NEW Undergraduate Textbook: Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings

Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings (Pearson, 2012). Written with an approachable, story-telling style, and grounded in current research, the book is an evidence-based text with integrated cultural references and the key building blocks of the subject matter: traits, the self, genetics, neuroscience, intrapsychic foundations, motivation and regulation, and cognition. The book also includes two mini-chapters to help students integrate across these foundations. Each chapter includes a self-assessment and a special Research Methods Illustrated section. Features an online instructor’s resource manual written by the author. Check it out!

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 6, Number 5, January, 2012

Hello and welcome to the sixty-fourth Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,376 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

This month National Geographic is running an article on Twins: nature, nurture, and the so-called ”third way” of epigenetics. As researcher Danielle Reed explains ”Mother Nature writes some things in pencil and some things in pen. Things written in pen you can’t change. That’s DNA. But things written in pencil you can. That’s epigenetics. Now that we’re actually able to look at the DNA and see where the pencil writings are, it’s sort of a whole new world.” The article is a fascinating read for students and teachers alike and the accompanying photo montages of twins by two different photographers will liven up your class materials.

Also this month, in the aftermath of the peak toy season, there has been a big controversy over gender-neutral toys now being re-designed and marketed to girls. Yes, the Lego building blocks loved by children all over are now getting feminine figures, cafe and salon play scenes, and a make-over in shades of pink and purple. See young Riley’s rant about such marketing ploys, a very thoughtful op-ed article on the issue, and a vintage ad for Legos from the 1980s below. These materials can be used to illustrate gender stereotyping and gender socialization or to give your students food-for-thought for a lively classroom debate on the topic.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can view the current newsletter, comment on newsletters, re-read what you missed in previous newsletters, or search all newsletters by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. A Thing or Two About Twins

From the website: ”They have the same piercing eyes. The same color hair. One may be shy, while the other loves meeting new people. Discovering why identical twins differ—despite having the same DNA—could reveal a great deal about all of us.” Good explanation of epigenetics from ”National Geographic”, January 2012 by Peter Miller.

3. The Photographic Fascination With Twins

Photographer Martin Schoeller capture these portraits of three sets of identical twins to illustrate a recent story in National Geographic: ”In Schoeller’s portraits, eyes are like an open book. His portraits are studies of the face’s physical topography, but also of our irrepressible emotions — how they translate to the twinkle of an eye or the wrinkle on a forehead.”

4. Photo Gallery: A Thing or Two About Twins

From the website: ”Photographer Jodi Cobb captures the interaction between twins — and how they can be both alike and different — in this photo gallery.”

5. Should the World of Toys Be Gender Free?

Peggy Orenstein evaluates the pros and cons of gender targeted toys and marketing campaigns in this op ed article from the ”New York Times”, December 29, 2011.

6. Riley on Marketing

Riley Maida, age 4, has had enough of pink princesses being marketed to girls and super heroes being marketed to boys. She speaks out for the cessation of gendered toy marketing and the elimination of gendered stereotypes. Also check out this ABC News profile on Riley.

7. Vintage Lego Ad and article on Social Media Backlash against the new Legos

8. Resilience: The Ghost Boy

According to this uplifting story in the ”Mail Online”, from July 6, 2011, ”Martin Pistorius was a happy, healthy boy – until at the age of 12 a mystery illness left him in a virtual coma. Doctors never found the cause of his condition – even his mother gave up hope. Yet in 1992, when Martin was 16, a miracle happened: he started to regain consciousness. But he was still trapped in his broken body, unable to communicate. Slowly, however, he regained some control of his head and arms, and began to use a computer to write messages and operate a synthetic voice. Here, Martin tells the story of his remarkable recovery – and how he came to find love, a home and a job in England…”

9. Virginia Tech Shootings: Research on Post-Traumatic Stress

According to research by professors Michael Hughes and Russell T. Jones, 15.4 percent of Virginia Tech students experienced high levels of posttraumatic stress three to four months following the shootings. Their research is published in ”Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 3, 2011.

10. The Great Parking Debate: A Research Methods Case Study

The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science presents this vignette to teaching principles of hypothesis testing: ”Two friends debate whether people leave their parking spaces faster if others are waiting. They decide to see if they can design a study to test their ideas. In this interrupted case study, students develop a research question and hypothesis and consider how to test a hypothesis. Students read about what researchers have done to answer the research question and identify and evaluate different research designs. Students are also asked to evaluate data. Developed for a use in an introductory psychology course to cover terms and concepts related to research methods, the case could be used in other introductory science classes, early in research methods courses, or in upper-level social science courses.” Includes teaching notes and answer key.

11. Narcissists Look Like Good Leaders — But They Aren’t

”Narcissists rise to the top. That’s because other people think their qualities—confidence, dominance, authority, and self-esteem—make them good leaders.” However, this is not the case according to research by Barbora Nevicka and others published in ”Psychological Science”, September 2011, and summarized here.

12. Existentialtainment

A compendium of jokes, cartoons, and examples from the media which illustrate aspects of existentialism.

13. Best Marriage Equality Commercial Ever

This Australian public service announcement takes a novel and moving approach in its support for marriage equality.

14. WingClips: Movie Clips that Illustrate and Inspire

Inspirational movie clips for use in school, church, or other organization. The site is organized by movie title, scripture, category, and theme, and is searchable. Clips can be streamed (but are imprinted with a watermark) or can be downloaded. Most are free; some are available for a small fee.

15. Laughter Has Positive Impact on Vascular Function

”Watching a funny movie or sitcom that produces laughter has a positive effect on vascular function and is opposite to that observed after watching a movie that causes mental stress according to research” by Michael Miller and colleagues presented at the ”European Society of Cardiology Congress” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 28, 2011.

16. Three Facts You Might Not Know About Freud and His Cocaine Addiction

Writer Margarita Tartakovsky for ”World of Psychology” presents these three little-known facts about Freud’s cocaine addiction from Howard Markel’s book ”An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted and the Miracle Drug Cocaine”.

17. Sex Differences in Mental Illness

”Women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression, while men tend toward substance abuse or antisocial disorders, according to a new study” published in the ”Journal of Abnormal Psychology” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 18, 2011.

18. Flawed Logic of Segregating Boys and Girls for Education Purposes Based on Alleged Brain Differences

According to research by Lise Eliot and colleagues, ”There is no scientific basis for teaching boys and girls separately. Her review reveals fundamental flaws in the arguments put forward by proponents of single-sex schools to justify the need of teaching teach boys and girls separately. Eliot shows that neuroscience has identified few reliable differences between boys’ and girls’ brains relevant to learning or education.” This research was published in ”Sex Roles” and is summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 18, 2011.

19. Consumer Self-Esteem While Shopping

”People who don’t feel positive about their appearance are less likely to buy an item they’re trying on if they see a good-looking shopper or salesperson wearing the same thing” according to research by Darren Dahl, Jennifer Argo, and Andrea Morales, published in the ”Journal of Consumer Research” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 20, 2011.

