Daryl H. Stevenson, PhD

Professor of Psychology       309 Academic Building      585-567-9304

daryl.stevenson@houghton.edu

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Psy 301  Psychology of Personality

(3 credit hours)

Course Home Page--Spring 2004

Note: Not all links may be active in this document.  It is designed only for creating a hard copy.

Description and Objectives	Requirements	Semester Schedule	Extra Credit Possibilities
General Notes and Information	Checklist and Grading Scale for Personal Project	Personal Record of Course Points	Special Bonus

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Description and Objectives

       Numerous theories have been advanced to explain the construct of personality.  This course describes many of the possible definitions and dimensions of personality from a variety of theoretical frameworks.  Through lecture, discussions, and class activities and projects, this course compares and contrasts personality using five basic approaches: psychoanalytic, neo-psychoanalytic, trait, humanistic, and behavioral/social-learning.  While the emphasis will be on theoretical conceptions, we also review personality assessment and research associated with each perspective.

    The study of personality focuses on three inter-related ideas:  a) what is the nature of human nature?  That is, what are the core dimensions that we share in common that make us human? b) How shall we explain the differences among us--the things that make us unique from all other humans?  c) What role does the situation play in the interaction of one's personal dispositions with the outside environment?   We will examine all three aspects of personality and be satisfied with understanding the theoretical and research issues involved, rather than achieve some clear reconciliation.

    The course is designed to help students gain an appreciation for the ambiguity which exists in definitions of personality, and the difficulties in this particular area of study.  Students will learn the essentials of several different theories of personality, and the implications for assessment and research.  Students will gain understanding of how the theories are both similar and different, their limitations, and the implications for interpersonal relationships.  Students should increase their analytical thinking and writing skills relative to the study of personality, including research skills using the Internet and cooperative student learning.  Finally, students will increase awareness of their own developmental journey by the application of theoretical constructs to their own lives.

 

Requirements

1.   Read the designated portions of the following texts:

        Carducci, B. J. (1998) The Psychology of Personality.  Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

        Carducci, B. J. (1998) Study Guide for the Psychology of Personality.  Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole

        Frick, W. B. (1991). Personality Theories: Journeys into self. (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.       

2.   Three examinations.  The final exam (exam #3) is not comprehensive.

3.   Quizzes.  Quizzes may be given on the scheduled first day we discuss a new chapter of the main text.  (The exceptions are on the days just after exams one and two---the quizzes may be on the second day following the exam.)  Please keep up with your reading.  Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. Quizzes may have items from your Study Guide, so it may be wise to review these.

4.   Frick Assignments:  All students will complete a total of five (5) units in the Frick text.  Unit one will be completed by all students (“Childhood Recollections and Experiences”) by February 4.  Then, you will have a choice of completing four more from the units in the book. For maximum learning, make every effort to complete a unit in Frick while we are studying that theory in the Carducci text.  For example, do the Adler unit while we are reading and discussing chapter 4 (Jung and Adler) in Carducci.  [Special note:  If you have a used Frick text, and a unit has handwritten entries, cross out every page of the handwritten material so the instructor knows it is not your work.  Then, go ahead and complete other units of your choice in the book.  However, if you desire to complete a unit somebody has filled in, retype the unit questions on your computer, complete the answers, and then turn in the printout with the book at the designated time. All students will turn the books in for review, and the books will be returned to you. Know that they are for your eyes and my eyes only.

      Here are several other important points to remember about the Frick assignments:

      (a)  Do not carry out any particular exercise in a unit that calls for group discussion or involvement.  Simply omit that small section of the unit.  Your work on these units are strictly for your eyes and the instructor's eyes only. All that you write will be confidential.  However, we may take some class time to discuss the Frick assignments in a general way.

      (b)  Be prepared to hand in your Frick text at the designated times.  The “grace period” (discussed later in this syllabus) does not apply to the handwritten exercises in the Frick text.  Handing your book in late will mean that you lose some credit.

      (c)  On the outside of the front cover, write your name at the top on the white sticker which will be provided.

      (d)  Evaluation of these experiential exercises will depend on completeness (i.e. general effort), neatness and timeliness, rather than content.  Each of the five (5) assignments will count 10 points toward the final grade.

