An introduction to individual differences

Aims

This course aims to: 

• provide a framework for examining and understanding how individual differences manifest
   
• explore how different types of psychological factors (for example gender socialisation and locus of control) influence individual differences in different ways
   
• foster an appreciation of the complex array of factors that shape our individual differences 

Content

A famous TV advertisement once claimed that ‘eight out of 10 owners said their cat prefers Whiskas’. However, such high degrees of consensus are often rare among humans. Whether we look at election results, food preferences, hobbies, skills or the kinds of music that people enjoy, we find differences. These differences can often be attributed to life experiences or even chance. However, there seems to be evidence that other, more significant, psychological factors shape the way in which individuals differ. This course will explore four of these factors in detail and touch on numerous other related psychological issues that contribute to this complex picture. The first topic will be intelligence / IQ. Aside from attempting to define these, we will explore ideas regarding what influences a person’s level of intelligence / IQ and some consequences of psychological research conducted. The focus will then shift on to the concept of personality. Aside from attempting to define the concept we will also look at different models that attempt to describe human personality and also explore some fundamental challenges to the entire concept. Sex and gender are everyday concepts that can give rise to highly charged debates. In this session we will try to critically explore what these concepts mean and then examine whether they might play any role in explaining differences between individuals. Finally, locus of control is a concept that attempts to describe the different ways in which people attribute causality. For example, if a student gets a good grade on an essay, do they attribute this to their own hard work and intelligence (strong in ternal locus of control) or to the fact that the task was easy (strong external locus of control). We will also examine some of the cognitive ‘short cuts’ that many people use that, perhaps, challenge the validity of the locus of control model.

Presentation of the course 

The five sessions will involve lecture presentation of material but will involve a high degree of group discussion and debate.

Course sessions

1. Introduction to the concept of individual differences.
    
2. Intelligence and IQ.
    
3. Personality.
    
4. Sex and gender.
    
5. Locus of control and attribution. 

Learning outcomes

You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course. 

The learning outcomes for this course are:

• to gain an understanding of what individual differences are and how people attempt to 
  measure these
   
• to gain an understanding of the four key topics in detail and how they contribute to creating individual differences
   
• to appreciate the complexity of how psychological factors combine to shape individual differences in thought and behaviour

Typical week: Monday to Friday 

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students.   

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to your learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events. 

Evaluation and Academic Credit  

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses.  

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay. 

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit. 

Certificate of attendance 

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.