20. Favorite Link Revisited: Psychology Cartoons

Spice up your lectures with one of these classic single-panel cartoons of Sydney Harris. In this online collection of science cartoons you will find references to Freud, Rorschach, brain dominance, Skinner, existentialism, and more.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 6, Number 4, December, 2011

Hello and welcome to the sixty-fourth Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,365 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

This month we’ve been doing some housekeeping by updating our backlog of links. Below you will find a little something old as well as something new sure to spark your creativity in the classroom.

We wish you a peaceful holiday season surrounded by the people and things you love and a restful vacation that renews you for more teaching of personality psychology in the new year!

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. Social PsyClips: Ed Deci on Self-Determination Theory

Ed Deci presents an overview of self-determination theory as part of Social PsyClips, a repository of short, visually appealing HD video documentaries of classic and contemporary social psychological theories for teaching purposes (runs 25 minutes 36 seconds).

3. Social PsyClips: Ed Deci on Self-Determination Theory in Life’s Domains

Ed Deci describes the implications of self-determination theory in virtual worlds, health, education, and other life domains as part of Social PsyClips, a repository of short, visually appealing HD video documentaries of classic and contemporary social psychological theories for teaching purposes (runs 11 minutes 25 seconds).

4. Self-Handicapping

Summarizes the work of McCrea (2008) on the difference between excuse-making and self-handicapping and common ways people self-handicap.

5. What is your Emotional IQ?

A collection of articles from ”Psychology Today” on the topic of Emotional Intelligence including what it is and is not, gender differences in EQ, and alternative intelligences.

6. Intelligence

A collection of articles from ”Psychology Today” on the topic of intelligence including giftedness and genius, how to increase intelligence, gender differences, intelligence testing, and much more.

7. Male Impulsivity and Addiction Linked to One Gene

Addiction and impulsivity have a genetic link in men, according to a new study by Scott Stoltenberg, Melissa Lehmann, Christa C. Christ, Samantha Hersrud, and Gareth Davies, published in the journal ”Drug and Alcohol Dependence” and summarized here in LiveScience, November 18, 2011.

8. Nonproductive Workplace Behaviors

An overview by Eve Ash on the many forms of dishonesty in the work place and how to handle them.

9. The United States of Mind

Research by Rentfrow and colleagues on the geography of personality suggests that there are regional clusters of personality traits. This summary of their (2008) research from the journal ”Perspectives on Psychological Science” contains a link to an interactive map of states’ personality profiles with details on each state’s rankings on each of the five factors. From the ”Wall Street Journal”, September 23, 2008.

10. Monkey Hijacks Photographer’s Camera and Shots Self-Portraits

While filming macaque monkeys in an Indonesian national park, photographer David Slater lost his camera to one of his subjects. The resulting self-portraits are both comical and all too human and illustrate nicely the question of self-recognition as a uniquely human capacity.

11. The Brain Basis of Unrealistic Optimism

Discovering that an initial estimate was unduly pessimistic was associated with increased activity across the frontal lobes while being unduly optimistic was associated with reduced activity in these areas according to research by Tali Sharot and colleagues published in ”Nature Neuroscience” (2011) and summarized here in ”BPS Research Digest”, December 5, 2011.

12. Favorite Link Revisited: What is Personality?

Check out this short film (7 minutes, 35 seconds) Called ”Psychology 28 Opening Day Intro Montage” by Matt Sacks of University of the North Carolina.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 6, Number 3, November, 2011

Hello and welcome to the sixty-third Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,348 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

This month we feature four links on Narcissism, including one of our favorite links revisited. In this issue you’ll also find links related to the five factors, genetics, gender, and Facebook friends and the brain! All in all, an issue sure to spark your and your students’ interest in the latest research findings in personality.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. Searching for Meaning

Existential-humanistic psychologists hope to promote the idea that therapy can change not only minds but lives. By Michael Price, from the APA ”Monitor”, November 2011, 42(10), print version p. 58.

3. Those With A Sweet Tooth Usually Have a Sweeter Personality

”People who have a preference for eating sweet things tend to have sweeter dispositions [higher in Agreeableness] and are more likely to help people in need, compared to those who opt for savory foods or nothing at all, researchers from North Dakota State University and Gettysburg College reported in the ”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” ” and summarized here in ”Medical News Today”, October 12, 2011.

4. Facebook Friends Predicted by Size of Brain Structures

Brain regions associated with creating memories of names and faces and interpretation of social cues appear to be larger in people who have more friends on Facebook according to research by Geraint Rees published in the ”Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences” and summarized here in ”LifeScience”, October 18, 2011.

5. Personality Plays Role in Body Weight

People who are high in Neuroticism and low in Conscientiousness are more likely than others to go through cycles of gaining and losing weight throughout their lives according to research by Angelina Sutin and Luigi Ferrucci published in the ”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” and summarized here.

6. Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Understanding Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation may be particularly powerful because it draws on attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation and sense of self according to research by Britta Holzel published in Perspectives on Psychological Science and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, October 31, 2011.

7. At What Age Do Girls Prefer Pink?

According to research by Vannessa LoBue and Judy DeLoache, children’s color preferences — and aversions — emerge between the ages of 2 and 3 just as they are beginning to be aware of gender. Their research was published in the ”Journal of Developmental Psychology,” September 2011, and is summarized here in The British Psychological Society ”Research Digest”, September 5, 2011.

8. NPR: Radio Diaries

The NPR project Radio Diaries encourages teenagers, seniors, prison inmates and others whose voices are rarely heard to document their lives for public radio. Their stories are often powerful, surprising, intimate, and timeless, illustrating many aspects of the self, including self-concept, self-esteem, and social identity.

9. McDonald’s Advertisements and Culture: ”I’m Loving It”
The McDonald’s famous ”I’m Loving it” campaign looks different, depending on the culture in which the ad is targeted. For example, in India the ad features more collectivistic values: A father and son share a bonding moment. In the individualistic United States, the ads most often feature a person alone. Würtz (2005) explains all about cultural differences and advertisements and this companion website includes many illustrations of McDonald’s Ads from China, Japan, India, and the United States.

10. When It’s Good To Be Bad

Acknowledging our Jungian shadow can help us become more creative according to Susan O’Doherty in this article from ”Psychology Today”, October 16, 2009.

11.Happiness Depends On Who You Know and Your Goals, Study of College Students Suggests

Introverted and extroverted college students use different strategies to be happy according to research by Bernardo Carducci and colleagues and summarized in ”ScienceDaily”, August 30, 2011.

12. Parents’ Stress Leaves Lasting Marks on Children’s Genes

”Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Child & Family Research Institute have shown that parental stress during their children’s early years can leave an imprint on their sons’ or daughters’ genes — an imprint that lasts into adolescence and may affect how these genes are expressed later in life” according to research published in ”Child Development” and summarized here in ”ScienceDaily”, August 30, 2011.

