Course program
The course is divided in three parts:
1. The first part (6 hours of video-lessons) addresses the issue of the description and explanation in personality psychology, and in particular the importance of the study of personality individual differences for psychological research and practice. This part is articulated in three thematic cores: a) Origins and development of personality psychology; b) the study of personality individual differences (personality traits and temperament); c) The interactionism and the cognitive perspective in the study of personality; d) Continuity and discontinuity of personality development. During this second part of the course, students will be introduced to some of the main instruments for the evaluation of personality and temperament traits, how to use the instruments and to interpret scores.
2. The second part (5 hours of video-lessons) deals with the issues of emotions and their self-regulation, and address in particular: a) The definitions of emotions; b) The main theories on emotions and their empirical findings); c) Mechanisms of emotion-regulation; d) Relations between emotions and cognitive functioning (memory, decision-making, attention, etc.)
3. The third part of the course (4 hours of video lessons) describes: a) The main motivational theories; b) Self-regulatory and self-directional processes. During the third part of the course students will participate to some practical exercises aimed to: a) acquire knowledge concerning some instruments for the evaluation of motivational functioning, their use and their score interpretations.
The main text for the three parts of the course is:
Giampietro, Iannello, Carver e Scheier (2023). Psicologia della personalità: Prospettive teoriche, strumenti contesti applciativi, Pearson editore (no chapter 6)
Furthermore, students have to study
-For the first part of the course the chapter uploaded on the e-learning website concerning interactionsim and personality stability;
-For the second part of the course: the chapter uploaded on the e-learning website concerning emotions,
- For the third part of the course the book: Caprara G.V. (2013). Motivare è riuscire. Bologna Il Mulino.
Further readings (articles or chapters; included those that will be used for the final exams) will be made available after the beginning of the course.
Prerequisites
o otbtain learnign goals, it is imprtant for students their knowledge of the main psychological theories (psychoanalisys, behaviourism, cognitivism), of some basic cognitive processes (memory, perception, learning),and have some basic knoeldge of biology, psychophisiology and developmental psychology.
Books
The following texts will be used during the course:
Giampietro, Iannello, Carver e Scheier (2023). Psicologia della personalità: Prospettive teoriche, strumenti contesti applicativi, Pearson editore (escluso capitolo 6)
Furthermore, students have to study
-For the first part of the course the chapter uploaded on the e-learning website concerning interactionsim and personality stability;
-For the second part of the course: the chapter uploaded on the e-learning website concerning emotions,
- For the third part of the course the book: Caprara G.V. (2013). Motivare è riuscire. Bologna Il Mulino.
Teaching mode
The course is delivered at distance and is divided in 15 modules. Each module includes 3-4 video lessons of 15 minutes, slides and further reading materials will be made available later . Each module includes a questionnaire of learning self-evaluation, and a short summary lesson aimed to make a brief overview of the addressed contents and to provide answers to students’ questions. Interactive students and interactive students-teacher activities will be delivered, in particular: a) 2 forum on methodological issues; b) 3 forum on psychology of emotions, of personality and of motivation; c) one collaborative learning activity concerning the comprehension and interpretation of an articulated personality profiles (including personality traits, indicators of emotional and motivational functioning) and one collaborative learnign activity concerning psychology of emotions; d) 2 webinars: one will provide feedback on the 3 forum concerning psychology of emotions, personality and motivation; one will provide feedback on the collaborative learning activity
Frequency
Attending is not mandatory but strongly reccomended
Exam mode
Evaluation includes written exams aimed at examining students’ knowledge of the main contents of the course (theoretical perspectives and addressed issues), students’ capacity to describe clearly and exhaustively some of the main themes presented during the course, and to apply acquired knowledge in a critical way to a) the reading of a scientific article on personality psychology, psychology of emotions or of motivation; b) to the description and comprehensione of an individual’s profile of psychological functioning. Furthermore, for the final evaluation, participation to interactive learning activities will be taken into account. Students’critical reasoning on methodological issues in the study of emotions, personality and motivation and students’ capability to apply theoretical knowledge to single cases will be considered.
Organization and schedule of the evaluation
Evaluation will include a single final exam concerning all the contents of the course
Evaluation will be conducted through written exams as following:
Unique final exam
a. Twentythree multiple choice questions (23 minutes); b) students will answer to two multiple choice questions concerning either the interpretation of a profile obtained through different instruments of psychological evaluation or to two multiple choice questions on on a scientific article/chapter (20 minutes). c) one open questions on the issues of emotions
Grading
To pass the exam the final grade must be equal or higher than 18/30. Students need to hae learned a sufficient knowledge of the main themes of psychology of emotions, personality and motivation, and to be able to apply at a basic level theoretical knowledge to the description of a profile of psychological functioning or to the reading of an article/chapter concerning psychology of emotions, personality or motivation. To obtain a score of 30/30 cum laude, students need to have acquired a excellent knowledge of all the issues addressed in the course, to be capable to connect those issues meaningfully and to apply those knowledge to the interpretation of a psychological profile or to the critical reasoning on a scientific text, concerning psychology of emotions, personality and motivation
The final grading will be obtained as following.
Final exam with single evaluation
The written exam is composed as following:
Twentythree multiple choice questions will contribute up to 23/30 to the final grade; b) one open question (scored form 0 =insufficient to 4=excellent) will contribute to 4/30 to the final score; c) Two multiple choice questions concerning the comprehension of a psychological profile or critical reasoning of a scientific text (scored 0=wrong, 2= correct) will contribute to 4/30 the final grade. Participation at learning interactive activities will contribute up to 4/30 on the final grade, as described above.
For all the modalities of evaluation, multiple choice questions have four alternatives and only one is correct. Each correct answer will be 1 score for the first part of the exam and two for the multiple choice question of part c). Each wrong answer will be scored 0.The final grade will be the sum of the scores obtained at the different parts of the exam and of the scores obtained for the participation at interactive learning activities.
When results of the exam are not completely clear, teachers may ask students to make a brief oral exam
.
Participation to the interactive learning activities will contribute up to 4/30 to the final grade, as following:
a) Participation at Forum: .50 point;
b) Participation at collaborative learning activities: scored from 1 to 2 points depending on the quality of the final report.
Lesson mode
The course is delivered at distance and is divided in 15 modules. Each module includes 3-4 video lessons of 15 minutes, slides and further reading materials will be made available later . Each module includes a questionnaire of learning self-evaluation, and a short summary lesson aimed to make a brief overview of the addressed contents and to provide answers to students’ questions. Interactive students and interactive students-teacher activities will be delivered, in particular: a) 2 forum on methodological issues; b) 3 forum on psychology of emotions, of personality and of motivation; c) one collaborative learning activity concerning the comprehension and interpretation of an articulated personality profiles (including personality traits, indicators of emotional and motivational functioning) and one collaborative learnign activity concerning psychology of emotions; d) 2 webinars: one will provide feedback on the 3 forum concerning psychology of emotions, personality and motivation; one will provide feedback on the collaborative learning activity