Your assignment is to write a 6-8 page paper describing the way in which two personality theories explain a particular phenomenon, and to compare the theories by drawing upon research in psychology.  The idea, in other words, is to use research evidence to evaluate the theories.  Also, your paper needs to ultimately take a position about the usefulness of each theory in explaining the phenomenon of interest. The primary purpose here is to teach you how to engage in critical evaluation with evidence, and how to integrate sources to create a well-reasoned argument. 

Given this assignment, you essentially have six tasks:  

1. The Phenomenon: identify a specific phenomenon, define it, and discuss its significance. 
2. Theory 1: describe how one theory explains the phenomenon.  This requires doing two things: outlining the overall nature of the theory, and then explaining how this overall theory treats your specific phenomenon.  
3. Theory 2: describe how a second theory explains the phenomenon; 
4. Research Evidence: You'll need at least 4 outside sources in addition to any of our readings from class that you choose to include. Find at least two emprical articles about the phenomenon, and describe the research methods and results. You should provide enough information that the reader can determine basic facts about your evidence: What kind of study was it? (a survey? an experiment?); Who participated? (adults?  children?  a clinical population?); What were the basic findings?  You also need to find two additional source readings that provide more in-depth information about each theory, or which provide an example of the theory being applied to a relevant topic.
5. Theory Comparison: compare and evaluate the theories.  Specifically you should evaluate the theories by asking how the research you reviewed bears upon them.  Your task would be to answer questions such as “Are the research findings what one versus the other theory would have predicted?”, “Do the research findings contradict a particular theory?”, “Do the research findings support one theory versus the other?”  
6. Usefulness of Each Theory: You also need to address the usefulness of each theory (the pros and cons), and offer the reader some conclusions based on the research you have reviewed in the paper.

• By “phenomenon” I mean a research finding or question, an issue or occurrence.  Even before taking Psychology classes, there are many questions you may ask about human behavior.  Ideally, the personality theories will address these questions, and research would enable you to evaluate the validity of the idea contained in the theories.  A variety of example phenomena are presented below. 
• You'll need to identify a topic area of interest and do some research in PSYCHINFO on that area in order to come up with a more specific research question or phenomenon. You should do this sort of research prior to choosing your two personality theories. (You can't really choose the theories until you know exactly what psychological findings you intend to analyze.)

Finding Sources

• You'll need at least 4 outside sources in addition to any of our readings from class that you choose to include. Find at least two empirical articles about the phenomenon, and two additional readings that provide more in-depth information about each theory, or which provide an example of the theory being applied to a relevant topic.
• Using a casual search in PSYCHINFO can be a great way to start learning about your topic and/or theory.  You aren't really looking for a source to put in your paper during this kind of search. Rather, you are just looking to see what kinds of articles have been published, the various vocabulary terms associated with the topic, a particular author who seems to publish quite a bit in the area, etc.  Collecting all of this information first can help you then start to look for background readings in a more informed and directed manner. 
• Useful sources to gain an understanding of a particular phenomenon or to learn about a theory are review chapters. The review reading assigned to you for the Topic Discussion assignment is an example. Other examples include chapters from books with titles such as "Encyclopedia of...." or "Handbook of....."  Trexler has numerous books of this sort, as well as other topical books in its collection. I advise you to search Trexler's catalog as well as PSYCHINFO. 
• If you would like to use an article from our Reader as an outside source, that is fine with two qualifications: it will not count if it was an article that was assigned, and you must obtain the full version of the article from the library as your Reader has cut various (and potentially important) sections out of each article.

Acceptable and Unacceptable Theory Choices

• The two theories you compare must be approved by me, and they must be substantively different approaches.
• You do not have to limit yourself to the specific theories we discuss in class, in fact I encourage you to explore additional options. As mentioned on the first day of the course, we are reviewing only a few theories in depth, rather than getting just an overview of many theories. The reading room on the second floor of Moyer Hall (and Trexler Library) have plenty of Personality Psychology textbooks providing many theories to choose from.
• You may wish to consider theories in any of these areas: Psychodynamic Theories (e.g., Freud, Jung, Erikson, Adler); Trait Theories (e.g., Cattell or Eysenck, the "Five Factor" model of personality); Biological Theories (e.g., tend & befriend, cortical arousal theory of extra/introversion, Evolutionary Psychology);  Behaviorism (Pavlov, Watson, Skinner); Social-Cognitive Theories (e.g., the social cognitive approach in general, self-determination theory, Bandura, Mischel, Beck or other cognitive approaches);  Humanistic Theories (e.g., Maslow, Rogers); Personal Construct Theory (Kelly).  
• Note that you may treat Evolutionary Psychology as a distinct "theory" of personality.  Also note that the "Big Five" is NOT a theory. If you wish to incorporate the Big Five into your analysis, you can do so via the Five Factor Model.
• Also note that “biological,” “environment,” “nature,” and “nurture” are not theories of personality.  Thus, you cannot simply compare “biological” and “environmental” approaches to a phenomenon.  The problem here is that most of the theories of personality contain both biological/nature and environmental/nurture components.  
• Also clinical treatments are not theories of personality. You cannot compare, for example, Beck’s cognitive therapy for depression to drug therapies for depression, because neither Beck’s cognitive therapy nor drug therapies are theories of personality.  You could, however, deal with clinical topics by explaining the implications of a particular theory of personality for clinical treatment (e.g., cognitive theory applied to depression).

