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Psychology of Personality on John Wayne Gacy

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Psychology of Personality on John Wayne Gacy
Class: Psychology of Personality

Subjects the class covers are as follows:
***What is Personality?
-the eight perspectives of personality
-objective and subjective approach to personality assessment

***Psychoanalytic Aspects of Personality
-five stages of Freudian psychosexual development
-Id, Ego, and Superego

***Neo-Analytic and Ego Aspects of Personality: Identity.
-Erikson's eight stages of development
-Jung's idea of the collective unconscious

***Biological Aspects of Personality

***Behaviorist and Learning Aspects of Personality
- "extinguish" classically conditioned fear responses
-classical conditioning and operant conditioning

***Cognitive and Social-Cognitive Aspects of Personality
-vicarious learning
-internal versus external locus of control from social learning

***Trait and Skill Aspects of Personality
-five traits included in the Big Five theory of personality
-Henry Murray's needs

***Humanistic and Existential Aspects of Personality.
-positive psychology
- humanistic/existential approach and free will

***Situational-Interactionist Aspects of Personality
-Walter Mischel's critique of personality
-the two broad types of self-healing personalities

***Male-Female Differences, Cultural and Ethnic Differences

***Love and Hate, Where Will We Find Personality?
-two of the many possible explanations for people's aggression and hatred
-three romantic attachment styles described by Shaver and colleagues

***Summary and Evaluation
-designer personality
-positive and negitive potentialities of the human genome project

Learning Objectives:

At the completion of this course, learners will be able to:

1. To compare and contrast major theories of personality development and adjustment.
2. To describe assessment techniques.
3. To analyze key concepts and principles of various personality theories.
4. To describe how personality theory relates to psychological therapy.
5. To evaluate research on personality theory.

Required Texts and Other Materials to be Furnished by the Student:

Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed.). MA: Allyn & Bacon ISBN: 0-205-05017-4.

Schustack, M. W. & Friedman, H.S. (2008). The Personality Reader. (2nd ed.). MA: Allyn & Bacon ISBN: 0-205-48551-0

Journal Articles:
Acceptable journals for this course include, but should not be limited to, the following:

American Journal of Psychiatry
American Psychologist
Contemporary Psychology
Humanistic Psychology
Journal of Clinical Psychology
Journal of Counseling and Development
Journal of Counseling Psychology
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Journal of Psychology
Journal of Youth and Adolescence

IV. The Final Paper is worth 100 points.

A. Your topic: (Serial killer: JOHN WAYNE GACY) You are to select a fictional character from a television show, movie, book, etc. or a real life individual and explain the individual's "personality" using two (2) contrasting personality theories discussed in this course.

B. You are to e-mail your selected character or real-life person to the course instructor by the end of Week Four for approval.

C. Please submit your proposed topic in advance of the due date, if possible, as it is common to have a back and forth dialogue before approval is given.

D. Your final paper should be between 15 and 20 pages, not including the cover page, abstract, text, and references.

E. Your final paper must follow APA style format (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association).

F. A satisfactory research paper must be submitted to the instructor by the seventh day of the Eleventh (11th) Week of the quarter to receive a passing grade for the quarter.

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