Psychology 740
Personality Psychology
Fall 2011
Dr. Claudia Brumbaugh
Office
E-mail
Office hours
Course Description
Exams (60%)
369 Razran
Claudia.Brumbaugh@qc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays 1:30 – 3:00, 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 one of each week’s articles, and comment on at
least 2 other students’ posts at http://drcb.qwriting.org/. The weekly post should include
your thoughts, critiques, and questions regarding one of the week’s assigned articles. 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 (10 posts at 1 point each & 20 comments
at .25 each = 15 points possible). You may skip one week without penalty.
Presentation (10%)
Each student (usually in groups of 2) will be responsible for a 20-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 style, knowledge of the material, and (especially)
discussion efforts. All students, presenting or not, are expected to read the presentation
article.
Attendance & Participation (10%)
Attendance points are easy to earn if you do the reading assignments, attend class, and stay
alert. At some class meetings, you will answer a few questions about the material and/or
what went on during the class. These questions will not be difficult. They will be graded 0
(not present or incorrect) or 1 (correct answer). In-class participation is valuable practice in
expressing ideas and makes the class more enjoyable for everyone.
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:
8/30
9/6
Corr, P. J. & Matthews, G. (2009). The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology.
Cambridge University Press.
Text:
Readings:
All on e-reserve. PW = bru740.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ch. 1: History and Conceptual Issues
Reading:
Barenbaum, N. B., & Winter, D. G. (2008). History of modern personality theory and research.
In O. P. John, R.W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of Personality. (pp. 3 – 26). New
York: Guilford Press.
Text:
Ch. 6: Trait Approach
Ch. 9: Five-Factor Model
Article:
Prinzie, P., Stams, G. J., Dekovic, M., Reijntjes, H., & Belsky, J. (2009). The relations between
parents’’ Big Five personality factors and parenting: A meta-analytic review. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 351-362.
(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.
9/13
Text:
Ch. 2: Psychology of Situations
Ch. 3: Traits and Situations
Articles:
Cervone, D. (1997). Social-cognitive mechanisms and personality coherence: Self-knowledge,
situational beliefs, and cross-situational coherence in perceived self-efficacy. Psychological
Science, 8I, 43-50.
(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.
9/20
Text:
Ch. 11: Temperament
Ch. 12: Lifespan Development
Ch. 18: Behavioral Genetics
Articles:
Weiss, A., Bates, T. C., & Luciano, M. (2008). Happiness is a personal(ity) thing: The genetics
of personality and well-being in a representative sample. Psychological Science, 19, 205-210.
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) Shiota, M. N. & Levenson, R. W. (2007). Birds of a feather don’t always fly farthest: Similarity
in Big Five personality predicts more negative marital satisfaction trajectories in long-term
marriages. Psychology and Aging, 22, 666-675.
9/27
FIRST EXAMINATION
10/4
(no class)
10/11 Text:
Articles:
Ch. 4: Emotion
Ch. 14: Attachment
Eisenkraft, N., & Elfenbein, H. A. (2010). The way you make me feel: Evidence for individual
differences in affective presence. Psychological Science, 21, 505-510.
Brumbaugh, C. C., & Fraley, R. C. (2007). Transference of attachment patterns: How
important relationships influence feelings toward novel people. Personal Relationships 14,
369 - 386.
(Presentation) Ray, R. D., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2008). All in the mind’s eye? Anger rumination and
reappraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 133-145.
10/18 Text:
Articles:
Ch. 16: Evolution
Ch. 17: Animal Models
Nettle, D. (2006). The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals.
American Psychologist, 61, 622-631.
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) Hill, S. E., & Buss, D. M. (2008). The mere presence of opposite-sex others on judgments of
sexual and romantic desirability: Opposite effects for men and women. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 34, 635-647.
10/25 Text:
Articles:
Ch. 19: Neuroimaging
Ch. 20: Neuroscience
DeYoung, C. G., Hirsh, J. B., Shane, M. S., Papademetris, X., Rajeevan, N., & Gray, J.R. (2010).
Testing predictions from personality neuroscience: Brain structure and the Big Five.
Psychological Science, 21, 820-828.
Jackson, J., Balota, D. A., & Head, D. (2009). Exploring the relationship between personality
and regional brain volume in healthy aging. Neurobiology of Aging.
(Presentation) Hane, A. A., & Fox, N. A. (2006). Ordinary variations in maternal caregiving influence human
infants’ stress reactivity. Psychological Science, 17, 550-556.
11/1
Text:
Ch. 10: Intelligence
Ch. 23: Cognition
Articles:
DeYoung, C. G., Shamosh, N. A., Green, A. E., Braver, T. S., & Gray, J. R. (2009). Intellect as
distinct from openness: Differences revealed by fMRI of working memory. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 883-892.
Kuncel, N. R., & Hezlett, S. A. (2010). Fact and fiction in cognitive ability: Testing for
admissions and hiring decisions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 339-345.
(Presentation) Higgins, D. M., Peterson, J. B., Pihl, R. O., & Lee, A. G. M. (2007). Prefrontal cognitive ability,
intelligence, Big Five personality, and the prediction of advanced academic and workplace
performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 298-319.
11/8
SECOND EXAMINATION
11/15
Text:
Ch. 25: Motivation
Articles:
Mezquita, L., Stewart, S. H., & Ruipérez, A. (2010). Big-Five personality domains predict
internal drinking motives in young adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 240-245.
Van Kleef, G. A., Homan, A. C., Beersma, B., & Knippenberg, D. (2010). On angry leaders and
agreeable followers: How leaders’ emotions and flowers’ personalities shape motivation and
team performance. Psychological Science, 21, 1827-1834.
(Presentation) Robinson, M. D., Moeller, S. K., & Ode, S. (2010). Extraversion and reward-related processing:
Probing incentive motivation in affective priming tasks. Emotion, 10, 615-626.
11/22 (no class)
11/29 Text:
Articles:
Ch. 30: Social Support
Ch. 31: Social Pain
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.
12/6
Text:
Ch. 32: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Ch. 33: Culture
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) 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.
12/13 Text:
Articles:
Ch. 13: Health
Ch. 43: Work
Mroczek, D. K. & Spiro, A. (2007). Personality change influences mortality in older men.
Psychological Science, 18, 371-376.
Bolton, L. R, Becker, L. K., & Barber, L. K. (2010). Big Five trait predictors of differential
counterproductive work behavior dimensions. Personality and Individual Differences, 49,
537-541.
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.
FINAL DATE TBA