Psychology - Spring 1999

Instructor: PER F. GJERDE

Office: 345 Social Science II
Office hours: Wednesday 2:00-4:00pm
Phone: 9-3148
E-Mail: gjerde@ucsc.edu

The class meets each Monday and Wednesday from 5:00 - 6:45 p.m. in Merrill 102.

Objectives: The purpose is to provide students with a systematic introduction to theories, research, and applications of modern personality psychology. Students will read about grand theories of personality, assessment of personality, development of personality, and application of personality research to psychopathology.

Contents: The course is divided into four segments:

I: Personality: definitions, biological determinants, and assessment;

II: Grand theories of personality;

III: Development of personality with emphasis on attachment theory;

IV: Current issues and applications in personality research with emphasis on psychopathology.

The lectures will sometimes expand upon the readings; at other times they will complement the readings by bringing in material not covered in the text or in the supplementary readings. Films and video will complement the readings.

Readings: The textbook is: Personality: Theory and research, by L. A. Pervin and O. P. John. A brief class reader with mandatory readings will complement the text.

Discussion Sections: Although section participation is not mandatory, each student must sign up for a specific discussion section. The TA of this section will be your TA for the remainder of the course. The sections will provide opportunities for further exploration of course material as well as experience with research methods. Active section participation will be highlighted in the Narrative Evaluations.

Grading: The final course grade will be based upon two midterm exams, one final exam, and two class assignments. The two midterm exams and the final exam, consisting of multiple-choice questions, will cover materials from all assigned chapters in the text, lectures, and handouts.

Projects: Students will also complete two small research projects:

Project I -- The Journal Article Report

Project II -- The Personality Interview

Assignment I: The Journal Article Report

Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with an occasion to explore recently published findings in personality psychology.

What to do:

1. Select any one recent personality psychology research article from an established journal article.

2. Prepare a 2 page -- double-spaced, typed summary of the main points the article -- to be turned in to and evaluated by your TA.

Address these questions: How does the article relate to the perspectives on personality psychology reviewed in the text (e.g., the psychoanalytic, social learning, phenomenological, and trait perspectives)? Does it bear on one or more of them, or does it fall outside any of these approaches?

Whether it falls within or outside of these different perspectives, explain how?

Assignment II: The Personality Interview

Purpose:

The purpose of this exercise is: (a) to help students integrate concepts from personality psychology with what happens in real life; (b) to give students experience in conducting a structured interview, and (c) to sensitize students to ethical issues in psychological research.

What to do:

Select an individual of your own age, preferably but not necessarily, one you have interacted with and is available to you now: a friend, room mate, etc. Then, conduct at least four hour-long interviews with this individual. Conduct either four one-hour interviews or two two-hour interviews. Then, write a 5 page double-spaced integrative summary of the person, using one or several of the personality theories you have learned about in the class.

Additional information about both Projects will be provided in class.

During the past 20 years, personality and developmental psychologists have been trying to identify the processes by which some individuals manage to survive or escape from conditions which have put them at risk for psychological or physical harm. Those who survive, escape, or "bounce back" from such conditions are often referred to as "resilient" individuals. Why and how are some people able to bounce back resiliently when others are unable to do so?

For example, how and why is it that some children and adolescents survive parental abuse, seriously dysfunctional families, terrible schools, drug-invested neighborhoods, tremendous economic deprivation, moves to new countries in which they do not know the language or customs, serious childhood diseases, major accidents, or mental or physical handicaps to become healthy, well-functioning people, whereas many others do not survive or bounce back so well?

How and why is it that some adults are able to deal relatively successfully with personal tragedies, life-wrenching divorces, serious chronic diseases, or major personal handicaps, whereas others are sent into downward spirals once having been dealt these "bad hands" by life?

What are the PROCESSES by which some at-risk individuals manage to escape, survive, or bounce back from bad situations in relatively healthy condition?

What are the PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS of these "resilient" children, adolescents, and adults? Do the personal characteristics of resilient individuals give us any clues about how at-risk individuals who lack these characteristics could be helped?

What are the RESOURCES AND AGENCIES IN THE ENVIRONMENT (e.g., in the family, schools, community, and culture) that often play crucial roles in protecting at-risk individuals or in helping them to escape or bounce back from potentially harmful situations?

We will begin the quarter by discussing a few basic readings about resiliency. We will then move on to focus on aspects and forms of resilience which are of particular interest to seminar members who will provide us with recommended readings and will lead us in discussion about these special topics. Students with overlapping interests will be encouraged to work together in gathering relevant readings and in leading seminar discussions about the forms and aspects of resilience which they find particularly interesting or important.

