Psych 3280 Personality Lecutre

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  Psych 3280 Personality Lecture
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait
Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a psychology course for undergraduate students by Jake Womick at CSU Bakersfield. The open textbook provides opportunities to deeply engage with different theoretical approaches to personality psychology, to make connections between psychology and creative expressions, and to receive feedback about one’s own personality. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was cost savings for students. Most student access the open textbook in Canvas

Psych 3280 Personality Lecture 
Brief Description of course highlights:  This is an introductory course that surveys major approaches to personality psychology. 

Student population: Most students are psychology majors in their junior or senior year. Before taking my class, they have had introductory classes to psychology and scientific inquiry. 

Learning or student outcomes:  List student learning outcomes for the course.
Goal 1: Developing a knowledge base of personality psychology
Goal 2: Understanding research methods in personality psychology
Goal 3: Developing critical thinking skills applied to psychology
Goal 4: Understanding how personality psychology can be applied to the real world, career, and personal life
Goal 5: Understanding values in psychology

Key challenges faced and how resolved:  One of the primary challenges I faced was students dropping my class due to the cost of the text book. That really didn’t sit well with me, so I decided to replace it with freely available readings I found that correspond to different units in the course. For the most part, after the initial time required to locate them, these have worked really well. One exception is that one of the reading assignments consists of learning about the Five Factor Model, then taking a personality test and receiving feedback. The website that hosted this reading and activity was recently purchased and taken down, so I had to find an alternative at the last minute. 

Syllabus and/or Sample assignment from the course or the adoption: The reading assignments are used to supplement in-class lecture and activities. At first, I had students write their own multiple choice questions to demonstrate their mastery of the reading material. But, that became too difficult to manage, so I now have them simply take a reading quiz. SS 2025 3820 syllabus.docx

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: A variety of documents, not a book.

Brief Description: The readings vary a bit. One of them is a narrative I wrote to help students get used to taking notes early in the semester. Many of the articles are peer-reviewed review articles that summarize a major theoretical approach or debate. One is a blog post that summarizes some data about the MBTI. One is a short story that students are asked to connect to some of the topics we learn in class.

Please provide a link to the resource  
https://csub.box.com/s/pe1seug9uofmh2notdywyr2kmnoz4o0z

Authors:  Jake Womick, Gordon Allport, Rich Ryan, Edward Deci, Bill Fleeson, Erik Noftle, Laith Al-Shawaf, Laura King, Josh Hicks, Margery Williams

Student access:  Each reading is available on canvas as a pdf file. 

Supplemental resources:  Quizzes and assignments can be found at tme link provided above for the readings. 

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  Previously students were purchasing a textbook and a software called Inquisitive to go with it. Depending on how they purchased, the total cost was ranging from 80-130 / student.

License: : CC BY SA

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. Students were dropping out of my class due to the cost of the textbook. I decided that needed to change.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I evaluated resources.

Sharing Best Practices: There is some time investment up front in finding the resources, but you can really tailor them to your class better than a textbook can offer, and the students deeply appreciate you saving them money. 

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. There have been cases when I asked students to visit a website to complete a reading and an associated activity hosted on the webpage. Those can be problematic because sometimes the URLs can change or be deleted. 

Instructor Name - Jake Womick
I am a assistant professor of psychology at the California State University Bakersfield. I teach lecture and lab courses on personality psychology. .

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csub.edu/psychology/faculty-and-staff.shtml

Please describe the courses you teach 
Personality Lecture is an introduction to personality research that surveys different approaches to the topic 

Personality Lab is a more advanced course that provides students the opportunity to conduct an independent research project on personality-relevant topics

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  As an instructor, my goal is to foster an environment where every student feels empowered to succeed, discover their passions, and embark on a fulfilling academic and personal journey. My own transformation from a disengaged undergraduate to a passionate scholar was shaped by two professors who guided me toward a field I love—psychology. This personal experience shapes my approach to teaching: I maintain an unwavering optimism in the potential of every student, regardless of their background or academic standing. I recognize that academic struggles often result from factors outside a student's control, not from a lack of ability. My role is to affirm their confidence, express faith in their capacity to excel, and provide the support necessary for them to thrive.