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Introduction to Personality Psychology
Psychology 2750/Human Development 2600
Winter 2015
Prof. Vivian Zayas vz29@cornell.edu
A shared assumption among personality psychologists, and laypersons, is that each person possesses a personality – i.e., characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving – that uniquely distinguishes him or her from other people. Each individual’s personality is the culmination of multitudes of interactions between his or her genetic makeup and biology and a host of social influences, such as early life experiences, family, and culture. In this course, we will review the major theoretical paradigms (e.g., trait, biological) of personality psychology. The course will emphasize contemporary research, theory, and methodology, as well as provide a review of historical accounts. See below for information about the course's specific Learning Objectives
The format and content of this course is highly similar to the format and content of the on-campus version of the course. It is modified to take into account the needs of a distance-learning environment. Even though all contact will be communicated electronically, students will have opportunities to interact directly with the professor using email and virtual classroom meetings. An important feature of this online seminar is its hands-on activities that illustrate key concepts and allow students to apply their knowledge first hand.
This course is normally taught over a 3-month period. We will be covering the same material (both depth and breadth) between December 26, 2014-January 17, 2014. Because it is online, you are free to design your own work schedule. You could, for example, follow the suggested 6-day per week schedule that is outlined in this syllabus. Alternatively, you could modify the schedule depending on what works best for you. For example, you could work more hours each day but work fewer days per week, etc. Again, the specific schedule is up to you, and this flexibility is one of the perks of distance learning. Regardless of the specific schedule, this course requires a high level of commitment on the part of each student. Specifically, this course will require that students view lecture/video materials online for approximately 2-3 hours per day (5 days per week) or about
13-14 hours per week IN ADDITION to the readings.

Class materials are available on Blackboard (BB) . You'll find the lecture slides and handouts in the appropriate folder under “Lecture slides.” You should be automatically enrolled in
BB for this class.
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You can access the lectures for the course via http://www.videonote.com/cornell . You'll find the course listed under “Summer 2014.”
VideoNote:
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You will need access to Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Ayduk, O. (2008). Introduction to
Personality: Toward an Integration (
). Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons. It is available for purchase, new or used, at the Campus Book Store.

. In addition to the textbook, you will be required to read primary empirical and theoretical articles written by historical as well as contemporary personality theorists. The course reader is available for purchase, new or used, at the Campus Book Store. ALTERNATIVELY, you can access pdfs of the articles via the Cornell electronic library ( http://erms.library.cornell.edu
). The complete references can be found on the last pages of this syllabus.
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 You’ll be able to identify the major theoretical paradigms of personality psychology (e.g., biological, trait, phenomenological), and be able to describe each approach (e.g., the questions they seek to address about human behavior, their basic assumptions about human nature, the methods they use and type of data obtained).
 You’ll be able to explain the key debates (e.g., “personality paradox”) that have colored the study of personality.
 You’ll be able to identify the most influential thinkers (e.g., Allport, Freud, Skinner,), their theoretical assumptions about human nature and mind, and how their work shaped the contemporary study of personality.
 You’ll be familiar with and be able to discuss seminal empirical findings (e.g., Big Five taxonomy) in personality psychology and how and why these findings influenced current conceptualizations of personality.
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I expect you to do your OWN work. A Cornell student’s submission of work for academic credit indicates that the work is the student’s own. If you use outside assistance (e.g., wikipedia, Google search, empirical articles), you are required to cite this work. That is, you must acknowledge the outside sources. Plagiarism (i.e., using another person's work without giving that person credit), in any form, is not acceptable. To learn more about how to avoid plagiarism, visit: http://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/index.cfm
. Cornell's Academic Integrity Website can be found here: http://www.theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/AcadInteg/ .
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Your grade for the course will be based on three exams
(to-be-completed online) and class activities that you will complete and submit through the course.
Each of these components is described below.
1.
2.
of any or all of the following: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short essay questions.
Questions will assess your understanding of the material covered in the lectures (including guest lectures, videos) and readings and activities. You will be responsible for material covered in the assigned readings, even if the material is not explicitly discussed during lectures, and vice versa.
Prelims and final exam will be administered online via BB.
There will be two prelims and a noncumulative final exam, consisting
Throughout the course, you will complete several handouts (available on BB).
Their purpose is to provide you with opportunity to think critically about theorizing and empirical science and to engage with the material in more depth. It also provides me with an opportunity to learn about your interests and thoughts with regards to the course material. You will be responsible for submitting your responses to the handout questions via BB under in the
“Handouts” column in order to receive credit for this portion of the course. ( Please submit your responses by typing (or pasting) them into the appropriate textbox (vs. uploading a document).
