a
Jack
Bauer, PhD
Department of Psychology
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH 45469
(937) 229-2617
New
Book:
Transcending
Self-Interest
PSY
595 - Special Topics:
Personality Development
Spring 2009
Tuesdays 9:30 - 12:10 a.m., SJ 325
Office Hours: T 3-4:00 and by appointment
Syllabus
Required Reading
Course Objectives
Grading & Requirements
Schedule & Readings
Required
Reading
Weekly readings (see below)
Course
Objectives
Welcome to the field of personality development. This field studies how
people become who they are. No small task.
This course has three broad aims. One aim is to present an overview of psychological perspectives on personality development that can be used for professional work, notably in research or counseling. Another aim is to present an environment for you to refine your skills in thinking about, communicating, and applying theory and research on personality development. A third aim is to present frameworks for you to better understand your own life (and the lives of those around you) from a developmental perspective.
We will examine several theoretical and empirical approaches to personality development—trait stability and change, psychosocial development, social-cognitive development, humanistic psychology, pathological development, evolutionary psychology, genetic inheritance, the social construction of personality, self-identity development, and intentional self-development. All together, these approaches will help us explore two central questions: How do we become who we are? And how, based on that knowledge and on our own self-understanding, can we chart the course of who we will become?
| Participation | 25% |
| Brief papers | 30% |
| Final paper | 30% |
| Presentation | 15% |
Participation. You are expected to be actively engaged in class. You should read in such a way that you have questions to ask and that you can otherwise contribute to the class discussions. As we’ll explore this semester, knowledge is largely constructed in a social context, and you’re now part of each other’s context. As I see it, this fact suggests that each of you has a certain responsibility as a graduate student to contribute to the learning environment of those around you. Participation comprises 25% of your course grade.
Brief papers. This exercise is designed for you to refine your abilities to think and write about personality development . You are to write papers of 2-3 pages (max.) on the readings for 6 selected classes (see schedule). You have considerable latitude in choosing paper topics. For example, you might try to integrate the different readings into a coherent framework of understanding. Or you might focus on a major conceptual issue in one of the readings, perhaps critiquing the logic of a reading, or perhaps reorganizing ideas. Or you might do a little of both—focus primarily on one article while referring to others. However you approach these papers, be sure to turn in a well-organized, thoughtful paper. I strongly suggest applying this simple framework to all papers, no matter how complex the ideas might get: An introductory paragraph that clearly states the main purpose of your paper (not the main purpose of the article or articles you’re covering), a well-organized body of the paper that elaborates on the introduction, and a conclusion that summarizes the main points in a useful way. Papers are due in the class that we cover that material. You may not turn in papers late, unless you have exceptional circumstances (which do not include being busy). Your average grade on these papers is worth 30% of your total course grade.
Final paper. The assignment is designed for you to develop your skills in reviewing, synthesizing, and writing about the theory and research on personality development. You are encouraged to write a paper on a topic that is of personal interest to you. Try to think creatively in choosing this topic: Start by trying to figure out what aspect of personality development grabs your interest. Then look for theory and research that applies to your interest. I will be happy to help you transform your interests into something workable for a theoretical and/or research-based paper. I will describe the specifications of the paper later in the semester, but I encourage you to start thinking about possible paper topics as early as possible. The paper should be approximately 20 pages and use APA format for citations, references, and levels (i.e., headings) of organization. (The paper should NOT use the intro-methods-results-discussion format, which is for original research.) The paper is due at the time for the final exam. The paper is worth 30% of the course grade.
Class presentation. This assignment is designed for you to hone your ability to talk about theory and research. Presentations will occur in the last two weeks of class. Four of you will sign up for the first week, and four for the second. You are to present the ideas of your paper (or some closely related ideas) to the class, as well as to lead a class discussion. So that the class is prepared for your discussion, in the week prior to your talk, you will assign the class 1 reading that is most central to your presentation (an article or chapter, comparable in length to the ones for this course). You have a total of 30 minutes for your talk and discussion. I suggest that you spend no more than 10 minutes for your presentation, with the rest given to class discussion. You are expected to guide the discussion and to have several good discussion topics ready for use as needed. This assignment is worth 15% of the course grade.
Assistance: Please let me know if you would like any form of assistance or accommodations in this class. Feel free to call or email me for an individual appointment, or stop by during my office hours.
Jan.
6 - Welcome. Intro to personality development
•What is personality? The personological view.
McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2006).
A new big five: Fundamental principles for an integrative science of personality.
American Psychologist, 61, 204-217. Get
it
• What is development? The life-span view.
Baltes, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental
psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental
Psychology, 23, 611-626. Get
it
• The currently dominant (but not only) approach to
studying personality development: Traits over time. Caspi,
A., Roberts, B. W., & Shiner, R. L. (2005). Personality development:
Stability and change. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 453-484.
Get
it
Jan.
13 - Psychosocial personality development
Paper due
• Overview of Erikson's theory of psychosocial
development. Erikson, E. H. (1959/1980). Identity and
the life cycle. New York: Norton. Get it
• Attachment and intimacy. Fraley, R.