13. Is Culture Behind Men’s Better Spatial Reasoning?

New research by Moshe Hoffman, Uri Gneezy and John List suggests that the gender gap in spatial skills maybe be partially due to culture according to research published in the ”Proceedings of the National Academy of Science” and summarized here in ”Discover Magazine” online, 2011.

14. Parents Need An Attitude Adjustment to Improve Their Children’s Homework Motivation

”Parents who want to improve their child’s motivation to complete homework this school year need to change their own attitude and behavior,” providing more structure to improve children’s perceived competence and feelings of warmth to increase perceived relatedness.

15. The Incredibly Seductive Pull of a Very Skilled Narcissist

Psychologist Samuel Lopez De Victoria discusses 7 characteristics which can make a narcissist both appealing and dangerous to others including charm, storytelling ability, believability, wisdom, acting ability and others.

16. Narcissists’ Overconfidence May Hide Low Self-Esteem

”Narcissists may seem to love themselves, but a new study finds that narcissistic self-aggrandizement may hide deep feelings of inferiority” according to research by Erin Myers as published in the ”Journal of Research in Personality” and summarized here in ”LiveScience”, October 20, 2011.

17. Narcissists Already Know What You Think of Them, But Do They Care?

Research suggests that narcissists know that others do not share their inflated self-view and think they have a problem but they often choose to do nothing about it. This suggests that narcissism is a character disorder rather than a personality disorder according to this summary by David DiSalvo for the ”Psychology Today” Neuronarrative blog, October 31, 2011.

18. Favorite Link Revisited: Is Your Boss a Narcissist?

According to research by Amy Brunell and colleagues published in ”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin”, December, 2008, and briefly summarized here, chances are he or she is.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 6, Number 2, October, 2011

Hello and welcome to the sixty-second Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,322 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

This month we have a record number of links to share with you, everything from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Magic Mushrooms, with Jeopardy, comedians, laughter, narcissism, the upside of pessimism, and the very first mention of Sigmund Freud in ”The New York Times” in between.

Know somebody high in Neuroticism? This month we are pleased to bring you a rare upside to this trait: People high in Neuroticism tend to lose themselves in movies more than people low in Neuroticism. This means that they experience movies more richly, including both the positive emotions of happy and uplifting movies and the negative emotions of sad and scary movies.

While we’re on the topic of Neuroticism, while you may think of Woody Allen or Richard Lewis when it comes to neurotic comedians, it turns out that comedians are not higher in Neuroticism than non-comedians. They are, however, lower in Agreeableness and higher in Openness.

Speaking of Openness, people who have taken hallucinogenic mushrooms (!) do indeed experience more Openness. This bit of folk wisdom left over from the 1960s now has scientific backing. Further, this change in Openness may last up to a year later. Not that we’re advocating hallucinogens, but this study is sure to spark discussion in your classes about the ethics of research, how experience can change personality, and the consistency of personality over time.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. Self-Promotion: Why Arnold’s Self-Statue Is Very Serious. Really.

Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a larger-than-life bronze statue of himself in his body-building days as part of a museum dedicated to Schwarzenegger in his hometown of Thal, Austria. Is this an example of egoism or merely the latest example of self-promotion harkening back to the ancients? From ”LiveScience”, October 2, 2011, by Stephanie Pappas.

3. Life’s Extremes: Early Bird vs. Night Owls

A good overview of circadian rhythm and the chronotypes of morning larks and night owls including genetic influences and sleep-phase disorders. From ”LiveScience”, October 2, 2011, by Adam Hadhazy.

4. Magic Mushrooms May Permanently Alter Personality

Even just one dose of hallucinogenic mushrooms can alter a person’s level of Openness for more than a year according to research by Katherine MacLean and colleagues as summarized in ”LiveScience”, September 29, 2011 by Stephanie Pappas.

5. Neurotics Experience More Immersion When Watching Films

People who score high in Neuroticism tend to feel more absorbed in films, both enjoying comedies more and horror and sad films less than people lower in Neuroticism. This, according to research by David Weibel and colleagues published this month in ”Personality and Individual Differences” and summarized here.

6. Neuroticism Influences Brain Activity During Anticipation and Experience of Pain

Neuroticism ”significantly affects brain processing during pain, as well as during the anticipation of pain”, according to a new study in ”Gastroenterology” and summarized here in ”ScienceDaily”, September 20, 2011.

7. Pessimism — It Could Save Your Mind

Summarizes research by O’Mara, McNulty, and Karney (2011) in the ”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” which found that optimism led to increased mental health when participants were faced with less stressful situations, but that pessimism was more adaptive in the face of highly stressful situations. From ”Brain Blogger”, October 11, 2011 by Radhika Takru.

8. First Mention: Sigmund Freud, 1909

From the website: ”Sigmund Freud visited the United States only once, in 1909, to give a series of lectures. ”The New York Times” found nothing about the visit worth mentioning except his departure. ”Prof. Sigmund Freud” appears on Page 9 on Sept. 21, along with ”Dr. C. G. Jung,” in a list of passengers sailing to Bremen, Germany, aboard the Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse. It was the first time the newspaper mentioned his name […] A search of The Times database from the early 1920s until Freud’s death yields nearly 300 references to him and almost 1,000 to psychoanalysis. ”

9. How Not to Spot Personality Test Fakers

Can response times reveal test fakers? Maybe not. This notion was tested in research by Mindy Shoss and Michael Strube and summarized here in ”Research Digest”, September 14, 2011.

10. US Views on Gays, Lesbians, Shift Sharply

According to the 2010 update of the General Social Survey (GSS) at NORC at the University of Chicago, not only do a plurality of Americans approve of same-sex marriage, but they overwhelmingly support freedom of expression and basic civil liberties for gays and lesbians. This article summarizes these findings and includes two graphs which illustrate this trend toward increased tolerance over time.

11. Gender Non-Conformity in a Tide Ad

This ad depicts a mom who is exasperated at her daughter’s non-conformity with gender roles. While the mom tries to be supportive of her daughter’s non-traditional efforts, her obvious discomfort illustrates that gendered expectations for behavior still run strong.

12. It’s Ok to Be Neither: Teaching That Supports Gender-Variant Children

Melissa Bollow Tempel discusses her realization that just as gender training begins early, teaching about gender expectations and breaking down gender stereotypes should begin early as well. In this article Tempel describes how she changed her classroom to be more supportive of gender variance.

13.How to Get the Most Out of Studying

Stephen Chew, Samford University, created this series of 5 videos to help students. Grounded in his own research on using cognitive principles to improve teaching and learning, Chew presents basic principles of how people learn and tries to correct counterproductive beliefs so that students can improve their learning by designing their own effective study strategies and avoiding ineffective strategies.

14. Psychologists Discover A Gene’s Link to Optimism, Self-Esteem

According to research by Shelley E. Taylor and colleagues, and summarized here, researchers have identified a gene linked to optimism, self-esteem, and mastery. From ”Science Daily”, September 14, 2011.

