Theories of Personality and Emotion

Personality and Emotion 2016 (2015, 2014)

THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS -- I PASTED FROM LAST YEAR, MODIFIED DATES, ADDED SOME ARTICLES/A LINK, AND NOTED THE DAY I'LL BE OUT OF TOWN. SOME ARTICLES WILL BE REMOVED. SOME WILL POTENTIALLY SWITCHED OR DROPPED. HOWEVER, THIS IS THE STARTING POINT FOR THE COURSE IF YOU NEED INFO BEFORE AUGUST 15.


Personality has been defined as the coherent patterning of affective, behavior, cognition, and desires/goals over time and space. This course will focus on theories of individual coherence and how they predict affective function and dysfunction in individuals. Methodology and current findings from various perspectives will be examined. Controversies that have existed in the field will be elucidated and resolutions examined. Although broad theories will be elucidated, the focus is on current directions in the fields of personality and affective science.


WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE HANDBOOK OF PERSONALITY (3rd ed.) CHAPTERS, ALL COURSE MATERIAL IS AVAILABLE AT ROSALIND FRANKLIN'S D2L SITE


GRADING (tentative)


20% - Paper 1

20% - Paper 2

20% - 4 Pop Quizzes (5% each)

10% - Article Presentation

30% - Final Paper / Final Paper Presentation

SCHEDULE (tentative)


  • Week 1 – Monday: Introduction to Personality and Emotion (8/15)

    • Revelle, W., & Scherer, K. R. (2009). Personality and emotion. In D. Sanders & K. Scherer (Eds.), Handbook of personality and affective science (pp. 304-305). New York: Oxford University Press.

    • Barenbaum, N. B., & Winter, D. B. (2008). History of modern personality theory and research. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 3-28). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 1]

    • Funder, D. C. (2001). Personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 197-221.

    • Association for Research and Personality Statement to NIMH about Personality and Mental Health

  • Week 1 – Wednesday: Personality and Emotion – Where we’ve been, where we’re going (8/17)

    • James, W. (1884). What is an emotion? Mind, 9, 188-205.

    • Cannon, W.B. (1927). "The James-Lange theory of emotions: A critical examination and an alternative theory". The American Journal of Psychology, 39, 106–124.

    • Schachter, S., & Singer, J. E. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review, 69(5), 379-399.

    • Ekman, P. (1999). Basic emotions. In T. Dalgleish and M. Power (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion. (pp. 45-60). Sussex, U.K.: Wiley.

    • Clore, G.L. & Robinson, M.D. (2012). Five new ideas about emotion and their implications for social-personality psychology. In K. Deaux & M. Snyder (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology (pp. 315-336). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Week 2 – Monday: Psychometric Approaches to Personality (8/22)

    • Allport, G.W. & Odbert, H.S. (1936). Trait-names: A psycho-lexical study. Psychological Monographs, 47(211), 1 – 171. (you should read only the first 37 pages).

    • Cattell, R. B. (1943). The description of personality: Basic traits resolved into clusters. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 38(4), 476–506.

    • Fiske, D. T. (1949). Consistency of the factorial structures of personality from ratings from different sources. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44, 329-344.

    • Norman, W. T. (1963). Toward an adequate taxonomy of personality attributes: Replicated factor structure in peer nomination personality ratings. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 66(6), 574–583.

    • Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative "description of personality": The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229.

    • Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2001). A theoretical basis for the major dimensions of personality. European Journal of Personality, 15, 327-353.

  • Week 2 – Wednesday: Theory of the Person/Situation Debate (8/24)

    • Mischel, W. (1973). Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personality. Psychological Review, 80, 252-283.

    • Bem, D. J., & Allen, A. (1974). On predicting some of the people some of the time: The search for cross​-​situational consistencies in behavior. Psychological Review, 81, 506-520.

    • Funder, D. C. (2008). Persons, situations, and person-situation interactions. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 568-582). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 22]

    • Fleeson, W., & Noftle, E. (2008). The end of the person-situation debate: An emerging synthesis in the answer to the consistency question. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1667-1684.

    • Add Epstein 1979 & 1980

  • Week 3 – Monday: The Person/Situation Debate and Emotions (8/29)

    • Fleeson, W. (2001). Toward a structure and process-integrated view of personality: Traits as density distributions of states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 1011-1027.

