PSGA-6225-Personality Theories and Research (3) Syllabus via Blackboard, eRes, or email.
This course begins with an examination of currently influential personality-psychology paradigms, including the Trait/Factor-Analytic; Evolutionary, Behavior-Genetic, and Biological; Psychodynamic; Learning; Phenomenological; and Cognitive, identifying the distinctive assumptions, constructs, and theories associated with each.  Then we examine a set of personality dimensions currently receiving considerable empirical attention:  attachment, neuroticism/anxiety, extraversion, coping & defenses, and identity/self-definition.  Emphasis is placed on the paradigms’ contributions to understanding the dimensions, noting theoretical convergence and complementarity.  Then, we examine the implications for personality psychology of some contexts in which personality emerges and changes, specifically culture, development, and psychotherapeutic interventions.

PSRU-2800-Personality (3) Syllabus via Blackboard, eRes, or email.
A survey of modern theories of personality, including the work of Freud and contemporary ego psychology, Jung, Adler, Allport, Murray, Skinner, and Rogers. Various approaches will be compared and contrasted in terms of presuppositions, structure, dynamics, and developmental aspects. Special attention will be given to empirical research relevant to the major conceptual issues and hypotheses in the area of personality. Prerequisite: PSRU 1000.

PSRU-2900-Abnormal Psychology (3) Syllabus via Blackboard, eRes, or email.
This course covers issues in diagnosing psychological disorders, and then examine several major disorders, including schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.  Relevant theories and current research, as well as written and video case-studies will be considered.

PSRU-4820-Community Psychology (5) Syllabus via Blackboard, eRes, or email.
This Psychology Department Capstone course integrates contemporary Community Psychology theory and research with a required service component (hence the 5 credits).  Community Psychology begins by framing the course as a direct response both to Fordham’s Mission and to the American Psychological Association’s curricular goals for Psychology.  Students then are invited to consider their personal responses to principles of contemporary Jesuit education (as expressed, e.g., in Kolvenbach’s writing) as well as a complementary spiritual tradition (Engaged Buddhism).  From there, we consider “generativity,” the developmental-psychology construct (first proposed by E. Erikson), and its implications for personal mission and for social change.  From there, along with weekly supervision (described below), we follow the structure of a very up-to-date Community Psychology text.  In that text, Chapter 7 (“Understanding Human Diversity”) serves as a springboard to our closer attention to particular topics, including cultural diversity and culture-specific definitions of competence, the nature of acculturation, the uniqueness of urban (including New York City’s) social ecology, and needs of the elderly.  We then return to and complete the textbook, and finish with an examination of ethical reasoning in psychology, considering again the spiritual traditions and mission statement considered at the semester’s beginning.