To aid in the selection of video's for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas.
If you'd like help linking streaming videos to your Canvas Course Reserves or reserving DVDs for you or your students, please contact
mediaservices@american.edu
This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.
See also PyscTHERAPY database which features over 300 videos of actual psychology therapy sessions.
The ad and the id sex, death, and subliminal advertising. 2006 1 videodisc (28 min.). Each day we are exposed to hundreds of advertisements, but we don't really see them or pay attention to them. This provocative documentary shows how advertisers use powerful "subliminal" images to influence and motivate consumers to buy. It uncovers and analyzes, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the hidden images of sex and death that are placed under the surface of seemingly ordinary advertisements: the ads hidden within the ad. DVD 8992
Addiction a 14-part series. 2007. 1 videodisc (100 min.). Strives to break through the myths and explain what addiction really is, what causes it, and how to get the best available treatments. Segments included: Saturday night in a Dallas ER, The adolescent addict, Insurance woes, Brain imaging, Opiate addiction: a new medication, The science of relapse, Steamfitters Local Union 638, A mother's desperation, Topiramate : a clinical trial for alcoholism. DVD 6381-6384
The Alzheimer's project. 2009. 3 videodiscs (533 min.). The Alzheimer's project features a four-part documentary series (The memory loss tapes; Grandpa, will you remember me?, Caregivers, and Momentum in science), 15 short supplemental films, a website, and a nationwide community-based information and outreach campaign, to capture what it means to experience the disease, to be a child or grandchild of one who suffers, and to care for those who are affected. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10434
The angry eye with Jane Elliott. 2004. 1 video file (34 min.). Documentary on Jane Elliott's blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise in discrimination involving college students forced to experience racist treatment minorities have received for years. DVD 9652 and Streaming video.
The baby human. 2004. 1 videodisc (150 min.). Experience the first two years of a child's life just as they do. This groundbreaking program reveals what only the little ones know. What is their most profound need? How do they really see their parents? What does it feel like to struggle to walk or learn to speak? DVD 5075
The baby human 2. 2009. 1 videodisc (155 min.). Imagine being thrust into a world where you cannot speak, movements are limited and in order to survive you must unravel the meaning behind a maze of sights and sounds. This is the world of a baby. Takes a look inside the mind of a baby, revealing how they think, communicate and observe. It's an incredible journey that each of us has taken, but which none of us remembers. Get a carpet-and-crib-eye view of what it means to be a baby. DVD 5076
A beautiful mind. 2002. 2 videodiscs (135 min.). Dramatic biography of John Nash, a mathematical genius, who made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over his schizophrenia, and finally, late in life, received the Nobel Prize. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1631
Boys will be men. 2001. 1 streaming video file (57 min.). Explores growing up male in America and suggests ways to help guide the journey to adulthood. Streaming video.
Brain games. 2011. 2 videodiscs (135 min.). Provides a fascinating window into the inner workings of the brain as never before. Through interactive experiments and tricks, revealed is how the brain creates the illusion of a seamless reality. As these revealing experiments provide a unique view into the brain, the world's leading experts explain how and why these tests work. Examines real people with extraordinary brains, an reveals new discoveries about attention, sensory perception and memory. A bonus program is included. DVD 9124
Breaking the cycle of addiction and drug abuse. 2004. 1 videodisc (52 min.). By the time Donna Gamble turned 13 she was a drug addict and a prostitute. Today, she is a fiercely determined survivor who has emerged as a powerful voice in counseling members of the Cree Nation and others about how to triumph over addiction. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2601
Century of self. 2006. 2 videodiscs (236 min.). Four programs describing the psycho/social issues affecting 20th century consumerism against the backdrop of the development of Freudian psychology. DVD 4438
Child development theorists Freud to Erikson to Spock--and beyond. 2009. 1 videodisc (21 min.). Covers child development theorists including Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Abraham Maslow, Arnold Gesell, John Bowlby, Rudolph Dreikurs, Lawrence Kohlberg, B.F. Skinner, Benjamin Spock, Diana Baumrind, T. Berry Brazelton, Howard Gardner. DVD 6306 and Streaming video.
