Course Syllabus

Graduate Course in Personality Psychology

Fall 2009

Course Information

Course Number/Section HCS 6327/001

Course Title Graduate Course in Personality Psychology

Term Fall 2009

Days & Times Mondays, 9-12

Professor Contact Information

Professor Dr. Jennifer Lodi-Smith

Office Phone 972-883-3244
Email Address jls1179@utdallas.edu
Office Location Center for BrainHealth 2.422
Office Hours Mondays, 1-5

Course Description

This course is designed to give an in-depth overview of modern personality psychology. We will
begin by talking about what personality is, walk through the different ways of approaching and
assessing personality, discuss both distal and proximal causes of individual differences in
personality, and end by talking about some of the many important things personality influences.
Throughout the course, you will learn about many different approaches to personality psychology
and come away with a better understanding of some of the core ideas in modern personality
psychology research and, hopefully, some ideas on how you can integrate personality psychology
to further your own research interests.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

1. Students will recognize and distinguish among fundamental concepts and theories in
modern personality psychology through assigned text and journal readings and through
course discussions.
2. Students will compare, summarize, and critically evaluate research findings and theories
such as the structure of personality, areas of research in personality, methodological
approaches to personality, and outcomes of individual differences in personality through
course readings, discussions, and preparation of final research paper.
3. Students will design, implement, and interpret research studies and communicate
expected research findings within the framework of a structured course paper proposing a
new research question, reviewing the literature on an intersection of personality and a
topic of their interest, or using theories learned in the course to evaluate the life of an
individual.
4. Students will demonstrate the ability to teach in psychological sciences by regularly
presenting research papers to the class.

Course Syllabus Page 1

 Required Textbooks and Materials

Required Texts

John, O.P., Robins, R.W., & Pervin, L.A. (Eds.) (2008). The Handbook of Personality, 3rd ed.
New York: Guilford.

Required Materials

Additional required readings (listed below) will be on electronic reserve on the UTD library
website (http://www.utdallas.edu/library/services/reserves/reservesvc.htm).

Instructions for accessing electronic reserves:

• Go directly to http://utdallas.docutek.com/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=650
OR
1. Go to http://utdallas.docutek.com/eres/
2. Click on “Find Electronic reserves”
3. Search for readings for HCS 6327

Password: person6327

Assignments & Academic Calendar

August 24: What is Personality

Roberts, B. W., Harms, P.D., Smith, J. L., Wood, D., & Webb, M. (2006). Methods in personality
psychology. In Eid, M. & Diener, E. (Eds.). Handbook of Psychological Assessment: A
Multimethod Perspective. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

August 31: History & Methods

Handbook Chapter: 1 – History of Modern Personality Theory and Research

Burisch, M. (1984). Approaches to personality inventory construction. American Psychologist,

39, 214-227.
Meyer, G. J., Finn, S. E., Eyde, L. D., Kay, G. G., Moreland, K. L., Dies, R. R., et al. (2001).
Psychological testing and psychological assessment: A review of evidence and issues.
American Psychologist, 56, 128-165.
Ozer, D. J. & Reise, S. P. (1994). Personality assessment. Annual Review of Psychology, 45, 357-
388.

September 7: LABOR DAY – NO CLASS

September 14: Personality Traits

Handbook Chapter: 4 – Paradigm Shift to the Integrative Big Five Trait Taxonomy: History,
Measurement, and Conceptual Issues

Digman, J. M. (1997). Higher-order factors of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 73, 1246-1256.

Course Syllabus Page 2

Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48,
26-26.
Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A., & Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The power of
personality: The comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and
cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 2, 313-345.

September 21: Trait Development

Handbook Chapter: 14 – The Development of Personality Traits in Adulthood

Caspi, A., Harrington, H. L., Milne, B., Amell, J. W., Theodore, R. F., & Moffitt, T. E. (2003).
Children's behavioral styles at age 3 are linked to their adult personality traits at age 26.
Journal of Personality, 71, 495-514.
Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A., & Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The power of
personality: The comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and
cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 2, 313-345.
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in
personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
Psychological Bulletin, 132, 1-25.

