Personality and Motivational Psychology

Personality and Motivational Psychology

• Personality and motivation: technical terms and theories
  
  • trait approaches to personality, incl. the Big Five
  • personality in the workplace: leadership and vocational fit
  • expectancy-value approach to motivation
  • goals
  • social-cognitive theory
  • attributions
  • intrinsic motivation and flow
  • motivation in the workplace: needs, reinforcement, Herzberg, equity
• Measuring motivation and personality
• (Critically) reflecting upon and applying motivation and personality theory, especially in business

In this course, we will cover the topics of personality psychology and motivational psychology. After completing this course, you will have acquired important technical terms and the subject matter of personality and motivation (e.g., What is psychology and motivation from a scientific point of view?), knowledge of theory (e.g., the Big Five and different theories conceptualizing motivation), as well as possible applications (e.g., how can we use personality and motivational psychology in the work context? How can we motivate our employees?). You will know different methodological approaches of personality and motivation and be able to critically classify, evaluate, and assess their scope. You will also be able to evaluate and practically apply some standardized psychometric measurement instruments. Further, you will have practised applying personality and motivational psychology and have understood its relevance for business. You will have further enhanced your reflective skills, creativity, and ethical thinking in the process of examining personality and motivation concepts. 

Required reading will be made available to you in Moodle. The following books can give you deeper insights and help you clarify the contents we cover: Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2016). Personality and Individual Differences. Wiley. Haslam, N., & Smillie, L. (2022). An Introduction to Personality, Individual Differences, and Intelligence (3. Aufl.). Sage.  Maltby, J., Day, L., & Macaskill, A. (2023). Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence. Pearson.

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