Example Paper Topics 

Here are some examples of broad topic areas that might help you choose the "phenomena" for your paper. These are just examples and these are general topic areas to get you started. You may use any of the below as a starting point OR you can come up with a topic of your own. In fact, I encourage you to pursue a novel topic that is of particular interest to you.

• Personality Change versus Stability over Time
• Does an individual’s personality change over time or do personality characteristics basically remain unchanged throughout the life course? Both trait and psychodynamic theories argue for substantial stability.  Social-cognitive and humanistic theories are more optimistic about the possibilities for change.
• Maximizing Performance
• Some people (successful students, athletes, business people, etc.) seem to perform to the absolute best of their capabilities, even under stress, whereas other people never seem to live up to their capabilities (either because they seem unmotivated or because they become anxious when faced with pressure).  What determines whether people perform to the best of their capabilities?  Another related question is: What steps can be taken to ensure that a person performs to the best of his or her capabilities?
• Social-cognitive theory probably should be one of the theories you consider here; within social-cognitive theory, the study of perceived self-efficacy directly addresses the issue of maximizing performance.  Self-determination theory (presented in this class in the intrinsic & extrinsic motivation topic) would also be useful. Either trait or behavioral approaches might be a good contrast.
• Culture and Personality:
• Is personality the same across different cultures?  There really are a couple of different questions here:  Are personality variables “universal,” in other words, do the personality theories apply with equal validity across the world?  Does culture affect personality, that is, would your personality be the same if you had grown up in a different culture?
• Conscious versus Unconscious Processes:
• Are the thinking processes that are most important to personality and social behavior conscious ones?  Or is our behavior primarily determined by unconscious thoughts?
• One of your theories here undoubtedly should be psychoanalysis.  Any of the other theories could provide an interesting contrast.
• Religion
• Why, from a psychological perspective, do people engage in religious practices?  In other words, what motivates religious practice?
• Psychodynamic approaches, particularly the work of Carl Jung, provide one interesting perspective on this issue.  Behavioral approaches, such as the work of Skinner, provide a very different view.  The contrast between Jung and Freud also is interesting here.
• Gender Identity and Sex Differences
• There are a collection of different phenomena, and associated potential paper topics, here:  How and why do people come to identify themselves as male and female?  Is this a biologically determined process?  Or is it learned?  If learned, are the categories of “male” and “female” learned in the same manner as other categories are learned (e.g., “young” versus” “old”)?  Or are there a unique set of psychologically processes that determine gender identity? More generally, are sex differences culturally shaped or biologically determined? 
• Sexual Orientation
• What determines a person’s sexual orientation?   Does it learned, as a result of either early-life experiences or later-in-life encounters?  Or do biological and genetic factors determine sexual preference?  Or is there some mix of biology and learning?
• Trait approaches, which emphasize biological determinants of personality, are relevant here, especially in light of recent evidence suggesting that genetic factors contribute to sexual preferences.  Psychodynamic, behavioral, or social-cognitive approaches could provide a contrast. Evolutionary personality psychology also provides an interesting viewpoint.
• Test Anxiety
• Why do some people seem to get anxious on tests and earn scores that are below their true ability?  Trait and social-cognitive theories are a good comparison here.  Trait theories might tend to see test anxiety as reflecting a peron’s more general personality traits, such as neuroticism.  Social-cognitive theories would tend, in contrast, to explore the ways in which people’s thinking processes essentially “make them anxious’; in other words, particular types of beliefs and goals make it more likely that one will become test anxious.
• Free Will/Determinism
• Is our behavior is largely determined by external forces that are outside of our control, in which case “free will” is an illusion.  Or do people have the capacity to influence the course of their lives and personality development?
• Behaviorism, and the work of B. F. Skinner, should be one of your theories here.  Either social-cognitive or phenomenological theories provide a good contrast.  Note that this is a particularly interesting paper topic, but one for which it is a little harder (than the other topics) to come up with highly relevant research evidence.