Childhood. 2006. 4 videodiscs (399 min.). Presents an "insightful and richly textured examination of the various influences that shape us an individuals and as members of the families and societies in which we are raised. Through the observation of twelve families on five continents, the series looks at childhood from a number of perspectives--personal, scientific, historical and cultural--using a variety of production techniques ..."--Container label. DVD 3771-3774
Chimp talk. 2004. 1 videodisc (14 min.). Explores the controversial issue of language use by apes with primatologist Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Dr. Laura Ann Petitto. The results of Savage-Rumbaugh's 20-year study with chimpanzees reveal that they can use language with the astounding accuracy of a two-year-old human, which includes a rudimentary syntactical ability. However, Petitto's research indicates that humans have a cognitive predisposition for language lacking in chimps, which leads to the conclusion that although apes communicate by associating symbols with objects and actions, they do not have language abilities in the way that humans do. DVD 1419 and Streaming video.
Classic studies in psychology. 2007. 1 videodisc (38 min.). This program brings to life five of psychology's most significant studies: Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment (1961), Milgram's Study of Obedience (1963), Ainsworth's Strange Situation Experiment (1971 and 1978), Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1973), and Loftus's Eyewitness Testimony Experiment (1974). Footage from the original experiments and from contemporary reconstructions is featured throughout, along with expert commentary and analysis. DVD 9160
Client-centered therapy. 1994. Systems of psychotherapy: APA psychotherapy series. 1 videodisc (47 min.). Nathaniel J. Raskin conducts a mock therapy session to illustrate the uses of client-centered therapy, a process that produces client self- discovery and actualization when the client's frame of reference is understood, accepted, and respected. DVD 5931
Cognitive-affective behavior therapy. 2007 APA psychotherapy series I : systems of psychotherapy: APA psychotherapy series. 1 videodisc (58 min.). In this session, Dr. Goldfried works with a 31-year-old woman who is struggling with expressing her feelings and being vulnerable in the most serious relationship she has had since her divorce 8 years earlier. DVD 5932
Cognitive-behavior therapy. 2006 APA psychotherapy videos: APA psychotherapy videos: APA psychotherapy series. 1 videodisc (39 min.). "Dr. Jacqueline B. Persons demonstrates this frequently used system of psychotherapy. Dr. Persons uses a case conceptualization as a guide for choosing which standard cognitive-behavioral interventions to apply, and she adopts an active approach to helping clients solve problems. In this session, Dr. Persons works with a 29 year old woman who recently developed social phobia. Together they work to overcome her fears through the use of exposure exercises and strategies for making social interactions more manageable."--APA's website. DVD 4322
Cognitive neuroscience. 2001. Discovering psychology. 1 videodisc (ca. 60 min.). Part of a 26-part introductory course in psychology that offers an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior and features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations. Program 25 represents the attempt to understand mental processes at the level of the brain's functioning and not merely from information-processing models and theories. It relies heavily on an empirical analysis of what is happening in the brain, and where, when a person thinks, reasons, decides, judges, encodes information, recalls information, learns, and solves problems. Program 26 discusses how culture shapes our thinking, feeling and actions. Cultural psychology integrates cross-cultural research with social and personality psychology, anthropology, and other social sciences. Its main new perspective is centered on how cultures construct selves and other central aspects of individual personality, beliefs, values, and emotions--much of what we are and do. This area has become more important in both psychology and American society with the globalization of our planet, increasing interaction of people from different cultural backgrounds, and emerging issues of diversity. DVD 5997
A dangerous method. 2012. 1 videodisc (99 min.). The relationship between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung and his mentor Sigmund Freud is torn apart when Sabina Spielrein, a troubled but beautiful young woman, comes between them and forever changes the face of modern thought. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3457
Das experiment. 2003. 1 videodisc (119 min.). A dramatization of an experiment by Stanford University in 1971 which asked for 24 male students to volunteer for a simulated prison experience as prisoners or guards to determine behavioral and psychological consequences. The original time frame was two weeks. The experiment was terminated after six days. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3936
Der junge Freud Young Dr. Freud. 2004. 1 videodisc (98 min.). Dramatization of Sigmund Freud's early years as student, laboratory researcher, physician, and husband, culminating in his discoveries of the subconscious basis of human behavior. Draws on Freud's letters and recollections together with those of his colleagues in Vienna, Paris, and Berlin. DVD 9251
The Developing child. 2001. Discovering psychology. 1 videodisc (ca. 120 min.). Part of a 26-part introductory course in psychology that offers an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior and features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations. Program 5 looks at how both heredity and environment contribute to the development of children and the nature vs. nurture debate. Program 6 describes how psychologists search for truths about the mind, society, and culture by studying how children develop complex language skills and use language in social communication. Program 7 deals with how we transform raw sensory data into meaningful impressions. Also focuses on the ways personal experience, our culture, and interests influence our perceptions. Program 8 describes the principles of classical and operant conditioning to show how learning occurs. Features the research of Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson and Skinner. DVD 5992
