The future of personality psychology depends upon how the course in personality psychology is taught. The course determines, in part, the quality of the next generation of faculty in the field, as well as general interest in the field. It creates a picture of what the field has to offer.
I try to keep this part of the site on teaching as non-evaluative as possible of the approaches to the course, textbooks, and other materials. I believe there are multiple valid ways of teaching the personality course. I refer to these different methods as fieldwide frameworks (see the section of this site on frameworks for more details). Some ways to address the course include:
- Covering major theories by covering one theory at a time (theory-by-theory)
- Covering theoretical perspectives by covering one perspective at a time (perspective-by-perspective)
- Using a systems approach
- Using a research-topics approach
- Using McAdam's levels of knowing organization,
- And other ways as well
As a teacher and textbook author myself, I have a great deal of respect for a variety of ways of teaching the course, as well as for a number of the textbooks listed on this site -- and an increased appreciation of the effort that goes into both courses and textbooks.
If you would like to add suggestions or materials to this section of the site, please e-mail the site (see contact information on the Author and Contributor Information page).
*On August 9th, 2004, I created a site, www.teachingpersonalitypsych.org, to serve as a clearinghouse for information on teaching the course "personality psychology." On March 22, 2006, I merged that site with my general personality site, because the message of both seemed to go together well.