PSYCH 3530
Psychology of Personality
What is personality, and how can we scientifically study it? How did we become who we are today? Is personality fixed, or can we change? How does personality shape our everyday experiences and consequential life outcomes? Do we know ourselves and others? This course will address such questions by providing a contemporary overview of the field of personality psychology that will help students better understand themselves and others.
Instructors
Barbara O'Brien, James Reid, Jessie Sun, Laurel Newman, Patrick Hill, Randy Larsen, Rebecca Treiman, Tammy English
Reviews
I liked her a lot, I think she's very passionate and cares a lot about her students. Her exams are difficult and averages are low, but if you study enough they're doable.
4/21/2026
The class was okay, though more reading heavy than I expected. The exams can be challenging at first, but once you know what to expect, they're not that bad.
5/7/2025
Long, monotonous lectures with exams covering minutia. Grades are slow and she takes off even on the "gimme points". On exam 2 I asked a clarifying question and was told if the questions were not written vaguely students would do well in the class. Studying not super helpful and the questions are written to confuse us, not reward good study habits.
5/3/2025
She makes the class significantly harder than it has to be and is it is clear that she is very inexperienced in teaching. The tests are constantly trying to trick you rather than evaluate concepts. She reads off of a script and constantly stumbles over her words, which makes exams much harder. Papers due at same time as exams.
4/25/2025
Dr. Sun is insanely unreasonable. This course was actually ridiculous. I got an A by the grace of god. And because I put SO MUCH time into it. The tests are wildly detailed, and for the amount of content that you have to MEMORIZE, this class is SO not worth it. Such a shame, because with a better teacher, this class would be super interesting.
4/25/2025
Dr. Sun is a good lecturer but the tests are not doable. She will pull a question from the tiniest thing on any one of her slides, with each exam covering roughly 360 slides. Half the class switched to pass fail and many in the class spoke with Dr. Sun about her exams being impossible and she was not receptive to feedback. Do not take this class.
4/17/2025
I switched the class to pass/fail after the first exam, hoping to switch back later, but the 2nd exam grade didn't come in time. Her lectures are boring, and exams cover every detail from slides and long readings. The tests are tough, requiring a week of prep at the very least. Other assignments are time-consuming but don't help much with grades.
4/1/2025
Is awful to listen to during lectures, drones on for an hour and a half about things not related to the course, or the course title. She grades impossibly and her feedback on exams and assignments is next to worthless.
2/25/2025
Exams are VERY hard. She gave us a study guide of concepts that I turned into 88 flashcards. I used active recall and testing for least 12 hours to prepare for the exam, excluding interruptions. Questions were worded confusingly, covered small details, and concepts were left out of the study guide. I should've listened to the ratings…
2/6/2025
4-6 hrs/week
content was ok. professor was horrible (but nice ish) and expected us to remember nitty gritty details for the tests.
5/21/2024
idk if its bc shes from new zealand but her tests r different. if u cant remember every little thing from the slides u need to drop the class
5/3/2024
idk if its bc shes from new zealand but her tests r different.\nif u cant remember every little thing from the slides u need to drop the class
5/3/2024
Tests averages are low, but they are not hard. People probably don't study but if you do it is easy to score high. Some of the other stuff is graded a little harshly. She just reads off notes the whole time. Not helpful and didn't answer my questions during office hours. Class is quite boring, most people don't show up. Would not recommend.
5/2/2024
Dr. Sun has no empathy for her students, especially those in DR. Her lectures are straight-forward, but memorize every detail to do well on the exams - all 4 of them, plus the final. Multiple choice are do-able but looked for very specific answers to open-ended questions. Papers are also due around the time of each exam. Not helpful office hours.
4/20/2024
Confident in her teaching. Direct, no-nonsense professor that values her time and yours. Caring and amicable.
3/29/2024
I love Prof. English, even though she challenges us. The exams are not very easy, but once you get used to her style, you can get it. She presents her lectures very well (structured). However, her class is kinda speedy and she wants to cover as many things as possible in her lectures. It's reading-heavy. She is strict but responsible. Go to her OH!
12/13/2023
Dr. Hill is an amazing professor. His lectures are very engaging and he has a great sense of humor!
7/17/2023
Prof Hill is a great guy! He is very knowledgeable on the subject and you can tell he has a lot of passion for psychology while he is teaching. Be warn, he is a tough grader but it just makes you want to try harder.
7/11/2023
I was excited to take Personality Psych but Hill sucked the joy out of it. He doesnt know how to teach and is lucky that Google exists otherwise no one would be crossing a 5 in his exams. His slides seem like they have been made by a toddler who just learnt how to screenshot on their parents' laptop as they are just graphs with 0 explanations
4/23/2023