Shows / Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Professor Peterson's Psychology Classroom is a place to keep learning long after class ends.
Hosted by Dr. Curtis Peterson, this podcast brings together lectures, explanations, and conversations from psychology courses covering topics such as introductory psychology, lifespan development, social psychology, cross-cultural psychology, psychology of gender, group processes, substance use, and more.
Originally developed to give students an accessible way to revisit course material, the classroom…
Episodes
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Psychopathy & Serial Murder: Debunking the Monster Myth
Professor Peterson explores what psychopathy really is, separates behavior (serial homicide) from personality labels, examines myths about the "killer brain"…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Behind the Smile: How Culture Shapes Emotional Responses
This episode Dr. Peterson explores how culture influences what emotions mean, how people express them, and how they regulate their feelings. It reviews…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Meaningful Participation: Designing Prevention with Community Voice
This episode explains how to move beyond token community involvement by inviting community members into the planning process, protecting privacy, and…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Assessing Needs, Building Strengths: Rethinking Prevention:
This episode explains how to assess community needs and strengths for substance use prevention, emphasizing the use of evidence and an ecological perspective…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Beyond Bad Behavior: Understanding Developmental Change
This episode explores human growth across the lifespan, focusing on how people learn to think and how they learn to understand and manage emotions. Topics…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
The Power of Silence: Why Waiting Changes Therapy
This episode explores the role of silence in counseling—why allowing pauses after questions (try counting to 20) helps clients process information, access…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Rapport First: The Key to Effective Counseling
This episode explains why establishing rapport is essential in counseling and how it lays the foundation for trust, growth, and healing. Practical tips include…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Attending Like an Elephant: The Emotional Art of Presence
This episode breaks down "attending," a core counseling skill used in both group facilitation and one-on-one sessions. It explains how eye contact, body…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Mood vs. Moment: Why That Joke Hit Harder Today
This episode uses a tree metaphor to explain affect, distinguishing moods from emotions and showing how visible expression (affect) can differ from internal…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside Your Emotions: Drives, Motivations, and Feelings Explained
Professor Peterson explores how drives, motivations, emotions, feelings, and mood interact to shape human behavior. The lecture explains affect, contrasts the…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Two Lives, One Lifespan: Rethinking Adulthood and Development
This episode explains human development as the study of how people change over time, emphasizing that modern lifespans and scientific findings have reshaped…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Emotional Intelligence: Read the Room, Rule Your Emotions
Dr. Curtis Peterson defines emotional intelligence (EQ) as the ability to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions in yourself and others, and contrasts it…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
5 Simple Strategies to Prevent Group Disruptions
Dr. Curtis Peterson presents five clear strategies to prevent disruptions in group settings: establish rules early, listen and show respect, limit…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Start on Time? How Culture Shapes Group Meetings
Dr. Curtis Peterson outlines a practical meeting process for group facilitators, emphasizing cultural differences in how time and relationships shape start and…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Set the Room, Set the Mood: Mastering Group Facilitation
In this episode Dr. Curtis Peterson explains how to plan a successful group facilitation by focusing on four key areas: climate (motivation and emotional…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Mastering Group Facilitation: Goals, Balance, and Engagement
This episode explains how to be an effective group facilitator by clarifying and keeping to goals, involving all members, and balancing the group's agenda with…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Facilitation Mastery: Planning, Consistency & Leadership
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains why facilitation skills matter, covering pre-session planning, consistency, member involvement, and creating leadership…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Encouraging Every Voice: Mastering Group Facilitation
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains core group facilitation skills to encourage participation: check for comfort (nonverbal and verbal cues, cultural sensitivity…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Mastering Facilitation: 3 Principles for Effective Group Work
Dr. Curtis Peterson defines facilitation and explains how these skills apply beyond therapy to coworkers, family, and friends. He emphasizes the facilitator's…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside the Circle: The Hidden Science of Group Therapy
