EYSENCK

• Hierarchy of Behavior Organization


  • Types or Superfactors
  • Trait
  • Habitual Acts or Cognition
  • Specific Acts or Cognition
• Types or Superfactors


  • Made up of several interrelated traits
• Trait


  Defined in terms of significant inter correlations between different habitual behaviors
• Habitual Acts or Cognition


  Responses that recur under similar conditions
• Specific Acts or Cognition

  Individual behaviors or thoughts that may or may not be characteristics of a person
• Extraversion (E)


  Sociability and impulsiveness, jocularity, liveliness, quick wittedness, optimism, other traits indicative of people who are rewarded for their association with others
• Introversion


  Quiet, passive, unsociable, careful, reserved, thoughtful, pessimistic, peaceful, sober, controlled
• The principal difference between introversion and extraversion are not behavioral, but rather biological and genetic in nature (Eysenck, 1982)
• Cortical Arousal Level


  A physiological condition that is largely inherited rather than learned, cortical arousal increases wakefulness, vigilance, muscle tone, heart rate and minute ventilation
• Extraverts


  • Lower level of cortical arousal
  • Higher sensory threshold
  • Lesser reactions to sensory stimulations
  • Participate more often in exciting and stimulating activities
• Introverts


  • Higher level of arousal
  • Lower sensory threshold
  • Greater reactions to sensory stimulations
  • Avoid situations that will cause too much excitement
• Neuroticism (N)


  People who score high on neuroticism tend to: overreact emotionally, have difficulty returning to a normal state after an emotional arousal, frequently complain of headache and backache, vague psychological problems such as worries and anxieties
• Diathesis-Stress Model of psychiatric illness


  Suggests that some people are vulnerable to illness because they either have a genetic or an acquired weakness that predisposes them to illness, and this may interact with stress to produce a neurotic disorder
• The higher the neuroticism score, the lower the level of stress necessary to precipitate a neurotic disorder
• Low N scorers have the capacity to resist a neurotic disorder even in periods of extreme stress, while high N scorers may suffer a neurotic reaction as a result of only a minimal level of stress
• Psychoticism (P)


  • High p-scorers are associated with traits of egocentrism, cold personality, nonconformity, impulsiveness, hostility, aggressiveness, suspicious, psychopathic, antisocial
  • Low p-scorers tend to be altruistic, highly socialized, empathic, caring, cooperative, conforming, conventional
• The higher the psychoticism score, the lower the level of stress necessary to precipitate a psychotic reaction
• High P scorers are genetically more vulnerable to stress than are low P scorers, while people with low P scores are not necessarily vulnerable to stress-related psychoses and will resist a psychotic break even in periods of extreme stress