Just number your responses according to signify the particular question you are answering. I will provide comments when appropriate.) There are 18 total handouts/activities. To receive full credit, you must satisfactorily complete at least 12 of the handouts. Handouts will be graded as follows: satisfactory and on time (full credit, 10 pts); incomplete or unsatisfactory work will receive deductions depending on the quality; late submission (5 pt deduction). Your responses are confidential.
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You have a lot of flexibility with regard to the exact date when you complete the various course requirements. There are only three requirements to keep in mind (and failure to comply with them will lead to point deductions):
1.
All work must be submitted before the end of the term
2.
Complete course requirements in the order in which they are assigned in the syllabus. For example, handouts
1-9 should be completed in order and before you complete prelim 1, handouts 10-13 also need to be completed in order and before completing prelim 2 (but after completing prelim 1), and
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*** DRAFT *** finally handouts 14-18 should be completed in order and before the final (but after prelim 2).
3.
Follow the instructions as described in each handout. The handouts are meant to work in tandem with the lectures. So please follow the instructions. For example, some handouts will ask you to provide your answers to thought questions before you listen to the lecture. I expect that you will do so (vs. listening to the lecture and then providing your answers). In addition, given that the handouts work in tandem with the lectures, you should complete and submit your responses to the handout as you are going through the lectures. So, if you view the intro lecture, I expect you to submit the handout that day.
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You will be able to access the prelims and final via the BB menu (left of your screen) under the tab “Prelims/Exam Materials.” Given that the course is self-paced, you may take the prelims on a day and time that is convenient for you. A few things to keep in mind: o You may use your textbook and notes, but you may NOT work with anyone (in person, online, etc.). You’ll be asked to confirm that you are submitting your OWN responses.
o The exams are TIMED. You will only have a set amount of time to complete the prelim/final. After the allotted time elapses, your responses will automatically be submitted and you will not be able to continue.
o You will NOT be able to stop once you’ve begun the test and you will only be allowed to take the test once. This means that akin to if you were taking the test during class, you need to plan to have an uninterrupted period of time to take the exam.
o Answers to the questions will be available after everyone in the course has completed the particular exam, although your grade will be available as soon as your answers are graded. o More information will be provided about each prelim/final, as well as tips for how to study, as we progress through the course.

Number grades will be based as follows:
Prelim 1
Prelim 2
Final
Class Activities
Total points =
Final letter grades will be assigned using the following cut-off points:
A+: 97-100
A: 93-96
B+: 87-89
B: 83-86
C+: 77-79
C: 73-76
D+: 67-69
D: 63-66
20 points
20 points
20 points
40 points
100 points
F: < 59
A-: 90-92
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B-: 80-82 C-: 70-72 D-: 60-62
The lectures were created based on the assumption that you have done the reading prior to watching the lecture. You’ll get the most from the lecture if you watch them after having read the required readings.

The handouts are aimed to make the material personally relevant and engaging.
People learn better when they are actively engaged with the material rather than passively attempt to absorb it. So, if the lecture includes a handout, make sure to complete (often, but not always) prior to watching the lecture.
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Does your attention drift after a few minutes? You are not alone! Research shows that attention begins to wane after about 15 minutes, after which it is difficult to absorb the information.
So, maximize how much you learn! The best way of doing this is to watch about 15 minutes worth of lecture video and then pause the video. To make sure you are learning the basic concepts, see if you can answer the questions in the learning objectives.
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We’ll cover a a lot of information throughout the course. The learning objectives are designed to highlight some of the key concepts. After reading the material or watching a lecture, quiz yourself. See if you can answer the questions in the learning objectives. Make sure to either write down your answer or state it out loud (vs. simply reading the objective). By forcing yourself to produce an answer, research shows this solidifies memory of new information (more than passive learning) and you’ll find out whether or not you know the material.
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Whether it is a question about the material or just a question of interest to you, ask questions! Hopefully you’ll find the material interesting and it will spark a lot of questions about personality. I want to hear your thoughts! No, really. I do! Also your questions might be of interest to other students in the course. So, please post your questions to the discussion board section on BB. I will be monitoring the discussion boards in the mornings (EST) and early evenings (EST).
