PY3094:03
Personality and Individual Psychology
Townsville, Cairns
Prerequisites: PY2091 PY2092 PY2093
26 lectures, 26 hours practicals. Second semester.
Staff: Dr P Raggatt (Townsville campus); Dr D Graham (Cairns campus).
In this subject there will be a specific focus on theories and assessment methods for studying the lives of individuals in detail, including contributions from psychoanalytic, cognitive, behavioural, trait and narrative psychologies.
The subject will begin by addressing philosophical issues, since these are especially critical in shaping both theory and method in the area of personality. An overview of the major theoretical paradigms of personality psychology will be presented in the first half of the subject, including reference to the work of S. Freud, C. Jung, Henry Murrey, H.J. Eysenck, George Kelly, Abraham Maslow, Sylvan Tomkins, Dan McAdams, Gary Gregg and others. The second half of the subject will be devoted to a coverage of contemporary and emerging approaches to the conceptualisation and measurement of personality with a focus on the narrative study of individual lives.
Learning Objectives:
- familiarisation with contemporary theoretical developments and emerging trends in the conceptualisation and assessment of personality;
- familiarisation with a range of assessment tools for studying personality and to provide students with first hand experience in the use of some of these tools via practicals and a research project;
- assist students to make connections between personality theory and assessment and the kinds of applied social and practical problems which they might encounter in professional life.
Assessment by seminar (20%); case study (50%); examination (30%).
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