Personality Specialization

(in the PSP Program)

The Personality and Social Psychology (PSP) program offers a training specialization for students interested in the study of normal and abnormal personality processes. Students choosing this program track will learn about contemporary research findings and basic design and data analytic methods within personality. As part of their training, they will gain specific expertise in personality assessment and in an array of multivariate data analytic techniques.

Students choosing the personality specialization have an opportunity to study a broad range of relevant topics with PSP area faculty, including basic dimensions of individual differences (Professors Clark and Watson), adult attachment (Professor Klohnen), childhood temperament (Professor Kochanska), personality disorders (Professors Clark and Watson), adult personality development (Professors Klohnen and Watson), personality and health (Professors Christensen and Suls), and the role of personality processes in close interpersonal relationships (Professors Klohnen, Lawrence and Watson).

Interested students also can draw on the expertise on Iowa faculty in other departments and colleges (including Nursing, Sociology, Management and Organizations, Marketing, and Psychological and Quantitative Foundations) who are actively engaged in personality-related research. A list of relevant faculty appears at the bottom of this webpage.

Examples of the topics of current projects involving personality faculty and students:
---development of an alternative trait dimensional approach to personality disorder
---studying the role of personality and adult attachment in relationship formation and satisfaction
---examining changes in personality across young adulthood
---clarifying the nature of first impressions when judging personality characteristics in others

For more detailed information about ongoing research projects, please consult the research interests and personal webpages of relevant faculty.

Course Requirements

PSP students choosing the personality specialization must meet all of the course requirements specified by the Psychology Department and PSP Program. The full set of official requirements can be found in the Department's Graduate Student Handbook. As is the case for all PSP students, students in the personality specialization must complete the following:
---PSP Seminar (1 credit) each semester
---5 area courses
---3 breadth courses
---3 statistics courses

Course Recommendations and Options

The Handbook describes some flexibility regarding the courses that students can select to fulfill their area, breadth, and statistics requirements. It is strongly recommended that students choosing the personality specialization take specific courses designed to develop expertise in (a) current theory and research in personality, (b) personality tests and assessment, and (c) quantitative data analytic methods. Students are strongly encouraged to consult with their graduate advisor and/or the PSP Area Coordinator before deciding to enroll in specific classes.

Content Courses
To develop basic scholarly expertise in contemporary personality research, students typically should take at least two of the following courses:
---031: 110 Mood and Temperament [permission of graduate advisor is required]
---031: 258 Personality and Individual Differences
---031: 280 Current Theory and Research in Personality
---06J: 279 Individual Differences in Traits/Abilities
---07P: 269 Advanced Personality

Assessment Courses
To obtain specialized training in personality tests and measurement, students ordinarily should complete at least one of the following courses:
---031: 263 Psychological Appraisal I
---06J: 273 Measurement Theory and Methods in the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Quantitative Data Analyses
To develop practical research expertise in quantitative data analytic methods, it is recommended that students take at least two of the following courses:
---031: 280 Multivariate Data Analysis
---034: 219 Selected Topics in Research Methods: Structural Equation Modeling
---06J: 269 Meta-Analysis in Behavioral and Social Sciences
---07P: 249 Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Models
---07P: 252 Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Methods
---07P: 262 Item Response Theory

Alan Christensen
Personality and health, person x situation determinants of patient adherence

Lee Anna Clark
Personality disorders and assessment

Eva Klohnen
Adult development, interpersonal relationships, attachment, ego-resiliency

Grazyna Kochanska
Social and personality development, processes of socialization, child temperament and its role in social development

Erika Lawrence
Longitudinal assessment of the developmental course of conflict behavior, physical aggression, and marital dysfunction in intimate relationships

Irwin Levin
Judgment and decision-making, individual differences in consumer, health, and children's risky decision-making

Jerry Suls
Social influence, self-evaluation, social comparison, stress and coping with illness, perceptions of social norms

David Watson
Temperament and emotionality, personality assessment, personality stability and change, person perception and self-other agreement, interpersonal attraction and mate preferences, personality and psychopathology

Kenneth Brown (Management and Organizations)--Motivation and self-regulation, training design and evaluation e-Learning

René Martin (College of Nursing)--Symptom perception and personality; lay representations of health and illness; social influence processes in health behaviors; treatment delay behavior

Johnmarshall Reeve (Psychological and Quantitative Foundations)--Motivation and emotion; interpersonal motivating styles; autonomy and autonomy support; competition

Frank Schmidt (Management and Organizations)--Cognitive ability and workplace performance, group vs. individual decision making and performance

Greg Stewart (Management and Organizations)--Human resource management, personality and job performance