SDS provides students with disabilities various services and resources to ensure equal access to educational programs and extracurricular activities offered by
Cornell University. It is Cornell policy to provide reasonable accommodations to students who have a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, or systemic) that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact Student Disability Services and their instructors for a confidential discussion of their individual need for accademic accommodations. Student Diability
Services is located in 420 CCC. Staff can be reached by calling (607) 254-4545. For more information, go to http://www.clt.cornell.edu/campus/sds/ . If you plan to use SDS, please give me your SDS accommodation letter early in the semester so that I have adequate time to arrange your approved academic modifications. If you need an immediate accommodation for equal access, please send an email message to me and/or SDS at sds_cu@cornell.edu
. If the need arises for additional accommodations during the semester, please contact SDS.
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Sample Schedule:
Below, you will find a sample schedule to complete the various course requirements (e.g., required reading assignments, prelims, exams). When reading the schedule, note that the font type used in the fourth column labeled 'Reading/Assignments' signifies where to find the course material. Specifically:
 UPPERCASE FONT REFER TO READINGS IN THE MISCHEL TEXTBOOK.
 lowecase italicized font refer to articles in the course reader.
 lowercase underlined font refer to activities to be posted as a pdf on BB.
Day # Date Lecture Topic Lecture
No.
Reading/Assignments
Introduction
Day 1 Fri. 12/26 Course Introduction:
The Study of the Person
Fri. 12/26 Personality Science:
Data, Methods, & Tools
Part I - The Trait-Dispositional Level
Day 2 Sat. 12/27 How People Differ:
Traits & Types
Sat. 12/27 Personality Judgments
Day 3 Mon. 12/29 Stability vs. Change
Mon. 12/29 Expression of
Dispositions
.1
.2
.3
.4
.5
.6
Handout1; CH. 1; McAdams, 1995
Handout2: CH. 2; CH. 13 (PP. 328-332);
Rosenthal, 1990
Handout3; PRELUDE TO PART I;
CH. 3
Handout4; Willis & Todorov, 2006
Handout5:McCrae & Costa, 1999
Handout6; CH. 4; Bem, 1992; Mischel,
1968; TAKING STOCK OF PART I
Part II - The Biological Level
Day 4 Tues. 12/30 Temperament & Heredity Handout7; PRELUDE TO PART II;
Rothbart, 2007
*** Happy New Year!!!
Enjoy the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015! ***
(In the Sample schedule, Wed. 12/31 and Thurs. 1/1 are holidays!)
Day 5 Fri. 1/2 Behavioral Genetics 1 Handout8; CH. 5; Turkheimer, 2000
Day 6 Sat. 1/3 Nature vs. Nurture:
A Case Study
Day 7 Mon. 1/5 Prelim 1
2
Day 8 Tues. 1/6 Personality Neuroscience 3
Tues. 1/6 A Biosocial
Developmental Theory
4 of Sexual Orientation
Day 9 Wed. 1/7 Evolutionary Psychology 5
Wed. 1/7 Biology in Context 6
Handout9; Auyeung et al., 2009; Dabbs et al., 1996
CH. 6 (PP. 124-139);
Canli et al. 2002
Bem, 1997; Diamond, 2004; Bem, 2005
CH. 6 (PP. 139-147); Buss et al., 1992;
Eagly & Wood, 1995
Handout10; Ch. 18 (PP. 476-489); Caspi et al., 2003; Pinker, 2009; Champagne,
2009; TAKING STOCK OF PART II
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Day # Date Lecture Topic Lecture
No.
Part III – Psychodynamic-Motivational Level
Day 10 Thurs. 1/8 Freud and
Psychodynamics
Thurs. 1/8 Defense mechanisms
Day 11 Fri. 1/9
Day 12 Sat. 1/10
Early life experiences
Prelim 2
Part IV - The Behavioral-Conditioning Level
Day 13 Mon. 1/12 Behavioral Conditioning
Basics
Mon. 1/12 Changing behavior
Part V - The Phenomenological Level
Day 14 Tues. 1/13 A Meaningful Life
7
10
11
12
8
9
Tues. 1/13
Part VI – The Social Cognitive Level
Day 15 Wed. 1/14 Social cognition 14
Wed. 1/14 Self-Perception Theory 15
Day 16 Thurs. 1/15 Self-Regulation & Goal
Thurs. 1/15 The Self (and Culture)
Part VII – Integration
Day 17 Fri. 1/16
Day 18 Sat. 1/17
The Pursuit of Happiness 13
Pursuits
Integration: The Person from Multiple Levels of
Analyses
Final Exam
16
17
18
Reading/Assignments
Handout11; PRELUDE TO PART III;
CH. 7; Steinem, 1994
Handout12; CH. 8
Handout13; CH. 9; TAKING STOCK
PART III
PRELUDE TO PART IV; CH. 10;
Skinner, 1987
Handout14; CH. 11; TAKING STOCK
PART IV
PRELUDE TO PART V; CH. 12 (PP.
