Discovering Psychology: Updated Edition

This classic series of short – around 30-minute – psychology films narrated by Philip Zimbardo and aimed at an Introductory College / High School audience originally premiered in 1990 and is now available in an “updated edition” published in 2001. In this latter edition 17 of the 26 films were updated to include more-recent research – although from the current vantage-point of 2025 “more-recent” invariably means a little-bit-dated.

While this is obviously true of the presentation – from the hair and clothing styles to the featured technologies – it’s also true of changing psychological knowledge, so if you plan to use any of the films in your classroom it’s best to familiarise yourself with the content so you can update anything that needs clarification.

Three “new” films were added to the original collection – Applying Psychology in Life, Cognitive Neuroscience and Cultural Psychology – to reflect more-recent developments in psychology.

Each programme in the series focuses on a particular area of psychological research – The Self, Testing and Intelligence, Sex and Gender, Psychopathology and the like – and generally features a mix of psychological scientists, practitioners and theorists explaining their research and theoretical positions. Use is also made of classic archival footage featuring people like Watson and Pavlov.