    • Revelle, W. (2012). Integrating personality, cognition and emotion: Putting the dots together? In Eysenck, M. W., Fajkowska, M., and Maruszewski, T., (eds.), Personality, cognition and emotion. Warsaw Lectures in Personality and Social Psychology, (pp. 157-177). New York: Eliot Werner Publications.

    • Wiggins, J. S., & Broughton, R. (1985). The interpersonal circle: A structural model for the integration of personality research. Perspectives in Personality, 1, 1-47.

    • Moskowitz, D. S., & Côté, S. (1995). Do interpersonal traits predict affect? A comparison of three models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 915-924.

  • Week 3 – Wednesday: More person-situation-emotion-reconciliation (8/31)

    • Tugade, M. M., Fredrickson, B. L., & Barrett, L. F. (2004). Psychological resilience and emotional granularity: Examining the benefits of positive emotions on emotion regulation and health. Journal of Personality, 72, 1161 – 1190.

    • Côté, S., & Moskowitz, D. S. (1998). On the dynamic covariation between interpersonal behavior and affect: Prediction from neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(4), 1032- 1046.

    • Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1998). Reconciling processing dynamics and personality dispositions. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 229-258.

    • Wilt, J., Noftle, E. E., Fleeson, W., & Spain, J. S. (2012). The dynamic role of personality states in mediating the relationship between extraversion and positive affect. Journal of Personality, 80(5), 1205-1236.

    • Essay #1 Assigned

  • Week 4 – Monday: No Class – Labor Day (9/5)

  • Week 4 – Wednesday: Personality Methodology (9/7) -- CLASS CANCELLED -- STEVE IN FRANCE ???

What to do with this -- it's most relevant for people writing the research paper -- usually Ph.D. students -- who usually have some of this


    • Paulhus, D. L., & Vazire, S. (2007). The self-report method. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp. 224 – 239). New York: Guilford.

    • Conner, T., Barrett, L. F., Tugade, M. M. & Tennen, H. (2007). Idiographic personality: The theory and practice of experience sampling. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. Kreuger (Eds.), Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Psychology. (pg. 79 – 96). New York: Guilford Press.

    • John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed.). (pp. 102-138). New York: Guilford.

    • Moskowitz, D. S., & Zuroff, D. C. (2004). Pulse, flux, and spin. Dynamic additions to the personality lexicon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(6), 880 – 893.

    • West, S. G., Ryu, E., Kwok, O.-M., & Cham, H. (2011). Multilevel modeling: Current and future approaches in personality research. Journal of Personality, 79(1), 2-50.

  • Week 5 – Monday: Trait Models (9/12)

    • John, O. P., Naumann, L. P., & Soto, C. J.(2008). Paradigm shifts to the integrative big five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 114-158). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 4]

    • McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T., Jr. (1997) Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist, 52, 509-516.

    • Add BFI II Paper

    • Presentation #1: TBD

      • Article: Block, J. (1995). A contrarian view of the five-factor approach to personality description. Psychological Bulletin, 117(2), 187-215.

    • Essay #1 Due

  • Week 5 – Wednesday: Emotional Traits and States (9/14)

    • Schimmack, U., & Diener, E. (1997). Affect intensity: Separating intensity and frequency in repeatedly measured affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1313-1329. 2

    • Augustine, A. A & Larsen, R. J. (2012). Is a trait really the mean of states? Similarities and differences between traditional and aggregate assessments of personality. Journal of Individual Differences, 33(3), 131-137.

    • Presentation #2: TBD

      • Article: Larsen, R. J., & Diener, E. (1987). Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A review. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 1-39.

  • Week 6 – Monday: Evolutionary Bases of Personality and Emotion (9/19)

    • Buss, D. M. (2008). Human nature and individual differences. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L.A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 29-60). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 2]

    • Nesse, R. M. (1990). Evolutionary explanations of emotions. Human Nature, 1, 261-289.

    • Presentation #3: TBD

      • Article: Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2008). The evolutionary psychology of the emotions and their relationship to internal regulatory variables. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions, 3rd Ed. (pp. 114-137.) NY: Guilford.

  • Week 6 – Wednesday: Evolution and Jealousy (9/21)

    • Harris, C. R. (2003). A review of sex differences in sexual jealousy, including self-report data, psychophysiological responses, interpersonal violence, and morbid jealousy. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 102-128.

