What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! – William Shakespeare

Peterson, J.B. Selections from Rychlak, Joseph. (1981). Introduction to Personality and its Transformations, Nelson. This is the paperback version, specially made for the PSY230H class, and not the older hardcover. If you have the older hardcover, it can be used as well.

Link to the Research Assistant Assessment Process: http://www.psyrexsystems.com/IasAssessment/ClientAccount/ProjectRegistrationAC/jbpRA2012

Instructor: Dr Jordan B. Peterson (4046 Sidney Smith Hall)

Office Hours for JB Peterson: TBA. Sign up sheets for these hours will be posted outside my office door.

• Home Page: www.jordanbpeterson.com
• Course Home page: Psychology 230H

Teaching Assistant:

John Matthew Tennant: [email protected];

• He will hold regular office hours: Sign Up Here

Psychology 230H is a course that concentrates to a large degree on philosophical and neuroscientific issues, related to personality. It is divided into five primary topics, following an introduction and overview. The first half of the course deals with classic, clinical issues of personality; the second, with biological and psychometric issues. Students who are interested in clinical psychology, moral development, functional neurobiology and psychometric theory should adapt well to the class. An intrinsic interest in philosophical issues is a necessity.

When a person picks on someone innocent after being punished by a superior, s/he is employing the defense mechanism known as
a. repression.

b. displacement.

c. sublimation.

d. regression.

According to Piaget, the _____________________ is the basis of all social cooperation.
a. stage.

b. game.

c. ego.

d. exploratory tendency.

To be fixated, in the Freudian sense, is to be

a. libidinous and aggressive

b. to regress to emotional response when threatened by anxiety

c. to be transfixed by terror

d. stuck at an inappropriate level of psychosexual development

According to the paper Three Forms of Meaning and the Management of Complexity, the most basic sense of significance is grounded in:

a. emotion

b. basic biological motivation

c. thought

d. perception

The often painful and confusing intermediary stage between two perception-and-action frames is equivalent to ____________________, according to Peterson:

a. order

b. culture

c. equilibrium

d. paradise

e. chaos.

There are two writing assignments:

1. Essay (15%)

The 750-1000 word essay will be due according to the topic chosen. Each of the topics is associated with a lecture or two and a reading. You don’t have to read outside the reading list to complete your essays, although you can if you want. To sign up, click on the title of the essay, below. Ten people can sign up for each topic. They are spread across the semester, so the TA can grade at a reasonable rate. Once you are finished your essay, email it to the Teaching Assistant  ([email protected]). The deadline time is midnight of the day the essay is due.

Hints on writing can be found here.

I have developed a workbook that can help guide writers through the essay construction process. Please use it. It will improve the quality of your essay dramatically. You can download it here.

2. Personality Self Analysis (7.5%)

The personality self-analysis is a two-part online exercise (Present Authoring) that allows you to assess your personality faults and virtues from a Big Five trait perspective. The exercise is designed to help you understand the Big Five more thoroughly (including their application to you) and to help you strengthen your positive qualities and understand and modulate the impact of your negative qualities. You can read a bit more about such programs here.

You can find the Present Authoring assignment here:

This assignment is graded as pass/fail. Your grade is therefore dependent only on demonstration of completion. Send your completed assignments (which will be emailed to you upon completion) to [email protected].