Teaching
PSY230 Introduction to Personality
An introduction to contemporary personality research. The course
focuses on the understanding of individual differences in personality traits. Topics
include: measurement of individual differences; the contribution of personality
traits and situations to the understanding and prediction of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviours; genetic, biological, cultural, and cognitive causes
of individual differences in personality traits; and individual differences in
unconscious processes, goals, values, and emotions. To increase the
self-relevance of research findings, students take a personality test at the
beginning of the term.
Prerequisite: PSY100Y
PSY324
The Science of Well-Being
What makes people happy? Does money buy happiness or do unhappy people
not know where to shop? Are people in California happier than people in
Ontario? Does marriage make men happier and women unhappier? This course
reviews the scientific evidence regarding these and other questions about the
determinants of happiness from an interdisciplinary perspective (psychology,
economics, sociology, philosophy, & biology) that ranges from molecular
genetics to cross-national comparisons.
Prerequisites: PSY230 or PSY220