C., & Shaver, P. R. (2000). Adult romantic attachment: Theoretical
developments, emerging controversies, and unanswered questions. Review
of General Psychology, 4, 132-154. Get
it
• Generativity and personality. Hart,
H. M., McAdams, D. P., Hirsch, B. J., & Bauer, J. J. (2001). Generativity
and social involvement in African American and White Adults. Journal
of Research in Personality, 35, 208-230. Get
it
• Ego integrity. James, J. B., & Zarrett,
N. (2005). Ego integrity in the lives of older women: A follow-up of mothers
from the Sears, Maccoby, and Levin (1951) patterns of child rearing study.
Journal of Adult Development, 12, 155-167. Get
it
Jan.
20 - Structural
stage models of personality dev't
• Brief intro to Piaget's theory of cognitive development (the basis
of the theories that follow). See this
website (read about his theory, through the "formal operations"
section) and/or read this
Powerpoint
• Kohlberg's theory of moral development.
Kohlberg, L., & Hersh, R., H. (1977). Moral development: A review
of the theory. Theory into Practice, 16, 53-59. Get
it
• Damon & Hart's theory of self-understanding development.
Damon, W., & Hart, D. (1988). Self-understanding in childhood
and adolescence. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. Get
it
• Kegan's stages of the developing self. Kegan,
R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard. Get it
• Fowler's stages of faith (more at: stages of understanding
one's faith). Fowler, J. W. (2006). Stages of faith from
infancy through adolescence: Reflections on three decades of faith development
theory (pp. 34-45). In E. C. roehlkepartain et al. (Eds.), The handbook
of spiritual development in childhood and adolescence. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage. Get it
Jan.
27 - Structural stage models of personality
dev't
Paper due
• Loevinger's theory of ego development.
Loevinger, J. (1976). Ego development: Conceptions and theories. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass. Chapter 2. Get it
• Research on ego development. Bursik,
K., & Martin, T. A. (2006). Ego development and adolescent academic
achievement. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, 1-18.
Get
it
• More research on ego development. Cramer, P.
(1999). Ego functions and ego development: Defense mechanisms and intelligence
as predictors of ego level. Journal of Personality, 67, 735-760.
Get
it
Feb.
3 - Identity development: Adolescence
• Erikson's seminal work. Erikson, E.
H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Read the prologue.
Get it
• Review of empirical work on Erikson's ideas on identity.
Kroger, J. (2003). In G. R. Adams & M. D. Berzonsky (Eds.), Blackwell
handbook of adolescence, pp. 205-226. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Get
it
• Identity status and identity construction.
McLean, K. C., & Pratt, M. W. (2006). Life's little (and big) lessons:
Identity statuses and meaning-making in turning point narratives of emerging
adults. Developmental Psychology, 42, 714-722. Get
it
• Identity construction via peer systems.
Brown, B. B., Mory, M. S., & Kinney, D. (1994). Casting adolescent
crowds in a relational perspective: Caricature, channel, and context.
In r. Montemayor, G. R. Adams, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.). Personal
relationships during adolescence, pp. 123-167. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage. Get it
Feb.
10 - Identity development and life stories
Paper due
• Overview. McAdams, D. P. (2008). Personal
narratives and the life story. In O. P. John, R. R. Robins, & L. A.
Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of Personality, 3rd Ed, pp. 242-262.
New York: Guilford. Get it
• Narratives and self-development. McLean,
K. C., Pasupathi, M., & Pals, J. L. (2007). Selves creating stories
creating selves: A process model of self-development. Personality
and Social Psychology Review, 11, 262-278. Get
it
• Personal narratives across adulthood.
Pasupathi, M., & Mansour, E. (2006). Adult age differences in autobiographical
reasoning in narratives. Developmental Psychology, 42, 798-808.
Get
it
• Motives, narratives, and memory. Woike,
B., Levezzary, E., & Barsky, J. (2001). Influence of implicit motives
on memory processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
81, 935-945. Get
it
• Writing v. talking v. thinking in relation to health/well-being.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sousa, L., & Dickerhoof, R. (2005). The costs and
benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life's triumphs and defeats.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 692-708. Get
it
Feb.
17 - Growth motivation, growth narratives
• Growth narratives and personality development.
Bauer, J. J., McAdams, D. P., & Sakaeda, A. R. (2005). Interpreting
the good life: Growth memories in the lives of mature, happy people. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 203-217. Get
it
• Posttraumatic growth. Tedeschi, R. G.,
& Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations
and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 1-18. Get
it
• Growth stories and life transitions.
King, L. A., Scollon, C. N., Ramsey, C., & Williams, T. (2000). Stories
of life transition: Subjective well-being and ego development in parents
of children with Down Syndrome. Journal of Research in Personality,
34, 509-536. Get
it
• Self-transformation in difficult times.
Pals, J. L. (2006). Narrative identity processing of difficult life experiences:
Pathways of personality development and positive self-transformation.
Journal of Personality, 74, 1079-110. Get
it
Feb.
