FALL 1999
This information effective for Fall 1999.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
FALL 1999
This information effective for Fall 1999.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Course Description:
This course compares psychoanalytic, trait, interactional,
humanistic, and narrative approaches to personality theory and
research, with a focus on their usefulness for understanding
personality development. Students will get hands-on experience with
assessing personality, and carry out mini-research projects in
groups. Readings include a textbook and supplementary articles. There
are two mid-terms, a final exam, and a 5-page paper.
Instructor: Avril Thorne
PROFESSOR PER F. GJERDE
This seminar evaluates the role of "culture and ethnicity" in shaping
human lives. How should we think about these issues in psychology as
we are approaching the Millennium?
Many psychologists continue to see the world as a mosaic of
non-overlapping "cultures" and census-defined "ethnic" groups. But to
bestow cultural communities and ethnic groups with internally
homogeneous and externally distinguishing qualities is problematic in
a world increasingly characterized by migration, globalization, and
new transnational links. Recent cultural forms are developing linking
previously isolated "traditions." Knowledge of globalizing influences
should be familiar even to those who have not frequented Tibet's
animated karaoke bars or participated in Oslo's white middle class
youth cliques emulating African-American culture.
Accordingly, the usefulness of the term "culture" itself is being
challenged. For example, what is the "culture" of a Mexican migrant
spending six months in the US and six months in Mexico? What is the
cultural identity of Turks living in Germany versus Turks living in
Turkey or Denmark? Or individuals inhabiting the "borderlands?"
These globalizing processes are occurring with accelerating speed,
partly as a consequence of the rapid spread of global capitalism and
transnational media, developments that permit individuals -- even in
the most "remote" corners of the world -- to explore very different
ways of being -- if only through imagination. For some individuals,
this exploration leads to migration; for others, it changes their
"hometurf" behavior.
The first part critically examines relations between culture and
space, connections between culture and ethnicity, how images of
"cultural selves" and "cultural others" are formed and "naturalized,"
and the impact of globalization on children's lives &endash; in
particular how children are increasingly becoming the focus of
political struggles over "cultural identity."
The second part examines how children and youth develop in various
"cultures," including
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Norwegian, and Islamic
"cultures." Psychological as well as anthropological readings are
included.
We will examine these topics by focusing on the following six core
questions:
1. What constitute culture and ethnicity?
2. What does it mean to belong to a culture?
3. How do people learn to become member of a culture?
4. What is cultural identity? How do people "know" they belong to a
culture?
5. How do psychological development and culture shape each other?
6. Can individuals belong to more than one culture?
Grading Criteria: Class participation: 40%; Weekly Thought Questions
10%; Final Paper 50%
Instructor: David M. Harrington
Format: Seminar, 30 students maximum.
Key Expectation: Students will take rotating-leadership roles.
Our F99 Topic: Choosing and Shaping the Worlds that Shape Us
This is a seminar for students who want to read, think, and talk
about how and whether people actively select, shape, and create the
psychological environments in which they live, love, and work.
Here are some questions we make ask ourselves:
To what extent and how do we choose and shape the environments in
which we live? To what extend do the environments we choose then
shape our own growth and development?
Do we actively select and create personally beneficial educational
programs, work environments, careers, living arrangements, and
personal relationships, or do we just respond to what's thrown our
way?If we are active seekers and shapers of our environments, how do
we do it? Are there useful environment-selecting-shaping strategies
that can be learned and taught? Are there developmental, personality,
gender, ethnic, sociological, economic and cultural factors that
influence whether and how people seek, shape and create personally
suitable environments or escape unsuitable ones? Is there such a
thing as a good or bad person-situation fit? What do we mean by a
"good fit"? How do people experience a good or a bad "fit"? Do some
personality "types" prefer or "do better" in some kinds of
psychological environments whereas other personality "types" prefer
or "do better" in other kinds of environments? Do people know what
psychological qualities of an environment are personally important to
them? Are some people more proactive and effective in terms of
selecting and shaping their environments than others? How have
psychologists studied these issues in the past, and what new methods
of inquiry could we bring to bear on these questions? Are there ways
to systematically describe situations, environments, and contexts in
psychologically relevant terms that are either useful for research or
for individual decision-making?
Note carefully: This seminar will be more about searching for answers
to these questions than about finding them.
Students will play very active and rotating-leadership roles,
sometimes by working in teams which take on specific library- or
field-research tasks, the results of which they will bring back to
the seminar for constructive discussion. Some students may also
conduct interviews or develop and administer questionnaires, the
results of which they will also bring back to the seminar. then move
into the major phase of our seminar during which
students will locate readings for the days on which they will lead
the seminar discussions.
Enrollment is limited to 30, with pre-requisites being Psychology 3,
10, and 60. A genuine interest in some aspect of the topic and a
willingness to play an active and rotating-leadership role in the
seminar is strongly advised.