Spring 2019 - PSYC 441 D100

Advanced Topics in Clinical Psychology (4)

Personality

Class Number: 4117

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 3 – Apr 8, 2019: Wed, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Apr 24, 2019
    Wed, 8:30–11:30 a.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    PSYC 201, 210, 241, and 60 units, and a CGPA of 3.0. Other prerequisites vary by topic offering.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Course can be repeated for credit. Students may not take this course for further credit if similar topics are covered. See Psychology department website for course description.

COURSE DETAILS:

PERSONALITY THEORY
This course will examine the major personality theories (psychoanalytic, egoanalytic, object relations, humanistic, existential, behavioural, social learning, factor analytic, etc.) and their constructs. A primary orientation of the course will be to study the historical underpinnings of the various systems’ development and evolution (i.e., primitive healing led to religious “cures,” such as exorcisms; which led to magnetism; which led to hypnosis; which led to psychoanalysis). A secondary orientation of the course will be to examine personality theories for the ways in which they reflect the theoretician’s own developmental, familial, and historical experiences, as well as the social cultural influences upon the theorist and theory, at the time that it was devised. For example, the concepts of “organ inferiority” and the influence of birth order on personality, may reflect Alfred Adler’s experience as a chronically sick and frail child (with a robust older brother), as well as his early clinical experience with his initial patients in his Vienna medical practice being members of a nearby circus and “freak show”. Likewise, did Freud construe the male child’s psychosexual separation from his mother to be a critical developmental task as a result of his own strong attachment to his mother, who referred to her most beloved child as “my Golden Sigi?” Did Allport forsake the importance of unconscious influences on personality and behavior, as a result of his embarrassing meeting with Freud, when Allport was a young graduate student (e.g., Freud to Allport: “Are you that dirty little boy?”)?

In this course you should develop a good, consolidated, working knowledge of the major personality theories. Most therapists would (or should!) say that an underlying theory of personality is arguably implicit to the work of any psychotherapist and clinical psychologist.  A similar importance of personality theory, could be attached to the education of senior undergraduates, who might be contemplating graduate studies in clinical psychology.  I would say that a good understanding of personality theory is still important and relevant, despite your graduate education and clinical training occurring in a highly empirical and oftentimes atheoretical era, when “evidence based practice” is the standard for therapeutic interventions. As well, most clinical practitioners would consider a knowledge of personality theories to be one of the foundational cornerstones for clinical psychology, along with a knowledge of psychopathology/diagnosis, psychological assessment, and intervention. Relatedly, to become a registered psychologist in BC, it is necessary to have a demonstrable knowledge of the history of psychology, which of course includes familiarity with the major personality theories and their architects.  Finally it is my personal belief that educated and cultured people should be knowledgeable about personality theories, as these works have exerted huge influence on the fine arts of painting, music, dance, theatre, film, and literature, as well as most aspects of popular culture.  For example, in 1939, the great British poet, W.H. Auden wrote a poem “In Memory of Sigmund Freud” which reflected on the similarities between the work of a psychoanalyst and a poet, and Auden’s poem included the following well known verse:

“for one who’d lived among enemies so long:
If often he was wrong and, at times, absurd,
To us he is no more a person
now, but a whole climate of opinion.”  

In this course, the kind of familiarity with personality theories that you should develop is at least equivalent to that which you would achieve after completing a senior undergraduate course in personality theory and attaining an A-/A  letter grade.

Student Evaluation:  You are required to make a seminar presentation on a major personality theory, in class. The presentation should be about 90 minutes in duration, including time for questions and discussion.  Graduate students will be sole presenters of a personality theory, and undergrad students will work as a team of two presenters (on a single personality theory).  You should prepare power point presentations, and distribute your slides to your classmates.  In your seminar, your task is to make yourself an expert in that personality theory and convey your expertise to your classmates. Also, it is important to summarize the personal history and life of the theoretician, as well as any relevant sociocultural influences upon him/her, as such factors may be quite influential on the development of the theory. Finally, you should illustrate the applications of the personality theory or concretize it in some way by providing a case study, a therapy transcript, a seminal article, a literary excerpt, and/or some other good example of the personality theory “in action,” so to speak. For example, although Freud and Einstein never met, they were strong admirers of one another, as well as ardent pacifists. In their correspondence, late in Freud’s life, they discussed the relevance of Freud’s concept of “thanatos” or death instinct and its applicability to the political tensions in Europe and the imminence of war.  You might give us some of their letters, or similarly Freud and Jung carried on an active correspondence for many years, with much discussion of theory and cases in their letters.  The so-called “Freud–Jung letters” would be another salient illustration of their theories.  In 1955, Carl Rogers and B.F. Skinner engaged in a famous debate on “free will,” as well as the ways that scientific knowledge should be used to influence human behavior, at the annual meeting of the APA, with their discussion later published in the American Psychologist. And of course, that debate (and article) provide clear pictures about Roger’s and Skinner’s beliefs about human nature.  Finally in your presentation, as well, you might draw our attention to more topical illustrations of the personality theory, such as the fact that Gordon Sumner, better known as the rock star “Sting,” formerly of the music group The Police, went through a Jungian analysis.  The focus of the psychoanalysis was apparently to deal primarily with Sumner’s estrangement from his father, and many of Sting’s song lyrics (particularly from his first solo album Dream of the Blue Turtle) feature a good deal of Jungian theory and archetypal symbols.  Likewise the great German novelist Herman Hesse was analyzed by Jung, and the great Canadian writer Robertson Davies was a Jungian scholar, and their literary works reflect strong Jungian influences.    

Grading

  • Your seminar presentation will count 40% towards your final grade. You are required to do a term paper as well. (See attached explanation). The term paper will count 50% towards your final grade. Additionally, you will be required to do some brief thought papers (two to three pages in length) or mini-assignments that will count 10% towards your final grade. The mini-assignments are graded on a pass/fail basis and you pass (thereby receiving full marks), if you hand them in, and show signs of original thinking, rather than borrowed or reiterated thought, in your compositions!

NOTES:

The Comprehensive Exam:  For the graduate students enrolled in 770, there is a Comprehensive Exam attached to this core course in the curriculum.  The nature and format for the Comp will be discussed in the first class of the course.  The date for the Comp will likely be Wednesday, one week after classes conclude, with that date being set for either an in-class exam, or as a due date, for a take-home exam Comp., which would have been handed out in the last class in the course.   The Course Outline and Schedule will be handed out, once seminar topics are distributed, when we first meet.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Crowne, D.P. (2010). Personality Theory. 2nd Ed.,Toronto: Oxford.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Recommended Course Textbook: Ellenberger, Henri.  (1981). The Discovery of the Unconscious.  NY.: Basic Books (Paperback).

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS