Personality and Assessment
Fall, 2008
Textbook: Personality (7th Ed.) by Burger
A Study Guide to accompany this textbook is available, but not required.
Companion Website: A student-learning center is available featuring online quizzes pertaining to your textbook, as well as interactive activities. To get to the site, go to http://psychology.wadsworth.com. Click on “Personality” in the right-hand column. Find your textbook (as I write this, it is the 4th one listed) and click on “Companion site” next to “Student.” This will take you to a site where you will find quizzes, flashcards, and a glossary for each chapter of your textbook, plus a practice final exam.
Exam Schedule: Each exam will cover lecture material since the previous exam plus select chapters from your textbook
Exam 1: September 25, (Thursday)
Chapter 3 + lecture material since August 25.
Exam 2: October 30 (Thursday)
Chapters 5 & 7 + lecture material since October 2.
Exam 3: December 9 (Tuesday)
Chapters 10, 11, 15, & pages 368-371 (Social Learning Theory) + lecture material since November 4.
An exam missed for legitimate reasons must be made-up the same week it is given. If you are unable to take an exam at the regularly scheduled time, contact me prior to the exam date and arrange a time to make it up. Exams not made up by the deadline will be substituted for by the final exam (see below).
The final exam will be given on Tuesday, December 16 at 1:30. The final exam is not required. This optional final exam, worth the same number of points as each of the three mid-term exams, will cover material from both textbook and lecture on the following theorists: Sigmund Freud (Ch. 3), Carl Jung & Karen Horney (Ch. 5), Henry Murray & Gordon Allport (Ch. 7), Carl Rogers (Ch. 11), Julian Rotter (Ch. 13), and George Kelly (Ch. 15. The final exam can be used to replace your lowest exam score (or an exam that you missed). If your score on the final exam is lower than each of your three mid-term exams, it will not be used. In other words, taking the final exam cannot hurt you.
Extra-credit quizzes: A 10-question quiz will be given prior to most, but not all, classes. These quizzes will cover textbook material only. Quizzes will be available at 2:10 p.m. and must be completed by 2:30 p.m. If you are not taking the quiz on a given day, or if no quiz is scheduled, you need not show-up for class until 2:30. If you get a perfect score of 10 out of 10 correct on a quiz, you will receive one (1) extra-credit point; if you get 8 or 9 correct, you will receive one-half (½) extra-credit point. Eighteen such quizzes will be given, so it is possible to earn 18 extra-credit points over the course of the semester, which is a significant amount (approximately 6% of total points possible in course). These extra-credit points may be used to raise your grade at most one level. For example, if you earn sufficient extra-credit points, your grade can be raised from a B to a B+ or from a B+ to an A-. No matter how many extra-credit points you earn, they cannot be used to raise your grade two levels (e.g., from B to A-). There are no make-ups for extra-credit quizzes.
Extra-Credit Quiz Schedule:
Sept. 2: Ch. 1, Pages 1-10
Sept. 4: Ch. 1, Pages 11-16
Sept. 9: Ch. 2, Pages 18-27
Sept. 11: Ch. 2, Pages 28-38
Sept. 16: Ch. 3, Pages 71-83
Sept. 18: Ch. 3, Pages 84-95
Oct. 7: Ch. 6, Pages 129-141 (up to “Displacing Aggression)
Oct 14: Ch. 6, Pages 141-152
Oct. 21: Ch. 8, Pages 190-211
Oct. 23: Ch. 8, Pages 212-228
Nov. 4: Ch. 12, Pages 321-338
Nov. 6: Ch. 12, Pages 339-354
Nov. 11: Ch. 13, Pages 357-375 (up to “Application: Behavior Modification”)
Nov. 13: Ch. 13, Pages 375-390
Nov. 18: Ch. 16, Pages 452-462 (up to “Memories about Relationships”)
Nov. 20: Ch. 16, Pages 462-470
Dec. 2: Ch. 9, Pages 230-246 (up to “Evolutionary Personality Psychology”)
Dec. 4: Ch. 9, Pages 246-259
Grade Distribution:
A 93-100%
A- 90-92.99%
B+ 87-89.99%
B 83-86.99%
B- 80-82.99%
C+ 77-79.99%
C 73-76.99%
C- 70-72.99%
D+ 67-69.99%
D 63-66.99%
D- 60-62.99%
Grade Insurance: Rounding-up extra-credit project:
I do not round-up when calculating grades (89.99% is a B+, not an A-). If you complete this project and are within 0.5% of the next higher grade, I will round-up. Doing this project will not help you unless you are within 0.5% of the next higher grade. Granted, not many of you will fall 0.5% or less from the next grade, but each semester a few students do. This is your opportunity to protect yourself in case you turn out to be one of those few students. (Please do not ask me to raise it by more than 0.5% as I will reject your request which will make you sad and cause me to be very distressed.)
The project consists of giving an existing personality test (you will take many throughout the semester) to two or more groups of people (approximately 10 people in a group) that you have access to and you believe might differ on the trait being measured by the test (e.g., greeks vs. independents; athletes vs. non-athletes; those involved in community service vs. those not involved [use your imagination]), or giving two or more tests to the same group of people in order to see if the tests are correlated. I must approve your project no later than Friday, November 21. If you wait until the deadline, you will have approximately three weeks [including Thanksgiving break] to collect your data and analyze the results. Students must meet with me no later than Wednesday, December 10 to discuss data analysis (all data must be collected prior to this meeting). A brief (5 minute) oral report on your project will be given on Thursday, December 11 (no write-up of the project is necessary).
Writing Option: On Thursday, October 30 [the day of Exam 2], you will be given a topic on which to write a 5 to 7 page paper. This paper is due on Thursday, November 20, thus giving you 3-weeks to write it. You may give me a hard-copy of your paper or you may e-mail me your paper as an attachment using Microsoft Word. I will return your paper with my comments no later than Thursday, December 4. You will provide me with a re-written version (as well as the original version with my comments on it) by the last day of class, Thursday, December 11.