Diagnosing difference. 2009. 1 videodisc (64 min.). A documentary film featuring thirteen transgender and genderqueer scholars, artists, and activists discussing the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis on their lives and communities. DVD 10577
Dialectical behavior therapy with adolescents with multiple problems. 2008. APA psychotherapy video series. Series IX, Children and adolescents: APA psychotherapy videos series 9. 1 videodisc (100 min.). In Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents With Multiple Problems, Alec L. Miller demonstrates this compassionate, principle-based therapy for clients who have difficulty regulating emotions and behaviors. Emotional dysregulation is common among adolescents, often leading them to self-injurious behavior, including suicide. Studies have shown that dialectical behavior therapy can significantly reduce suicide attempts and help adolescent clients deal with multiple problems. In this session, Dr. Miller works with a 17-year-old boy who is depressed, abusing marijuana, and who has recently contemplated suicide. Dr. Miller highlights the client's strengths while trying to obtain commitment to treatment in order to reduce his depression and marijuana use and build a life worth living. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a compassionate, principle-based psychotherapy for suicidal multiproblem, multidiagnostic individuals who have significant difficulty regulating emotions and behaviors. Developed by Marsha Linehan, DBT was first introduced over a dozen years ago as a treatment for suicidal and self-injurious individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). DVD 3616
Die Welle = The wave. 2011. 1 videodisc (107 min.). During project week, a popular and unorthodox high school teacher, in an attempt to stir up his lethargic students, devises an experiment that will explain what totalitarianism is and how it works. What begins with harmless notions about discipline and community builds into a real movement: the Wave. The teacher decides to break off the experiment. But it may be too late; the Wave has taken on a life of its own and is out of control. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9762
Discovering the human brain new pathways to neuroscience. 2007. Neuroscience series. 1 videodisc (29 min.). "Using the resources of the Brain Mapping Center of UCLA, this film illustrates the development of neuroscience from its classical reliance on information from brain injuries and autopsies through the new insights discovered with electronic microscopes, EEG equipment, PET scans and MRI machines. Examples of current research that utilize these tools are presented including a study on the role of mirror neurons in autism and mapping of a woman's several language centers before surgery for a brain tumor. Animations and graphics review the gross anatomy of the brain and the actions of its neurons."--Container. DVD 4761 and Streaming video.
Emotion-focused therapy for depression. 2004. American Psychological Association. Series II, Specific treatments for specific populations: APA psychological videotape series II. 1 videodisc (163 min.). "Leslie S. Greenberg demonstrates an exciting new approach to helping clients live in harmony with their emotions. Rather than desiring to control or avoid emotions, clients can learn that emotions tell us what is important in a situation and act as guides to what we need or want. Watch actual clients experience emotions as they arise in the safety of the therapy session and discover the value of greater awareness and more flexible management of emotions, with the goal of attaining emotional wisdom.". DVD 3613
Ethnocultural psychotherapy. 1994. APA psychotherapy series I : systems of psychotherapy: APA psychotherapy series I. 1 videodisc (46 min.). Lillian Comas-Diaz conducts a mock therapy session utilizing an ethnocultural psychotherapy framework. This approach centers on the recognition, recovery, and use of the client's strengths to resolve those areas that are considered problematic. DVD 3612
Everybody rides the carousel a view of the stages of life. 1975. 1 videodisc (72 min.). Presents in animation the eight stages of life in the phases of personality development described by psychologist Erik Erikson. Includes a variety of open-ended situations. DVD 5417
Experiential psychotherapy. 2006 APA psychotherapy series I : systems of psychotherapy: APA psychotherapy series. 1 videodisc (58 min.). Alvin R. Mahrer conducts a mock therapy session that illustrates the experiential theoretical approach which involves the experience of strong feelings, integration of inner experiences, finding appropriate earlier life scenes, and becoming the new person in the present. DVD 5934
Exploring qualitative methods. 2006. Research methods in the social sciences. 1 videodisc (46 min.). Uses psychological research into dreaming to explore qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Presents experiments that revolve around sleep and dreams that illuminate issues related to collecting and utilizing qualitative data. Shows how to create effective questionnaires, prepare participant interviews, assemble case studies, and conduct observational studies. Covers the use of content analysis and explores the correlational method, employed to make qualitative data more meaningful. DVD 4434
Faces of the enemy. 200. 1 video file (57 min.). Award winning documentary, Faces of the enemy, looks at the universal concepts of enmity which spark and fuel conflicts around the world. Follows author and commentator Sam Keen in an investigation of the ways in which societies and governments create and use enemy images. DVD 2007 and Streaming video.
