Cognitive and Affective Bases of Behavior

Catalog description

This class provides an overview of the major cognitive and affective influences on human behavior, with specific attention to some of the ways in which cognition and affect interact. Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink must be read prior to the first class, and the first two classes address Blink and the empirical research underlying it. Initial issues include the nature of thin-slicing and the interplay of conscious and unconscious processes in decision making and behavior. Three subsequent blocks of lectures present an overview of: a) basic cognitive structures and processes (e.g., attention, memory, rationality, etc.); b) the functional and dysfunctional aspects of emotions (e.g., psychoevolutionary theory, emotion recognition, expression, and regulation, and emotions in psychopathology); and c) some of the theories and research on how cognition and affect interact during both typical and atypical functioning.