    • Sagarin, B. J. (2005). Reconsidering evolved sex differences in jealousy: Comment on Harris (2003). Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 62-75

    • Presentation #4: TBD

      • Article: Buss, D. M., Larsen, R., Semmelroth, J., & Westen, D. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251- 255.

  • Week 7 – Monday: Behavioral Genetics and Developmental Processes (9/26)

    • Add something about determinants of personality -- maybe something by Mroczek/from the Mrozeck and Little's volume?

    • Kruger, R. F., & Johnson, W. (2008). Behavioral genetics and personality: A new look at the integration of nature and nurture. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 287-310). New York: Guilford Press.

    • McGue,M., Bacon, S., & Lykken, D. T. (1993). Personality stability and change in early adulthood: A behavioral genetic analysis. Developmental Psychology, 29(1), 96-109.

    • Srivastava S, John OP, Gosling SD, & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1041–1053.

    • Tellegen, A., Lykken, D.T., Bouchard, T.J., Jr., Wilcox, K.J., Segal, N.L. & Rich, S. (1988). Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1031-1039.

    • Fourth law of behavior genetics article?

    • Presentation #5: TBD

      • Article: Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T.E. (2006). Gene-environment interactions in psychiatry: Joining forces with neuroscience. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience 7, 583-590.

  • Week 7 – Wednesday: Temperament (9/28)

    • Strelau, J., & Zawadzki, B. (1993). The formal characteristics of Behaviour Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI): Theoretical assumptions and scale construction. European Journal of Personality, 7(5), 313-336.

    • Zelenski, J. M. & Larsen, R. J. (1999). Susceptibility to affect: A comparison of three personality taxonomies. Journal of Personality, 67, 761-791.

    • Presentation #6: TBD

      • Article: Bullock, W. A., & Gilliland, K. (1993). Eysenck’s arousal theory of introversion-extraversion: A converging measures investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 113-123.

    • Essay #2 Assigned

  • Week 8 – Monday: Attachment (10/3)

    • Pomerantz, E., & Thompson, R. A. (2008). Parents' role in children's personality development. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 351-374). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 13]

    • Roberts, B., Wood, D., & Caspi, A. (2008). The development of personality traits in adults. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 375-3984). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 14]

    • Fraley, R. C., & Shaver, P. R. (2008). Attachment theory and its place in contemporary personality theory and research. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 518-541). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 20]

    • Presentation #7: Ken Zidek & Lindsey Bugno

      • Article: Spielman, S. S., Joel, S., MacDonald, G., & Kogan, A. (2012). Ex appeal: Current relationship quality and emotional attachment to ex-partners Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 175-180.


  • Week 8 – Wednesday: Attachment, Emotion, and Romantic Relationships (10/5)

    • Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. R. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511-524

    • Fraley, R. C., & Waller, N. G. (1998). Adult attachment patterns: A test of the typological model. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 77-114). New York: Guilford Press.

    • Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2012). Attachment theory expanded: A behavioral systems approach to personality. In K. Deaux & M. Snyder (Eds.), Oxford handbook of personality and social psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    • Essay #2 Due

  • Week 9 – Monday: No Class – Columbus Day (10/10)

  • Week 9 – Wednesday: Psychoanalytic Thought (10/12)

    • Kihlstrom, J. F. (2008). The psychological unconscious. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 583-602). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 23]

    • Shultheiss, O. C. (2008). Implicit motives. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 603-633). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 24]

    • Westen, D., & Blagov, P. (2007). A clinical-empirical model of emotion regulation: From defenses and motivated reasoning to emotional constraint satisfaction. In J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation. NY: Guilford.

    • Meehl, P. E. (1978). Theoretical risks and tabular asterisks: Sir Karl, Sir Ronald, and the slow progress of soft psychology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 806-834.

      • NOTE: while the whole paper is well-worth reading and will come up again in future coursework, pay specific attention to Meehl’s response to Bouchard.

    • Presentation #8: TBD

      • Article: Banai, E., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2005). “Selfobject” needs in Kohut’s self psychology: Links with attachment, self-cohesion, affect regulation, and adjustment. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 29, 224-260.

  • Week 10 – Monday: Social Cognitive Models (10/17)

    • Shoda, Y., & Mischel, W. (1998). Personality as a stable cognitive-affective activation network: Characteristic patterns of behavior variation emerge from a stable personality structure. In S. J. Read & L. C. Miller (Eds.), Connectionist and PDP Models of Social Reasoning and Behavior. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. pp. 175-208.