September 28: Motives and Goals

Handbook Chapter: 24 – Implicit Motives

Emmons, R. A. & McAdams, D. P. (1991). Personal strivings and motive dispositions: Exploring
the links. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 648-654.
Fraley, R. C. & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Airport separations: A naturalistic study of adult attachment
dynamics in separating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1198-
1212.
Little, B. R. (2008). Personal projects and free traits: Personality and motivation reconsidered.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1235-1254.

October 5: NO CLASS

October 12: Abilities

Handbook Chapter: 27 – Creativity and Genius

Poropat, A. E. (2009). A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic

performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 322-338.
Sutin, A. R., Costa Jr., P. T., Miech, R., & Eaton, W. W. (2009). Personality and career success:
Concurrent and longitudinal relations. European Journal of Personality, 23, 71-84.
Zimprich, D., Allemand, M., & Dellenbach, M. (2009). Openness to experience, fluid
intelligence, and crystallized intelligence in middle-aged and old adults. Journal of
Research in Personality, 444-454.

Course Syllabus Page 3

October 19: Narrative Approaches to Personality

Handbook Chapter: 8 – Personal Narratives and the Life Story

Lodi-Smith, J., Geise, A. C., Roberts, B. W., & Robins, R. W. (2009). Narrating personality
change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 679-689.
McAdams, D. P., Reynolds, J., Lewis, M., Patten, A. H., & Bowman, P. J. (2001). When bad
things turn good and good things turn bad: Sequences of redemption and contamination
in life narrative and their relation to psychosocial adaptation in midlife adults and in
students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 474-485.
McLean, K. C., Pasupathi, M., & Pals, J. L. (2007). Selves creating stories creating selves: A
process model of self-development. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 262-
278.

October 26: Identity & Reputation

Handbook Chapter: 17 – Identity Negotiation: A Theory of Self and Social Interaction

Campbell, J. D., Trapnell, P. D., Heine, S. J., Katz, I. M., Lavallee, L. F., & Lehman, D. R.
(1996). Self-concept clarity: Measurement, personality correlates, and cultural
boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 141-156.
Funder, D. C. (1995). On the accuracy of personality judgment: A realistic approach.
Psychological Review, 102, 652-670.
Gosling, S. D., Ko, S. J., Mannarelli, T., & Morris, M. E. (2002). A room with a cue: Personality
judgments based on offices and bedrooms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
82, 379-398.

November 2: Genetics & Physiology

Handbook Chapter: 10 – Behavioral Genetics and Personality: A New Look at the Integration of
Nature and Nurture

Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T. E., Mill, J., Martin, J., Craig, I. W., et al. (2002). Role of
genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297, 851-854.
Haas, B. W., Omura, K., Constable, R. T., & Canli, T. (2007). Is automatic emotion regulation
associated with agreeableness? A perspective using a social neuroscience approach.
Psychological Science, 18, 130-132.
Sutin, A. R., Beason-Held, L. L., Resnick, S. M., & Costa, P. T. (2009). Sex differences in
resting-state neural correlates of openness to experience among older adults. Cerebral
Cortex, in press 2009.

Course Syllabus Page 4

November 9: Society & Culture

Handbook Chapter: 12 – Culture and Personality

Lodi-Smith, J. & Roberts, B. W. (2007). Social investment and personality: A meta-analysis of

the relationship of personality traits to investment in work, family, religion, and
volunteerism. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 68-86.
Markus, H. R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion,
and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
Wood, D. (2007). Using the PRISM to compare the explanatory value of general and role-
contextualized trait ratings. Journal of Personality, 75, 1103-1126.

November 16: Outcomes & Psychopathology

Handbook Chapter: 31 – Personality and Health: A Lifespan Perspective

Adler, J., Skalina, L., & McAdams, D. (2008). The narrative reconstruction of psychotherapy and
psychological health. Psychotherapy Research, 18, 719-734.
Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and
subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138-161.
Walton, K. E., Roberts, B. W., Krueger, R. F., Blonigen, D. M., & Hicks, B. M. (2008).
Capturing abnormal personality with normal personality inventories: An item response
theory approach. Journal of Personality, 76, 1623-1648.