15. Why We Dream

The BBC produced this video documentary on dreams: ”People who study dreaming to find out why we dream have found several potential answers: they help keep us asleep, they contribute to good mental health, and they help us find answers to questions we seek. But what do they mean, and can we control them? This excellent documentary interviews scientists, dreamers, and people with sleep and dream disorders to find out more about this always fascinating subject.” (Runs 58 minutes and 24 seconds).

16.Life’s Extremes: Outgoing vs. Shy

Summarizes research on early temperaments related to extraversion,  introversion, and shyness. Includes an excellent graphic summarizing these differences. From ”LifeScience”, September 25, 2011.

17. What’s On Your Genes?

Written for kids, this overview of genetics nonetheless does an excellent job of explaining Mendellian inheritance and epigenetics.

18. Goodness Has Nothing to Do With It

This article from ”The Economist” summarizes research by Daniel Bartels and David Pizzaro which suggests that people with a utilitarian outlook tend to be Machiavellian or psychopathic.

19. It’s All About Autonomy: Consumers React Negatively When Prompted to Think About Money

From the webpage: ”Whether they are aware of it or not, consumers dislike being reminded of money — so much that they will rebel against authority figures, according to a new study in the ”Journal of Consumer Research” and summarized here in ”ScienceDaily”, September 15, 2011.

20. Laughter is a Physical, Not a Mental Thing

From the summary: ”Laughter is regularly promoted as a source of health and well being, but it has been hard to pin down exactly why laughing until it hurts feels so good. The answer, reports Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford, is not the intellectual pleasure of cerebral humor, but the physical act of laughing”. Read all about it here in ”3 Quarks Daily”, September 14, 2011.

21. Gender and the Narcissist

An overview of gender differences in narcissism and the finding that most narcissists are male.

22. Existential Therapy

An overview of existential theory and therapy as practiced by Rollo May and Irvin Yalom. Contains quotes, movie recommendations, training, comparisons with the humanistic tradition, and more.

23. The Strange Situation

Presents video of a mother and secure child going through Ainsworth’s Strange Situation. A voice over explains each part of the Strange Situation protocol, to which the baby reacts (runs 5 minutes and 24 seconds).

24. The Pursuit of Happiness

With the philosophy that happiness is ”understandable, obtainable, and teachable” this website presents a history of the philosophy of happiness and finding in the science of happiness along with teaching resources including syllabi, mini-lessons and PowerPoint presentations on the science and philosophy of happiness. They also welcome submissions.

25. Psychology Jeopardy

Stephen Wurst, SUNY Oswego, created these ”Jeopardy”-style games to use for review sessions with your classes. Boards are organized by theme and include: David Bowie Songs, Bruce Springsteen Songs, WordPlay, Broadway Musicals, Classic Jeopardy Categories, Dr. Strangelove and more. You play directly on the Super Teacher Tools website (see below) by choosing the number of teams and amount of time to answer questions. Correct answers are given and the site includes a scoreboard. See the Super Teacher Tools website (below) for a template you can use to make a Jeopardy review game with your own questions.

26. Super Teacher Tools

This site is ”dedicated to providing technology tools for teaching that are quick and easy to download, learn, and start using in your classroom.” Includes review games, classroom management software, and other miscellaneous tools for educators.

27. Personality: Funny in the Head

Does it take a special personality to be a stand-up comedian? Despite some notable exceptions, comedians are not more Neurotic than other people. They are, however, more Open to Experience and less Agreeable according to research by Gil Greengross and Geoffrey Miller summarized here.

28. Favorite Link Revisited: The Trait Paper Assignment

From the abstract: ”A personality trait-based term paper assignment that is appropriate for use in personality psychology courses and that is designed to foster critical thinking skills is introduced. The extent to which the trait questions correspond to generic critical thinking questions is considered, the specific thinking skills induced by each trait question are discussed, and potential limitations of the assignment are noted. Preliminary data are also presented which suggest that the trait-based term paper assignment stimulates critical thinking and enhances knowledge about personality traits. It is hoped that the ideas presented and issues discussed in the present article will encourage academic psychologists from all subdisciplines to develop writing assignments that foster critical thinking skills.” This assignment is not rooted in a particular model of traits and so is adaptable to any model. From Hittner, J. B. (1999). Fostering critical thinking in personalty psychology. ”Journal of Instructional Psychology”, 26, 92-97.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 6, Number 1, September, 2011

Hello and welcome to the sixty-first Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,302 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

Happy Birthday to the Personality Pedagogy newsletter! This month we are starting our 6th year. We have enjoyed brining you the latest in news, assignments, activities, examples and more. We thank you, our loyal readers and visitors, for making Personality Pedagogy the place to go for resources for teaching personality psychology. Don’t you feel like sending us a birthday card now? (see the third link below)

Science or science fiction? One of the most interesting pieces of news this month is a new study out of UC Berkeley which was able to reconstruct the ”movies” inside of our heads — like dreams and memories — from fMRIs and computer modeling. This is a very exciting breakthrough and one that, while not directly related to personality psychology, illustrates cutting-edge research in neuroscience these days. It is just a matter of time before this technique will be used to study personality and the brain.

Permit us a moment of shameless self-promotion. This month we are pleased to announce a new textbook for personality psychology written by our own editor, Marianne Miserandino. ”Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings” (Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2012) introduces students to the basic foundations and latest findings in personality psychology by presenting the fundamental questions, accumulated knowledge, and latest research in traits, genetics, neuroscience, self and identity, intrapsychic aspects, regulation and motivation, and cognition, as well as the integration across these areas. The book is written specifically for students at small liberal arts and community colleges. The best part of all is that Miserandino wrote the instructor’s manual too! The IM is chock full of discussion points, active learning exercises, self-assessments, crossword puzzle vocabulary reviews, and much more gleaned from her almost 20 years of teaching personality psychology at Arcadia University. If you like Personality Pedagogy, you are sure to love this new approach to teaching personality psychology. Check it out here.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. Scientists Use fMRI to Reveal the Movies in Our Mind

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers Jack Gallant and colleagues have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences – in this case, watching Hollywood movie trailers, according to this summary and published September 22 2011 in the journal ”Current Biology”. Includes excerpts from the actual movies participants viewed alongside images recreated from their brain scans.

3. The Pavlovian Response to Seeing Birthday Announcements on Facebook

Mike Masnick discusses an ”experiment” conducted by David Plotz of ”Slate” magazine. Plotz noted that well-wishers responded automatically when they saw that a friend was having a birthday on Facebook.

4. Bobby McFerrin’s ”Don’t Worry, Be Happy”: An Explication Grounded in Research

Maria Popova presents this explication of the ”iconic happiness anthem” grounded in the latest research in personality and social psychology. Includes links to original sources.

