Personality Theory at Work in Popular Media

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, please read the required Churchill and Mruk (2014), Hayes (2012), and Waterman (2013) articles, and review the APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct  and Chapters 14 through 17 in your textbook.

For this discussion, you will choose a person who has an important presence in popular media today. This person might be a political, business, human rights, education, or entertainment figure. Examine the major theoretical approaches studied in the class so far (psychodynamic, behavioral, learning, trait and type, and humanistic). Briefly describe your chosen figure’s personality from the point of view of each of these five approaches. Evaluate and describe any cultural considerations which may affect the personality assessment within each of the given approaches. Analyze the ethical implications of basing your personality assessment on the information available through the popular media. Select the theoretical approach you think best describes the person and elaborate on his or her personality using this approach. 

Guided Response:  Review several of your colleagues’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful interactive discourse in this discussion. 

• Considering your colleague’s chosen person, was the theoretical approach he or she selected appropriate?
• Suggest another perspective that might be used to assess this person, and provide a rationale as to why the perspective may be more effective.
• Consider the ethical implications indicated by your colleague. Review the APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct  and describe the issues present in assessing personality using only the information available in popular media.

Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 5:00 p.m. MST on Day 7 of the week and respond to anyone who replies to your initial post.