"Friends Don't Let Friends Use Myers-Briggs."

(They show their friends the Big 5 Instead!)

Stromberg, J. & Caswell, E. (2014, July 15). Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless. Vox. Retrieved from http://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless

Understanding Personality

Each of you has come to this class with a different understanding about these topics. For some of you, this is all old hat -- if so, feel free to skim through the basics, but dig deeper into the links to further your understanding. There are many optional resources as well and I encourage you to explore.

In particular, you should clarify your understanding on the following if you have any misconceptions or a lack of understanding of the general ideas here:

• "Self-report personality tests show impressive validity in relation to a wide range of important outcomes. " - (Watson, n.d.) It's true!

• But is personality stable or does it change? (Donnellan, n.d.)

• But what about faking (a.k.a., Impression Management) and discrimination using these tests (Beaz, 2013; More on Impression Management - IResearchNet (2016).

Mini-Case: Johnny Carson

Step 1: Read the Obituary of Johnny Carson (NY Times) - you can review other sources, too, but it's not required).

Step 2: Briefly answer the following questions (bullet points are fine). Be prepared to share your answers in our Live Meeting 1.

• What can we say about Johnny Carson's disposition? Was he neurotic or emotionally stable? Extraverted or introverted? Open or conventional? Agreeable or disagreeable? Conscientious or aimless?

• Based on the evidence presented in the article, where would a personality psychologist place Carson on each of the five dimensions of the FFM? On which facets would he be particularly high or low?

• What does the life of Johnny Carson illustrate about the stability and change of human personality? What stayed the same and what changed about him over the course of his life?

• What is your assessment of Johnny Carson's personality? How did you get to your conclusions?

Submit your work to the Assignment Dropbox: Mini-Case: Johnny Carson (this is prep for our live session! We will talk this out together).

What's important to remember as you prepare your work for this class is that the #1 skill I want you to learn in my classes is HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR OPINIONS/ASSERTIONS with evidence.

I want to graduate persuasive evidence-based practitioners who are capable of showing those they work with how to make organizations better (both for employees and for outcomes). That means you can't just turn in a bunch of unsubstantiated opinions and think I am going to (1) believe you prepared as requested without proof, and (2) reward you for developing your skills as expected.

Ok, so what does that mean??

The format my students find works best for my assignments is a persuasive memo (some find it helpful to write to a fictional audience as well - so they make sure to explain concepts we both know I am clear on but we also know you need to demonstrate knowledge of as part of class) . It can be helpful for you to include my questions as headings as well! So for this assignment, this would look like this - feel free to copy this and use as a sample: