1. A paper either reviewing and evaluating a particular personality research program, or presenting an original theory of personality (15 pages).

2. A midterm exam comprised mainly of essay questions on all material up to July 13.

3. A final exam comprised mainly of multiple-choice questions on all material covered in the course, but primarily after July 13.

Paper

During one class session your classmates will subject your manuscript to peer review; you will then have a few days in which to make the recommended changes. The final paper should be approximately fifteen pages long, in APA style (including a title page, abstract page, and references page[s]), and have no spelling or grammatical errors.

The best papers will be chosen for publication in the on-line repository of personality papers in the Great Ideas in Personality website. Once graded, the author of a publishable paper will be given some time to make revisions--which are always necessary, even in a good paper--before the paper is published. Thereafter, other students in class will be required to write peer commentaries on these papers as part of their overall paper grade. Finally, the author will write a response to the peer commentaries. The author response will be published alongside the target paper and peer commentaries.

Some common reasons that you might not obtain maximum credit on the paper are the following:

1. you fail to participate fully in the peer review process,
2. you include incorrect statements,
3. you omit relevant material,
4. you include irrelevant material,
5. you commit errors in logic, reaching unsound conclusion(s),
6. you use another person's ideas without appropriate acknowledgement,
7. your writing is unclear or disorganized,
8. you deviate from APA style, or commit errors in grammar, spelling, etc.

Remember that the key to good writing is rewriting. A valuable resource, even for good writers, is Strunk's Elements of Style (Strunk and White's enlarged version--which is still short--can be found in the library). Another valuable resource is Paradigm Online Writing Assistant. Further writing advice is also available.

Critical Review of the Literature

The goals of a critical review of the literature are to show an in-depth knowledge of a particular research program, to evaluate the "greatness" of the research program, and to communicate this knowledge effectively in writing. Optimally, the research program should be chosen from among those discussed in class. If you wish to write about a theory not discussed in class, you must obtain permission of the instructor; this will require that you show that a substantial amount of scientific research has already gone into testing the theory.

Original Theory Paper

In an original theory paper, you create your own original theory of personality. Your theory should explain some routine observations that you have made (e.g., what kind of people like to go to lively parties?), but should also be positioned within the multifaceted field of personality psychology. This will require that you generate some ideas, and then do some research to see what other people have said. While a critical review of the literature is organized by theory, an original theory paper is organized by topic. Some of the possible topics you might choose are the following.

1. Personality measurement
2. Heredity versus environment
3. The biology of personality
4. Personality development
5. The person-situation debate: Do personality traits really exist?
6. Motives
7. The unconscious
8. Personal efficacy
9. Optimism/pessimism
10. Creativity
11. Sex and gender
12. Control
13. Self-awareness and self-consciousness
14. Self-concept and identity
15. Moral character
16. Emotion
17. Aggression
18. Criminality
19. Human sexuality
20. Personality and relationships
21. Stress and illness
22. Personality, depression, and anxiety
23. Personality disorders

Midterm Exam

Final Exam

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