November 23: Evolution

Handbook Chapter: 2 – Human Nature and Individual Differences: Evolution of Human

Personality

Bell, A. M. & Stamps, J. A. (2004). Development of behavioural differences between individuals

and populations of sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Animal Behaviour, 68, 1339-
1348.
Gosling, S. D. (2001). From mice to men: What can we learn about personality from animal
research? Psychological Bulletin, 127, 45-86.
Gosling, S. D., Kwan, V. S. Y., & John, O. P. (2003). A dog's got personality: A cross-species
comparative approach to personality judgments in dogs and humans. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1161-1169.

November 30 & December 7: Presentations of research papers

Course Syllabus Page 5

Grading Policy

10% Thought questions/attendance: Each week you should bring in 1 or 2 thought questions
about each assigned reading. These can be points of clarification or things they made you think
of. They should be typed and printed to bring to class and turned in when you arrive.

30% Presentation of reading material: You will be responsible for two readings during the
semester. You will cover the readings (sometimes with a partner for longer readings) using
powerpoint to present the reading to the class. You will be graded on the clarity of your
presentation, your understanding of the material, and your ability to help the class understand the
material. You are encouraged to start on these presentations early so that you can ask me
questions during the process.

10% Presentation of research paper: The last two days of class will be dedicated to the brief
presentation of your research paper. As with the presentation of the reading material, you will use
powerpoint to present your research paper. You will have 10 minutes for your presentation. Hit
the highlights – we don’t need to know every detail, just enough to get an idea of what others in
the class are thinking about. Allow a minute or two at the end for questions.

50% Research paper: Due by 5pm November 25 as email attachment. Early papers are
welcome!!! You may choose one of the three topics listed below for your research paper.
Research papers should be approximately 20 pages in length using standard document formatting.
The idea is to get the idea across well, not to meet an arbitrary page guideline. APA style is
recommended.
1. Research proposal: A research proposal will integrate some aspect of personality
research with your own area of research. You should cover the relevant background
literature and develop clear, testable hypotheses as well as propose the methods for
approaching your research questions.
2. Research review: Pick a topic that we did not cover or only touched on in the course.
Do a thorough literature review on personality and this topic. Cover the historical
development of this topic, any debates surrounding the topic, current research on the
topic, where people might go with the topic in the future, and where you would like
to see it go.
3. Case study: Personality is about the individual. Using the many tools of assessing and
understanding personality that we discussed in class, examine the life of one
individual. This person can be living or historical, fictional or real. Use what you
learned in the class about personality and as many concrete details about the
individual as you can to highlight your analysis of his/her/its personality.
Some hints on getting a good grade on these papers:
- Don’t quote blindly from people – use your own words to summarize an idea instead and
use quotes sparingly to emphasize points you wish to make
- Don’t have a chronological list of research papers with a paragraph covering each paper –
synthesize ideas across papers to support a central point
- Take the time to proof read your paper!!!!
- See the attached guide to writing a good paper

Late papers will be docked one grade increment (i.e. A to A-) for every day late.

Course Syllabus Page 6

I am required by the University to give you the information from here through p. 9.

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The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have rules and regulations
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each student organization to be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern
student conduct and activities. General information on student conduct and discipline is contained
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academic year.

The University of Texas at Dallas administers student discipline within the procedures of
recognized and established due process. Procedures are defined and described in the Rules and
Regulations, Series 50000, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System, and in Title V,
Rules on Student Services and Activities of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures.
Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of
Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and
regulations (SU 1.602, 972/883-6391) and online at
http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-HOPV.html

A student at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the responsibilities of citizenship.
He or she is expected to obey federal, state, and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules,
university regulations, and administrative rules. Students are subject to discipline for violating the
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Academic Integrity

The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty. Because
the value of an academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by the
student for that degree, it is imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard of individual
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Scholastic Dishonesty, any student who commits an act of scholastic dishonesty is subject to
discipline. Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the
submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another
person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a
student or the attempt to commit such acts.

Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and from any other
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Course Syllabus Page 7

 criminal penalties provided by federal law. Usage of such material is only appropriate when that
usage constitutes “fair use” under the Copyright Act. As a UT Dallas student, you are required to
follow the institution’s copyright policy (Policy Memorandum 84-I.3-46). For more information
about the fair use exemption, see http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm

Email Use

The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of communication between
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address and that faculty and staff consider email from students official only if it originates from a
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identity of all individual corresponding and the security of the transmitted information. UTD
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Withdrawal from Class

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Procedures for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities,
of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures.

In attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades, evaluations, or other fulfillments
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that level, the grievance must be submitted in writing to the respondent with a copy of the
respondent’s School Dean. If the matter is not resolved by the written response provided by the
respondent, the student may submit a written appeal to the School Dean. If the grievance is not
resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written appeal to the Dean of
Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal will appoint and convene an Academic
Appeals Panel. The decision of the Academic Appeals Panel is final. The results of the academic
appeals process will be distributed to all involved parties.

Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of
Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and
regulations.

Incomplete Grade Policy

As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work unavoidably missed at
the semester’s end and only if 70% of the course work has been completed. An incomplete grade
must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from the first day of the subsequent long semester. If the

Course Syllabus Page 8

 required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete grade is not submitted by the
specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed automatically to a grade of F.

Disability Services

The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities educational opportunities
equal to those of their non-disabled peers. Disability Services is located in room 1.610 in the
Student Union. Office hours are Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and
Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The contact information for the Office of Disability Services is:

The University of Texas at Dallas, SU 22
PO Box 830688
Richardson, Texas 75083-0688
(972) 883-2098 (voice or TTY)
disabilityservice@utdallas.edu

If you anticipate issues related to the format or requirements of this course, please meet with the
Coordinator of Disability Services. The Coordinator is available to discuss ways to ensure your
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are necessary, it is very important that you be registered with Disability Services to notify them of
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coordinate your accommodations.

It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for such an
accommodation. Disability Services provides students with letters to present to faculty members
to verify that the student has a disability and needs accommodations. Individuals requiring special
accommodation should contact the professor after class or during office hours.

Religious Holy Days

The University of Texas at Dallas will excuse a student from class or other required activities for
the travel to and observance of a religious holy day for a religion whose places of worship are
exempt from property tax under Section 11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated.

The student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity sponsor as soon as possible regarding
the absence, preferably in advance of the assignment. The student, so excused, will be allowed to
take the exam or complete the assignment within a reasonable time after the absence: a period
equal to the length of the absence, up to a maximum of one week. A student who notifies the
instructor and completes any missed exam or assignment may not be penalized for the absence. A
student who fails to complete the exam or assignment within the prescribed period may receive a
failing grade for that exam or assignment.

If a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the absence [i.e., for the purpose of
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been given a reasonable time to complete any missed assignments or examinations, either the
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his or her designee. The chief executive officer or designee must take into account the legislative
intent of TEC 51.911(b), and the student and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief
executive officer or designee.

These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.

Course Syllabus Page 9

Course Syllabus Page 10
 Manuscript Acronyms from Hell:
Intangible Lessons on Writing the Empirical Research Article

Brent Roberts (with substantial help from Ed Diener and Chris Fraley)

Here are a set of subtle lessons that we’ve culled from our experience writing journal articles.
They are intended as a short list of questions that you can ask yourself each time you complete
an article. For example, before you submit your paper to a journal, ask yourself whether you
have created a clear need for the study in the introduction, or whether everything is parallel, etc.
This list is by no means complete, but we do hope that it is useful.

1. Create the need (CTN). Have you created the need? Have you made it clear to the reader
why your study needs to be done and why he or she should care? This is typically done in one of
two ways. The first way is to show that previous research has failed to consider some connection
or some methodological permutation or both. This means reviewing previous research in a
positive way with a bite at the end in which you explain that, despite the excellent work, this
research failed to consider several things. The second way is to point out that you are doing
something completely unique. Even if you are taking this approach, you should review the
“analogue” literature. The analogue literature is a line of research that is conceptually similar in
content or method, but not exactly like your study.

2. Always be parallel (APB). Every idea that is laid out in the introduction should be in the
methods, results, and discussion. Moreover, the order of the ideas should be exactly the same in
each section. Assume your reader is busy, tired, bored, or lazy, or some combination of these
wonderful attributes. You don’t want to make your reader work too hard, otherwise they will
quickly become someone who is not your reader. Parallelism also refers to emphasis. If you
spend three pages discussing a topic in the introduction and two sentences in the results and
discussion on the same topic, then you either have to 1) cut the introductory material, or 2)
enhance the material in the results and discussion.