5.    Class Folder. As a class, we will share an email class or public folder to communicate between classes and to carry on exchanges about questions and topics which get  posted.  Therefore it is important for you to check the folder at least once every 24 hours.  At times the instructor will post an internet or web site that relates to our course, along with several questions for discussion.  Or, you may be asked to search for a site that gives help in learning about the topic.  You are expected to make a minimum of 5 quality entries. Any postings of a mini-project (see below) do not count toward this total of 5 entries.   Grading for this level of active participation can result in a possible total of 25 points (5 points for each of 5 entries).   Decisions about credit are solely at the instructor’s discretion.  Responding to questions as part of an ongoing discussion, and finding/posting a new web site for others to explore, are intended to be an integral part of this course.  Your involvement here is part of the overall fun and participation in the course.  Cute greetings and precious language (e.g., "Yo dudes, how ya duen?") are not tolerated (receives no credit), nor are entries without proper punctuation.  Consider it an academic exercise and not just a communication among close friends.

[Special note 1 about accessing the discussion folder: The folder has been added to your e-mail account.  It will show up in the left panel of your screen as a folder labeled Psychology of Personality under Public Folders.  Follow this sequence: click on the plus sign next to Public Folders, then click on the plus signs for All Public Folders...Academic...Classes...Stevenson.D.  Click on "Psychology of Personality" and you are there.  The first messages from me explain several basic things to know.  Also, please reply according to the instructions there.]

[Special note 2 about form and frequency:  First, always include the date and time of your entry at the beginning of your entry, because it is not automatically done by your computer. We don't typically do that on emails, but, for this assignment, we will.  Second, you may not make more than one entry per day for credit. One recent semester a student made five entries during the final few minutes of the last day of classes and expected to get credit for it!   Of course, no one read them and it defeated the purpose of the assignment. So, the last day for entries is April 23 at 5 pm.]

6.   Personal Project or Case Study.  Choose one of the following options as your major project.   Both would take time and energy to complete, and both would be interesting, but do not do both. You will need to indicate your choice by February  9, so be thinking about this.

      a)   Personal Project.  Complete two standardized personality instruments: the NEO-PI-R and the 16PF.  After you complete both instruments by March 5, you will receive a more extensive handout describing how to proceed to finish the 7-8 page project.  It will involve recruiting several family members or friends to participate--people who know you well.  The emphasis is on evaluating your own personality by making predictions of your own profile and then comparing this to the results of the two instruments.  The handout is very detailed (about 12 pages) and will take you through the process step by step.

      b)  Case Study.  A written case study is a time-tested method of personality research, but is only "empirical" in a loose sense of the term.  There are many instances of individuals being evaluated according to some theoretical perspective, such as Freud's Cases on Hysteria and Allport's Letters to Jenny.  Such cases may also be viewed as a means to evaluate the theory's usefulness.   This project involves writing a 7-8 page case study on someone much older and whom you know very well.  You will select one theory, from among those we study in this course, and use information from your subject's life pattern of personality development to evaluate the theory.  Thus you are not evaluating the person but the theory.  A separate handout given later will explain the steps to follow.

 

Semester Schedule

Date	Topic	Readings and Due Dates
January  12	Introduction/orientation
14	What is your personality? Do you have one?	Read and follow handout--bring printout next class
16, 19	Overview of issues	Carducci Preface; ch 1
21, 23, 26	Personality assessment	ch 2: quiz?
28, 30, February 2, 4, 6	Freud's psychodynamic view: Do you have an unconscious?	ch 3: quiz?  Unit One of Frick due the 4th
9, 11, 13	Jung's and Adler's  neo-analytic views:  Are these really different from Freud?   (Note:  KinHo Chan, PhD meeting tonight for extra credit)	ch 4: quiz? Personal Project or Case Study decision due the 9th.
16	Exam #1	chs 1-4 on the exam
18, 20, March 1	Rogers view: Do you experience phenomenology?	ch 6: quiz on the 20th?
3, 5	Maslow's view:  Are you a humanist?	ch 7a (not the Kelly material):  quiz? Complete the two Project instruments by Mar 5 (if doing this option)
8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24	Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, Costa & McCrae views on trait : How many?	ch 8: quiz?
26	Exam #2	exam on chs 6,7a, 8
29, 31, April 2, 5	Buss & Plomin's (and others) biological view: In the genes?	ch 9: quiz on the 31st?
7, 14	Skinner's behavioral view: Nothing buttery? (huh?!)	ch 10: quiz?
16, 19, 21, 23, 26	Rotter, Bandura, & Mischel's social-cognitive views: Person or situation?	ch 11: quiz?  Project or Case Study due on 19th....All extra mini-projects due the 21st.... Final class folder entries by 5 pm 23rd: note the guidelines elsewhere in the syllabus....All Frick books due the 26th.
28	The future of the personality concept
29	Reading Day
29 through May 4	Exam #3	exam #3  time/date TBA

