Psychology 351 Psychology of Personality Fall 2016 Syllabus and Class Requirements

Transcription

1 Psychology 351 Psychology of Personality Fall 2016 Syllabus and Class Requirements Class meetings: Thursdays, 11:00-12:15pm, AL-201 Tuesday lectures archived (you can watch them anytime), under Course Documents in Blackboard Professor: Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. (Dr. T), [for questions about class content or to offer examples] Teaching Assistant (TA): Dylan Petze, Office hours: Thursdays, 1-3pm, Life Sciences 24C [for questions about grades, questionnaire credit, seeing what you missed on exams] Textbook: Personality: Understanding Yourself and Others Pearson Revel (e-book) version: The textbook is required; assignments are imbedded in the book Final exam: Tuesday, December 20, 10:30am-12:30pm 1. Course objectives: In this class, you will learn about both the theories and empirical research on personality. I would like every student to come out of this class with two things: 1) a knowledge of personality psychology (useful in the workplace, relationships, and life in general), and 2) perhaps more important, the ability to think critically and evaluate psychological theories and research. 2. Grades will be calculated as follows: Maximum points possible: 10,000 Three out of four exams Questionnaires in textbook & journal response Quizzes in textbook 5379 points (1793 points each) 2800 points (due throughout the semester) 1821 points (due throughout the semester) A A B B B C C C D D D F 5999 or less

2 3. Exams: A. There will be four exams: three during class time on Thursdays and one cumulative final exam held at the university s mandated final exam time. The tests will be multiple choice. They are often about 50 questions long. You will need to bring your own scantron; we use the red one, F-289-PAR-L. 3B. There will be NO MAKEUP EXAMS. Emergencies are covered by the dropped exam policy: Your exam grade will be based on your score on three out of the four exams. If you take all four exams, we will drop the one with the lowest grade. If you miss an exam during the semester (for ANY reason) or choose not to take the final, your grade will be based on the three exams you took. You cannot miss more than one exam; if you do, you will receive a zero for the second exam missed. If you anticipate this being a problem, do not take this class. Please, please, please, do NOT me asking for a makeup exam. There are no exceptions to this policy. We will simply drop that exam. If you miss an exam or anticipate doing so, you do NOT need to contact me or the TA to tell us the reason. Plan on taking all of the other exams, including the final, and your grade will be calculated using the three exams you took. If you are happy with your grade on the three in-class exams, you do not need to take the final. But if you do take the final, we will drop your lowest exam grade, so there may still be a benefit. This decision is up to you. 3C. The exam will begin promptly at the beginning of class (or at the beginning of the final exam period. If you arrive after any student has finished the exam and left, you cannot take the exam. You will be allowed only the class period to finish the exam, as we only have the room for the allotted period of time. This is rarely a problem, however; most people finish exams in this class in less than an hour. 4. Completing personality questionnaires: What is your personality like, according to the newest research? You will get the chance to find out! As you will learn, personality psychology researchers often use self-report personality questionnaires in their studies. By taking these questionnaires yourself, you ll learn about your own personality and will learn about one of the ways personality psychologists collect their data. You will take these questionnaires directly in your Revel textbook, which will then give you instant feedback on how your scores compare to other students scores (cool, huh?). You can see, for example, if you are an extravert or an introvert compared to other people. Some questionnaires have multiple parts (such as the Big Five questionnaire in Chapter 3, which has 5 parts); you must take all of the parts to get all of your scores.

