Course Objectives

Personality Psychology is the scientific study of the psychological forces that make people uniquely themselves. The subject matter of personality psychology is very broad. This course is designed to provide a selective survey of classic and contemporary research and theory on these and other topics in personality psychology. You will also be exposed to some of the methods personality psychologists use to test their theories. I will try to show how personality psychology can contribute to a better understanding of everyday life. 

In this class, students will: (1) Acquire basic knowledge of personality psychology through both primary and secondary sources, and will learn relevant terms, facts, concepts, and theories, including Psychoanalytic, Biological, Behaviorist, Cognitive, Trait, Cultural, and Social theories. (2) Improve their higher-order thinking skills, including (a) critical thinking about human nature, (b) evaluating theoretical assumptions, theories, and research, and (c) distinguishing between fact and opinion. and (3) Understand how personality psychology relates to important issues in their lives.

Course Requirements

Exams and Quizzes

There will be 5 exams during the regular term and a final exam, each covering about two-three chapters of course material; the final exam will contain two chapters worth of new material as well as a comprehensive take-home section. The exams may entail multiple choice and short answer questions. These exams will be based on lectures, in-class exercises, film clips, and outside readings and assignments including material covered in the textbook and online assignments. It is very important to attend each class and to take good notes. A good portion of the material that I will cover in class will not be found in the readings. To take the exam you must arrive before the first person leaves the room. In addition, there will be at least one quiz given at some point during the semester which will contain multiple choice and short essay questions. To see actual dates for all exams, please see the appropriate course calendar at the end of the syllabus, found here).

To do well on the exams: you will need to regularly attend class, take good notes, keep up with the reading material and study both this material and the notes with the aim of fully understanding it (not just memorizing it). The exam questions will emphasize understanding and mastery of concepts and theories rather than memorization of information. Completion of the LearnSmart modules (see later section) and online study aids are also good ways to study and test understanding. However, these should not be your ONLY method of study, as stated, the exams will focus more on understanding than memorization.

I will focus mainly on questions that assess whether you have a thorough understanding of these concepts and theories and whether you can apply this understanding to new situations.
 

Exam policy for Spring 2021: For Spring 2021, exams will change slightly to accommodate the changes due to COVID-19. All exams will be administered through Connect using Respondus. To use Respondus, students will be required to purchase access (a year subscription to the service is $15 and one subscription can be used for all of your courses that require Respondus). In addition, all students will need a working webcam and a computer (please note: Chromebooks will NOT work with Respondus). All students will complete their exams at the same time.

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Final exam: The final exam will take place on Monday, May 3rd, at 8:00 am. There will be no make-ups or early exams given for the final exam. Your final exam will consist of two parts, an in-class portion and a take-home portion. The in-class portion is NOT comprehensive and covers only the Adjustment Domain. For the take-home portion, you will write a Psychoautobiography. See section below for information on Psychobiographies. This paper will be similar to the other 3 you will write throughout the course except that the paper will analyse yourself instead of a character and you will be required to utilize 3 domains of your choosing in your analysis.

Absence during an exam:  Please notify the instructor on the day of your absence from a test by e-mail. To make up an exam, a student must have an excused absence. An excused absence is determined by the instructor and may include an illness that requires the student to remain at home/in their dorm room, a death of someone close to the student, court date during class time, school-sponsored event that occurs during class time, or other events at the discretion of the instructor. To notify the instructor of an excused absence, the student must turn in an absence form (this can be found on Connect). If documentation is available, that should be submitted along with the form. Only one undocumented exam absence will be counted as excused per student. After that one, all exam absences must be accompanied by written documentation to count as excused. To designate a missed exam as excused (whether it has documentation or not), you must submit an absence form on the day you return to class to be able to make up the exam and receive full credit; 20% will be deducted from your exam grade if you turn in the absence form after the day you return to class. You must then arrange to make up the exam as soon as it is convenient, but definitely within 1 week of the original exam date. If more than one student needs to make up the exam, one common time may be arranged for all makeup exams to be given. If no absence form is turned in, the exam cannot be made up and the student will receive a grade of "0" for that exam. If the exam has not been made up within one week of the original exam date (unless prior approval has been obtained by the instructor), the exam cannot be made up and the student will receive a grade of "0" for that exam. The instructor will not contact the student to determine if a missed exam is excused. If no contact is made by the student, it is assumed the missed exam is unexcused. Zeros will be given for exams when it is determined that the absence is unexcused. Please note the following examples of unexcused absences: absences due to vacations or leaving early before a scheduled break, except under extenuating circumstances, work schedules are not considered an excuse for missing an exam. 

