PSYC

210: Temperament and Personality

Developmental Origins,
Biological Bases,
and Implica6ons for Psychopathology

Dr. Alex Shackman
University of Maryland
Spring 2015

Plan for Today

1. Round table discussion of T&Pfundamental
ques-ons (go to document)
2. Expert perspec?ves on T&P with short
discussion
3. Review syllabus
Course mechanics and grading

Round Table
What are the fundamental ques-ons that dene
the scien-c study of temperament and personality
(T&P)?

What are your intui-ons, based on your
experiences, your prior coursework, and our shared
cultural understanding?

<Ques6ons Document>

What do the so-called

experts have to say?

Expert perspecMves on T&P

Temperament in Children: Behavior and Biology (5:16)
hFps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGjO1KwltOw

Animal Models of T&P (~5min; Start @ 2:28)
hFps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URee25502aU

T&P Across the Lifespan (16:21)
hFps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzgHhhU-GQY

Welcome to Psychology 210!

Four Course Objec6ves

Course ObjecMves, 1 of 4
A major goal of this course is to give you a broad,
interdisciplinary scien?c background in T&P so that
you can:

Be a cri?cal consumer and reviewer of this literature,

especially when it appears in the mass media, or is a part
of conversa?ons about public policy (educa?on, business,
or healthcare)
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of a broad
spectrum of biological, behavioral, and sta?s?cal tools
Broaden the way you think about connec?ons between
the mind, brain, behavior


Note: This is an introductory course
and an extensive background in
biology, geneMcs, neuroscience,
staMsMcs, or other STEM elds is
not assumed.

Course ObjecMves, 2 of 4
Become experts on how T&P inuence our
daily lives and the mechanisms that link T&P
to posi?ve and nega?ve outcomes

Course ObjecMves, 3 of 4
Develop a working knowledge of the
neurobiology and gene?cs of T&P

Course ObjecMves, 4 of 4
Know and be able to address the fundamental
ques?ons, based on the current state of the
science

In other words, this is a science class

Not a history class, or whats been
termed The Graveyard Tour approach
to teaching T&P

Whadya mean, Graveyard Tour?

The Graveyard Tour

Personality psychology has long been iden-ed in the minds of
many people with the rst (and perhaps only) course in the subject
that they took in college. Too oEen, this was (and some-mes s-ll
is) the classic tour of the graveyard that focuses on brilliant but
long-deceased theorists and leads students to end the semester
thinking the burning concern of the eld is the disagreement
between Freud and JungA course that is restricted to theorists
like these is an unforgivable misrepresenta-on of the eld, a failure
in ones duty to educate students, and a slap in the face to every
contemporary personality researcher

It is unacceptable that personality psychology remains, generally, a
side trip through the history of psychology while the rest of the
science of psychology is presented to students through the lens of
the most cuPng-edge research.

Benet-Mar`nez et al., APA Handbook of Personality & Social Psychol, 2015

The Graveyard Tour

Personality psychology has long been iden-ed in the minds of
many people with the rst (and perhaps only) course in the subject
that they took in college. Too oEen, this was (and some-mes s-ll
is) the classic tour of the graveyard that focuses on brilliant but
long-deceased theorists and leads students to end the semester
thinking the burning concern of the eld is the disagreement
between Freud and JungA course that is restricted to theorists
like these is an unforgivable misrepresenta-on of the eld, a failure
in ones duty to educate students, and a slap in the face to every
contemporary personality researcher

It is unacceptable that personality psychology remains, generally, a
side trip throughhistorywhile the rest ofpsychology is
presented to students through the lens of the most cuPng-edge
research.

Benet-Mar`nez et al., APA Handbook of Personality & Social Psychol, 2015

The Graveyard Tour

Personality psychology has long been iden-ed in the minds of
many people with the rst (and perhaps only) course in the subject
that they took in college. Too oEen, this was (and some-mes s-ll
is) the classic tour of the graveyard that focuses on brilliant but
long-deceased theorists and leads students to end the semester
thinking the burning concern of the eld is the disagreement
between Freud and JungA course that is restricted to theorists
like these is an unforgivable misrepresenta-on of the eld, a failure
in ones duty to educate students, and a slap in the face to every
contemporary personality researcher

It is unacceptable that personality psychology remains, generally, a
side trip through the history of psychology while the rest of the
science of psychology is presented to students through the lens of
the most cuPng-edge research.

Benet-Mar`nez et al., APA Handbook of Personality & Social Psychol, 2015

Syllabus: The niFy griFy details

Go to document

The End

Extra Slides

The T&P Hall of Fame

Consider as a typical textbookIt lists 22 theorists puPng forth 20 major theories and faithfully
chronicles their extremely divergent views.

There is no agreement on deni-ons, models, methods, results or indeed anything whatever; all is
confusion, with no eort used to sort the cha from the grain.

No criteria are oered for judging the truth-value of given statements, no aWempt is made to eliminate
theories which denitely contradict established facts. and there is no eort at integra-on

As an example I would class among the inadmissible theories those of Freud, Adler, Jung, Binswanger,
Horney, Sullivan, Fromm, Erikson and Maslou.

They fail essen-ally because for the most part they do not generate testable deduc-ons; because where
they do so the deduc-ons have most frequently been falsied; and because they fail to include
prac-cally all the experimental and empirical studies which have been done over the past 50 years.
Historically these theorists have had some inuence, but their theorizing and their mode of working has
not been in the tradi-on of natural science, and they have not been found responsive to adverse
cri-cism or empirical disproof.



Hans J. Eysenck Personality & Indiv Dis 1991