5. The Use of Active Imagination in Jungian Sandplay

Shrink Rap Radio: A Psychology talk and Interview Show (Podcast; Show #278, September 9, 2011). In this episode, Dr. Dave talks with Maria Hess, Ph.D., a Jungian Analyst who teaches Sonoma State University. Maria teaches, practices and presents workshops in sandplay and other non-verbal expressive modalities.

6. Carl Jung: Psychology’s Magician

According to Algis Valiunas, in ”The New Atlantis”, ”… Newton was not the last magician. Jung was. The method of his analytical psychology — as he called it, to distinguish it from Freudian psychoanalysis — was nothing short of fantastic.” [For example] ”[t]o penetrate the psyche of a woman destined for schizophrenic disintegration, he would study dreams, reveries, her ”borderland phenomena” — the apparitions that came to her as she was half-asleep — and explicate them in the light of Mithraic religious symbols, Old Testament wisdom, the words of Jesus, passages from Shakespeare, poems by Nietzsche, Teutonic and Persian and Chinese and Indian legend… Although Jung focuses intently on a particular patient with a particular disorder, his study has a far more extensive cultural reach. He was out to dethrone arid modern scientism and restore the symbolic imagination — which is to say, religious feeling — to its rightful place in the life of men.”

7. Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale

From Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R. K., Cooper, M. L., & Bouvrette, A. (2003). Contingencies of self-worth in college students: Theory and measurement. ”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85”, 894-908. Includes background information, limitations, scale validity, scoring instructions and links to the scale in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, Dutch, French, and Turkish.

8. Wounded Warriors Softball Team

NBC Nightly News did this feature story on the inspirational Wounded Warriors softball team. These veteran service members play on an amputee softball team, made up entirely of players who have lost limbs. They take on able-bodied teams for camaraderie and the love of good hard competition. Aired September 5, 2011 (Runs 3 minutes and 28 seconds).

9. Nonexperimental Methods

Mark Mitchell, Clarion University, provides this extensive overview of nonexperimental methods including quizzes to test your comprehension of the material presented.

10. Core Concepts in Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience sponsors this extensive website filled with useful and up-to-date resources including a downloadable e-book on the core concepts of neuroscience and a matching Powerpoint presentation.

11. Neuroscience Education Resources Virtual Encycloportal (NERVE)

The Society for Neuroscience sponsors the website NERVE, the Neuroscience Education Resources Virtual Encycloportal. Built for instructors of k-12, the site is organized around the themes of addictions, drugs, and the brain; anatomy; cells; sensation, perception and movement; mental health, brain disorders, and disease; nervous system injuries; brain basics; and neuroscientists at work. Filled with activities, cases, fact sheets, images, experiences, quizzes, simulations and much more, many of which are easily tailored to the level of high school and college audiences.

12. Finding Little Albert

Michael Britt created an episode for his podcast, ”The Psych Files,” which discusses the curious story of how Little Albert, one of the most famous subjects in the history of psychology, was finally found. In this video episode (#114) Britt takes us through each step of the extensive and fascinating detective work which led to Albert’s identity. Includes some never seen before pictures.

13. The Little Albert Study: What You Know is Mostly Wrong

Michael Britt created an episode for his podcast, ”The Psych Files,” which discusses the real story behind Little Albert, one of the most famous subjects in the history of psychology. In this episode (#47) Britt explains, ”If you think you know a lot about the little Albert experiment conducted by John Watson? Well, guess what – you’d be surprised at how much of the story is simply not true. If you’re wondering whatever happened to little Albert, whether the little Albert study created a lasting phobia in a small boy, or even what place this story has in the history of behaviorism, then I suggest you take a listen to this episode of The Psych Files and get the facts on this fascinating part of psychology’s history.”

14. Twins

In August 1997 the magazine ”Psychology Today” ran this summary of twin research and the misperceptions of twin research written by twin researcher Nancy Segal and colleagues.

15. Celebrating Diversity in Schools

Celebrating Diversity in Schools provides a range of resources for teachers, parents and others who work with young people to help make schools more supportive and inclusive for same sex attracted and transgender young people and staff. Their website contains training resources, materials, activities, handouts, references and more.

16. Sexual Trichotomy: Understanding the Fluidity of Sexuality and Gender

One of the many activities featured on the Celebrating Diversity website is this trichotomy of sexual identity, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation. Students discuss how this trichotomy might apply to 6 hypothetical people and in the process discover how sexuality is fluid and how a person’s identity, orientation and behavior can change throughout life.

17. Heterosexual Privilege

The Student Counseling Center at Texas Tech University features a number of activities, handouts and other resources on their website. In this activity, students answer 32 questions that illustrate heterosexual privilege in ways straight people do not have to think about. For example, questions range from ”I can, if I wish, legally marry my life partner” to ”My sexual orientation is represented in the media and I don’t feel excluded”.

18. Assessing Assumptions About Gender

This exercise by Amy Taylor won Honorable Mention for the 2009 Social Psychology Network Action Teaching Award. In this activity, students read a dialog between a man and a woman and report their impressions of the characters. Half the class have the genders of the characters switched. According to Taylor, the objectives of this activity are to: (1) illustrate how subtle gender biases can influence social perceptions, (2) help students recognize their own implicit assumptions about gender, and (3) explore the implications these biases may have for gender equality.

19. Teach Genetics

The Genetics Science Learning Center at the University of Utah built this website as a companion to their Learn.Genetics website. Here you will find classroom activities to teach the basics of heritable traits and take-home activities to help students share what they’ve learned with their families. PDFs are available for download including instructions, student worksheets, overhead masters, and answer keys. Some of the material may be too basic for a college class (although the graphics which review the basics of inheritance would make an excellent review), the topics do include Epigenetics, gene therapy, personalized medicine, cloning, and other fairly sophisticated topics. Most of the activities can be modified to fit the needs of your students and the topic of personality.

For example, there is an activity to create a DNA recipe to create dog by randomly selecting strips of paper that represent DNA. Though the activity is recommended for grades 5-10 some of the advanced discussion points are applicable, or at least a good review for a personality psychology class. The ”Your Environment, Your Epigenome” activity, where students record some of the epigenome-influencing factors present in their environment, is suitable for high school and college classes.

20. Learn Genetics

The Genetics Science Learning Center at the University of Utah built this website to disseminate educational materials on genetics, bioscience, and health. Includes animations to teach the basics of DNA, genes, heredity and traits, and more.

21. Favorite Link Revisited: Jung Speaks

PsicoMundo, a Spanish language website about psychoanalysis, has two audio clips in their Galería de Sonidos (Gallery of Sounds) of Carl Jung speaking (the clips are in English). Fragmento 1 (Fragment 1) is 16 seconds, Fragmento 2 (Fragment 2) is 23 seconds. They are available for listening (para escuchar) on line or off line.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 5, Number 12, August, 2011

Hello and welcome to the sixtieth Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,282 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

This month we are pleased to bring you an eclectic collection of links from sexism and heterosexism to your brain and your awkward friends. Many of the links below are to summaries of the latest research in personality psychology, most of which has been published this month.

