85-180 Freshman Seminar: Personality and Health

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

The general purpose of this course is to examine possible connections between personality and physical wellbeing. Material will be presented at the outset of the semester that is designed to enable students to understand more fully how psychologists think about the concept of personality what it is and what it does for us, how it is assessed, and how personality and health psychologists do research on the topic. As the semester progresses, we will explore and discuss research that links certain aspects of personality to health, illness, and mortality. The list of personality characteristics to be considered includes but is not necessarily limited to optimismpessimism, conscientiousness, hostility, trait positive and negative affect, and chronic goal adjustment strategies. As time permits, select person variables will also be considered, e.g., the impact of depressive mood on health.

Prerequisites: none listed

Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.