Course
Syllabus
2130
Personality Psychology Winter 2010
“Know
Thyself”
Section M, Mondays 7:00-10:00, TEL 0016
Section N, Tuesdays 11:30-2:30, Vari Hall B
Prerequisite:
PSYC 1010 6.0 with the minimum grade of C
Course Website:
http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/psyc2130/index2010.htm
Instructor
Prof. Ian McGregor,
PhD: ianmc@yorku.ca, 240 BSB
http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/
Teaching
Assistants’ Email and Office Hours:
Section M (Monday
night section): Ben Zabinski, bzabinsk@yorku.ca
Office Hour,
Wednesdays, 5:30-6:30, BSB
150C
Section N (Tuesday
afternoon section): Lila Elkadem, lila@yorku.ca
Office Hour, Tuesday,
10:15-11;15, BSB
057
Both sections: for
missed or make-up tests Joana Katter, katterjo@yorku.ca
Email: 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.
Readings:
are provided at: http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/psyc2130/readings.doc.
A pdf version can be found at: http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/psyc2130/readings.pdf
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
Jan 4, 5: Historical Roots and
Important Administrative Information
Research: Get 2130
SONA account and start participating in PSYCH-2130 studies
Jan 11, 12: Greek Foundations of
Personality Processes and Individual Differences
Reading:
Plato’s Cave Allegory, The Ancient Greeks, Freud and Jung Lectures
Jan 18, 19: Freud and Jung
Reading: Freud and
Jung Biographies and Theories
Jan 25, 26: Motives and Traits (after
Quiz 1 worth 19%)
Reading: Needs and
Motives, Traits
Research: Studies 1-5 Must Be Completed Before Feb 7
Feb 1, 2: Research Methods
Reading:
Correlations, Experiments
Feb 8, 9: Goal Dynamics (after Quiz
2 worth 19%)
Reading:
Pavlov
Feb
15, 16: Family Week: No Class
Research: Studies 6-10 Must Be Completed Before Midnight on Feb 21st
Click
Here for Map to Lab for Studies 6 and 7
Feb 22, 23: Goal Dynamics and
Well-Being
Reading: Rogers and Maslow
March 1, 2: Neo-Analytic Theories
(after Quiz 3 worth 19%)
Reading:
Erikson, Adler
March 8, 9: Self-Esteem, Narcissism,
Attachment Style, and Repression
Reading: Learning, Horney
March 15, 16: Threat and Defense
(after Quiz 4 worth 19%)
Reading:
Fromm
March 22, 23: Culture, Religion, and
Politics
Reading: Buddhism and
Meditation, World Religions, William James’ Varieties of Religious
Experience.
March 29, 30: Quiz 5 (19%)
Optional session
after quiz for review of results of personality research you participated
in during the course.
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 to use your phones and messaging
devices. Laptops are permitted for note-taking only. Using laptops during
class time for other work, email, face-book, video-games, or surfing is not
allowed (too distracting for professor and other students). Please be
considerate and use your laptops for note-taking, only. Further, it would
be much appreciated if those of you who choose to take notes on your
laptops could please sit at the back half of the class so that I
won’t be distracted by you and so that students who want to avoid
being distracted by your laptops can sit near the front.
TAs will monitor
laptop use, and use for non-course-related purposes will result in loss of
laptop privileges.
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 separate,
dedicated TA who is not involved in other aspects of grading will keep
track of your 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 Joana Katter, a TA dedicated to managing student
research participation. If you have any questions about your research
participation, you can email Joana at katterjo@yorku.ca.
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 mass-testing in order to have full access
to the research participation. 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 “PSYCH-2130.” There will be 10 of these
studies and each will be at most half an hour long each. Eight can be
completed on the web and two will require an in-person laboratory session.
Studies 1-5 must be completed before midnight
on January 31. All the rest must be completed before Midnight on February 21.
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 the Week 4 lecture. Essays must be
handed in before the beginning of the final, Week 12 quiz.
Quizzes:
Questions will be drawn from readings and lectures. Half of the marks on
all quizzes will come from multiple-choice questions. The other half will
be based on written (short essay) answers. 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.
Missed Tests:
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 the TA or phone my secretary, Barbara Thurston (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 give documentation supporting your reason for
missing the test to the TA, or to Barbara Thurston (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 March 8th.
End of Course Requests
for Grade Bump-Ups: Every year dozens of students come to me 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. This leaves
your grade is up to you, and the extent to which you attend lectures and
study diligently.
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