We’ve been doing some housecleaning of sorts this month, painstakingly reviewing every link on the entire site, removing broken links, and updating old links. This is a big job, as you might imagine, so if you find a broken link or have a new link to suggest please let us know.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. Too Pretty to Do Homework?

This summer, JC Penny offered a t-shirt for sale for girls which read ”I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me”. Adding insult to injury was the caption next to the photo of the shirt: ”Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is.” Due to public outcry, sale of the shirt was discontinued as delivering an inappropriate and sexist message.

3. Your Most Awkward Friends May Save Your Life

Your insecure and anxious friends may be better that your secure friends at detecting impending danger and acting quickly according to research by Tsachi Ein-Dor and colleagues, and summarized here in ”LiveScience”, August 17, 2011.

4. Narcissism May Benefit the Young, Researchers Report; But Older Adults? Not So Much

A new study suggests that some forms of narcissism may be beneficial — at least in the short term — for making the transition into adulthood. This, according to research by Patrick Hill and Brent Roberts, published this month in ”Social Psychological and Personality Science” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 11, 2011.

5. Review Highlights Flawed Logic of Segregating Boys and Girls for Education Purposes, Based on Alleged Brain Differences

When it comes to learning and education, neuroscience has identified few reliable differences between boys’ and girls’ brains. There is no scientific basis for teaching boys and girls separately according to a review by Lise Eliot published this month in ”Sex Roles” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, August 18, 2011.

6. Teaching Research Methods

Jeff Standen conducted a workshop in 2010 at the ATP Conference on Teaching Psychology. This page contains links to his PowerPoint slides with suggestions for teaching research methods, a research methods mindmap, a PowerPoint-based experiment you can do with your class, PowerPoint slides on correlation, an overview of psychological research methods, levels of measurement, and notes on reliability and validity and much more.

7. Resources for Teaching Neuroscience

Jeff Standen compiled these resources for teaching neuroscience including PowerPoint slides on neurons, the brain and brain research and much more.

8. Evolution and Genetics

Jeff Standen shares his PowerPoint slides on natural selection and genetics.

9. Psychlotron.org.uk

Psychlotron.org.uk is a website of teaching resources for teachers and lecturers. Though aimed at those teaching introductory psychology in the British system, there are many free resources here applicable to those teaching personality psychology including this unit on Freud and Personality.

10. Who Am I? Your Brain

The Science Museum of National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), London, UK sponsors an extensive website. Check out their interactive online exhibit on ”Who Am I?” featuring videos, pictures, handouts, and information on understanding your body, your brain, and your genes. This page on ”Your Brain” answers the questions how can illness affect the brain, what happens when you are asleep, how do drugs affect the brain, what are emotions, and others.

11. Who Am I? Your Genes

The Science Museum of National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), London, UK sponsors an extensive website. Check out their interactive online exhibit on ”Who Am I?” featuring videos, pictures, handouts, and information on understanding your body, your brain, and your genes. This page on ”Your Genes” answers the questions where did your genes come from, what was the Human Genome project, how do genes affect your health, and others.

12. Attributional Styles Test and Locus of Control

Discovery Health presents this online version of a 10-item locus of control scale with scoring and feedback. However, the real fun begins when you are asked to take the 47-item long version including scales measuring optimistic and pessimistic explanatory style, the three dimensions of internal-external, stable-unstable, global-specific, career and academic locus of control, belief in luck, health locus of control and more. All scales are scored automatically and feedback is provided.

13. Probe the Brain

PBS presents this site where you pretend you are a brain surgeon and get to virtually map out the brain’s motor cortex.

14. MRI — The Magnetic Miracle Game

NobelPrize.org, the official site of the Nobel prize, presents this interactive game which illustrates how an MRI works, why metal can not be near the apparatus, and how does MRI compare to x-ray and CAT images.

15. Brain Facts

The society for neuroscience provides this free 74-page primer on the brain and nervous system designed as an introduction to neuroscience for a lay audience.

16. Heal Thyself: Think Positive

Realism may be bad for your health: believing things will turn out fine or feeling safe and secure may help the body maintain and repair itself according to research by David Creswell and colleagues reviewed in this summary and video (3 minutes, 5 seconds) from ”New Scientist”, August 29, 2011.

17. Multicultural Teaching

The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan sponsors this page of information and strategies for multicultural teaching. Everything from course planning, teaching social justice,  to responding to difficult decisions, and instructor identity.

18. Store Dresses Down Bride for Being a Lesbian

Yet another illustration of the ignorant and often negative attitudes that non-heterosexual people face. A bridal shop owner refuses to sell a woman a wedding dress because she didn’t want to be associated with an impending ”illegal action”, i.e., her marriage to another woman.

19. The Five Factors

Erica Melkonian put this montage together as an independent study project in her AP Psychology class in May of 2011. In it, she defines and illustrates people who are high and low on each of the five factors including the famous and infamous like Curious George and Adolph Hitler (3 minutes, 38 seconds).

20. Sam Gosling: Snoop: The Secret Language of Stuff

Gosling, author of Snoop, presents an overview of his research to the Commonwealth Club of California in this video. Topics include creativity and openness, Facebook profiles, faking a personal space, and much more. The site includes a biography of Gosling, highlights of the talk, transcript, and the entire talk (1 hour, 7 minutes).

21. Favorite Link Revisited: George Boeree of Shippensburg University

George Boeree should win some sort of award for the ”giving away” of psychology and resources for teaching psychology. He has written electronic textbooks in Personality Theories and General Psychology as well as for Social Psychology, History of Psychology, Qualitative Methods, and Buddhism, and has made them all freely available on the Internet. Thank you George, for all you do to help us teach and learn better!

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 5, Number 11, July, 2011

Hello and welcome to the fifty-ninth Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,270 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

This month we are in full summer mode and the links below reflect our this: procrastinating, relaxing, contemplating the perfect summer day, and discussing the latest Harry Potter movie with friends. We’ll keep this newsletter short and sweet, to let you get back to your favorite summer activities.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. Sleep type predicts day and night batting averages of Major League Baseball players

According to research presented by Christopher Winter at the Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, baseball players who are morning larks have a higher batting average than night owls for day games, but lower averages for night games.

3. Gender is Dead! Long Live Gender!

In this blog from NPR, Alva Noe draws on research on gender and gender differences which illustrates the power of social categories, identity, and stereotype threat in causing gender differences in personality. As real as these differences are in people’s everyday lives, Noe explains, they suggest that personality differences between the sexes are not innate and biological.

4. Researchers and Research Labs: Moffitt and Caspi

This extensive website of developmental psychology researchers Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi presents an overview of their research, links to publications, a section on what’s new, and more. Of particular interest is a special section on Gene X Environment effects, including empirical studies, theory and methods, public engagement, topics of debate, and summaries of their work suitable for classroom discussion.

5. This is Your Life (and How You Tell It)

Presents an overview of the work of Dan McAdams and others on how personality is revealed in the stories people tell about themselves. From ”The New York Times”, May 22, 2007.

