WEB-BASED INI COURSE Section 200, 3 Credit Hours
Funder, D. C. (2004). The Personality Puzzle (3rd edition). New York: Norton. (ISBN 0-393-97996-2)
Note: Make sure you pick up the textbook for section 200 of Psy 3111.
David Funder is Professor of psychology at University of California Riverside. He was a professor at University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana where I spent two years studying with him during my post-doctoral fellowship. I chose his book for this course because it contains his unique and cutting edge ideas about personality. How does personality develop according to different theorists? How can we accurately know a person's personality? Does a person's personality change depending on the situation? What personalities appear to relate to better adjustment?
You will find that this text is written to and not just for the student, like a one-sided conversation. However, the information contained in the text is challenging for students. In other words, this text is an easy read but you will be learning some current ideas about measuring personality and relating it to behavior. The book is not just a review of theories in psychology that psychology students encounter in other courses, especially the department's course on history and systems of psychology. Students who have taken courses in statistics, research methods and history of psychology will find the book and this course easier to understand.
There are no student resources for this textbook, so I have created lessons that contain a list of terms and questions. Hopefully, this will assist students in knowing what is important to understand from each chapter. I welcome feedback about these lessons so that I can improve them.
You will need the textbook, a computer account with UMD and a computer with access to the Internet. This access can be dial-up modem or hardwire connection. However, when you are taking exams, there is a chance that you will be interrupted or loose connection with the dial-up. Microsoft Office will make communication a bit easier. It is available to UMD students through ITSS’s site license.
You must learn and feel comfortable using WebCT. This is University of Minnesota’s way of delivering this course to you online. To assist you, staff in our psychology department has developed a tutorial on WebCT that includes a practice test. You will complete these before you can start the first lesson.
I have not required more than reading and understanding the textbook and writing one paper. The reason for this is that you will need all of your time for this 3-hour a week course for reading and understanding the chapters. Along with what I mentioned above, the 18 chapters address the roles of physiology, genetics, the unconscious, relationships, culture, experience, and cognition in forming personality. You will be writing a short paper related to understanding one particular personality.
This is an upper level course requiring 3 hours of class per week. Please plan to spend at least 3 hours per week reading and studying the chapters in preparation for each exam.
Note: If you have problems with time management, self-motivation, procrastination and unstructured learning environments taking this course in the classroom at UMD rather than online may be your best route for success.