Psychology 301: Personality Research
Spring, 2003

301 Spring, 2003 Outline:
Week Date Substantive Content Reading
id="psych", pw="psych"
Requirements
Part I: Current Theories of Personality
Week 1
see also as htmlor pdfor ppt:
March 31 Introduction
3 approaches to psychology
Revelle, Annual Review 1995
April 2 Descriptive Taxonomies
Behavioral Taxonomies
Pervin: Personality taxonomies
John: The Big 5
Week 2: Causal Theories of approach and avoidance
April 7Approach: Introversion/extraversion and Eysenck (optional: see Eysenck web page
April 9 Alternative approaches to I/E Revelle (impulsivity)
Revelle (Broadbent)

Revelle, Humphreys, Simon and Gilliland (1980)
Rogers and Revelle, 1998
Week 3 April 14Approach: Achievement Motivation
classical theory of risk preference
hierarchical models
Elliot and Thrash (2002)
April 16 Achievement motivation and efficient performance
Dynamic models of motivation
Atkinson festschrift Informal preliminary proposal
Week 4 April 21Avoidance: Anxiety
Anxiety and performance
Elliot and McGregor (1999)
April 23Approach and Avoidance:
Personality, Motivation, and Performance
Revelle (Broadbent)
Gilboa
further thoughts on personality dynamicsand a simulation
Part 2: The Measurement of Personality
Week 5 April 28 Basic issues in measurement
problems of measurement
review of variance/covariance)
April 30Fundamentals of reliabiltyreliability notes (pdf)Review/
Week 6 May 5 Research Proposal due
May 7Types of reliability and validity Item construction
choose projects
Week 7 May 12 Scale Construction Midterm
May 14 Factor analysis (updated) Design project
Scale administration
Week 8May 19Validity and decision making Scale analysis
May 21 Validity
Pitfalls in Research
Pitfalls (pdf)
Part 3: Experimental Studies of Personality
Week 9 May 28 Evolutionary perspectives
Personality and behavior genetics
Buss (reserve)
Plomin
May 28 cognitive and self theories Cantor, Higgins Review and discussion of projects
Week 10: June 4 Review Data analysis
Week 11 June 10 Papers due, Final Exam (June 12)

William Revelle
Revised May 19, 2003