Feminist therapy. 1994. American Psychological Association Series I: Systems of Psychotherapy. 1 videodisc (42 min.). In this session, Dr. Brown works with a woman recently convicted of narcotics charges. She helps the client to discern how past experiences have shaped her current negative self-narrative. This DVD features a client portrayed by an actor on the basis of actual case material. -- Container. DVD 5935
The first signs of Washoe. 1976. Nova series. 1 videodisc (59 min.). Allen and Trixie Gardner work with a baby chimpanzee who has been taught to communicate through sign language. Research with other chimpanzees is shown and it is suggested that from this research into the learning process, new approaches will be learned for teaching the disabled and retarded. DVD 5946
Foundations Cortical organization and specialization ; Vision and movement ; Circadian rhythms, sleep and dreaming. 2008. Brain teaching modules series: Brain teaching modules series. 1 videodisc (180 min.). Developed from the original series The Brain, these flexible resources offer extensive footage and research into the inner workings of this amazing human organ, including findings on Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson's disease, and many other topics. The modules are appropriate for use in general and advanced courses in psychology, abnormal and physiological psychology, neuropsychology, and occupational therapy. This disc includes modules on Organization and Evaluation of Brain Function, The Effects of Hormones and the Environment on Brain Development, Gender Development: Social Influences, Intelligence and Culture, The Divided Brain, Language and Speech: Broca's and Wernicke's Areas, Brain Anomaly and Plasticity: Hydrocephalus, Visual Information Processing: Elementary Concepts, Visual Information Processing: Perception, Perception: Inverted Vision, Sensory-Motor Integration, Huntington's Disease, Sleep and Circadian Rhythms, Sleep: Brain Functions, and REM Sleep and Dreaming. DVD 7761
The hidden face of fear. 2008. 1 streaming video file (53 min.). A film demonstrating how neuroscientists and psychologists have studied the traumatic impact of 9/11 on the survivors, to improve understanding of how fear affects the human brain. Featuring interviews with both survivors and the involved researchers at New York University's Center for the Neuroscience of Fear and Anxiety. Streaming video.
Homo sapiens 1900. 2004. 1 videodisc (85 min.). Examines the history of eugenics, racial hygiene and the ideas of the "new man," as developed in the early 20th century in Germany and the Soviet Union. In Germany, race hygiene focused on the body, on corporal beauty and the ideal form, while in the Soviet Union, eugenic interest focused on the brain and intellect. DVD 1151
How happy can you be? 2005. Psychology video online. 1 streaming video file (52 min.). Combines interviews with leading researchers in the positive psychology field with archival footage, scientific experiments, statistical data from the World Database of Happiness, questionnaires submitted during anthropological field trips, the filmmaker's family history and her bemused reflections on what she learns. Streaming video.
Human brain development nature and nurture. 2007. Neuroscience series: Neuroscience series (San Luis Obispo, Calif.). 1 videodisc (30 min.). "The fascinating interplay of genetic predispositions and experience in the development of the brain after birth is demonstrated in this film produced at the Brain Development Laboratory at the University of Oregon"--Container. DVD 4762 and Streaming video.
The human spark. 2010. 1 videodisc (180 min.). Alan Alda takes a look at how humans first appeared on Earth millions of years ago, and how our species not only survived, but thrived, through some unimaginable conditions. Alda visits with dozens of scientists on three continents, and participates directly in many experiments - including the detailed examination of his own brain. DVD 7695 and Streaming video.