Week 12 — Readings & Resources · Personality

Course: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Bennett
Objective covered: Objective 7 — Compare the major theories of personality.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded.

This week's load is deliberately light: 3 short readings + 2 short videos, grouped by the ideas from the lecture, plus one optional full-chapter reference. Read or watch one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable. Total time is roughly 45–55 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Reading order that matches the lecture: ① the psychodynamic view (id/ego/superego, defenses) → ② the humanistic view (self-concept, unconditional positive regard) → ③ the trait view & the Big Five → ④ measuring personality (self-report vs. projective).

A habit to start now: before you trust any claim about "your type" — in these readings, an online quiz, or anywhere — ask the scientific-attitude questions from Week 1: What's the evidence? Is this measure reliable and valid? Or does it just feel accurate?

① The Psychodynamic View · and ② The Humanistic View

Maps to Lecture Segments 2–3. Freud's id / ego / superego and the defense mechanisms, then the optimistic reaction — the humanistic self-concept and unconditional positive regard.

Video — "Rorschach and Freudians: Crash Course Psychology #21"
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUELAiHbCxc
Why it earns the click: a lively tour of the psychodynamic and humanistic families in one go — the id, ego, and superego, the defense mechanisms, the neo-Freudians (Jung, Adler), and then Maslow and Rogers. Exactly Segments 2–3.
⏱ ~12 min

Reading — "Carl Rogers' Humanistic Theory" (Simply Psychology)
🔗 https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html
Why it's assigned: the cleanest plain-language version of the humanistic ideas we drew in class — self-concept, congruence, unconditional positive regard, and the drive toward self-actualization.
⏱ ~8 min

③ Trait Theories & the Big Five

Maps to Lecture Segment 3 & 5. The memory hook: OCEAN is five dials, not five boxes — continuous dimensions, and the model researchers actually trust.

Reading — "Theories of Personality: Allport, Cattell & Eysenck" (Simply Psychology)
🔗 https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-theories.html
Why it's assigned: walks through the trait approach from Allport to the modern Big Five (OCEAN), and makes the same point we made in class — trait scores are continuous variables you sit somewhere along, not categories you fall into.
⏱ ~10 min

④ Measuring Personality · Self-Report vs. Projective (and the social-cognitive view)

Maps to Lecture Segments 5 & 7. The line to carry out of this week: a self-report inventory (the MMPI, empirically keyed) is stronger evidence than a projective test (the Rorschach/TAT, weaker reliability and validity).

Video — "Measuring Personality: Crash Course Psychology #22"
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUrV6oZ3zsk
Why it earns the click: picks up the trait and social-cognitive perspectives (the Big Five, self-efficacy, locus of control) and then walks straight through how personality is measured — personality trait inventories and the MMPI versus projective tools like the Thematic Apperception Test. Exactly Segments 5 and 7.
⏱ ~11 min

Optional one-stop reference (free online text)

If you'd like one optional reference to skim, OpenStax Psychology 2e keeps its full text free to read online. Chapter 11 ("Personality") covers everything in this week — what personality is, Freud and the psychodynamic perspective, the neo-Freudians, the learning/social-cognitive approaches, the humanistic approaches, the trait theorists, and personality assessment.
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/11-introduction
Why it's here: a reputable, currently-available reference you can return to — entirely optional this week.

Pick-one quick path (≈19 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these two and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Watch Measuring Personality — Crash Course Psychology #22 (covers the Big Five, social-cognitive ideas, and assessment — groups ③–④).
2. Read Theories of Personality (group ③) for the trait approach and OCEAN, and skim the Carl Rogers intro (group ②) for the humanistic core.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Bennett and use the OpenStax reference above in the meantime.