Psychology 740
Personality Psychology
Fall 2013
Dr. Claudia Brumbaugh
Office
E-mail
Office hours
Course Description
Exams (60%)
369 Razran
Claudia.Brumbaugh@qc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays 5:00 – 7:00, and by appointment
The course focus is on contemporary research in personality and individual differences.
Topics include measurement, the nature of dispositions, motivation, behavioral genetics, the
brain, relationships, temperament, personality change, intelligence, health, work, and
culture.
Three examinations will be designed to test your understanding of the material in the text
and readings. The exams will include multiple choice and short-answer essay questions. The
three exams will not be cumulative and will be worth 60% of your course grade (at 20%
each).
Reaction Blog (20%)
In order to encourage class discussion and critical thinking, I would like you to post a reaction
(equivalent to 1-page double-spaced) to 5 presentation articles, and comment on 1 other
student’s post each week at http://drcb.qwriting.org/. The reaction posts should include
your thoughts, critiques, and questions regarding the week’s presentation article. The posts
should not include summaries of the articles. Please post your online reactions each week by
Saturday (by 8 pm) and your comments by Monday (by 5 pm). The posts and comments will
be worth 20% of your course grade (5 posts at 1 point each & 10 comments at .50 each = 10
points possible).
Presentation (20%)
Each student will be responsible for a 30-minute presentation on one of the articles that are
listed as presentations. You can approach the presentation in your own way, but the main
goal should be to encourage class discussion (do not go into detail on the procedures). You
will be graded on three factors: 1) style, 2) knowledge of the material, and 3) discussion
efforts. All students, presenting or not, should read the presentation article.
Academic Integrity
Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to: Unacknowledged appropriation of the
work of others, including plagiarism, the abuse of confidentiality with respect to unpublished
materials, or other conduct which seriously deviates from accepted ethical standards in
scholarship. Failure to comply with these standards of academic integrity will result in
referral to the chair of the Psychology department and the Queens College administration. If
a student is found to be cheating on an exam, he or she will receive a failing grade for that
exam.
Schedule of Classes and Readings
Text:
Corr, P. J. & Matthews, G. (2009). The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology.
Cambridge University Press.
Chapters marked supplemental are recommended for deeper understanding of the week’s topic.
Articles: All on e-reserve. PW = bru740
9/3
INTRODUCTION, HISTORY, AND MEASUREMENT
Text:
9/10
Ch. 1: History and Conceptual Issues
Ch. 7: Methods of Personality Assessment
THE TRAIT APPROACH
Text:
Ch. 9: Five-Factor Model
Ch. 6: Trait Approach (supplemental)
Articles:
Gallagher, P., Fleeson, W., & Hoyle, R. H. (2011). A self-regulatory mechanism for personality
trait stability: Contra-trait effort. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 335-342.
(Presentation) Cuperman, R., & Ickes, W. (2009). Big Five predictors of behavior and perceptions in initial
dyadic interactions: Personality similarity helps extraverts and introverts, but hurts
“disagreeables.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 667-684.
9/17
SITUATIONS
Text:
Ch. 3: Traits and Situations
Ch. 2: Psychology of Situations (supplemental)
Articles:
Geukes, K., Mesagno, C., Hanrahan, S. J., & Kellmann, M. (2012). Testing an interactionist
perspective on the relationship between personality traits and performance under public
pressure. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 243-250.
(Presentation) Marshall, M. A., & Brown, J. D. (2006). Trait aggressiveness and situational provocation: A
test of the traits as situational sensitivities (TASS) model. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 32, 1100-1113.
9/24
TEMPERAMENT, DEVELOPMENT, AND GENES
Text:
Ch. 11: Temperament
Ch. 18: Behavioral Genetics
Ch. 12: Lifespan Development (supplemental)
Articles:
Nave, C. S., Sherman, R. A., Funder, D. C., Hampson, S. E., & Goldberg, L. R. (2010). On the
contextual independence of personality: Teachers' assessments predict directly observed
behavior after four decades. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 327-334.
(Presentation) Holder, M. D., Coleman, B., & Singh, K. (2012). Temperament and happiness in children in
India. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13, 261-274.
10/1
FIRST EXAMINATION
10/8
ATTACHMENT THEORY, SOCIAL RELATIONS, AND EMOTION
Text:
Ch. 4: Emotion
Ch. 14: Attachment
Articles:
Eisenkraft, N., & Elfenbein, H. A. (2010). The way you make me feel: Evidence for individual
differences in affective presence. Psychological Science, 21, 505-510.