 

General Notes and Information

1.   All papers are to be typed, double spaced, and stapled in upper left corner.  The exception is the extra credit mini-project which may be single spaced.  No paper clips and no colorful plastic covers, please.

2.   Use APA format, which means about one inch margins, all pages numbered except the first, non-sexist language as much as possible, and proper bibliographic citation form.

3.   The due dates for the Personal Project/Case Study is the beginning of a 7-calendar-day grace period during which your paper may be turned in without penalty.  Seven days after the listed due date, credit begins to diminish per calendar day.  I suggest you shoot for the listed dates rather than the seventh day after that date, to spare yourself the agony of trying to meet an absolute deadline.  This system has the advantage of allowing you to adjust your schedule in accordance with your other coursework. This grace period does not apply to any other due dates, such as for the Frick exercises, mini-projects, or class folder entries.

4.   Final due date for any of the mini-projects is April 21, but earlier is preferable.

5.   The heading on your Personal Project or Case Study paper should include your name, course title, the due date listed on the "semester schedule" and the actual date when placed in my hands.

6.         While I know it may be tempting to ask to take the final exam earlier, please do not ask.  I will comply with the college schedule.  Thank you for understanding my need to be just and fair to all students.  Plan your transportation home for holidays well in advance so you are not “forced” to ride home with someone leaving before your classes have met.

 7.        Good grammar, proper sentence construction, and appropriate paragraph usage are important!  Therefore, a lack of these is considered poor form and basically intolerable.  Always proofread your papers to double check for errors, including “typos.”  There is no such thing as a paper with “good content” when that content is communicated poorly.

 8.  I expect you to use the Internet as you research your class folder issues.  Take time to explore psychology sites and use search engines to find information you can use.  For example, you might want to learn more about a particular theory, such as Carl Rogers, to research a short "Rest of the Story" paper.

      Here are a few web sites that are helpful to psychology students:

            URL                                                                     Site Name

(a)  http://pmc.psych.nwu.edu/personality.html           The Personality Project  

(b)  http://www.psychwww.com                                    Psych Web             

(c)  http://www.apa.org                                                AmPsychAssoc        

(d)   http://www.psychwatch.com                                  Psychwatch

 

Extra Credit Possibilities

                            Here are several ways by which you may gain some extra credit in this course, if you have completed (or expect to complete) all of the required elements of the course.  That is, you may not substitute some extra credit points in lieu of writing one of the required papers or taking an exam.

      a)   Attendance at class is presumed and you are responsible for information given in this forum.  But you can get extra credit for being there!  We keep records of attendance every day, but six class periods will be selected randomly--three at mid-semester and three at the end.  You will receive one point for each of those random days you were present, and, if you missed none of the six randomly selected days, you get a bonus of four points, for a total possible of 10 points extra credit.  HOWEVER, if you miss more than four class periods for the entire semester, you forfeit all extra credit opportunities offered in this syllabus.