Quizzes: There will be at least two planned quizzes given throughout the course of the semester. The first quiz will cover information found in this syllabus and the second quiz will cover the information from Chapters 1 and 2 and both will be given through Connect. No make-ups will be given for these quizzes as they are online and students can complete them at any point before the due date. The instructor reserves the right to give pop quizzes in class at any time.

Psychobiography Papers

Throughout this course, you will surely see how the topics we are discussing relate to everyday life. Thus, in three papers you will use the information we discuss in class to describe an individual. The papers will involve critiquing the personality of a character in a movie, TV show, or book. You will use the information you observe in the film, TV show, or book to assess a character's personality from two different domains that we discuss in class. Each paper will utilize at least two different domains (Paper #1 will encompass the dispositional and biological domains, Paper #2 will encompass the intrapsychic and cognitive/experiential domains, Paper #3 will encompass the social/cultural and adjustment domains). You should use a different character for each paper.

You should (1) describe the character from the assigned theoretical perspectives. Be sure to summarize and present evidence from the theoretical perspectives using and citing resources, (2) be sure to include the benefits and drawbacks of the theoretical perspectives and (3) include reasons for why the character developed their personality (genetics, family, environment, etc.). More information can be found here.

Papers should be a minimum of 4 typed double-spaced pages with 1-inch margins, written in 12 pt. Times New Roman font. To adequately answer the prompt you will most likely need to write more than 4 pages. Papers must be professionally written and in paragraph form. Papers should be electronically submitted via Connect at the beginning of class on their respective due dates (see the course calendar for specific dates). No emailed papers will be accepted. Please keep an extra copy of your paper for yourself. Papers that do not follow this rubric may receive a grade of “0”.

LATE PAPERS: Papers are due by the beginning of class on their respective due dates. Students are welcome to turn in papers at any point prior to the due date if they finish early. Papers turned in after the due date will have 20% taken off of their grade. Papers over a day late (i.e. after 24 hours from the original due date) will not be accepted and will receive a grade of “0”. See the course schedule for actual deadlines.

Please see the additional page for more details.

Class participation

Another contribution to your overall grade will be your participation in active learning exercises such as in-class activities, in-class discussions, completion of personality scales, doing fun field experiments outside of class, tweeting about class topics, and so on. These activities are designed to help you learn concepts in an active and memorable manner. By participating in these active learning exercises, you will learn much more (and have more fun) than would be possible if this class consisted solely of lectures and multiple-choice tests. These activities will often not be announced in advance.

Twitter: For several of the in-class assignments we will be using Twitter. Therefore, students should set up a Twitter account if they do not already have one. Students will also need to approve follow requests from the instructor for this course; if students would prefer to set up an account specifically for this course (instead of using their personal account), that is perfectly acceptable. The Twitter participation will occur in-class therefore, students must have a device that can access Twitter with them in class (e.g., smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc...). To get credit for these activities, you must fill out the survey (linked at the beginning of the syllabus) in which you provide the Twitter handle that you will be using for the course.

In addition, I will use Twitter to send out additional reminders and announcements (in addition to what I post on Connect). Students are strongly encouraged to follow me to easily receive this information. When I post information relevant to our class, I will use #PSYC3360. In order to see this information as soon as it is posted, you can set up an alert for this # on Twitter such that you will receive a notification every time someone posts with this #. I encourage students that have questions or comments related to class to post using this # as well or send me a direct tweet. I will also post a list of all students' Twitter handles on Connect (for those students who have indicated they are willing to share this information) so that students may connect using Twitter. This offers an easy way to ask questions of other students, post information relevant to the class, or set up group study sessions.