This is NOT a lecture course. It is a SEMINAR in which every student is expected to share responsibility for the intellectual and interpersonal health of the seminar. Every student will be expected to contribute to every seminar discussion and to lead at least one seminar discussion.

Previous seminar experience is not required, but a willingness to plunge whole-heartedly into the seminar process (and learn how to do a seminar) is.

A final paper (8-10 pages) and oral report will be required. The exact details of the final paper and oral report will be worked out once we see how many of us there are in the seminar.

Enrollment is limited to 30, with pre-requisites being Psychology 3, 10, and 60.

STUDENTS WHO WANT A LECTURE COURSE SHOULD NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS SEMINAR!!

Students who do not like to talk in seminars or who aren't willing to learn how to talk in a seminar should not sign up.

Students who find the topic interesting and who are willing to read the material and play active roles in the seminar are encouraged to come check out this seminar and to alert other potentially interested students to the seminar's existence.

I hope to attract a group of students who are genuinely interested in this topic and who are excited by the prospect of using a seminar format to teach themselves, one another, and me something about the personal and environmental factors which help people survive pathogenic, disadvantaged, and extremely stressful conditions relatively well.

The class is taught in the format of a graduate seminar, where students do independent research under the guidance of the instructor and report their results to the class. Beloware the seminar topics that the students chose in 1998:

Development

5/5 Lori McFarland, evolution of play

Dimitri Timm, play and fighting

Perception

5/7 Jonathan Cushing, color perception

Tran Van Thu, spatial abilities

Language and Communication

5/12 Christian Balducci, Shirit Megiddo, Alexandra Stone, language

5/14 Jessica Trazzare, pheromones in sexual attraction

Josh Goodley, functions of music

Morality

5/19 Donna Lee, evolution of altruism

Craig Schommer, morality and humanistic psychology

Reproduction and Family Structure

5/21 La Phengrasamy, parenting

Robyn Hannon, sibling rivalry

5/28 Kami Elliot, social menstruation

Eve Tokumaru, fitness of monogamy

Contemporary Life

6/2 Julie D'Amico, the elderly

Shelley Woodcox, mental disorders

6/4 Joshua Hart, quality of life

Charles Buquet, evolution of leisure

6/9 Jennifer Caudillo, personality

Gilda Tafreshi, human tools

The Future

6/11 Debbie Sidenfaden, extinction

wrapup

Time: M-W 5 - 6:45PM
Location: Social Science II

Instructors: Faye Crosby & Carmel Benson

Aims

You will have to decide your own goals for this course.

The instructors have goals too. First, we hope you will learn a lot about what the social psychological experts have decided about sex and gender. Second, we hope that you will learn how the experts come to their conclusions. It is our aim to help you attain sophistication about evidence and inference. Finally,we hope that all of us become more aware of the assumptions we possess about self and about gender. We may all end up feeling less, rather than more secure in our convictions about what it means to be a woman or a man. But whether more or less secure in our convictions, we hope that we will all be more conscious of how we come to feel that we know something.

Your first responsibility is to learn as much as you can about the topic, acquiring increasingly epistemological sophistication ad self scrutiny. Your secondary responsibility is to enable the learning of the other students in the course. When one person's learning is achieved at the expense of another, the educational process is compromised. Our responsibility is to prepare and present the materials in ways that we think will facilitate you reaching your goals.

The Social Psychology of Sex and Gender is not a course that is "taken" or "given." It is an experience that we create together.

Office Hours

Each week both Carmel and Faye hold 2 hours aside for 'walk ins.' We can both be reached by phone or email. We will announce hours, email addresses, and office locations at the start of the course

MECHANICS

Overview

The course falls into three sections: the basics (which essentially lays out the rules of evidence and inference in feminist psychology), the bad news (which essentially shows that women and men receive different treatment even though men and women are essentially the same); and the good news (which shows that situations can change).

For each meeting of the lecture, you have some reading and other work to do. Feel free to read as far in advance as you can. Indeed, if you do all the reading in the beginning of the term, you'll probably enjoy the course more than if you wait. Most of the reading comes from our "text" entitled Gender, Culture, and Ethnicity, (GCE) which is edited by Letitia Anne Peplau, Sheri Chapman DeBro, Rosemary C. Veniegas, and Pamela Taylor. The book is available in paperback at the BayTree Bookstore.

Your section meetings are designed to help you accomplish the work in the course. You will hear more details about those in supplemental handouts.

Schedule of Classes and Topics and Reading Assignments

Basics: How do we go about forming conclusions?

Mon 3/29
Hello. Faye explains the course.We all say who we are. Faye gives you the handout on Deborah Tannen.

Wed 3/31
Faye gives a brief lecture on the kinds of questions one asks in the social psychology of sex and gender. We all discuss the Tannen handout. Be sure to have read it in advance of the class discussion.

