PSY4402 - Psychological Approaches to Personality and Intelligence

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate knowledge of the defining characteristics and scope of individual differences and developmental psychology from both historical and contemporary perspectives;
Describe, compare and contrast major theoretical approaches and explanations in each of the identified areas of psychology from both UK and international perspectives;
Demonstrate an understanding of the relative merits and shortcomings of the predominant methods of investigation employed within each area;
Demonstrate knowledge of the link between research and theory across a range of psychological domains.

Content:

This module introduces students to core aspects of two of the main fields of psychology. For each subject area it provides a background and framework in the defining characteristics, methods and scope of the core topic areas of Personality and Intelligence:

Individual Differences:

Personality: major theories - Freud; humanistic; cognitive and learning theory approaches; the biological bases of personality; contemporary issues in personality; personality disorder.

Intelligence: major issues and perspectives in intelligence research and theory; heritability of intelligence; IQ research, theory and debates; emotional intelligence; contemporary issues in intelligence including gender and ethnicity/cultural issues.

Developmental Psychology:

Personality: key theoretical approaches to development, personality and temperament; behavioural genetics approach; resilience and vulnerabiltiy as inherited characteristics, ageing and personality development across the lifespan.

Intelligence: key historical and theoretical approaches to intelligence and cognitive development; Piaget's theory and critique; Vygotsky's constructivist approach; Information Processing Approach; cultural variation, the role of schools and Ecologial Systems theory; children's drawings and intelligence.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The module delivery will be based upon a combination of lecture and workshop-based teaching and use of the VLE. A wide range of materials will be provided on the VLE to support students as developing independent learners. It is assumed that students will not have studied any psychology previously. The time allocated for guided self-managed learning activities will allow students to use a variety of library facilities, such as book chapters, online resources or journal articles.

Lectures, workshop activities and discussions will be integrated with the additional materials encountered by students in their self-managed activities as they embark on the journey towards becoming independent learners.

Lectures
Hours: 20
Intended Group size: Cohort

Workshops
Hours: 20
Intended Group size: Cohort

Guided independent study
Hours: 160

Further details relating to assessment
Directed activities: these consist of weekly tasks that must be completed and submitted for inspection at timetabled sessions each week. The assessment will be assessed on a pass/fail basis with a pass requiring at least 75% of all weekly tasks to be completed successfully. A pass will lead to the full award of 10% towards the final module mark. A fail in directed activities will contribute 0% to the final mark.

The module will include sessions on unpacking the essay as a form of assessment, promoting essay writing skills in the field of Personality and Intelligence. The students will prepare a literature review for formative assessment prior to submitting their final essay assessment.

Assessment:

001 Directed acivities; throughout semester 1 10%
002 Essay; 3,000 words; end of semester 1 90%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Ben Morris
Level - 4
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 4S1

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