Simon is a great lecturer and understanding professor, and the content of the unit itself was very interesting. Tutorials were a bit boring tho, but overall enjoyable unit.

What a great unit. Interesting content, and the professor - Simon Boag - is just a stand up guy. Helps you out where you need, kind and understanding, really goes above and beyond for students. He makes a significant effort to ensure that best practice is adhered to as well, and that respect is given to individuals in case studies etc. 10/10. One of my favourite subjects during my time at uni that's for sure. I also thought that assignments were marked quite kindly which was nice of them. What a lovely way to finish up at university.

The absolute best unit I have taken at Macquarie so far. Although the name may suggest the unit is simply learning of personality constructs and personality disorders, there is a great emphasis on culture (i.e. it is not simply reciting diagnostic criterion). The first half of the unit focuses on broader inter-relations of personality theory and culture which gets you to start critically thinking about how personality is influenced by culture. This is particularly helpful as it is the primary nature of the essay (60% overall grade!), which is argumentative critical analysis of one of the 4 chosen topics, all of which are quite good and interesting in their own right. Although it's an unusually large portion of your grade for an assessment, it's very engaging and allows you to do a lot of research related to interests that are related to personality disorder causes, validity of existing classifications, etc. and was marked very fairly. The second half of the unit considers cross-cultural implications and cultural influences (a basis that was well established through work on the essay and earlier weeks' content) while delving into broader personality disorders, with most of the later weeks' lectures dedicated to specific personality disorders and theories surrounding them which were fascinating, and the darker aspects of personality. The final exam isn't too bad either with 20 MC and 2 short critical analysis essays of 6 options, especially given that it's only 40% compared to the usual 50. Tutorial content was engaging and extended knowledge but didn't feel necessary at times as most questions seemed to be based on lecture content, but above all the lecture content was always very interesting and memorable. Overall, a great unit you can likely get a HD/D from (especially if you put the time in!) which isn't too demanding, but nonetheless very engaging and informative. Very much heightened my personal interest in personality as a 2nd year student.