Mindfulness: Neuroscientific and Psychological Perspectives
Mindfulness can be described as nonjudgmental attention to experiences in the present moment. For thousands of years, mindfulness has been cultivated through the practice of meditation. More recently, developments in neuroimaging technologies have allowed scientists to explore the brain changes that result from the pursuit of this ancient practice, laying the foundations of the new field of contemplative neuroscience. Study of the neurology of mindfulness meditation provides a useful lens for study of the brain in general, because so many aspects of psychological functioning are affected by the practice. Some of the topics that we will address are attention, perception, emotion and its regulation, mental imaging, habit, and consciousness. This is a good course for those interested in scientific study of the mind.
Psychology courses
- Babies, Birds and ’bots: An Introduction to Developmental Cognitive Science
- Child and Adolescent Development
- First-Year Studies: Child and Adolescent Development in North American and African Contexts: Opportunities and Inequalities
- Children’s Friendships
- Children’s Health in a Multicultural Context
- Children’s Literature: Developmental and Literary Perspectives
- Crossing Borders and Boundaries: The Social Psychology of Immigration
- Cultural Psychology of Development
- Environment, Race, and the Psychology of Place
- First-Year Studies: The Developing Child: Perspectives from Experience, Observation, and Theory
- Gender Research Seminar: Focus on Men and Masculinities
- Individualism and/or Diversity Reconsidered
- Introduction to the Theory of Social Representations
- Landscapes of Injustice: Psychology and Social Change
- Memory Research Seminar
- Mindfulness: Neuroscientific and Psychological Perspectives
- Narrative Neuropsychology
- Pathways of Development: Psychopathology and Other Challenges to the Developmental Process
- Personality Development
- Puzzling Over People: Social Reasoning in Childhood and Adolescence
- Social Thinking
- The Changing Self: Narratives of Personal Transformation
- The Empathic Attitude
- The Feeling Brain: The Biology and Psychology of Emotions
- Theories of Development
- Theories of the Creative Process
- The Psychology of Religious Experience
- The Synapse to Self: The Neuroscience of Self-Identity
- Trauma, Loss, and Resilience
Vera Wang '71 addresses Class of 2013; photos, videos, media clips available on Commencement site