            (NOTE: It is your responsibility to be sure you have signed the attendance sheet each day, even if you happen to arrive late.  Once we have left the classroom, the attendance is decided for the day.  Thus someone may not explain to me at the next class meeting that she really was present, but forgot to sign in.  And while we are speaking about attendance, please know that your integrity is on the line and that the honor code should be followed when the sheet is passed around class.  You must sign your own initials only--and for that day only.)

         b)  KinHo Chan, PhD is a 1995 Houghton graduate. Currently he is teaching psychology at Hartwick College and we have invited him to come speak to us on February 9, 2004.  His visit is co-sponsored by the Psychology Department, the Psychology Club, and our Psi Chi chapter (the psychology Honor Society). We plan to have a meal with him (and his wife) and then hear remarks about his experiences at Houghton, at Purdue (his PhD is in experimental neuroscience), and at Hartwick.  He will also tell us about his research, his Christian faith, and be open for any questions from interested psychology students.  You are invited to join us that evening, and if you write a 500 word creative summary essay of his remarks, you can achieve 3 extra credit points. If you ask a high quality, insightful question during the Q&A session, you may add an extra credit point, for a total of 4 possible.

              c)  Another way to achieve more substantial extra credits is to do one of the following three mini-projects.  Each would take about the same amount of time, in my judgment, and either one can earn up to 15 extra credit points, if done well.  Evaluation will be 15=superior, 13-14=very good, 11-12=acceptable, 10=barely acceptable (below 10 receives no credit).   Remember, you do not have to do any of these!!

                        1) Rorschach Ink Blot  mini-project.  Read about Hermann Rorschach and how he got started using ink blots.  Among any other sites, check out <www.phil.gu.se/fu/ro.html>.  This project involves first understanding about the background, theory, and technique of "Rorschaching," then moving ahead to make your own “instrument,” collecting data from some friends, and finally completing a three page summary of your findings.  What I am about to ask you to do is not the way a true Rorschacher would proceed.  There are very complex scoring procedures.  The first time I gave a full Rorschach (ten blots) it took me more than 12 hours to score and interpret the results.  With practice I got it down to several hours.  So, do not assume your results will confirm or disconfirm the usefulness of the Rorschach technique.

                        First, make ONE ink blot by folding a piece of full-sized, plain white paper in half and pouring a little black ink on one side of the fold. Then fold the paper down on the ink so a symmetrical ink blot appears in the middle of the page.  You may have to experiment a little and do it several times before you have a usable blot. Make about 12 photocopies of your blot after it dries.

                        Standardize the ink blot by asking ten friends, each interviewed separately, to look at the blot as you say these words exactly: “What might this be?”  Hand them one copy, and as they talk, have a separate copy on which you can write.  Record on your copy--one clean one for each friend--their descriptions of what they say and indicate where they see it.

                        Summarize your findings in a short paper of about 750 words, which is normally about three double-spaced pages.  However, you should single-space this assignment because it will be posted in the shared folder and take less space. The first 25% of the paper should be introduction and a summary of what you found out about Hermann Rorschach and his technique.  In the middle 50% explain any common or typical responses to the blot, compare the number and types of content in their responses, and perhaps share one or two unique responses.  Knowing your friends, you might try categorizing them beforehand as, say, introverts versus extraverts, and see if one group gives different responses from the other.  Or, select some other way to make pre-test categories for comparison (see me, I have some ideas).  The final 25% should give your reactions to doing all this and what you learned.

                        Post your paper in our class email folder for all of us to read.  The same day send a hard copy to me with a copy of the blot.  Both must be done for consideration of extra credit. (Your classmates will want to see your blot, so let’s make an overhead of it and we will view it in class.)  I hope you find the activity enjoyable and instructive, even though it is not highly reliable and valid.

                        2) Biography mini-project.  There are many dozens of personality psychologists around the country (and world) who specifically teach and research many of the concepts we learn about in this course.  One fun website by Dr. G. Scott Acton, of Northwestern University, is called Great Ideas in Personality.  Use the following address to go to his list of active researchers in personality, with hyperlinks to their home pages:

                        <www.personalityresearch.org >

                        Click on "psychologists" under the "General Personality" category at the left of the home page. Select one of these researchers on whom to write a short biography to post in the class folder.  However, do not select any of the following six researchers, since students recently did:  J. Michael Bailey, Henry Stein, Robert Sternberg, Howard Friedman, Timothy Trull, Lisa Feldman Barrett. To avoid two students selecting the same person, announce your selection in the class folder early in the semester.  No one else may use your researcher for this mini-project.  Your report will be no more than 750 words (about three double-spaced pages) but you may use single-spacing to save space when you post it in the shared folder.