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Missed Participation: To make up a graded assignment that was due on the day a student was absent, a student must have an excused absence. An excused absence is determined by the instructor and may include an illness that requires the student to remain at home/in their dorm room, a death of someone close to the student, court date during class time, school-sponsored event that occurs during class time, or other events at the discretion of the instructor. To notify the instructor of an excused absence, the student must turn in an absence form (this can be found on Connect). If documentation is available, that should be submitted along with the form. This form will not be accepted electronically. Only two total undocumented absences will be counted as excused per student (an undocumented exam absence is counted in these two). After two, all missed participation must be accompanied by written documentation to count as excused. To designate a missed participation as excused (whether it has documentation or not), the student must submit an absence form on the day they return to class to be able to make up the exam and receive full credit; half credit will be given if the student turns in the absence form after the day they return to class. The student must then arrange to make up the missed participation as soon as it is convenient, but definitely within 1 week of the original participation date. If no absence form is turned in, the participation cannot be made up and the student will receive a grade of "0" for that participation. If the participation has not been made up within one week of the original participation date (unless prior approval has been obtained by the instructor), the participation cannot be made up and the student will receive a grade of "0" for that participation. The instructor will not contact the student to determine if a missed participation is excused. If no contact is made by the student, it is assumed the missed participation is unexcused. Zeros will be given for participation when it is determined that the absence is unexcused. Please note the following examples of unexcused absences: absences due to vacations or leaving early before a scheduled break, except under extenuating circumstances, work schedules are not considered an excuse for missing a class. Once answers to a graded item have been distributed in any format (orally, online, returned work, etc.) the graded item may no longer be made up and the instructor will provide the student with other options to make up the missing grade. Twitter participation cannot be made up as these assignments involve reflecting on class discussion. However, students may drop two excused Twitter assignments from their grade. Absence forms are still required for a missed Twitter participation. If an assignment is assigned on a day that a student is absent but is not due until a later date, the student is still responsible for completing this assignment on time unless prior approval has been obtained by the professor. There will be opportunities throughout the semester for students to earn extra credit toward their participation grade. Students are encouraged to complete these opportunities as much as possible to help in case of more than two missed Twitter assignments, less than ideal performance on a graded participation assignment, etc.

LearnSmart Modules: For each chapter, there will be an online LearnSmart module that students will need to complete. These modules are meant to be completed either concurrently while reading the associated chapter through SmartBook or after reading the entire chapter. These are NOT a substitute for reading the book. Each module is meant to assess the understanding and comprehension of the material covered in that chapter. You will not lose points for answering questions wrong, however, there are a set number of learning objectives that you must complete to receive your points. These are meant to prepare you for in-class discussion as well as to serve as one possible means of studying for exams. As such, they will point out areas where you might need some work. LearnSmart modules are due by the beginning of class on the day that each chapter will be covered (see the schedule for actual due dates). No late submissions will be accepted. You will receive a grade for each module based on the percent of the assignment that you have completed by the due date (i.e. if you complete half of the learning objectives, then you will receive a 50% for that module).

The LearnSmart modules also serve as an excellent study tool. The modules will point out areas that need to be refreshed so you can go back to previous modules and use them as study guides for upcoming exams. The software also offers many study options including quizzes. Please note: These modules only pull information from the book. My lectures often include other relevant information that was not included in the book. Therefore, LearnSmart modules should not be your only study tool as they will not cover all of the information that may be present on an exam. 

Overall Grading

The different types of assignments that you will encounter in this class will each contribute a unique amount of weight towards your final grade in the class. The following table lists the percent of your final grade that will come from each of the designated types of assignments. Note: an average grade of D or F on exams may lead to a final grade of D or F in the course.