Catherine Sanderson

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Los Angeles, CA, US
English
Catherine Sanderson is the Poler Family Professor and Chair of Psychology at Amherst College.
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Offerings

Positive Psychology
Virtual,
1 hr

Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness. Happiness has been in the news quite a bit lately. The UN released a “Happiness Report” rating nearly 200 countries, which found that the world’s happiest people live in Northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands). The US ranked 11th. The report’s conclusion affirmatively states that happiness has predictable causes and is correlated specifically to various measures that governments can regulate and encourage. And there’s more. A new AARP study looks at how Americans feel – and what factors contribute to their sense of contentment. It concludes that nearly 50% of us are “somewhat happy” and another 19% are “very happy.”

The Art of Aging
Virtual,
1 hr

The Art of Aging: A Prescription for Mind and Body. No matter how old you are, you’re aging. You started aging from the moment you were born, and you’ll continue aging until the moment you die. That’s the brutal, universal fact. But people age differently, as you’ve noticed if you’ve looked around and compared yourself to your peers. Are you aging better than they are? Worse than they are? In what ways and for what reasons?

Resilience
Virtual,
1 hr

Resilience When it’s Hard to be Optimistic. In this class will see that habits in how we think have an enormous impact on resilience. You will gain insight into how your thought patterns and behaviors can impact your success, happiness, and health. And we learn how to be resilient even in the face of difficult circumstances.

Merely Bystanders
Virtual,
1 hr

Merely Bystanders: The Psychology of Courage and Inaction. Why do good people so often do nothing when a seemingly small action could make a big difference? A pioneering social psychologist, Catherine Sanderson, explains why moral courage is so rare, and reveals how it can be triggered or trained. We are bombarded every day by reports of bad behavior, from sexual harassment to political corruption and bullying belligerence. It’s tempting to blame evil acts on evil people, but that leaves the rest us off the hook. Silence, after all, can perpetuate cruelty. This class draws on the latest developments in psychology and neuroscience to tackle an urgent question: Why do so many of us fail to intervene when we’re needed—and what would it take to make us step up?

The Power of Mindset
Virtual,
1 hr

The Power of Mindset: How it Can Affect your Health, Aging, and Happiness. This presentation describes cutting edge research on the power of one’s mindset – literally meaning the setting of the mind towards a particular set of expectations – on influencing thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In this class, you’ll learn how making subtle tweaks in mindset can lead children to perform better on challenging math tests, college students to show improvements in their vision, and older adults to score higher on memory tasks. You’ll also learn about the substantial impact of mindset on physical health. Would you believe that simple shifts in mindset can lead to faster walking speeds, decreases in blood pressure and body fat, and increases in life expectancy?

The Science of Success
Virtual,
1 hr

The Science of Success (and Failure). Most people focus on the importance of cognitive intelligence in predicting academic and professional success. But a growing amount of evidence suggests that other traits – including the ability to control impulses, manage adversity, find internal motivation, and build relationships – are essential in achieving the best outcomes in both personal and professional relationships. This talk will therefore focus on the importance of so-called emotional intelligence (or EQ) in predicting success, and provide specific strategies for increasing your own EQ.

Understanding Intelligence
Virtual,
1 hr

Understanding Intelligence: What it is, Where it Comes from, and How it Changes. What is intelligence? Is it a function of nature or nurture? Is it a single dimension, or does it include multiple distinct abilities? And how does it change over time? This class describes cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience research that addresses these and other fascinating questions. Professor Sanderson will end this presentation by describing the link between intelligence and creativity, and the evidence for Albert Einstein’s view that “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”

The Science of Problem-Solving
Virtual,
1 hr

Even though far more people are killed by cows than sharks, they are not feared nearly as much. Why do we consistently underestimate how long it will take us to finish a project: from cleaning out the garage to filing taxes? Why do we rate foods that are 90% fat-free as healthier than those that are 10% fat? In this class, Professor Sanderson will examine tools we use to make decisions, show how short-cuts in our thinking can lead to errors, and discuss strategies we can all use to overcome common cognitive errors.

Understanding Intelligence
Virtual,
1 hr

What is intelligence? Is it a function of nature or nurture? Is it a single dimension, or does it include multiple distinct abilities? And how does it change over time? This class describes cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience research that addresses these and other fascinating questions. Professor Sanderson will end this presentation by describing the link between intelligence and creativity, and the evidence for Albert Einstein’s view that “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”

Dogs and Humans
Virtual,
1 hr

Course description coming soon!