Aesthetic experiences can arise from the appreciation of human artifacts such as artworks or natural objects like sunsets or mountain scenes. Aesthetic experience is emotionally rewarding, but puzzlingly so, because nothing urgent or even immediately personally relevant need be happening. The psychology of aesthetics is one of the oldest fields in psychology, occupying the scholars who developed psychology as a discipline in the late 19th century, and yet it remains relatively obscure because of the difficulty of studying what “moves us” with the tools of psychological science. In this course we will explore cerebral and embodied approaches to understanding aesthetic experience, as well as the relationship between aesthetic experience and personal, interpersonal, and even cultural well-being. (Not offered 2025-26).

Prerequisite: Psychology 205 and two from this list of courses: Psychology 300, 321, 332, 344, 362, 364, 374, 382.

1 unit

No offerings are currently scheduled.