297-312); Maslow, 1961
Handout15; CH. 13 (PP. 333-343),
TAKING STOCK PART V
Handout 16; PRELUDE TO PART VI;
CH. 14; CH. 15; CH.12, (PP. 313-322)
CH.13 (PP. 323-328); Robins & John,
1997; Dweck, 2008; TAKING STOCK
PART VI
PRELUDE TO VII; CH. 17; Cantor &
Harlow, 1994
Handout17; CH. 18 (PP. 466- 475); Tsai et al,. 2007
Handout18: CH. 16; TAKING STOCK
OF PART VII
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Course Reader
Summer 2014
Table of Contents
1.
McAdams, D. P. (1995). What do we know when we know a person? Journal of Personality, 63, 365-396.
2.
Rosenthal, R. (1990). How are we doing in soft psychology? American Psychologist, 45, 775-777.
3.
McCrae, R. R. & Costa, P. T. (1999). A five-factor theory of personality. In L. A. Pervin and O. P. John
(Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (2 nd ed.) (pp. 139-153). New York: Guilford, 1999.
1
4.
Willis, J. & Todorov, A. (2006). First impressions: Making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face. Psychological Science, 17, 592-598.
5.
Bem, D. (1992). On the Uncommon Wisdom of Our Lay Personality Theory. Psychological Inquiry, 3, 82-
98.
6.
Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and Assessment (pp. 13-39). New York: Wiley.
7.
Rothbart, M. (2007). Temperament, development, and personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science,
16, 207-212.
8.
Turkheimer, E. (2000). Three laws of behavior genetics and what they mean. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 9, 160-164.
9.
Auyeung, B., Baron-Cohen, S. Ashwin, E., Knickmeyer, R., Taylor, K, Hackett, G., & Hines, M. (2009).
Fetal testosterone predicts sexually differentiated childhood behavior in girls and in boys. Psychological
Science, 20, 144-148.
10.
Dabbs, J. M., Hargrove, M. F., & Heusel, C. (1996). Testosterone differences among college fraternities:
Well-behaved vs. rambunctious. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 157-161.
11.
Canli, T., Sivers, H., Whitfield, S. L., Gotlib, I. H., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2002). Amygdala response to happy faces as a function of extraversion. Science, 296, 2191.
12.
Bem, D. (1997). Exotic becomes erotic: Explaining the enigma of sexual orientation. Invited address presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
13.
Diamond, L. (2004). Emerging perspectives on distinctions between romantic love and sexual desire.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 116-119.
14.
Bem, D. (2005). Are self-identified bisexuals just lying to us-or to themselves? Comment posted to
Sexnet, July 16, 2005.
15.
Buss, D. M., Larsen, R. J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.
16.
Eagly, A. H. & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions vs. social roles. American Psychologist, 54, 408-423.
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17.
Caspi, A., Sugden, K., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. AW., Harrington, H., McClay, J., Mill, J., Martin,
J., Braithwaite, A., & Poulton, R. (2003). Influence of life stress on depression: Moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science, 301, 386-389.
18.
Pinker, S. (2009). My genome, my self. New York Times, January 11, 2009. Retrieved July 31, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11Genome-t.html?pagewanted=all.
19.
Champagne, F. A. (2009). Beyond nature vs. nurture: Philosophical insights from molecular biology.
Guest column appearing Association for Psychological Science Observer magazine.
20.
Steinem, G. (1994, March/April). Womb envy, testyria, and breast castration anxiety: What if Freud were female? Ms Magazine, 48-56.
21.
Skinner, B. F. (1987). Whatever happened to psychology as the science of behavior? American Psychologist,
42, 780-786.
22.
Maslow, A. (1961). Health as transcendence of environment. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1, 1-7.
23.
Robins, R. W. & John, O. (1997). Effects of visual perspective and narcissism on self-perception: Is seeing believing? Psychological Science, 8, 37-42.
24.
Dweck, C. (2008). Can personality be changed? The roles of beliefs in personality and change. Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 391-394.
25.
Cantor, N. & Harlow, R. E. (1994). Personality, strategic behavior, and daily-life problem solving. Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 169-172.
26.
Tsai, J., Louie, J. Y., & Chen, E. E. (2007). Learning what feelings to desire: Socialization of ideal affect through children’s storybooks. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 17-30.
________________________________________________________________________
1 Excerpted and reprinted in The Pieces of the Personality Puzzle: Reading in Theory and Research (Fifth Edition), by
Funder, D. C. & Ozer, D. J., Eds., 2010, W. W. Norton & Company.
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