Psychology 220: Personality Psychology
Personality Assessment
Instructor: Inna Saboshchuk
Spring 2015
Assignment Goals: The purpose of this assignment is to put your knowledge of personality psychology theories into practice. You will watch a short video about a celebrity (voted on by your group), and present an assessment of that person’s personality according to the personality theory of your choosing.
Instructions:
1) You will have about 9 people in your group (no less than 8!). Arrange yourself into a group with the people sitting around you.
2) The first two days will be dedicated to working on your presentation, and the next two will be dedicated to presentations themselves. You must be present in class on all four days.
Attendance will be taken.
3) Introduce yourselves to each other. You MUST know each other’s names.
4) These are the theories we have discussed this semester:
5) Remember, every theory has a slightly different way of assessing what personality IS and what variables are important for figuring out someone’s behavior.
6) There are no limits. Your job is to try to give your collective view of this person’s “personality”, and you can make your presentation in any format that you please. Make sure to address all the criteria in the “grading” section.
7) You do not have to choose a single personality theory. You can mix and match components of different theories, just make sure you are clear about how that component applies. You should name the specific parts of the theory you think are applicable to your assessment. For example, you can say “from the behaviorist perspective, Kim Kardashian is comfortable being naked in public because of positive reinforcement. She made a sex tape, and became very famous afterwards. Because she received a reward for this behavior, she continues to engage in it”, or from the Freudian perspective “because Kim Kardashian had an absent father figure in her life as a young child, she now seeks the attention of men through any means necessary.”
8) Your presentation should be FIVE minutes. You can either choose one group member to present, multiple group members to present, or your whole group can present. Your whole group is not
OBLIGATED to present.
9) All the members of your group must contribute. At the end of the project everyone in the class will complete an anonymous survey in which you evaluate your group members. This survey can be found on blackboard under the assignments tab. I will not be able to see your answers, but I

will be able to see if you completed the survey or not. Because it is anonymous, you should have no problem reporting if a group member was not engaged in the intervention design process. If there are too many complaints about your participation in the group I will set up a meeting to speak to you about what went wrong. The survey is due before class on May 11 th . You will not receive an individual grade until you complete the survey.
10) Your classmates will evaluate you as you present as well. Everyone will vote for his/her favorite group, and the group with the most votes will receive 5 extra credit points for the next exam.
11) Your presentation must: Be creative, Use personality theories, Address potential critiques,
Provide evidence (from the theories) to support your claims, Provide examples from the video and article to support your claims.
Important Grading Information:
1) For every day you are absent without an excuse, 5 points will be subtracted from your grade.
2) The maximum amount of points you can get for this project is 50. However , if you come up with a very creative presentation, I will give you an additional 5 points.
3) If you do not complete the survey by May 11 th before class , I will subtract 2 points for every day you do not complete the survey, including weekends.
4) Not everyone in your group is going to get the same grade. I will take the surveys seriously and if an overwhelming number of your group members felt that you did not contribute, this will impact your grade. On the other hand, if an overwhelming number of your group members felt you contributed significantly, I will raise your grade.