Your completed paper will have the following sections:

1. Title page
• You’ll need a descriptive title for your paper (use the titles of the articles you read for guidance).  The title should be 30 words or less and should give the reader an idea what specific question the paper will address.  Put the title approximately in the vertical and horizontal center of the page.
2. Body of Paper
• Try to capture the reader’s interest in the first paragraph or two. You want to introduce your topic by posing an interesting question.  You do not have to summarize your entire argument in this first paragraph. It is mostly a stylistic paragraph to orient the reader to the general topic and your question. I’d suggest writing this paragraph after you've finished the rest of the paper. 
• Note that the phenomenon and theories you choose are only the topics of your paper. You do need a thesis and inter-related arguments to create the blueprint of your paper. (Your ultimate assessment of the relative usefulness of each theory is likely to be the thesis for most of these papers.) The psychological theory and empirical evidence (i.e., studies) should be laid onto that basic blueprint to support your points. 
• Avoid simply summarizing each of the different studies you read in a “list” type format.  Remember this is a paper and you need to present information in a coherent way that leads the reader to understand the evidence for your assessments. 
• When you make a claim or statement (e.g., Depression is one of the most prevalent and disabling mood disorders among adults in North America and Europe.) you will need to back up the claim with evidence. 
  
• Throughout the entire paper, remember to provide a citation for any information that is not your own idea (including information from any of our textbooks).  Put the citation at the very first mention of the cited material (not, for example, at the end of the paragraph).  Read and follow the guidelines on in-text citations found at the webpage: Finding, Reading, and Citing Sources.
3. References page
• Every reference cited in your paper will need to be listed on a separate sheet of paper that is headed “References.” Use the formatting indicated at the web page Finding, Reading & Citing Sources - Reference Pages. For each reference, the first line is flush with the left margin and every other line in the citation is indented. This is called a "hanging" indent.
4. Attachments
• You must attach a photocopy of the first page of each source you use (a copy of the actual first page, not a print-out of the abstract from PSYCHINFO).  You must also attach your Paper Idea assignment indicating my approval of the topic.

I have indicated all of the additional APA-style guidelines I would like for you to follow in the list below (along with my own formatting requirements). However, if you would like to learn more about APA style and/or see more examples, this website should be useful. It might be a good idea to, at some point,  purchase your own APA manual , especially if you are planning to go to grad school in psychology.

Grade reduction for each APA style/formatting error:

• This paper must be at least 6, but no more than 8 pages long.
• In the text of your paper, cite sources as directed at the following web page:  Finding, Reading, Citing Sources.
• Use Times New Roman 12 point font (including the title page).
• Double- space and avoid extra spaces (no extra "enters" or "returns" between paragraphs, sections, etc.), double space the references also.
• Format your reference page as directed at the following web page:  Finding, Reading, Citing Sources.
• Margins should be between 1 and 1.25 inches on all sides;  "left-justify" (don't "full-justify").
• Page numbers in the upper right hand corner.  Your title page is page 1.  Do not type “page” or “p.” - the number is all that is needed.  In MS Word, you can go to the “View” menu, click on “Headers & Footers,” click on the icon that has the # sign on it to insert page number, and then right justify that page number).  Continue numbering your pages through to the reference page. 
• Spell check and proof-read.  Automatic full letter grade reduction for obviously failing to do either.
• If you do not cite your sources properly in the text of the paper you will be inappropriately paraphrasing at best and plagiarizing at worst and, thus, subject to the penalty defined in the syllabus and/or penalties outlined by the Academic Behavior Code.
• No more than 1 direct quote is allowed. You should quote word-for-word from your sources rarely, if ever.  Save your quotations for times when the original source uses special wording that is particularly clever or when the wording itself is somehow important to the idea you are presenting.  Be sure you explain the quote or make sure it fits into the flow of your paper - don’t let someone else speak for you. Be sure to properly cite a quote if you do use one.

Additional Information

• I expect you to produce clearly written, grammatically correct work that adheres to APA style.  Your grade will reflect, in part, how successful your efforts in this area are.  As such, I strongly encourage you to take one or more of your drafts to the writing center (or another tutor) for help catching mistakes, etc.  I am very happy to review drafts and answer any questions you have in this area, but I just have too many students to provide detailed "editing" comments on everyone's draft.  Good writers are relentless revisers, and this is a paper which will require you to produce, develop and edit several drafts.
• Audience:  Assume your  reader is generally informed about psychology (e.g., has taken intro psych and research methods/stats), but doesn’t know anything about your particular topic.
• Once you have completed a draft, check for common errors and problems. The website listed here might be useful: General Writing Tips.
• Re-read all of the instructions and be sure you have followed them to the letter.

Grading

• Click here to see a copy of my  grading criteria sheet I will be using something similar to evaluate your work.