Existential-Humanistic Personality Assessment
Discuss your experience taking the test(s). Was it easy? Difficult? What made it so? Was it interesting? Surprising?
Discuss whether or not you think the test(s) assesses an important aspect of personality. Explain your answer thoroughly. You may use your test results in your explanation, but you are not required to do so.
How did the test(s) you took compare with the cognitive and trait-based tests in the previous modules? Which do you think gives a more accurate depiction of personality? Explain your reasoning.
2. Existential, Humanistic and Positive Psychology - The Pros and Cons
Overview
People generally tend to have strong feelings about the existential, humanistic and positive psychology approaches. Some consider them more holistic because they can embrace the more spiritual and esoteric aspects of the human condition. Others consider them unstructured and unscientific.
What do you think?
Discuss
Post a thoughtful and reflective argument explaining the advantages and the disadvantages of the existential, humanistic and positive approaches to studying personality. Be thorough and give specific detail.
You may draw on the material in the text, but make sure to add your own thoughts and ideas about the perspectives in this module. How do they contribute to a better understanding of human personality and behavior? How do they fall short in doing so? How are they useful? Are they potentially damaging in any circumstances?
3.The Other Stanford Experiment - The Marshmallow Test
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Overview
Psychologist Walter Mischel criticized personality theories for their inability to adequately predict behavior across situations. Instead, he espoused an interactionist view that emphasized the way in which situations influenced behavior.
Mischel's most famous experiment, which he conducted at Stanford University, involved a study of the delay of gratification in children. He theorized that the differences in the children's behavioral response to the experimental situation would predict various future behaviors.
Watch
Watch the following videos on Self Control and the Marshmallow Test:
Resisting the marshmallow and the success of self-control (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (YouTube - 09:21)
The Marshmallow Test (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (YouTube - 03:27)
4.Your Unique Personality Theory
Construct your own theory of personality based on both the perspectives you've learned in this course as well as your own autobiographical experiences and thoughtful opinion. You can "borrow" concepts and perspectives from the established theories, but put your own signature on your theory.
Consider what, if any, aspects of personality have not been adequately covered by the perspectives that were addressed in the course. Give your theory a unique name.
Consider the following questions as you formulate your theory:
Do people behave consistently across situations?
Can people change over time?
Do the laws of behavior apply uniformly to all people?
Are people motivated to improve themselves? How? Why?
Does temperament at birth determine an individual's personality for life?
Do events early in life have lasting psychological effects?
Are people motivated more by pleasure than by rules?
Are people across all cultures basically the same?
Are people born with innate talent or can they, with the proper experiences, be capable of works of genius like those of Mozart, Einstein, Rembrandt, or Shakespeare?
Do men and women differ psychologically beyond any effects of culture?
Guidelines
With the questions above in mind, write a 1000-1500 word paper. References must be cited and in current APA format.
Discuss
After viewing, post a thoughtful discussion about these experiments and Mischel's theory.
What do you think this experiment says about the construct of personality?
In general, do you think about the roles of personality traits vs situational variables?
Explain your interpretation of the interactionist approach. Does it adequately explain the variability in behavior? Why or why not?