Course
Syllabus
2130
Personality Psychology, January 2011
“Know
Thyself”
Section M, Mondays 7:00-10:00,
Vari Hall B
Section N, Tuesdays 8:30-11:30,
Curtis Lecture Hall E
Prerequisite:
PSYC 1010 6.0 with the minimum grade of C
Course Website:
http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/psyc2130/Syllabus2130MNJanuary2011.htm
Teaching
Assistants’ Email and Office Hours:
Email queries about
course content, missed tests, doctor’s notes, and make-up test
rescheduling to Lauren Campbell (email: lc15@yorku.ca).
In-person office
hours by Dean Hodge (email: dhodge@yorku.ca), Monday, 4:30-6:30,
(Room 007a, Central Square).
For anything to do
with your SONA sign-ups or your research participation: Chelsea Ferriday
(email: chelsea.ferriday@gmail.com).
Instructor
Prof. Ian McGregor,
PhD: ianmc@yorku.ca, 240 BSB
http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/
Email Protocol:
When sending email to TAs or the Instructor, always indicate the course
code “2130” and your specific section letter (i.e., M or N) in
the title of your email. Please also be sure to indicate your full name and
York ID#.
Readings:
There is no textbook. Readings
are free at: http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/psyc2130/readings.doc
or http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/psyc2130/readings.pdf
Readings
should be done before the corresponding week’s lecture. For each
quiz, you are responsible for material in the readings corresponding to the
previous week’s lectures.
Research
Participation: 5% of your grade will come from research participation
(mostly online). See below for details.
Course Objectives:
1. Learn about
historical roots and theories of personality
processes and individual
differences.
2. Gain appreciation
for why personality science is necessary and how it is conducted.
3. Understand the
evolving relation between theory and scientific research
4. Appreciate how
personality psychology can inform your life and world events.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 0 (for Section N)
Jan 4: History and Perspective
Research: Get 2130
SONA account and start participating in PSYCH-2130 studies. See the
Research Participation section below for details.
Week 1
Jan 10, 11: Greek Foundations of
Personality Processes and Individual Differences
Reading:
Plato’s Cave Allegory, The Ancient Greeks, Freud and Jung Lectures
Week 2
Jan 17, 18: Freud and Jung
Reading:
Freud and Jung Biographies and Theories
Week 3 (Guest Lecturer Eric Oosenbrug)
Jan 24, 25: Motives and Traits
(after Quiz 1 worth 19%)
Reading: Needs and
Motives, Traits
**Research Participation Deadline 1:
2130 Personality Study 1, 2a, and 2b
must be complete by Tuesday, February 1st
Week 4
Jan 31, Feb. 1: Research Methods
Reading:
Correlations, Experiments
**Research Participation Deadline 2:
2130 Personality Studies 3a and 3b
must be complete by Tuesday, February 8th
Week 5
Feb 7, 8: Goal Dynamics (after Quiz
2 worth 19%)
Reading:
Pavlov
**Research Participation Deadline 3:
2130 Personality Studies 4a, and 4b
must be complete by midnight on
Sunday, February 13th
Week 6
Feb 14, 15: Goal Dynamics and
Well-Being
Reading:
Rogers and Maslow
**Research Participation Deadline 4:
2130 Personality Study 5 must be
complete by Tuesday, February 22nd (but sign up ASAP to reserve
the time-slot that suits you best).
Reading Week: Feb. 21, 22
Week 7
Feb. 28, March 1: Neo-Analytic
Theories (after Quiz 3 worth 19%)
Reading:
Erikson, Adler
Week 8
March 7, 8: Self-Esteem, Narcissism,
Attachment Style, and Repression
Reading: Learning, Horney
Week 9
March 14, 15: Threat and Defense
(after Quiz 4 worth 19%)
Reading:
Fromm
http://courseevaluations.yorku.ca/
Week 10
March 21, 22: Culture, Religion, and
Politics
Reading:
Buddhism and Meditation, World Religions, William James’ Varieties of
Religious Experience.
Week 11
March 28, 29: Quiz 5 (19%)
Optional session
after quiz for review of results of personality research you participated
in during the course.
Week 0 (for section M)
April 4: History and Perspective
Make up session for Quizzes 3, 4, or 5 is on April 4, 2:30-3:30, in Curtis Lecture Hall H. Only students who have
provided Lauren Campbell with a medical note in advance will be permitted
to write a make-up quiz.
No Final Exam
Lecture Timing:
Lectures will begin 5 minutes after the scheduled start time, and end at least
five minutes before the scheduled end time. Lectures will have a 10 minute
break somewhere near the middle.
Lecture Attendance:
Lecture attendance is vital because much of the material you will be tested
on is not in the readings. It is highly recommended that you exchange
contact information with a few classmates at the beginning of the course
for sharing notes if one of you has to miss a lecture.
Technology
Regulations: Please step outside the lecture hall to call, text, or
check your phones, Blackberries, and other messaging devices. Laptops are
discouraged, but if you insist on using yours, then please use them for
note-taking only. Using laptops during class time for other work, email,
face-book, video-games, or surfing is forbidden (too distracting for you,
professor, and other students). Students who use laptops typically get
significantly lower grades in the class. Further, if you choose to take
notes on your laptops please sit near the back of the class so that other
students and I won’t be distracted by your clicking and your screen.
