Course Schedule (Subject to Change)

Personality Psychology (Psych 255) Spring, 2005

Instructor: Mike Furr Office: Greene 437 Office hours: M, W, F – 2:00-3:00 Phone: 758-5024 Email: [email protected] Web page: http://www.wfu.edu/~furrrm

The science of Personality Psychology addresses three broad issues. The first is who are we, as individuals? This question centers around the ways that we can conceptualize our cognitive, emotional, motivational, and social factors similarities and differences. The second issue is how do we become who we are? How do different aspects of our physiology relate to our personality, and how does our environment shape us? The third issue is how is ‘who we are’ related to ‘what we do’? How are our traits, thoughts, and emotions related to our actual behavior? There are three broad goals for the course. The first is for you to understand what personality psychologists think. We will cover classic and current theories, research, and applications of Personality psychology. The second is for you to learn how personality psychologists study their field scientifically. We will discuss the procedures used to test theories and to study issues related to personality. The third is to (hopefully) recognize some relevance of personality psychology for your personal and/or professional life. As you’ll see, personality psychology draws on and integrates a diverse range of topics – topics such as biology, art, work, social relationships, physical health, psychological health, cognition, free will, culture, dreams, sex, and aggression.

Grades: Your grade will be based on four tests (20% for your lowest score, 30% for your highes, 25% each)

Laptops: Laptops are not to be used in class, unless you receive specific permission from me. I apologize if this seems heavy-handed, but experience suggests that some/many students do not resist the internet temptation, which creates a distraction for them and for others.

Readings:

Textbook: Funder, D. C. (2004). The Personality Puzzle (3rd Ed). New York, NY: Norton.

Selections from: Larson & Buss (2002). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Other readings are available through the class web page or the library’s reserve system. Factor Analysis reading Harris, J. R. (2000). Context-specific learning, personality and birth order. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 9, 174-177. Sheldon, K. M, Elliot, A. J, Kim, Y., & Kasser, T. (2001). What is satisfying about satisfying events? Testing 10 candidate psychological needs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 325-339. From Current Directions in Personality Psychology (2005).  Baumeister, R. F., Bushman B. J., & Campbell, W. K. – Self-esteem, narcissism, and aggression: Does violence results from low self-esteem or from threatened egotism?  Brody, G. H. – Siblings’ direct and indirect contributions to child development  Fleeson, W. – Moving personality beyond the person-situation debate. Course Schedule (subject to change)

Date Topic Reading

8/27-8/29 Introduction to course & personality psychology F 1

How to Study Personality Objectively 9/1, 9/3 Personality Assessment F 2, F 5, BFI ratings 9/5, 9/8 Research Design and Interpretation F 3 9/8 Popular theories of personality (astrology, birth order, etc)

How People Differ – The Broad Strokes (Trait approach)? 9/10 – 9/15 What are traits? What are the basic traits? F 4, Factor Analysis, LB 270-275, 287-292, 9/17-9/22 Are traits related to anything important? – Love, Work, Death F 7, LB 15 9/24 Test 1

How Do We Become Who We Are? 9/26-10/1 Biology (brain structures, biochemistry, genes, evolution) F 8, F 9 10/3-10/8 Environment (conditioning, family, & culture) F 477-489, F 14, Brody 10/10-10/15 Personality Change LB 324-339 10/20 Test 2

Depth Psychology – unconscious processes, motivation, well-being 10/22-10/27 Psychoanalytic theory (Freud) F 10, F 11 10/29-11/3 Neo-analytic approaches F 12, Harris 11/5-11/10 Humanistic approaches F 13, Sheldon et al. 11/12 Test 3

Thinking & Behavior (Social-Cognitive approaches) & Disorders 11/14-11/19 Cognitive approaches F, 495-514, F 16, Fleeson 11/21-24, Self F 17, 12/1 Baumeister et al 12/3-12/5 Personality Disorders. F18 Sat 12/13 Test 4 (Final Exam) 2:00 F19