Eysenck

• What is the personality theory of Eysenck?

  Biologically Based Factor Theory
• Eysenck's personality theory, combines psychometric and biological components.
• First, psychometric evidence for the factor’s existence must be established. A corollary to this criterion is that the factor must be reliable and replicable. Other investigators, from separate laboratories, must also be able to find the factor, and these investigators consistently identify Eysenck’s extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
• A second criterion is that the factor must also possess heritability and must fit an established genetic model. This criterion eliminates learned characteristics, such as the ability to mimic the voices of well-known people or a religious or political belief
• Third, the factor must make sense from a theoretical view. Eysenck employed the deductive method of investigation, beginning with a theory and then gathering data that are logically consistent with that theory.
• The final criterion for the existence of a factor is that it must possess social relevance; that is, it must be demonstrated that mathematically derived factors have a relationship (not necessarily causal) with such socially relevant variables as drug addiction, proneness to unintentional injuries, outstanding performance in sports, psychotic behavior, criminality, and so on.
• 3 dimensions of personality of Eysenck: extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and psychoticism/ superego.
• At the lowest level are specific acts or cognitions, individual behaviors or thoughts that may or may not be characteristic of a person.
• At the second level are the habitual acts or cognitions, that is, responses that recur under similar conditions.
• Several related habitual responses form a trait — the third level of behavior. Eysenck, defined traits as semi-permanent personality dispositions.
• Eysenck concentrated on the fourth level, that of types or superfactors. A type is made up of several interrelated traits.
• Eysenck extracted only three general superfactors, which he considered as part of normal personality structure: extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), and psychoticism (P).
• Eysenck regarded all three factors as bipolar.
• The bipolarity of Eysenck's factors does not imply that most people are at one end or the other of the three main poles. Each factor is unimodally distributed
• Eysenck believed that the primary cause of differences between extraverts and introverts is one of cortical arousal level, a physiological condition that is largely inherited rather than learned.
• Extraverts have a lower level of cortical arousal, they have higher sensory thresholds and thus lesser reactions to sensory stimulation.
• Introverts are characterized by a higher level of arousal, and as a result of a lower sensory threshold, they experience greater reactions to sensory stimulation.
• Eysenck was arguing that people seek out, prefer, and perform best in environments that match their natural arousal levels.
• Introverts seek out and perform best in quiet environments with relatively low levels of stimulation and arousal, whereas extraverts do the same in louder environments with relatively high levels of stimulation and arousal.
• The second superfactor extracted by Eysenck is neuroticism/stability (N).
• Eysenck proposed this emotional reactivity in neuroticism is due to having a highly reactive limbic system, including the amygdala and hypothalamus.
• The diathesis-stress model of psychiatric illness suggests that some people are vulnerable to illness because they have either a genetic or an acquired weakness that predisposes them to an illness.
• Eysenck’s original theory of personality was based on only two personality dimensions— extraversion and neuroticism.
• After several years of alluding to psychoticism (P) as an independent personality factor, Eysenck finally elevated it to a position equal to E and N.
• Eysenck hypothesized that people high on psychoticism have a high “predisposition to succumb to stress and develop a psychotic illness”.
• The Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) assessed only E and N and yielded some correlation between these two factors.
• The Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) contains a lie (L) scale to detect faking, but more importantly, it measures extraversion and neuroticism independently, with a near-zero correlation between E and N.
• Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) included a psychoticism (P) scale. This has both an adult version and a junior version. It is a revision of the still-published EPI.
• People with a hopeless/ helpless nonemotional reaction to stress (also classified as Type I) were much more likely than others to die of cancer.
• People typically reacted to frustration with anger, aggression, and emotional arousal (Type II) were much more likely to die of heart disease.
• People were ambivalent , shifting from the typical reaction of Type I people to the typical reaction of Type IIs and then back again (classified as Type III) and individuals regarded their own autonomy as an important condition to their personal well-being and happiness (Type IV) had very low death rates from either cancer or CVD.