    • Mearns, J. (2009). Social learning theory. In H. Reis & S. Sprecher (Eds.), Encyclopedia of human relationships (vol. 3) (pp. 1537-1540). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    • Catanzaro & Mearns (2016)

    • Presentation #9: TBD

      • Article: Smith, S. M., & Petty, R. E. (1995). Personality moderators of mood congruency effects on cognition: The role of self-esteem and negative mood regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 1092-1107.

  • Week 10 – Wednesday: Social Cognitive Models, Conceptual Act Models (10/19)

    • Catanzaro, S. J., & Mearns, J. (1990). Measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation: Initial scale development and implications. Journal of Personality Assessment, 54, 546-563.

    • Bandura, A. (1961). Psychotherapy as a learning process. Psychological Bulletin, 58(2), 143-159.

    • Barrett, L. F. (2006). Solving the emotion paradox: Categorization and the experience of emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(1), 20-46.

    • Presentation #10: TBD

      • Article: Barrett, L. F., & Bar, M. (2009). See it with feeling: Affective predictions in the human brain. Royal Society Phil Trans B, 364, 1325-1334.

  • Week 11 – Monday: Coping (10/24)

    • Gross, J. J. (2008). Emotion and emotion regulation: Personality processes and individual differences. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 701-724). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 28]

    • Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Fulford, D. (2008). Self-regulatory processes, stress, and coping. In O. P John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. (3rd. ed.). (pp. 725-742). New York: Guilford Press. [JRP - Ch. 29]

    • Folkman, S., Lazarus, R. S., Dunkel-Schetter, C., DeLongis, A., & Gruen, R. J. (1986). Dynamics of a stressful encounter: Cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 992-1003.

    • Ellsworth, P. C. (2013). Appraisal theory: Old and new questions. Emotion Review, 5, 125-131.

    • Presentation #11: TBD

      • Article: Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985). Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4, 219-247.

  • Week 11 – Wednesday: Personality and Psychopathology (10/26)

    • Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: Psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 316-336.

    • Joiner, T. E., Steer, R. A., Beck, A. T., Schmidt, N. B., Rudd, M. D., & Catanzaro, S. J. (1999). Physiological hyperarousal: Construct validity of a central aspect of a tripartite model of depression and anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 290-298.

    • Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96(3), 465-490.

    • Widiger, T. A., & Presnall, J. R. (2013). Clinical applications of the five-factor model. Journal of Personality, 81(6), 515-527.

    • Eaton, N. R., Krueger, R. F., Docherty, A. R., & Sponheim, S. R. (2014). Toward a model based approach to the clinical assessment of personality and psychopathology. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96(3), 283-292.

    • Presentation #12: TBD

      • Article: Krueger, R. F., Hicks, B. M., Patrick, C. J., Carlson, S. R., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2002). Etiologic connections among substance dependence, antisocial behavior, and personality: Modeling the externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 411-424.

  • Week 12 – Monday: Catch Up and Review (10/31)

    • Cramer, A. O. J., van der Sluis, S., Noordhof, A., Wicherts, M., Geschwind, N., Aggen, S. H., Kendler, K. S., & Borsboom, D. (2012). Dimensions of normal personality as networks in search of equilibrium: You can’t like parties if you don’t like people. European Journal of Personality, 26, 414-431.

    • Boroditsky, L. & Ramscar, M. (2002). The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 13(2), 185-188.

    • Lindquist, K. A., Satpute, A., & Gendron, M. (2015). Does language do more than communicate emotion? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 99-108.

    • Presentation #13: TBD

      • Article: Adler, J.M. (2012). Living into the story: Agency and coherence in a longitudinal study of narrative identity development and mental health over the course of psychotherapy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(2), 367-389.

OR

    • Fleeson, W., & Jayawickreme, E. (in press). Whole trait theory. Journal of Research in Personality. (pdf) [this article has come out -- full ref?]

  • Week 12 – Wednesday: (11/2)

    • Paper Presentations (no power point needed, five minutes per person)

    • Papers Due


Useful Links

Personality and Emotion Journals (non-comprehensive)

Julian Rotter (October 22, 1916 – January 6, 2014) related materials