3 You will then write a response to the journal prompt immediately following each questionnaire (It will say Refer to your score on Questionnaire ) and answer the question posed there, reflecting on your score (though you do not need to reveal it). You ONLY need to complete the journal prompts that refer to a questionnaire (so you do NOT need to do the other journal prompts JUST the ones that begin Refer to your score on Questionnaire ). Please note that the questionnaires are unfortunately NOT listed in the Revel Table of Contents; you must find them as you read. Chapter 1 does not have any questionnaires, but each subsequent chapter does. To receive full credit, your answer to a questionnaire journal prompt should demonstrate that you completed the questionnaire and understood your score. You must complete the journal response as well as fill out the questionnaire to receive credit. There are 28 questionnaires, so each is worth 100 points. These are due at 8pm on the days the chapters are due; you can see the due dates and times in the Revel ebook. (See also the course calendar). Beginning with the assignment due on 9/13, late assignments will receive no credit. You MUST keep up with the assignments to earn points. This will help you understand the material as you go and will help you with the exams as well, since each exam has questions based on the personality questionnaires. If you do not wish to complete a particular questionnaire, you may instead write a onepage essay on a topic of your choice from that chapter. You may do this for as many questionnaires as you wish, but realize it s one essay per questionnaire, NOT one essay per chapter. If you choose this option, your essay(s) to Dylan the TA at dylanpetze@gmail.com by the due date for the chapter. 5. In-textbook quizzes. You will also earn points by taking the quizzes in the textbook small quizzes are throughout the chapter and large ones at the end of the chapter. Each question is worth 3 points initially and decreases in value for each incorrect attempt, so read the textbook before completing the quizzes. These are due when the chapter is due (see also the course calendar). Beginning with the assignment due on 9/13, late assignments will receive no credit. You MUST keep up with the assignments to earn points. 6. Other textbook features. The other journal prompts and shared writing in the textbook are NOT required and no points are given for them. The embedded videos are included to enhance your understanding of the material, so please watch them (they are short). Some of the tables allow you to Check your Understanding by studying it and then filling in the blanks; I recommend these as well as a way to study for exams and quizzes. Exam questions may be drawn from the questionnaires and from the Science of Personality feature, but they will NOT be drawn from the Personality s Past or Closer Look at the Research features.

4 7. Tuesday classes will be online. You can access them from any computer with an Internet connection. ALL of these sessions will be archived, so you can watch them at your convenience. These lectures will be placed under Course Documents on our class Blackboard page as mp4 files. I will generally post them Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, so you will be able to watch them fairly soon after our in-person Thursday lectures. If something in the online lecture is unclear, please ask me about it during our Thursday lectures. If it s a brief question or you can t wait that long, please me and I will do my best to explain over . I m not a computer support expert, so I won t be able to help you if you experience technical issues playing the online class sessions. Fortunately, playing these mp4 files is rarely problematic. If you run into problems, you can get help by calling the SDSU Student Computing Center help line at I will NOT post the slides or material from our in-person Thursdays online. To get that material, you have to come to class. 6. If you have a question, please, please, please READ THE SYLLABUS before you . About 95% of the questions students have are answered by this syllabus I have made it thorough for a reason. If you me asking about something that is clear in the syllabus, I will either not reply or will reply with three words: Read your syllabus or Please see section X of your syllabus. If you have questions about the content of the class, which I welcome, it is usually better to ask these before, during, or after class instead of in an e- mail -- in most cases I will be able to give you a more complete and helpful answer that way. Of course, if you d like to share web links, articles, and so on, is better. I use several videos and examples in class that students have alerted to me over the years! Students have also alerted me to mistakes in the questionnaire packet and other issues, for which I m grateful. If you re interested in reading a particular journal article, you can find most of these using the database PsycInfo, available through the SDSU library. 7. Still have questions? If you still have a question by , you ll want to contact the right person otherwise it will take much longer to get a response as we forward s back and forth. The TA and I are a teaching team and divide responsibilities in a systematic way. Here s whom to contact for different concerns: Grades: See section 2 above to see how your grade will be calculated. You can see your quiz scores directly in Revel (under Performance). Exam scores will be posted in Blackboard. If you do the questionnaires and the journal prompts afterward, you will