6. Procrastination

Cartoonist Lev Yilmaz describes how his stuff (doesn’t) gets done in this entertaining video ”Tales Of Mere Existence: Procrastination”, to which many of us can relate.

7. Perfectionism: Impossible Dream

”Perfectionism may be hurting you in more ways than you think. Ultimately, productivity suffers” according to this old, but still relevant, summary from ”Psychology Today” from May 1, 1995.

8. The Many Faces of Perfectionism

A good overview of research findings on perfectionism which suggest that perfectionism is not adaptive and can contribute to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other problems. From the APA ”Monitor on Psychology”, Volume 34, Number 10, p. 18, November 2003, by Etienne Benson.

9. It’s Not Harry Potter

Rob Weir explains how to teach students to read journal articles by encouraging them to consider the following: purpose and reading strategy, main points and new claims, abstracts and introductions, habits of the writer, evaluating evidence, concrete examples, skimming and moving on and more.

10. Favorite Link Revisited: The Three Neurotic Personality Styles by Karen Horney

Do you know of characters who illustrate Karen Horney’s description of the three neurotic personality styles of compliant, aggressive, and detached? Here’s your change to contribute to ”Personality Pedagogy” by adding your suggestions to the table. You can also use the suggestions here to get your students thinking about Horney’s theory . . .  and also about their favorite characters from Harry Potter.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 5, Number 10, June, 2011

Hello and welcome to the fifty-eighth Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,256 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

Happy Birthday to Personality Pedagogy! Five years ago this month we started a little wiki mostly to have a repository of all the cool and useful links we needed for our personalty class . . . and now we’ve become the top place on the web for resources for the teaching of personality psychology. We thank you, our loyal readers from all over the world, for your continued support and look forward to many more happy years.

This month, in the spirit of a good circus, we have ”a little something for everyone” as the great showman P. T. Barnum used to say. From evolution to the sensitivity, to longevity and brain myths, we have it all this month — including some videos illustrating the Barnum Effect.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via RSS feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter

Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. This is Psychology

The American Psychological Association presents this series of brief videos illustrating how psychological research can be applied to a broad range of issues and challenges such as bullying, children’s mental health, and other issues of concern to the general public.

3. The Secret to Longevity: It’s About Character, Not Just Calisthenics

Science writer Melanie A. Greenberg summarizes the results of Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin’s reanalysis of the Terman data identifying the psychosocial predictors of longevity, including strong social ties. From ”Psychology Today”, April 8, 2011.

4. Top Ten Myths About the Brain

Smithsonian.com asks ”When it comes to this complex, mysterious, fascinating organ, what do — and don’t — we know?” in this article by Laura Helmuth published May 20, 2011.

5. Women Warriors Show Resilience Similar to Men, Psychological Study Shows

”Women service members who experience combat are apparently as resilient as the men they serve alongside, according to a study” by Dawne Vogt and colleagues and summarized in ”Science Daily”, June 7, 2011.

6. When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

According to Smithsonian.com writer Jeanne Maglaty, ”every generation brings a new definition of masculinity and femininity that manifests itself in children’s dress”. Read about the vicissitudes of gender-appropriate clothing and color and check out the fascinating slide show of examples. Originally posted April 8, 2011.

7. Hi, My Name’s Sarah And I’m An ENTP

Sarah explains what it’s like to find out her Myers-Briggs Type Indicator scores and her interpretation of them in this blog entry from ”3 Daily Quarks”, June 6, 2011.

8. What is Evolutionary Psychology?

Daniel J. Kruger, makes his book Kruger, D.J. (2002). ”What is Evolutionary Psychology?” (Ann Arbor, MI: Altralogical Press) available online. Topics include adaptation, inclusive fitness, kin selection, altruism, sexual selection, parental investment, and more.

9. Viktor Frankl on Behaviorism

Frankl discusses his theory of logotherapy and Skinner’s theory of behaviorism and the impact of each on human behavior. Excerpted from a longer film (6 minutes, 46 seconds).

10. BIS, BAS and the Highly Sensitive Person

Summarizes theory and research on the BIS and the BAS and how these two systems may account for the experience of people who are particularly sensitive to sensory input.

11. The Highly Sensitive Person: A Self-test

Based on the work of Elaine Aron, this self-test helps people to see if they are one of the 15-20% of the population who are particularly sensitive to sensory input related to BAS and BIS functioning.

12. James Randi Explains the Art of Cold Reading

Alleged psychics use the cold reading to impress an audience and gain their trust. However, when put to the test, as skeptic, magician, and challenger of paranormal claims James Randi has done, their abilities are more art than science.

13. The Barnum Effect

John Stossel, co-anchor of the ABC news program 20/20, questions the accuracy of astrology, and amazes an audience with a demonstration of how false astrology readings are believable when they include general statements that could apply to anybody (2 minutes, 24 seconds).

14. Derren Brown on Astrology

The British illusionist, mentalist, and skeptic Derren Brown conducts a demonstration with audiences in the UK, US, and Spain, to illustrate how the Barnum Effect can lead people to believe psychic readings (8 minutes, 24 seconds).

15. The Cold Reading Technique

Denis Dutton explains the cold reading technique, the Barnum Effect, and analyzes a spirit medium’s performance, in this paper originally printed in (1988) ”Experientia”, Volume 44, 326-332.

16. Favorite Link Revisited: The Barnum Effect

An online personality test which gives false, but easily believable feedback, using the Barnum Effect. Take this test to remind yourself why good personality tests should provide specific feedback…and why horoscopes are so much fun!

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 5, Number 9, May, 2011

Hello and welcome to the fifty-seventh Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. For more about the links below and approximately 2,235 other interesting links related to personality, please visit: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

Happy unofficial start of summer!

Ah, is there anything as glorious as being curled up with a good book on a summer’s day? If you love summer reading (especially fiction) and already have a stack of titles awaiting your attention, you’ll be interested to know that what you always suspected is true: Reading fiction like ”Twilight” or ”Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” for just 30 minutes can make people feel like they are part of an entirely different world. Researchers found that not only does this feel good, as any young Harry Potter fan can attest to, but it also changes us. Read all about it in our second link below. And dust off your library card, Kindle, or beloved old favorites from your shelves and get busy exploring new worlds . . . and yourself! But don’t stay up too late, as sleep deprivation has its own problems as you can read below.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues and to visit the home of Personality Pedagogy: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our blog at http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com and you can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via an RSS (”Really Simple Syndication”) feed as soon as they are posted, by clicking on the ”RSS-posts” button on the bottom right.

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino ”at” arcadia ”dot” edu

1. The Personality Pedagogy Monthly Newsletter
Sign up here to receive this newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox once a month! We promise never to share your information with anybody else or to use it for any other purpose than ”Personality Pedagogy”.

