Psychology 238

Required Textbook:

Funder, D. C. (2007). The Personality Puzzle, 4th edition. New York: W W. Norton & Co.

Course Materials on the Web:

The syllabus and other course materials are available on ANGEL, https://angel.psu.edu/ , only for students who are registered in the course.

Cancellations due to Weather:

Please read the campus procedures concerning delay or cancellation of classes due to weather conditions at: http://www2.ds.psu.edu/Home/WeatherCampusClosings.html .
If the campus announces a delay due to weather, this will not affect our class because the shortened class periods occur only before noon. Obviously, if the campus announces cancellation due to weather, we will not be meeting. If the weather is bad but the campus does not announce a cancellation, and you believe that driving conditions are too dangerous for you, please do not risk your life for the sake of class. This is a valuable class, but your life is more important! 
 

Course Description:

Personality psychology, or personology, is the scientific study of the whole person. Through lecture and discussion, this course compares and contrasts the major views of personality according the root ideas in the personological tradition: motivation, personality development, self-knowledge, unconscious processes, psychological adjustment, and the relationship between the individual and society.

This course is organized into six sections that follow the structure of the textbook. Part I of the course covers the goals of personality psychology, the kinds of data gathered in personality research, and personality research methods.

Part II of the course covers the trait approach to personality. This section considers what kind of consistency is necessary to ascribe a personality trait to someone and examines behavioral consistency and inconsistency across situations. It also looks at how personality psychologists measure traits with tests and how ordinary people make judgments about personality traits in everyday life. Finally, this section reviews research on personality traits and types.

Part III of the course is a very short unit on biological approaches to personality (the brain, biochemistry, genetics, and evolution).

Part IV of the course covers what is called psychoanalytic or depth psychology. Psychoanalysis—the school of thought founded by Sigmund Freud—emphasizes irrational influences from the hidden part of the mind called the unconscious. The more general term for personality theories that emphasize influences hidden deep within the unconscious is depth psychology. Important depth psychologists after Freud include Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Erik Erikson, and the ego psychologists. Modern research on the unconscious and on attachment relationships arose in part because of psychoanalysis.

Because Part III is so short, the third exam in the course will cover both parts III and IV.

Part V of the course, the phenomenological perspective, moves away from biological and unconscious influences. In contrast, this section considers the roles of experience, awareness and culture on personality. Part V begins by explaining the role of the European existential philosophers on the study of awareness and freedom. Next it moves on to American psychologists who emphasized awareness, including the humanists (Gordon Allport, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow), cognitive theorist George Kelly, and the modern positive psychologists.

The final portion of the course begins with the role of learning in personality. Due to time constraints, we will skip Chapter 16 on personality processes. Part VI next covers the nature of the self and looks at personality disorders. It ends with a review of the major ideas in the course.

The fourth exam will cover both Parts V and VI.

Objectives:

As you work through this course, you will be expected to become familiar enough with personality research and the five basic approaches to personality (biological, trait, psychoanalytic, phenomenological, and learning) to:

• list the questions of greatest interest to each approach;
• describe the preliminary answers to the questions asked within each approach;
• describe the position of each approach on the root ideas;
• compare and contrast the five approaches;
• evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

Exams:

Each exam consists of 40 multiple-choice questions worth one point each. Although each exam focuses on the material immediately prior to it, the second, third, and fourth exams are cumulative in the sense that new material is related to previous material. For example, you cannot learn about types of personality data only for the first exam and then forget about this concept, because we will be talking about personality data throughout the course. In order to compare the ideas of American and European personality psychologists, you have to remember enough about Freud after the third exam to compare his ideas to the American theories discussed in the fourth section of the course. And so forth.

To help prepare yourself for the exams, you can visit the textbook publisher’s Web site, http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/puzzle/activities/index.asp , which contains practice multiple choice quizzes for each chapter. Some of the multiple choice questions from these quizzes will appear on the course examinations.

Examinations are open book, open notes. Do not be misled, however, into thinking that you can look up the answer to every question during the test, because you will not have enough time to do this. There is a 50-minute time limit for each exam. Furthermore, many of the exam questions are not the kind that test for a simple, factual answer that can be looked up. Instead, you will sometimes be asked to apply what you have learned to a new situation. For example, a question might describe a research study and ask you to identify what kind of data is being gathered, based on the descriptions of different kinds of personality data described in the textbook. You therefore need to understand the ideas in the course, not just memorize facts that can be looked up. It would probably be a good idea to prepare for exams as if you were not able to refer to notes or the book, so that you have a firm grasp of the material. Then, during the exam, you can double-check on your answers if need be.

Grades:

Your grades will be based on the total points you earn on the four multiple-choice examsg:
 

Grades can be adjusted upward for students who demonstrate understanding of the course material in class projects and discussions.

Course Outline:

Reading assignments should be completed before the topic is discussed in class. 

Code of Conduct and Statement of Academic Integrity:

Penn State Students are expected to abide by the University’s Code of Conduct. A Web site maintained by the Division of Judicial Affairs describes appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and the consequences of misconduct.

One of the essential values of every university is academic integrity. Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University community are expected to act in accordance with this principle. Consistent with this expectation, students should act with personal integrity, respect other students' dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts. Academic integrity includes a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Such acts of dishonesty violate the fundamental ethical principles of the University community and compromise the worth of work completed by others. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitation of acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, and tampering with the academic work of other students (also see Faculty Senate Policy 49-20 ). Violating academic integrity is considered a serious offense by the University and is treated accordingly. Procedures for dealing with students suspected of violating academic integrity are described in Faculty Senate Academic Integrity Procedure G9.

Penn State DuBois welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for modifications and/or reasonable accommodations in this course, please contact The Office for Disability Services, Diana Kreydt, 110G DEF Building, at 372-3037 or dlk34@psu.edu.

For further information regarding the Office of Disability Services, visit their web site at www.equity.psu.edu/ods/ . Instructors should be notified as early in the semester as possible regarding the need for modification and/or reasonable accommodations.