24 - Happiness and well-being
Paper due
• A set point for happiness. Diener, E.,
Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill:
Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist,
61, 305-314. Get
it
• Eudaimonic v. hedonic well-being. Ryan,
R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A
review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review
of Psychology, 52, 141-166. Get
it
• Flow. Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh,
S., & Nakamura, J. (2005). In Elliot, A. J., & Dweck, C. S. (Eds.)
Handbook of competence and motivation, pp. 598-608. Get
it
• Money and happiness. Diener, E., &
Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being.
Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1-31. Get
it
Mar.
3 - Intentional self-development
• Intro to intentional self-development.
Bauer, J. J. (in press). Intentional self-development. In S. J. Lopez
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology. London: Blackwell.
Get it
• Fostering ego development. Manners,
J., Durkin, K., & Nesdale, A. (2004). Promoting advanced ego development
among adults. Journal of Adult Development, 11, 19-27. Get
it
• Making yourself happy. Sheldon, K. M.,
& Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). Achieving sustainable gains in happiness:
Change your actions, not your circumstances. Journal of Happiness
Studies, 7, 55-86. Get
it
• Free will. Baumeister, R. F. (2008).
Free will in scientific psychology. Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 3, 14-19.Get
it
• Unconscious processes. Bargh, J. A.,
& Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind. Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 3, 73-79. Get
it
Mar.
10 - Transcending Self-Interest
Paper due
Choose 4 of the following. All readings are from Wayment, H.
A., & Bauer, J. J. (Eds.) (2008). Transcending Self-Interest:
Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego. Washington, D.C.: American
Psychological Association Books.
• Introduction. Bauer, J. J., & Wayment,
H. A. The psychology of the quiet ego. Get it
• The problem of extreme self-interest.
Campbell, W. C. & Buffardi, L. E. Narcissism as a social trap. Get
it
• Mindfulness. Brown, K. W., Ryan, R.
M., Creswell, J. D., & Niemiec, C. P. Beyond me: Mindful
responses to social threat. Get it
• Self-compassion. Neff, K. Self-compassion:
Moving beyond the pitfalls of a separate self-concept. Get
it
• East v. West. Wirtz, D., & Chiu,
C.-Y. Perspectives on the self in the east and west: Searching for the
quiet ego. Get it
• Compassion and social comparison. Wayment,
H. A., & O'Mara, E. M. The collective and compassionate consequences
of downward social comparison. Get it
• A developmental view. Bauer, J. J. How
the ego quiets as it grows: Ego development, growth stories, and eudaimonic
personality development. Get it
• Sexual identity development. De St.
Aubin, E., & Skerven, K. Homonegativity and the lesbian self: Portraits
of the ego as either transcender or occluder of negative social stereotypes.
Get it
Mar.
17 - Humanistic personality development
• Five principles of humanistic psychology.
Get
brief list
• Founding ideas in humanistic psychology.
Selections from Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a Psychology of Being.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Get it
• The fully functioning person. From Rogers,
Carl R. (1961). On Becoming a Person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Get it
• Related research: Self-determination theory.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why"
of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior.
Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268. Get
it
• Related research: Authenticity & self-esteem.
Kernis, M. H. Toward a conceptualization of optimal self-esteem. Psychological
Inquiry, 14, 1-26. Get
it
Mar.
24 - Higher stages of personality development
Paper due - optional
• Higher stages of cognitive development.
Labouvie-Vief, G. (2006). Emerging structures of adult thought. In J.
J. Arnett & J. L. Tanner (Eds.), Emering Adults in America: Coming
of Age in the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Get it
• Self-actualizing and beyond. From Maslow,
A. H. (1971). The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York:
Penguin Arkana. Get it
• Ego transcendence. Cook-Greuter, S.
R. (2000). Mature ego development: A gateway to ego transcendence? Journal
of Adult Development, 7, 227-240. Get
it
• Development
of the self.
From Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology. Boston: Shambhala. Get
it
Mar.
31 - Even higher stages
• Selections
from the ancient Tao Te Ching. From Bynner, W. (Trans.;
1944) The way of life according to Lao Tzu. New York: Perigee.
Get it
• Taste of Tibetan Buddhism: Madhyamika philosophy (from
approximately 2nd Century A.D.). From Garfield, J. L. (Trans.;
1995). The fundamental wisdom of the middle way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika.
New York: Oxford. Get it
• Zen Buddhism: 10 Oxherding Pictures.
From Kapleau, P. (1965). The three pillars of zen. Garden City,
NY: Anchor Books. Get it
• Making sense of mystery. From Wilber,
K. (2006). Integral Spirituality. Boston: Integral Books. Chapter: Integral
Methodological Pluralism. Get it
• Highest stages of psychosocial/spiritual development.
From Wilber, K. (1996/2001). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality. Boston:
Shambhala. Chapter: Depths of the divine. Get it
Apr. 7 - Spring Break
Apr. 14- Human Development & The Matrix I
Apr. 21 - Human Development &The Matrix 2 & 3
Apr. 28, noon - Final papers due