- Discuss how personality researchers assess personality through observation, interviews, and tests. Give an example of each method.
- Describe and give examples of how personality is influenced by culture, development, motivations, and emotions.
- Define three types of personality research (case study, surveys, and natural observations) and give your own examples of each.
- Describe a study you might do looking at people’s online behavior. Mehl (2014) gives an example of this in your Week 2 Learning Resources. Use that to guide your thinking but come up with your own example.
- Compare/contrast self-report measures with informant ratings. Why would you use one and not the other? Describe the pros and cons of each. Which method do you think is the most valid and reliable? Why?
- Summarize the “nature” argument for personality and the support for it. Then, summarize the “nurture” argument and it’s supporting evidence. Which do you think has the strongest support? What side do you come down on? If you think it’s a “little of both” discuss this conclusion. Describe how nature or nurture (or both) have influenced your own development.
- Define constitutional theory and provide an example of a case that can be explained using this theory.
- Choose someone you find interesting from pop culture. It may be a character in a movie or book or someone who’s work you are a fan of. Anyone, really. In a two-sentence nutshell per theorist, how would each of these theorists explain/interpret that person’s personality?
- Sigmund Freud
- Anna Freud
- Erik Erikson
- Carl Jung
- Alfred Adler
- Karen Horney
- Compare/contrast what you knew/believed previously about the Rorschach Ink Blot test with what you learned a) from your in-class reading and b) from doing some outside web research on your own. If you were assessing someone’s personality and had to choose one of the three, would you choose the Rorschach, the TAT, or the Myers-Briggs? And why?
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