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Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior

By: Mark Leary,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Mark Leary
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Publisher's Summary

Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?

Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do. And many fields - including philosophy, psychology, and even theology - are focused on finding explanations. But it's only in recent decades that researchers can finally approach, understand, and solve the mysteries of emotion, thought, and behavior - solutions that help each of us to better know ourselves and the people around us. The result is not only a more solid understanding of what it means to be human, but a stronger foundation from which to live more effectively with others and to grasp their intricate behaviors and quirks.

Now you can gain those benefits through a series of 24 intriguing lectures from an award-winning teacher. Professor Leary takes you on a fascinating journey into the complex heart of who you are, using the latest theories, case studies, experiments, and stories to cast light on a wide variety of human behaviors, both ordinary and puzzling.

Throughout these lectures, you'll learn about the various interacting forces that influence your behavior. These include your genetic blueprint, your personal experiences, your upbringing, and the people and social groups that surround you.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

What listeners say about Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior

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Bad Science

I have listened to a number of Great Courses and enjoyed them and learned a great deal. However, this one was very problematic. For example, the lecturer presented outdated research on the set point theory of happiness, resorted to adaptive story telling regarding the evolution of human behaviour that was presented as fact. Most egregiously he presented studies supporting ESP that were clearly not independently replicated and suffered from design, fraud or statistical issues. I had to stop listening after that because he lost all credibility.

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20 people found this helpful

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Advertised in wrong catagory

The overview made it seem like this book would contain a significant amount of new science. There was some neuroscience and other fields of science that have the ability to test a hypothesis through experimentation. That was all really interesting. It was also narrated well. However, the majority was evolutionary psychology; no experimentation possible. Just narrative fiction drawing straight lines from behaviour back to untestable assumption to ‘prove’ untestable hypothesis.

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13 people found this helpful

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  • Jon
  • 17-02-2016

Great listen, highly recommended to anyone

Great read well worth the listen. Would encourage anyone interested in behaviour to listen to this

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9 people found this helpful

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Very interesting

Great explanation of the science of human behaviour. Good insights from an economists point of view.

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6 people found this helpful

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Interesting, but does not go very deep.

I was expecting something a little deeper and technical than what was in this course. I would call this an introduction to human psychology. A little dumbed down for my liking.

A lot of the information seemed like common sense or common knowledge to me.

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6 people found this helpful

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Interesting Read

Any additional comments?

Clearly, credibly and concisely explained the background to a number of common human behaviours. I found it very though provoking, and a good base to identify any areas I might want to deep dive into next.

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Poorly researched and presented

Look Mark Leary sounds like a nice guy so I don't mean anything personal but this "course" is really shockingly bad... It makes a mockery of the "Great Courses"...

I often find myself disagreeing with him on a point. I wait for him to back up his point. To show me his reasoning, but he never does. He simply refers to "studies show". We'll I can find plenty of "studies" that disagree with him... This is a world apart from Richard Dawkins who goes to great lengths to ensure his readers are fully equipped in the grounding of the topic and his reasoning, so that they can mentally challenge his views. Mark Leary just tells you it's this way and that's it... I honestly feel he is just winging it in some of the lectures... We've all had bad days at work, but this feels like a train wreck.

I gave up on this "Great Course" about a third of the way through Chapter 6. Mark Leary says something along the lines:
"Animals react emotionally only to real events, now humans are different........ but unlike other animal, we often induce emotions in ourselves just be thinking of things." Has he never seen or heard of a pet cat or dog moving or barking in their sleep?...

Therefore I recommend you give this one a miss... Though please don't give up on the Great Courses in general, some are excellent.


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Very interesting and fascinating

A well presented audio book that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the human brain, why we do what we do and think the way we do

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Easy to understand

very interesting and easy to listen to. Understanding some of the concepts spoken about has helped in everyday situations.

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Just Amazing Audiobook

It is the, I repeat the mist listen Audiobook or must read book for people who wants to unfold unanswered questions about human beings. There were so many things which I manifested and it was fascinating to know.

I highly recommend people to read this book or listen.

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1 person found this helpful

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