3. Correlate Ideas and Method (CIM). The methods that you choose to adopt in your study
should be clearly linked to the concepts and ideas that inspire your research. Put another way,
the method you are going to use (e.g., correlation, factor analysis, text analysis, path model,
repeated measures experiment, between-subject experiment, etc.) should be painfully clear to the
readers before they get to the method section.

4. Eliminate all tangents (EAT). If you introduce an idea that is not directly germane to your
study, eliminate it. That is, if it is not part of your method or not tested in your results then
eliminate it from your introduction. If it is important for future research, put it in your discussion.
Remember Bem’s maxim. If you find a tangent in your manuscript make it a footnote. In the next
1
revision of the paper, eliminate all footnotes .

5. Always be Deductive (ABD). Papers that start with a strong thesis/research question read
better than papers that have an inductive structure. The latter build to the study through
reviewing the literature. After several pages the idea for the study emerges. The deductive
structure starts with the goal of the paper and then often provides an outline or advance
organizing section at the beginning of the article informing the reader of what is to come.

6. No Ad Hominem Attacks (NAHA). Don’t point out the failings or foibles of researchers, even
if they are idiots. This will needlessly piss of the researcher, who is most likely going to be a

1
This, of course, is a bit of an overstatement. As Chris Fraley points out, the judicious use of footnotes can
assuage the concerns of reviewers that you failed to consider their research. By eliminating tangents, I
mean getting rid of entire paragraphs that are not directly relevant to your paper.

Course Syllabus Page 11

reviewer, or friends of the researcher, who also will most likely be reviewers. If you are going to
2
attack anything, then attack ideas .

7. Contrast Two Real Hypotheses (CTRH). Although not attainable in every instance, I like to
design studies and write papers that contrast two theoretical perspectives or hypotheses in which
one of the hypotheses is not the null hypothesis. This accomplishes several goals at once. First,
it helps to generate a deductive structure. Second, it tends to diminish the likelihood of ad
hominim attacks, as you have to give both theoretical perspectives their due. In terms of
analyses, it tends to force you into contrasting two models rather than throwing yourself against
the shoals of the null hypothesis every time, which is relatively uninteresting.

9. Writing is Rewriting (WIR). There is no such thing as a “final” draft. There is simply the
paper that you submit. This is not to say that you should be nihilistic about your writing and
submit slipshod prose because there is no hope of attaining perfection. Rather, you should strive
for perfection and learn to accept the fact that you will never achieve it.

10. Two-Heads-Are-Better-Than-One (THABTO). Have someone else read your paper before
turning it in or submitting it. A second pair of eyes can detect flaws that you have simply
th
habituated to after reading through the document for the 400 time. This subsumes the
recommendation to always proofread your document. In general, we recommend collaborating
with someone else. Often times, a second person possesses skills that you lack. Working with
that person leverages your combined skills. This inevitably leads to a better paper.

11. Grammar rules: Use Active Language (UAL). Where possible, eliminate the passive voice.
Define Your Terms (DYT). Make sure you define your concepts when they are introduced in the
paper. One Idea Per Sentence (OIPS). Review Ideas Not People (RINP). When you have the
choice of saying “Smith and Jones (1967) found that conscientiousness predicts smoking,” or
“Conscientiousness is related to a higher likelihood of smoking (Smith & Jones, 1967),” choose
the later.

12. Don’t Overuse Acronyms (DOA).

Ed Diener summarizes much of this more elegantly. When writing your paper make the
introduction lead up to the questions you want to answer; don't raise extra issues in the
introduction that you don't answer. Make it seem like what you doing follows as the next direct
and logical thing from what has already been done. Moreover, emphasize that what you are
doing is not just a nice thing to do, but THE next thing that is essential to do.

2
This is not to say that the motivation for a line of research should not be inspired by a negative reaction to
someone or someone’s ideas. It is okay to get your underwear in a bunch over someone’s aggressive
ignorance and then do something about it in your research. Just don’t write it up that way.

Course Syllabus Page 12