5 receive full credit. The TA will post these to Blackboard before each exam. If you are unsure if your questionnaire journal prompt was received, ask Dylan the TA, Technical issues with Blackboard: The SDSU Student Computing Center help line at For technical issues with the Revel textbook: Or The TA and I cannot help you with technical issues. Notes from an in-person class you missed: One of your classmates. Suggestions for improving the class: Your professor, Dr. T, jtwenge@mail.sdsu.edu Mistakes in the Revel quizzes or on the exams: Your professor, Dr. T, jtwenge@mail.sdsu.edu Further information or questions about a class topic or to offer an example: Your professor, Dr. T, jtwenge@mail.sdsu.edu Missing an exam: You do NOT need to contact us. There are no makeup exams. The exam you miss will be your dropped exam. 7. Missing class: You don t have to worry about missing the Tuesday online course sessions ALL of them are recorded and available to view anytime you want. If you miss an in-person Thursday class, please get the notes from a classmate. Please DO NOT contact me or the TA asking if there was anything you missed (we wouldn t have class unless there was something to miss!) Class cannot be conveyed in . Please get notes from another class member. Realize, though, that getting notes will not give you the whole picture. Coming to class is important because I often ask exam questions that are covered only in class and not in the book. The easiest way to do well in this course is to come to class! Some students who miss class send s on Blackboard to the whole class asking for notes. Most students hate seeing these s over and over. A better approach is to ask someone in person when you come to class you might even make a friend. And think carefully about how you share notes. Sharing with a few people is a nice thing to do; e- mailing your notes to everyone in class via Blackboard (which a few people have done in the past) is not wise it encourages freeloading. 8. Grades and seeing what you missed on exams: The TA will post exam grades on Blackboard. After checking with this syllabus, please contact the TA about any questions regarding grades. If you want to see what you missed on an exam, come to the TA s office hours or set up an appointment to see your scantron. 9. Feedback to me: If there is something that would improve students experience in class, please tell me (preferably before or after class, but is also fine for this.) If there is something you can t wait to complain about when you fill out the class evaluation at the end of the semester, don t wait tell me when I can still change things for the better. One note: The microphone doesn t always work, so if you have trouble hearing please sit closer to the front.

6 10. What we will do in class: This class will use multiple formats. Sometimes I will lecture, but I will also use illustrations and videos at some points some contributed by class members. In addition, I often ask people to volunteer examples and give opinions during class, including how they scored on the personality questionnaires. I encourage open discussion in this class. We will learn about many things that apply to real life, so it s ideal if we learn from each other. 11. Some advice for discussion: Sometimes when I ask a question to the class I am not necessarily looking for the correct answer; often I m interested to know what you think about the question and why. Also, please feel free to ask questions on any aspect of research or theory that you feel you do not understand fully. If you re uncertain, that probably means the rest of the class is, too. I m always willing to explain something again if you don t ask questions, I ll never know if everyone understands. Please ask. Of course, I won t know the answer to every question, partially because not every question has been answered with data! 12. Conduct during class: If you arrive late or leave early do not disturb those around you. Don t get up and leave when I show a video I am showing it for a reason and frequently ask test questions about videos. Put pagers and cell phones off or on vibrate during class. If you bring your laptop to class, please do not watch videos or look at webpages with distracting images. Taking notes is fine, as is looking up a quick fact. But sitting behind someone else who is on Facebook (or even more eye-catching sites) is distracting. It s not just your own education think about your fellow students before you do this. 15. Disabled Student Services: If you are registered at Disabled Student Services and will take the exam at another location, please bring me that paperwork in class at least two weeks before the exam. If possible, bring 4 forms at the beginning of the semester so I can fill them out all at one time for all of the exams. With us meeting in person only once a week, it s very important to plan ahead. 16. Exam content: Exams will be multiple choice. The large majority of the material on the exams will come from class lectures and discussions, so coming to class and viewing the online sessions will be rewarded. That includes all of the videos we watch. When taking notes in class, don t just write down what s on the slide; make sure you understand what I m saying. I also write some important things on the board from time to time. About 20% of exam questions will be based on material we did not cover in class but that s covered in the book. For these questions, I try to concentrate on things the book covers fairly thoroughly (e.g., for at least one page). These questions are important because I want you to read the book. The final exam will be cumulative. Thus it will cover everything in the class, including material tested on the three in-class exams (they will not be the same questions, but might cover the same topics). 17. Why don t we get review sheets? And more about how to get a good grade in this class: Make your own review sheet of concepts to study. If you map out the information