2. We Actually ‘Become’ Happy Vampires or Contented Wizards When Reading a Book
”[R]eading satisfies a deeply felt need for human connection because we not only feel like the characters we read about but, psychologically speaking, become part of their world and derive emotional benefits from the experience” according to research by Shira Gabriel and Ariana Young, published this month in ”Psychological Science” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, May 10, 2011.

3. Over 40 Playful Yet Practical Ways to Cultivate Creativity
Margarita Tartakovsky presents these ways to boost creativity to make you happier and more productive. From ”Psych Central”.

4. From the Beginning, the Brain Knows the Difference Between Night and Day
“The brain is apparently programmed from birth to develop the ability to determine sunrise and sunset, [according to] new research on circadian rhythms” by August Kampf-Lassin and Brian Prendergast and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, April 28, 2011.

5. Snooze Control: Fatigue, Air Traffic and Safety
Richard R. Bootzin presented his paper ”If Sleep is So Important, Why Do We Get So Little of It?” at the 23rd Annual APS Convention earlier this month. Read about his work inspired by some recent notable near-misses of aircraft due to fatigued air traffic controllers. The problem is not with individuals but with the recovery time between shifts for shift workers according to this summary from ”Science Daily”, April 25, 2011.

6. Peak Experiences: Big Moments
”Life can drone along at a hum for years—then break into a short but glorious chorus that changes us forever. It’s impossible to predict such peak experiences; in fact, that’s part of their charm. But it is possible to prepare for them” as Rebecca Webber explains in this article from ”Psychology Today,” September 01, 2010.

7. 10 Quick Stress Busters
Therese Borchard, editor at ”Psych Central”, has 10 tips for dealing with stress (e.g., simplify, prioritize, laugh, exercise, etc.). Borchard readily admits that she uses an average of 5 per day, and as much as all 10 on a truly bad day.

8. The Healing Power of Laughter
Theresa Borchard outlines the stress-busting and healing power of laughter in this essay from ”Psych Central”.

9. The Psychology of Cells
”New techniques are allowing researchers to measure how the environment affects gene expression, leading to some remarkable insights, including the finding that loneliness primes the immune system to turn on its inflammatory response — a risk factor for disease.” according to research summarized in this article by Beth Azar for the APA ”Monitor”, May 2011.

10. 7 Tips for Giving Effective Praise
Gretchen Rubin distills much of the research on praise to these 7 tips including be specific, be sincere, and more, in this article from ”Psych Central”.

11. Happiness Has A Dark Side
”It seems like everyone wants to be happier and the pursuit of happiness is one of the foundations of American life. But even happiness can have a dark side […] people who strive for happiness may end up worse off than when they started” according to research by June Gruber, Iris Mauss and Maya Tamir published this month in ”Perspectives on Psychological Science” and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, May 17, 2011.

12. What Does Your Handshake Say About You?
While not exactly a window into the soul, handshakes do play an important part in generating a first impression. People can accurately judge a target’s extraversion and, for men only, conscientiousness, from a handshake. Given that consciousness is an effective predictor of success at work, both men and women may want to think about the impression their handshakes create, according to research by Frank Bernieri and Kristen Petty published this month in ”Social Influence” and summarized here in The British Psychological Society’s ”Research Digest”, May 13, 2011.

13. Why Extroverts are the Happiest People
”Extroverts are the cheeriest personality type, and a new study finds that the root of their happiness may be in their memories. People who are extroverted remember the past in a more positive light than other personality types” according to new research by Ryan Howell, as summarized in this article from ”Life Science”, May 3, 2011.

14. Psychologists Discover We’ve Been Underestimating the Unconscious Mind
Neurologists and cognitive psychologists once believed that we need awareness for integration of stimuli into a coherent whole. However, ”integration can happen even when we’re unaware of the stimulus […] Unconscious processes are much more sophisticated and deeper than was previously believed” according to research by Liad Mudrik, Dominique Lamy, Assaf Breska, and Leon Y. Deouell published in ”Psychological Science” and summarized here in ”Medical Xpress”, May 12, 2011.

15. I Control Therefore I am: Chimps Self-Aware
”Chimpanzees are self-aware and can anticipate the impact of their actions on the environment around them, an ability once thought to be uniquely human” according to research by Takaaki Kaneko and Masaki Tomonaga and summarized here in PhysOrg.Com, May 4, 2011.

16. Think It’s Easy to Be Macho? Psychologists Show How ‘Precarious’ Manhood Is
”Manhood is a “precarious” status — difficult to earn and easy to lose. And when it’s threatened, men see aggression as a good way to hold onto it” according to research by Jennifer K. Bosson and Joseph A. Vandello, published in ”Current Directions in Psychological Science”, and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, May 3, 2011.

17. When Self-Esteem Is Threatened, People Pay With Credit Cards
”People shop for high status items when they’re feeling low, and they’re more likely to make those expensive purchases on credit”, according to a study in ”Social Psychological and Personality Science” by Niro Sivanathan and Nathan Pettit and summarized here in ”Science Daily”, May 6, 2011.

18. Scientists Find Genetic Link to Depression
”Scientists say they have discovered the first solid evidence that variations in some peoples’ genes may cause depression […] And in a rare occurrence in genetic research, a British-led international team’s finding of a DNA region linked to depression has been replicated by another team from the United States who were studying an entirely separate group of people,” ”Reuters”, May 16, 2011.

19. Happiness Gene Located
”A gene which regulates the movement of serotonin in the brain has been labeled the “happiness gene” by researchers from the London School of Economics and reported in the ”Journal of Human Genetics”. This is the first study to demonstrate a direct link between an individual’s happiness and a specific genetic condition” according to research by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and summarized here in ”Medical News Today”, May 7, 2011.

20. Song Lyrics Suggest Narcissism Is On the Rise
Nathan DeWall and his colleagues ”analyzed the lyrics of songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart from 1980 to 2007. They found a statistically significant trend toward narcissism in the music, with the words “I” and “me” gradually replacing “we” and “us.”” Read about his work in this article from ”Life Science”, April 26, 2011.

21. Activity: The Soundtrack of Your Life
Describes an activity where students identify eight major events in their lives (e.g., deaths, first car, entering high school, etc.) and find songs (music and lyrics) to correspond to these events, designing an imaginary soundtrack of their lives. Students write about the experience, submit their compilations, and/or present a song to the class with an explanation of its import. Originally designed to be a writing assignment, with some additional guidance this activity can be used to illustrate narrative psychology, the self, Erikson’s stages, and other theories of personality psychology.

22. Favorite Link Revisited: Review Fun: Grab That Spoon!
Educator and simulation game guru Sivasailam (Thiagi) Thiagarajan maintains a web site with tons of ideas to get participants involved and playing with ideas. Grab That Spoon! is a quick, five-minute game with a dash of friendly competition. It’s a game in which everyone participates regardless of the size of the group (5 or 500, it still works!). It’s a game that allows the learners to generate the review information, to participate in it, and to discuss their own understanding of the material learned. In other words, it’s a game in which the participants learn a lot in a little time!