The Psychology of Personality
Unit code: LSY300
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Contact hours | 36 hours over the teaching period (normally 3 hours per week) |
| Campus | Lilydale |
| Prerequisites | |
| Corequisites | NIL |
Related course(s)
Effective 2010, current students refer to coures outline.
Aims and objectives
Having completed this unit, students should be able to do the following:
• Explain the main features of some of the major approaches to the psychology of personality (psychodynamic - i.e. psychoanalytic/neoanalytic; the trait approach, the social - learning and social - cognitive approaches, and the motivational and narrative approaches)
• Be able to describe basic elements of historically important theories within each perspective
• Be able to discuss some major elements of contemporary theories within each perspective
• Be able to critically evaluate how various approaches to personality explain specific issues such as the unconscious, the self, personality change, the effect of early childhood experiences, the effect of motivation on personality
Teaching methods
Units will be taught in a variety of modes including face to face, online, distance and blended modes. Delivery of this unit may be through a mixture of lectures, tutorials, laboratories, seminars and online.
Generic skills outcomes
This unit will provide discipline-based knowledge and professional capabilities and experiences contributing to students progress in attaining generic skills such as:
• Analysis skills and problem solving skills
Further development of the critical evaluation of published work
The analysis of scientific studies
• Communications skills
• The analysis and reporting of scientific studies
• The ability to work independently
Content
Four major perspectives on personality are examined:
• Psychodynamic
• Dispositional
• Environmental
• Representational
Issues such as methods of personality assessment and research strategies are also considered. Selected contemporary issues are also examined, including developments in areas such as psychodynamic theory and cognitive, social and narrative views of self.