                        The first 25% of the report will be about the researcher from information you gather from his/her website.  The middle 50% will discuss his/her current research interests, either gleaned from your web search or by e-mailing the researcher and finding out! If you do use e-mail for contact, explain who you are very briefly, where you go to school, and that you are doing a report on his/her general research program. (Of course it would be helpful for you to have read at least one article by the psychologist so you know something about the line of research.  These will probably be listed online in the author’s curriculum vitae.)  Ask simply: “What is your current research project and what are you hoping to find? Are your students involved, and if so, how?”  That should be enough information.  You don’t want to ask for an extensive response--make it short and courteous. The final 25% will be your reaction to this little project and what you have learned by doing it.

                        Post the report in the class folder and the same day send a hard copy to me.  It must be filed both places for the credit.  Make it creative, fun-to-read, and even humorous, if that is your style.

                              3)  “The Rest of the Story…” Paper.   Yet another option is to write a 500-750 word paper following the style and format which Paul Harvey does when he creates his “The Rest of the Story” radio spots.  You have     probably heard Harvey tell an interesting episode in a person’s life (unknown and cleverly disguised , at first).  At the end, the famous person’s identity is revealed in such a way as to create the surprise ending.  The last words usually are, “ … and now you know the rest of the story.” Your task is to read about the life of one of the theorists we study (through Internet sources or library sources) and write a light-hearted, factual, and perhaps clever, paper which is similar in style to Paul Harvey’s famous stories, but just a bit longer.  Two examples created by Paul Harvey are presented below.  They illustrate how informal, fun, and detailed you might be in crafting your "Rest of the Story" paper.   Or, you can hear current radio spots on WHAM 1180 AM (from Rochester) at 8:30 am and 5:30 pm.  When you choose to write this option, submit the paper on hard copy, and the same day, post the paper in the class folder (be sure it is single spaced to save space).  As with the other two options, the extra credit may total up to 15 points.

            The following theorists are on the approved list: Freud, Adler, Jung, Horney, Allport, Eysenck, Cattell, McCrae, Costa, Maslow, Rogers, Buss, Plomin, Skinner, Bandura, Rotter, Mischel.

 

"The Rest of the Story" Examples

Following are two sample selections from Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt.  New York:  Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977.

Escape!

                        Of all the positions in the field of journalism, that of war correspondent is perhaps most dangerous.  Some are captured, some escape.  Some die.

            Twenty-five-year-old Leonard Spencer was the London Morning Post’s newest correspondent.  His assignment was the Boer War, in South Africa.

            Had young Leonard foreseen the peril awaiting him, he would probably have taken the assignment anyway.  That’s how Leonard was.

            About twenty miles from Ladysmith, Leonard could hear the booming guns.  He was aboard a British armored train that would take him as close to the front as he could get.

            The train got too close.  There was a sudden crash.  The train had struck a boulder on the tracks … a Boer booby trap.  It was an ambush!

            Immediately, a fusillade of rifle fire followed.  Surprised, British troops on the train fired back.

            And Leonard?  Leonard ignored the gunshots and exploding shells.  He jumped off the train, directed the British defense, helped to clear the wreckage.

            In fact, without the aid of this youthful correspondent from the Morning Post, the train might well have been lost and the British troops massacred.

            Instead, the wreckage was cleared, the train did pull out of the trap and carried a good many British soldiers with it.

            The one left behind to face the enemy…was Leonard!  No, the story does not end sadly there.

Leonard was captured, unharmed.  Even though Leonard was technically a war correspondent, the Boer commander was sufficiently impressed with his bravery…to have Leonard thrown into prison at Pretoria.

            The Pretoria prison was among the world’s most carefully guarded strongholds.  Still, that did not stop Leonard from plotting an escape with two other British captives.

            As darkness fell, the trio waited for their opportunity.  It was now pitch black.  The sentries exchanged their posts.  Leonard sprang across an open area, hurdled a fence of barbed-wire mesh.  When he looked back, there was no one.  His comrades had missed their chance!

            Three hundred miles of hostile territory lay between Leonard and his freedom.  For a while, he followed the railroad tracks to the east, stumbling alone, through the dark, dodging enemy patrols.  Tired, hungry, thirsty…Leonard plodded long into the night, knowing that, each painful foot of the way, one false step could be his last.

            The night turned to day and back to night again, until the days and nights blurred.

            Finally Leonard reached a mining town.  His luck wearing thin but holding, he knocked on the door of the only Britisher in the territory and was smuggled onto a train loaded with bales of wool.

            The train would carry him to the British consul.  To safety.

            And that’s how Leonard Spencer, the London Morning Post’s fledgling correspondent, got his story…and his reputation for daring.

            History has all but forgotten this incident in his life in order to make room for later glory.

            The fortune that once seemed to be wearing thin had only begun…and one day rubbed off on all of England.

            For the young correspondent who once upon a time saved a British armored train and escaped the enemy under impossible circumstances…continued to do the impossible for the rest of his life.

            We knew him as Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill!

            And now you know THE REST OF THE STORY.

 

Gentle John Henry

            Gentle John Henry was born in Griffin, Georgia, the son of a Confederate Army major.

            As a boy, John was taught proper bearing and courtly manners, befitting his prestigious family.  But one thing disturbed his daddy:  John could not hold his own in a fight.

            Fully grown in his late teens, John stood five ten, was painfully thin…and was tortured by his fear of physical violence.

            One day, the violence was unavoidable.

            He was roughed up by a ruffian over the right to use a swimming hole.  John’s father promptly sent him to Baltimore, to advance the boy’s education in a less threatening environment.  He was enrolled in the Baltimore Dental college.

            John was entirely agreeable.  With the hometown bullies at a safe distance, he studied diligently for two years and completed the course in dentistry.  Then he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he would begin his postgraduate practice.

            For a while, John worked alongside one of the most prominent dentists in that city, frequently taking over his elder colleague’s practice.

            Eventually homesickness set in and John, now twenty-two, returned to Griffin to establish himself there.

            It was a comfortable little office, at the southwestern corner of Solomon and State.  And though John’s life appeared to be complete, there was another personal concern which had been haunting him.  Tuberculosis.

            The already gentle young man became even more subdued as the worry over his health increased.  One day, a quaking, wan John Henry sat in the office of his general practitioner and was told he was going to die.

            John asked how long he had to live.

            The physician’s gaze fell.  He was quiet for a moment.  “Perhaps a drier climate might add a year or two.”  And that was all he said.

            So it seemed that gentle John Henry…the boy who couldn’t hold his own in a fight…the retiring young man who had fled violence to become a dentist…had returned home to a battle he could not win.

            But, just this once in his brief, unassuming, mild-mannered life, John Henry wanted to fight back!

            How could he die if he had not yet lived?

            Next day, John packed his bags and his dental instruments.  If even a few precious hours could be gained in a drier climate, then that’s where John would go.

            First stop, Dallas…on a one-way trip to immortality.

            It was a Dallas cowpoke dental patient who first met the new John Henry.  The cowboy complained about his treatment, the ensuing argument escalated, the dentist pulled out a .45…and blew the cowboy clean away.

            The frustration of a waning, yet-to-be-experienced life carved for the notorious itinerant Wild West gambler thirty notches on his gun.  John Henry would one day die of the respiratory disease that plagued him.  It was not a year…or two…but fourteen years later!  And in those fourteen years, John bet and blazed and blasted his way into the pages of western history.

            John Henry was once described as “the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever saw!”  This unequivocal praise…came from Marshal Wyatt Earp.

            Perhaps by now you’ve guessed that John Henry…the boy who couldn’t hold his own in a fight…the mild-mannered dentist who found life only after facing death…the much-feared, drinking, gambling, gun-slinging friend of Wyatt Earp…was John Henry “Doc” Holliday!

            And now you know THE REST OF THE STORY.

 

Special Bonus

        For those who have a 94% or better average at the end of the semester, without including extra credit points, the final exam will be waived! 

       Here is how it will work. During the last week of courses, if you think you may qualify for this little (?!) perk, please come see your instructor.  We will review your grades, add up all the points, and determine your status.  Do not expect that the instructor will be the one to take the initiative.  You must keep track of your own points and make the determination as to whether you come close to the criterion.  You must add up your points on your own--without getting the numbers from the instructor.    So, keep careful track of your points, and hopefully, you will qualify for the exemption.  The form at the end of this syllabus (Personal Record of Course Points) is provided to help you keep track of your progress.