Assignment: Personality

Unit 4 Assignment: Personality

This assignment is designed to reinforce the core principles of personality development during the human lifespan. Please write a 400 word essay (do not simply address each question, your assignment must be written in fluid essay form) to address the concepts below.

Write your essay in your own words however you will need to review your text as well as relevant research literature to validate your own perspectives. Please use APA format to cite all resources.

Personality traits may be defined as “the characteristics or dimensions of personality on which people vary”. Traits can be thought of as falling along a continuum that ranges from traits considered by many to be desirable (e.g., happy, self-confident, considerate) to traits that are often considered to be undesirable (e.g., aggressive, spiteful, crude). Presented below is a list of some common personality traits. The list is far from exhaustive and you should have no difficulty coming up with an additional list of traits if needed.

Passive Outgoing Unsociable Active Careful Talkative Sober Optimistic Thoughtful Responsive Rigid Impulsive

Peaceful Easygoing Moody Changeable Controlled Lively Anxious Excitable Reliable Carefree Reserved Aggressive

Even-Tempered Depressed Restless Calm Quiet Lonely Touchy Sociable Pessimistic Confident Jealous

Successful completion of the assignment requires that you select one personality trait and then review your text as well as relevant research literature in order to answer each of the following questions:

1. How does the personality trait develop in humans? Where does it appear to come from?
2. What purpose or function does the trait appear to serve?
3. How does the trait affect the individual’s social behavior? How does the trait impact upon interpersonal relationships?
4. [answer either (a) or (b) depending upon which alternative is appropriate]
   1. If the trait that you selected is closer to the desirable end of the trait continuum, then what methods or techniques might be used to increase, or at least maintain at a high level, the quantity of the trait? (e.g., make a person more self-confident).
   2. If the trait that you selected is closer to the undesirable end of the trait continuum, then what methods or techniques might be used to decrease the quantity of the trait? (e.g., make a person less aggressive).

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

Additional Information: MyPsychLab WATCH – Episode 13 Personality
Twins and Personality Special Topic 

Source: Hittner, J. B. (1999). Fostering Critical Thinking in Personality Psychology: The Trait Paper Assignment. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 26, 92-97.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.