Course Syllabus

Liebert, R.M., and Spiegler, M.D. Personality: Strategies and Issues (8th Ed). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 1998.

1. AUG 28 Introduction

AUG 30 What is Personality? Ch. 1
 
2. SEP 04 Personality Research Ch. 2

SEP 06 Psychoanalytic Strategy Ch. 3
 
3. SEP 11 Freud's Psychoanalytic Theories Ch. 4

SEP 13 Post-Freudian Perspectives Ch. 5
 
4. SEP 18 Applications Ch. 6

SEP 20 Limitations
 
5. SEP 25 FIRST EXAMINATION

SEP 27 The Dispositional Strategy Ch. 7
 
6. OCT 02 Evolution of the Trait Concept Ch. 8

OCT 04 Needs and Motives
 
7. OCT 09 The Biological Approach Ch. 9

OCT 11 Hypnosis
 
8. OCT 16 Applications & Limitations Ch. 10

OCT 18 SECOND EXAMINATION
 
9. OCT 23 The Environmental Strategy Ch. 11

OCT 25 The Behavioral Approach Ch. 12
 
10. OCT 30 Social Learning Theory Ch. 13

NOV 01 Rational Emotive Therapy
 
11. NOV 06 Assertion Training

NOV 08 Applications and Limitations Ch. 14
 
12. NOV 13 THIRD EXAMINATION

NOV 15 The Representational Strategy Ch. 15
 
13. NOV 20 The Phenomenological Approach Ch. 16

NOV 22 THANKSGIVING - No Class
 
14. NOV 27 The Social Cognitive Approach Ch. 17

NOV 29 Applications and Limitations Ch. 18
 
15. DEC 04 Summation Ch. 19

DEC 06 FOURTH EXAMINATION

One requirement for this class is to have an email address. The following links will help you get started:

To find out how to get an email account at CSUN click HERE

Lots of useful information about computers on the WEB PROJECT page

Student Computer Workshops are available WORKSHOPS

This course is using a program on the internet called WebCT. Follow these directions to establish your WebCT account (You will only do this once):

1. Go to WebCT at http://webteach.csun.edu

2. Click on Create my WebCT

3. Fill in the starred boxes and your email address.. Be sure that your user ID is your first initial and last name. For example: The name Amy O'berg-Walsh would have a user ID of aobergwalsh

Do not in any spaces or punctuation marks! Do not use any capital letters in the user ID!

4. Click Continue

5. Enter the User ID and Password that you have just created

6. Click on Add Course

7. Click on Psychology

8. Click on Psy370

9. Do not put the user ID or Password in. Just click Register

10. Click Go to Course. You are now finally in the homepage of this class.

For help using WebCT, click on this link: http://www.csun.edu/~webteach/WebCT/WebCTHelp.html

Community Volunteer Work. In the research seminar, you are given the opportunity to apply the skills you are learning in this class. The vehicle for this application is community volunteer work. Begin by choosing a community agency that you are interested in. You can pick one from the "Psychology Department Volunteer Experiences" handout or you can select an alternate facility which meets the requirements. Call up the contact person listed for the agency you are interested in and talk to them about their volunteer program and decide if you want to pursue volunteer work there and if they can use you. Important: Choose a volunteer experience which is related to personality psychology AND one in which you do not receive money (you may NOT receive payment for your services and also get course credit). Make a contract with the facility agreeing to work a minimum of 30 hours over the course of the semester and begin work. As soon as you decide on an agency, fill out the required agency form to let me know where you will be working.

In addition to your weekly journal entries, you will be required to post a "response" to the journal entries of at least 2 other students each week. Your response could be in the form of a comment, a question, a suggestion, a disagreement, etc. These Discussion Forum sessions will function as "virtual" classroom time for the research seminar. Once you have decided where you will conduct your volunteer work, you do not need to "physically" attend the research seminar. Instead, you will "virtually" attend class via the Discussion Forum journal entries and responses. The instructor and the teaching assistants will always be available both "physically" (in the classroom or office) and "virtually" (to read and respond to your journal entries). Grades for the one unit 370l will be based on your journal entries and responses, and your supervisors evaluation of your work performance. Verification by your supervisor that thirty hours have been completed is required.

I will hold "Virtual Office Hours" in the Online Chat Center every week. This time will function both as an open office hour and a question and answer period. Times will be announced in class and in the Main Discussion Forum. Our Teaching Assistant will also hold virtual office hours here. In addition, students are welcome to "hang out" at the online chat center, and arrange "Study Groups" for the examinations here. 

There will be four examinations. All exams will contain multiple choice questions only. Grades for the three unit Psychology 370 will be based on the total cumulated points on these four exams. There will be no comprehensive final.

Grades for the one unit Psychology 370l will be independent of grades for Psychology 370, based on community volunteer projects as explained above. No 'plus' or 'minus' grades will be given in either 370 or 370l.

• EXAM 1 SEP 25 Class materials and text Ch. 1- 6.
• EXAM 2 OCT 18 Class materials and text Ch. 7-10.
• EXAM 3 NOV 13 Class materials and text Ch. 11-14.
• EXAM 4 DEC 04 Class materials and text Ch. 15-19.

Policy on Incompletes: PERMISSION TO TAKE AN "INCOMPLETE" MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE INSTRUCTOR BEFORE SEMESTER GRADES ARE DUE. A special form is required and it is the student's responsibility to obtain one (available in the Administration Building), fill it out, and contact us about it. An incomplete should be requested only for serious or emergency reasons such as illness on the day of the final exam. An incomplete should not be requested because one did not get around to finishing the course project in time since you have had a full semester to work on it. A missing final is expected to be made up in a short period of time--within a few weeks of the incomplete grade assignment--unless extremely unusual circumstances prevail. Please note: If anything is missing, I will simply assign a grade of "U" (unauthorized incomplete) and do nothing else until I hear from you for an explanation. If I do not hear from you, the grade eventually and automatically reverts to an "F".

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