(Presentation) Friedman, M., Rholes, S. W., Simpson, J., Bond, M., Diaz-Loving, R., & Chan, C. (2010).
Attachment avoidance and the cultural fit hypothesis: A cross-cultural investigation. Personal
Relationships, 17, 107-126.
10/15 no class
10/22 EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Text:
Ch. 16: Evolution
Ch. 17: Animal Models (supplemental)
Articles:
Gosling, S. D., Kwan, V.S., & John, O. P. (2003). A dog’s got personality: A cross-species
comparative approach to personality judgments in dogs and human. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 85, 1161-1169.
(Presentation) Simpson, J. A., Griskevicius, V., Kuo, S., Sung, S., & Collins, W. (2012). Evolution, stress, and
sensitive periods: The influence of unpredictability in early versus late childhood on sex and
risky behavior. Developmental Psychology, 48, 674-686.
10/29 THE BRAIN
Text:
Ch. 20: Neuroscience
Ch. 19: Neuroimaging (supplemental)
Articles:
Cohen, M. X., Schoene-Bake, J. Elger, C. E., & Weber, B. (2009). Connectivity-based
segregation of the human striatum predicts personality characteristics. Nature Neuroscience,
12, 32-34.
(Presentation) Hane, A. A., & Fox, N. A. (2006). Ordinary variations in maternal caregiving influence human
infants’ stress reactivity. Psychological Science, 17, 550-556.
11/5
INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITION
Text:
Ch. 10: Intelligence
Ch. 23: Cognition (supplemental)
Articles:
Kell, H. J., Lubinksi, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2013). Who rises to the top? Early indicators.
Psychological Science, 24, 648-659.
(Presentation) Mayer, J. D., Panter, A. T., & Caruso, D. R. (2012). Does personal intelligence exist? Evidence
from a new ability-based measure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94, 124-140.
11/12 SECOND EXAMINATION
11/19
MOTIVES, GOALS, AND WORK LIFE
Text:
Ch. 25: Motivation
Ch. 43: Work (supplemental)
Articles:
Van Kleef, G. A., Homan, A. C., Beersma, B., & Knippenberg, D. (2010). On angry leaders and
agreeable followers: How leaders’ emotions and followers’ personalities shape motivation
and team performance. Psychological Science, 21, 1827-1834.
(Presentation) Taubman - Ben-Ari, O., & Yehiel, D. (2012). Driving styles and their associations with
personality and motivation. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 45, 416-422.
11/26 SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SOCIAL PAIN
Text:
Ch. 30: Social Support
Ch. 31: Social Pain (supplemental)
Articles:
DeWall, C. N., MacDonald, G., Webster, G., et al., (2010). Acetaminophen reduces social pain:
Behavioral and neural evidence. Psychological Science, 21, 931-937.
(Presentation) Kaplan, S. A., Bradley, J. C., & Ruscher, J. B. (2004). The inhibitory role of cynical disposition in
the provision and receipt of social support: The case of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1221-1232. Elizabeth
12/3
CULTURE
Text:
Ch. 32: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Ch. 33: Culture (supplemental)
Articles:
Campbell, W. K., Miller, J. D., & Buffardi, L. E. (2010). The United States and “the culture of
narcissism”: An examination of perceptions of national character. Social Psychological and
Personality Science, 1, 222-229.
(Presentation) Borkenau, P., McCrae, R., & Terracciano, A. (2013). Do men vary more than women in
personality? A study in 51 cultures. Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 135-144.
12/10 HEALTH AND CONCLUSIONS
Text:
Ch. 13: Health
Articles:
Sutin, A. R., Costa, P. T., Chan, W., Milaneschi, Y., Eaton, W. W., Zonderman, A. B., Ferrucci,
L., & Terracciano, A. (2013). I know not to, but I can’t help it: Weight gain and changes in
impulsivity-related personality traits. Psychological Science, 24, 1323-1328.
McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2006). A new big five. American Psychologist 61, 204-217.
Epstein, S. (2007). Problems with McAdams and Pals's (2006) proposal of a framework for an
integrative theory of personality. American Psychologist, 62, 59–60.
Maddi, S. R. (2007). Personality theories facilitate integrating the five principles and deducing
hypotheses for testing. American Psychologist, 62, 58–59.
Wood, A., & Joseph, S. (2007). Grand theories of personality cannot be integrated. American
Psychologist, 62, 57–58.
12/17 THIRD EXAMINATION (11-1:00)