This course explores psychological processes involved in creating and experiencing art, with emphasis on enriching life through these processes. Sample topics include interrelations among art-related motivation, cognition, and emotion; psychological aids to artistic creativity and to art appreciation; and the sociocultural context of art. All forms of art--including visual art, music, creative writing, dance, etc.--are fair game for consideration, and participants focus on issues of special interest to them. A central exercise that runs through most of the course is called "Life as Art" and involves treating everyday activities and events as if they were art forms (and drawing on the course readings to help with this process). Students also complete a course project that explores some aspect of the psychology of art in depth and preferably involves personal relevance, such as making art and observing one's psychological processes in doing so. Course goals and objectives include: 1. Learning about key psychological processes involved in creating and experiencing art. 2. Gaining practice and skill in using these processes to enrich one's life. 3. Exploring an area in the psychology of art of special interest or personal relevance.

The course involves intensive student participation and relies heavily on small-group presentations and activities. Following an initial overview of the field of the psychology of art, students choose selections from three book lists (in the areas of experiencing life as art; creativity; and the sociocultural context of art). Readers of the various books meet in class to work out small-group presentations and class exercises for the books, so that everyone learns key points from each book. While there are no formal tests as such, students prepare weekly brief typed lists of what they read and did for the course and especially what insights or key points they generated or learned as a result. The required materials for this course include the book INVENTED WORLDS: The Psychology of the Arts by Ellen Winner (ISBN 0-674-46361-7) plus three additional books to be selected from provided reading lists.

Grades will be based on the weekly course activity and insight lists, attendance and participation, and the final project.