Dr. Curtis Peterson breaks down how clinical group therapy works: the structured 75‑minute session, the surprising power of therapeutic silence, and…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Don't Trust the Dashboard: How Numbers Mislead in Substance-Use Prevention
Dr. Curtis Peterson explores how evaluative thinking and applied research reveal what dashboards hide in substance-use prevention. Using the Ecological…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Trust to Wisdom: Erikson’s 8 Stages of Life Explained
Dr. Curtis Peterson breaks down Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory, describing the eight life stages from infancy to old age and the key crises (e.g…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside Piaget's Mind: Stages, Schemas, and Childhood Thinking
This episode explores Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, outlining his four stages from sensorimotor to formal operations. It explains key concepts…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
How Your Brain Sees, Smells, and Decides: Sensation vs Perception
This episode explains how sensation converts physical stimuli (like light, sound, taste, and smell) into neural signals through transduction and how perception…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
From Problem to Proof: Building Effective Prevention Programs
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains how to build prevention programs that make measurable human impact. The episode introduces the Evaluative Thinker’s Playbook —…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Behind the Numbers: Hypotheses, Errors, and What Statistics Really Tell Us
This episode introduces core quantitative methods in psychology: descriptive vs. experimental approaches, independent and dependent variables, null and…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Unlocking Stats: From Questions to Conclusions
Dr. Curtis Peterson introduces the role of statistics in scientific and applied settings, explains the scientific method and hypothesis types, and contrasts…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
From Means to Methods: A Beginner's Guide to Statistical Analysis
Professor Peterson reviews measures of central tendency and variation, then walks through the scientific method and how hypotheses guide data analysis. He…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside Psychology Research: From Clinic to Lab
This episode explains how psychologists design and carry out research: starting with a research question, reviewing literature, forming hypotheses, and using…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Fight-or-Flight Unpacked: How Your Nervous System Runs the Show
Professor Peterson explains the nervous system as a whole—central vs peripheral, and somatic vs autonomic branches—highlighting how the sympathetic and…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Designing Safe, Effective Substance Use Prevention: 3 Essential Elements
This episode explains how to create community-based prevention programs using three core elements: accurate information, low ecological cost, and identity…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside the Thinking Brain: How Lobes Shape Perception and Emotion
Dr. Curtis Peterson breaks down the major brain lobes and their roles: the temporal lobe for hearing and language (Broca's and Wernicke's areas), the occipital…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Neurons to Nuance: How the Brain Builds the Mind
Dr. Curtis Peterson explores brain structure and development, from neurons and glial cells to the limbic system and cerebral cortex. He explains how different…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
The Little Brain: How the Cerebellum Coordinates Speech and Movement
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains the cerebellum — the "little brain" connected to the limbic system and cortex — and its key role in coordinating movement…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
From Survivor to Self: How Process Groups Reclaim Identity
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains how process groups help people who have experienced trauma shift from an identity defined by abuse to a fuller sense of self. He…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
From Psychoeducation to Process: Rebuilding After Trauma
This episode explains what a process group is, how it differs from psychoeducational and treatment groups, and why trained facilitators are essential. It…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside Treatment Groups: How Therapy Targets Symptoms
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains how treatment groups focus on concrete symptom reduction—addressing PTSD, anxiety, depression, and addiction—through…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside Psychoeducational Support Groups: Healing Through Education
In this episode Dr. Curtis Peterson outlines psychoeducational support groups: who can facilitate them (peer-led or professional) and the three core…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Group Therapy Unpacked: Psychoeducation, Treatment & Process
Dr. Curtis Peterson explains three group therapy modalities: psychoeducational support groups that normalize shared trauma and build community, treatment…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Unlocking Group Therapy: Psychoeducation, Treatment, and Process Groups
Dr. Curtis Peterson outlines the three main clinical group processes—psychoeducational/support groups, treatment groups, and process groups—and explains how…
- Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom
Inside the Emotional Brain: The Limbic System Explained
Dr. Curtis Peterson breaks down the brain’s most basic, evolutionarily shared structures, explaining how the brainstem supports life functions and how the…