PSYC 87.03 Individual Differences

This course will explore—and often question—the idea that there are trait-like factors that are both stable within individuals and different across individuals, and that have meaningful consequences for how we behave across various situations and contexts. Questions we will tackle will include: What do we mean when we say “individual differences”, and how do we study them? What are the major dimensions along which individuals differ? What do we know about the biological bases of individual differences from fields such as genetics and neuroscience? Why might individual differences have evolved—i.e., what benefits does variability across people confer to a group? How does the layperson’s conception of individual differences diverge from empirical findings in social and personality psychology? Do individual differences exist in non-human forms of intelligence, such as other animals and AI? We will focus mainly on personality, but will briefly cover other dimensions, including cognitive abilities. Throughout the course, we will adopt a critical lens on the concept of stable, trait-like differences, and explore how often less appreciated features (e.g., subjective construals, situational factors) contribute to variability in people’s behavior.

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Department-Specific Course Categories

Psychological and Brain Sciences