7 you think you need to study the most, you will be studying just through the act of making the summary sheet. Then read over the summary sheet several times. Each student does this in his or her own way, and learns in the process. That is why I do not hand out standard review sheets. The textbook quizzes will also help you study for exams, since you ll quiz yourself as you read. As for taking the exams themselves: Read the exam questions carefully. A difference of one word may separate right and wrong answers. I will often ask you to apply your knowledge, not just to show that you have memorized definitions. Many exam questions, for example, describe a behavior or situation and ask you to identify it, as this is much more like real life. (You ll rarely need to define a psychological term, but it s very useful to know what to call something when you see it). More advice: Try not to multitask when you are studying. Cognitive psychology research shows that the human brain cannot truly multitask it must switch back and forth between tasks, and that takes time and effort. Try this in 20 to 30 minute blocks: Turn off your phone, close your Facebook page, and don t listen to music (instrumental music without words is OK for some people, particularly extraverts). Very rarely, a student will tell me he/she has come to class and studied but still isn t doing well. In some cases this might be due to study skills and multitasking. If you find you re struggling, consider buying a study skills book such as How to Become a Straight-A Student or What Smart Students Know, both available on amazon.com. Completing the personality questionnaires on time is an easy way to boost your grade. With those, you just have to do them (or the alternative assignment) to get full credit. The book quizzes are also a way to get points, and they allow multiple tries. On the in-class exams, though, there are no points for effort, only for correct answers. So realize that, although I appreciate hearing about the effort you put in, I cannot change your grade if you find yourself in that situation. I ve included the advice above as a general guide you will have to take it from there. The good news: We do NOT grade on a curve if everyone earns an A, everyone will get an A. I will be pleased if everyone does well. 18. More about grades: Outside of true grading errors, I will NOT change or bump up grades FOR ANY REASON. University policy states that final grades cannot be changed unless an error has occurred. That is also my personal policy for the sake of fairness. If you believe a grading error has been made, FIRST, see Section 2 above for how to correctly calculate your grade. If you still think something is wrong, contact Dylan the TA, dylanpetze@gmail.com. If you think an exam or quiz question is wrong (you are really sure!) contact your professor at jtwenge@mail.sdsu.edu.

8 19. Course Calendar and Due Dates Tu 8/30 What is Personality? Chapter 1 [Online] Th 9/1 Assessment and research methods: Chapter 2 Friday 9/2 Chapter 1 due 8pm (quizzes) Tu 9/6 Assessment and research methods: Chapter 2 [Online] Chapter 2 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Th 9/8 Assessment and research methods: Chapter 2 and The Big Five personality traits: Chapter 3 Chapter 3 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Tu 9/13 Big Five personality traits: Chapter 3 [Online] Chapter 4 due 8pm (quizzes and 2 questionnaires) Th 9/15 Biological approaches: Chapter 4 Tu 9/20 Biological approaches: Chapter 4 and The Self: Chapter 5 [Online] Chapter 5 due 8pm (quizzes and 3 questionnaires) Th 9/22 The Self: Chapter 5 Tu 9/27 Psychodynamic approaches: Chapter 6 [Online] Chapter 6 due 8pm (quizzes and 3 questionnaires) Th 9/29 FIRST EXAM Tu 10/4 Motivation: Chapter 7 [Online] Chapter 7 due 8pm (quizzes and 5 questionnaires) Th 10/6 Motivation: Chapter 7; Behaviorism: Chapter 8 Tu 10/11 Behaviorism: Chapter 8 [Online] Chapter 8 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Th 10/13 Lifespan: Chapter 9 Chapter 9 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Tu 10/18 Lifespan: Chapter 9 [Online] Th 10/20 Gender: Chapter 10 Chapter 10 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Tu 10/25 Gender: Chapter 10 [Online] Th 10/27 Culture: Chapter 11 Chapter 11 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Tu 11/1 Culture: Chapter 11 [Online] Th 11/3 SECOND EXAM Tu 11/8 Workplace: Chapter 12 Chapter 12 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Th 11/10 Workplace: Chapter 12 [Online] Tu 11/15 Relationships: Chapter 13 [Online] Chapter 13 due 8pm (quizzes and 3 questionnaires) Th 11/17 Relationships: Chapter 13 Tu 11/22 THANKSGIVING WEEK NO CLASS Th 11/24 THANKSGIVING WEEK NO CLASS Tu 11/29 Mental health: Chapter 14 [Online] Th 12/1 Mental health: Chapter 14 Chapter 14 due 8pm (quizzes and 1 questionnaire) Tu 12/6 Physical health: Chapter 15 [Online]

9 Th 12/8 Tu 12/13 Chapter 15 due 8pm (quizzes and 4 questionnaires) THIRD EXAM NO CLASS FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, December 20, 10:30am-12:30pm