Thanks.
Readings:
Readings listed for quiz days
will not be included on that day’s quiz.
Research
Participation: 5% of your grade will come from participation in
research directly related to the course material. The instructor and the
TAs will have access to aggregated, anonymous data, only, and will not be
able to match your identifying information to your responses. (A researcher
who is not involved in other aspects of grading, TBA will administer your
grade out of 5% for research participation). The research participation is
designed to give you hands-on experience with aspects of contemporary
personality research that will be discussed in lecture. You will also be
given the opportunity to see where your personality scores stand in
relation to those of the other students taking the course.
The research studies
will be administered by the on-line SONA system and overseen by a TA
dedicated to managing student research participation, TBA. If you have any
questions about your research participation, you can email TBA. Most of you
will have used the SONA system last year for URPP participation when you
took introductory psychology at York
University. You can sign up on
the SONA system at http://yorku.sona-systems.com/default.asp.
You must indicate that you are enrolled in one of the 2130 sections, and
then you must complete the online pre-test in order to have full access to
the research participation. In particular, you must complete the one
question in pre-test that asks you for the last digit of your student
number. Make sure to know this number when you are completing the SONA
pre-test. You will see dozens of other studies that the Introductory
Psychology students have access to. Please ignore those, and just complete
the studies for your 2130 course that will all have titles that begin with
“2130 Personality Study.”
There will be 5 of these studies, Studies 1 and 5 (in lab), and Studies 2a,
2b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b that can be completed over the internet at any online
computer of your convenience.
2130 Personality
Study 1 (In-Lab)
2130 Personality Study 2A (Online)
2130 Personality Study 2B (Online)
2130 Personality Study 3A (Online)
2130 Personality Study 3B (Online)
2130 Personality Study 4A (Online)
2130 Personality Study 4B (Online)
2130 Personality Study 5 (In-Lab)
The lab studies are
an hour long, and each of the internet studies is under 30 minutes long,
for a total of 5 hours of participation. Make sure to sign up early for the
lab studies to get a time for participation that suits you best. All of the
studies must be completed before the deadlines indicated above. This will
allow time for us to analyze the data and present your personality results
to you in a review session at the end of the course.
As an alternative to
research participation, students may choose to write an eight page essay
(double spaced, normal font and margins) integrating course themes related to
how goals relate to both classic personality theory and to contemporary
research. Students wishing to take this essay option must declare their
intention to do so before the start of your February 3rd or 4th
lecture. Essays must be handed in before the beginning of your final, March
28th or 29th quiz.
Quizzes:
Questions will be drawn from readings and lectures. 11 of the 19 marks on
all quizzes will come from 22 multiple-choice questions. The other 8 will
be based on two short essay answers (two double-spaced pages each). It is
vital that you arrive on time for quizzes and exams because no one will be
allowed to write a test once any other student has left the testing room
(for security reasons). About half of the marks on quizzes 3-5 will come
from questions that require some integration of key ideas from previous
weeks.
Each quiz will be 55
minutes long. To do well on the quizzes it is recommended that you compose
and rehearse your answers to the short essay questions ahead of time when
you are studying so that you can simply reproduce your answer from memory
during the quiz. Otherwise, you may find that you run out of time.
Missed Quizzes:
Due to the number of students enrolled and limited administrative
resources, we are able to offer make-up
tests under extraordinary circumstances only (see below). If you miss a
test, you will receive a grade of zero unless you comply with the following
regulations:
1. You must either
email Lauren Campbell <lc15@yorku.ca> (preferable) or call my
secretary, Jannies Le (416-736-2100 ext. 66253), before the exam, stating why you
are unable to write it.
2. Then within two days (i.e., weekdays) of
the missed test you must arrange to give documentation supporting your
reason for missing the test to Lauren Campbell <lc15@yorku.ca>, or to
Jannies Le (Room 283 BSB).
a) If you miss a test
for medical reasons, you must have a valid medical document, signed by a
medical doctor. The note must explicitly state that you were *medically* unable to take the
test at the scheduled time. It is
not sufficient to simply have a note saying you had a doctor’s
appointment.
b) If you miss a test
for non-medical reasons, you still must produce supporting documentation (e.g., a relative’s
death certificate or obituary notice, or a police report). Missing a test
for a vacation or a work commitment is not an acceptable reason.
3. Students with
valid reasons for missing an exam must be prepared to write the make-up
test within one week or less of the missed test. You must contact the TA to
find out the date and time for the make-up test. Again due to limited
administrative resources, the TA can not accommodate individual, special
requests for make-up test timing. The date and time of the make-up test
will be determined by the TA.
Drop Date: If
you wish to drop the course without receiving a grade, you must do so
before TBA.
End of Course
Requests for Grade Bump-Ups: Every year dozens of students come to me
after the course is over and say something like, “I missed my B by
.3%, please bump me up—my whole life depends on it!!!” Because
one in six students are always in the position of missing a higher grade
category by a fraction of a mark, indulging all such requests would result
in unacceptable grade inflation. Accordingly, I am sorry that I will not
agree to bump you up.
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