An Exercise for Explicating and Critiquing Students’ Implicit Personality Theories

Abstract

Despite, its recent growth, implicit psychology is largely excluded from undergraduate personality textbooks. Students’ preconceptions about personality likely bias their evaluation of formal personality theories and are generally ignored by personality instructors. We present an exercise that requires students to critique their preconceived beliefs about personality as if these beliefs constituted formal personality theories. Students rated the assignment as difficult but though-provoking and valuable for the insight it gave them into the formal theories and their own beliefs. The exercise engenders active learning by involving students directly in the difficulties of theory construction. Students probably relate the more formal theories they learn to the existing framework of their own theories. This self-referencing should enhance memory of formal theories.