" This course provides an exciting, eye-opening, and thoroughly useful inquiry into what it takes to live an extraordinary life, on your own terms. The instructors address what it takes to succeed, to be proud of your life, and to be happy in it. Participants tackle career satisfaction, money, body, vices, and relationship to themselves and others. They learn how to address issues in their lives, how to live life, and how to learn from it. This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month. This not-for-credit course is sponsored by the Department of Science, Technology, and Society. A similar, semester-long version of this course is taught in the Sloan Fellows Program. A semester-long extension of the IAP course is also taught to the population at large of MIT (please see PE.550, Spring). Acknowledgment The instructors would like to thank Prof. David Mindell for his sponsorship of this course, his intention for its continued expansion, and his commitment to the well-being of MIT students."

" This course provides an exciting, eye-opening, and thoroughly useful inquiry into what it takes to live an extraordinary life, on your own terms. The instructors address what it takes to succeed, to be proud of your life, and to be happy in it. Participants tackle career satisfaction, money, body, vices, and relationship to themselves. They learn how to confront issues in their lives, how to live life, and how to learn from it. A short version of this course meets during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month. Then this semester-long extension of the IAP course is taught to interested members of the MIT community. This not-for-credit course is sponsored by the Department of Science, Technology, and Society. A similar, semester-long version of this course is taught in the Sloan Fellows Program. Acknowledgment The instructors would like to thank Prof. David Mindell for his sponsorship of this course, his hopes for its continued expansion, and his commitment to the well-being of MIT students."

A first course in psychology: how we think, see, feel, learn, talk, act, grow, fear, like, love, hate, lust, and interact. The great controversies: nature and nurture, free will, consciousness, human differences, self and society. Largely experimental and social psychology, with relevant ideas from biology, philosophy, linguistics, economics, anthropology, and the arts.

This course surveys questions about human behavior and mental life ranging from how you see to why you fall in love. The great controversies: nature and nurture, free will, consciousness, human differences, self and society. Students are exposed to the range of theoretical perspectives including biological, evolutionary, cognitive, and psychoanalytic. One of the best aspects of Psychology is that you are the subject matter. This makes it possible to do many demonstrations in lecture that allow you to experience the topic under study. Lectures work in tandem with the textbook. The course breaks into small recitations sections to allow discussion, oral presentations, and individual contact with instructors.

Did evolution shape your taste in a mate? Take our interactive poll from Evolution.

Documentary-style piece in which four celebrities (Quentin Crisp -author, Emily XYZ -poet, Joe Morton -actor, Spider -musician) talk about kissing, seduction, relationships, love, sex, and romance in the U.S., England, and South Africa. Speakers muse about the subjects and talk about their own personal experiences. Shots of speakers talking directly to the camera are interspersed with straightforward and computer-enhanced scenes of couples kissing. Approximately 28 minutes in length.

This course explores the social relevance of neuroscience, considering how emerging areas of brain research at once reflect and reshape social attitudes and agendas. Topics include brain imaging and popular media; neuroscience of empathy, trust, and moral reasoning; new fields of neuroeconomics and neuromarketing; ethical implications of neurotechnologies such as cognitive enhancement pharmaceuticals; neuroscience in the courtroom; and neuroscientific recasting of social problems such as addiction and violence. Guest lectures by neuroscientists, class discussion, and weekly readings in neuroscience, popular media, and science studies.

Studies the nature of love and sex, approached as topics both in philosophy and in literature. Readings from recent philosophy as well as classic myths of love and sex that occur in works of literature and lend themselves to philosophical analysis.