emotional Capacity
15:45 - Chapter 3. Facial Expressions and Smiles in Particular
28:08 - Chapter 4. Question and Answer on Smiles
32:22 - Chapter 5. Non-Social Emotions: Fear
36:29 - Chapter 6. Social Emotions and Altruism

Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu

This course was recorded in Spring 2007.