Mon 4/5
Faye lectures: "And now, for the opposing point of view." You select team mates for your first project. You ought to have read chapters 1,2, and 25 of GCE by 4/5.

Wed 4/7
Faye briefly outlines the ways to find answers to the kinds of questions we address in the course. You and your team mates are introduced to the method of conducting a systematic observational study. Please read chapter 6 of GCE before class.

Mon 4/12
Faye lectures and leads discussion on the question "is anatomy destiny?" Please read chapters 5 and 18 of GCE before class.

Wed 4/14
Faye lectures on "sex and sexuality." Please read chapters 13 and 16 before class.

Your 2 page article summary is due at the start of class. We do not accept late papers unless there is a medical excuse or family emergency.

Bad News: Even though males and females may be basically the same, society treats males and females very differently

Mon 4/19
We examine the issue of boys and girls in families. Please read chapter 14 before class.

Wed 4/21
Before break, we consider young boys and girls at school. After break, we check in about the systematic observational studies. Please read chapter 7 before class.

Mon 4/26
Faye lectures on gender and academic achievement. Be sure to have read chapter 8.

Wed 4/28
POSTER DAY: All teams present the results of your systematic observational studies. We set up the room like a poster session at a conference. You all have recording sheets.

Mon 5/3
We focus on female misery in the adolescent years. Faye lectures on eating disorders and body image. Perhaps we have an outside speaker or a panel. Be sure to read chapters 17 and 21 before class.

Wed 5/5
We focus on male agony in the adolescent years, with an emphasize on drink, drugs and suicide. Perhaps we will have a panel. Please read chapters 9 and 19 before class.

Mon 5/10
Faye lectures on: gender and mental health among adults.

Wed 5/12
Faye lectures on gender divisions in domestic life. Please read chapter 15 before class.

Mon 5/17
Faye lectures on gender discrimination at work. Please read chapters 10 and 20 before class.

Wed 5/19
A visitor tells us about gender discrimination at work and beyond.

Good News: We can hope

Mon 5/24
We return to the question of gender differences: are they real or illusory? At the start of class, You pass in your paper on Hyde and Eagly. Your knowledge of Hyde and Eagly form the basis of the class discussion. Remember the policy about late papers.

Wed 5/26
Faye gives a lecture: Is mentoring the answer?

Mon 6/1
We discuss: Is affirmative action good or bad?

Wed 6/3
Before break, we consider: What's a feminist to do? Before class, please read chapters 4 and 23. Class concludes with a celebration.

Graded Assignments

Overview

1. You will write a 2 page summary of ONE of the following research articles. Due on Wednesday April 14 at the start of class. Counts 15% of your grade if you are obtaining a grade.

2. You work in a team to conduct a systematic observational study of gender stereotyping in the media in the way outlined below. Presentation of results is set for Wednesday, April 28.

Counts 30% of your grade if you are obtaining a grade.

3. You write a 3 - 5 page paper in which you examine two points of view according to the instructions set out below. Due on Monday, May 24 at the start of class. Counts 25% of your grade if you are obtaining a grade.

4. You take a final exam during exam week. Counts 30% of your grade if you are obtaining a grade.

The final exam covers all the reading and all lectures and discussion.

In Depth

1. Summarize ONE of the following. Tell us: what was the issue?

How did the researchers approach the issue? What did they find? What did they conclude from their findings?

Leaper, C., & Berko-Gleason, J. (1996). The relationship of play activity and gender to parent and child sex-typed communication. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 19, 689 - 703.

Sinclair, H. C., & Bourne, L.E. Jr. (1998) Cycle of blame or just world: Effects of legal verdicts on gender patterns in rape- myth acceptance and victim empathy. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 575 - 588.

Stockdale, M.S. (1998). The direct and moderating influences of sexual-harassment pervasiveness, coping strategies, and gender on work-related outcomes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 521 - 535.

2. You and your team will watch 2 half-hour segments of 2 shows, one contemporary (e.g., Ally McBeal) and one from the 1960s (e.g., I love lucy). You will code the segments for sex stereotyping along some precise and measurable dimension (e.g., number of times women and men interrupt each other) of social dominance. Then you will make a poster presentation. The poster presentation should be only two pages long and should follow this format.

Introduction

ask the general question and a specific question or specific questions

(does the media treat men and women differently? do cartoons show men talking more than women?)

OR: state the general hypothesis and a specific hypothesis

(the media treats men and women differently. Men have more authority and more importance. Men speak more)

Methods

be very clear and specific tell what you examined. did you sample in time or record continuously

justify your choice: say why your sample is a good one for the question you are addressing or the hypothesis you are testing specify and justify your exact measures (include a copy of the coding sheet if that helps)

describe your inter-rater reliability checks

Results

a graph or chart is usually a good idea

be sure to have some text (even a paragraph or two) that summarizes or describes in words what the charts show to you

Discussion

what does it all mean?

what are the problems of your study?

Note: We will accept one paper per group; or one paper with separate discussion sections; or separate papers.

3. Janet Hyde and Alice Eagly are two very prominent feminist psychologists. Professor Hyde says that the two genders differ very little; Professor Eagly says they differ a lot. You must read (and reread more than once) very carefully the two articles listed below and write a paper saying who is right, Eagly or Hyde. You must be clear about what it is that Eagly claims, what it is that Hyde claims, and why exactly you think that Eagly is correct in her claims or Hyde correct in hers. This is a very, very hard assignment. You should not leave it until the last minute.

Eagly, A. H. (1995). The science and politics of comparing women and men. American Psychologist, 50, 145 - 158.

Hyde, J. S (1994. Can meta-analysis make feminist transformations in psychology? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 451 - 462.

4. Final exam

We will try to give you ahead of time a sample of the kinds of questions we will ask.

Final Note

Carmel Benson is a second year graduate student. So she has some experience already. Faye Crosby has been teaching college since 1973, but this is Faye's first year at UCSC. You are the first slug students whom Faye has the privilege of teaching.

Instructor: Avril Thorne

Class size: 60

Course Description:

This course is intended for students who are interested in a career in which they will have occasion to construct and/or conduct psychological assessments, such as clinical or counseling psychology, or personnel selection. We will examine the development, meaning, and uses of some frequently-used measures of personality (life history interviews, ACL, CPI, MBTI, TAT, California Q-sort), psychopathology (MMPI, Rorschach), and intelligence and achievement (WAIS, SAT). Guest lecturers will share their experience with clinical and research uses of the Rorschach and MMPI. In addition to two exams, students will complete two projects: an interpretive case study based on assessments of a volunteer, and the construction and evaluation of a new measure of personality.

Readings:

Aiken, L. R. (1997). Psychological testing and assessment. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Additional readings will be on reserve at McHenry library.

Instructor: Barry McLaughlin
Office: Social Science II, 347
Office Hours: By appointment
Phone: 459-4095

The course is intended to provide advanced psychology students (a) with the techniques and methods of psychological research, (b) with practice in critiquing research designs, and (c) with the opportunity to carry out psychological research.

The format of the course will be that of a research seminar. Students must have had the basic statistics course (Psych. 2) prior to taking this course.

No new statistics will be introduced in this course. We want you to deepen your knowledge (especially your practical knowledge) of the basic statistics you learned in Psych. 2.

The texts for the course are:

(1) Judd, Smith and Kidder's Research Methods in Social Relations, 6th Ed.

(2) Patten, M. L. Educational and Psychological Research.

Both books are available in the Baytree Bookstore.

Structure of the Course:

March 30: Introduction

April 1: Developing Hypotheses and Critiquing Research

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chaps. 1-2)

(Patten, Appendices B to E)

April 6: Ethical Issues

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 20)

(Patten, Articles 2, 3, and 33)

April 8: Measurement

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 3)

(Patten, Articles 17, 18, 25)

April 13: Research Topics

RESEARCH PROPOSAL DUE

April 15: Experimental Design

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 4 and 8)

(Patten, Articles 22, 23, 26)

April 20: Quasi Experimental Design

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 5)

(Patten, Articles 20, 21, 24, 27)

FIRST MIDTERM

April 22: Survey Research

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 6 and 9)

(Patten, Articles 7, 9, 10)

April 27: Scaling

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 7)

(Patten, Articles 5, 12, 14)

April 29: Field Research and Observation

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 12 and 13)

(Patten, Articles 1, 8, 31)

May 4: Questionnaires and Interviews

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 10 and 11)

(Patten, Articles 4, 13, 32) SECOND MIDTERM

May 6: Applied and Evaluation Research; Meta-Analysis

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 14 and 18)

(Patten, Articles 28, 29, 30)

May 11: Critiquing Research

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 17)

(Patten, Articles 6, 11, 19)

May 13: Coding Data and Describing Relations

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 15 and 16)

(Patten, Articles, 15, 16)

May 18: Writing Up Research

(Judd, Smith, & Kidder, Chap. 19)

THIRD MIDTERM

May 20: Student Reports

May 25: Student Reports

May 27: Student Reports

June 3: Student Reports

June 8: Term Papers Due

Requirements:

1. To participate in class discussions.

2. To hand in on time any assignments.

3. To pass the midterm exams.

4. To carry out a research project, give an oral presentation, and write up results.

Revised 8/3/04.