EYSENCK’S BIOLOGICALLY BASED FACTOR THEORY

OVERVIEW
● 3 dimensions of personality
1. Extraversion/introversion
2. Neuroticism/stability
3. Psychoticism/superego
● People’s personality were biological, genetic differences lead to structural differences in
the central nervous system, and these differences in biology lead to differences along
the three factors of personality – extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
● Evidence for the biological basis of personality comes from sources which are:
1. Temperament – the biologically based tendency to behave in particular ways from
very early life.
- Prenatal environment may play an important role in shaping
personality. In fact, the amount of stress the mother experiences
during pregnancy may alter the infant’s own stress response.
2. The scientific study of the role of heredity in behavior
- Heritability = extent to which a characteristic is influenced by genetics
a. Twin-adoption studies – research into hereditary influence on twins, both
identical and fraternal, who were raised apart(adopted) and who were raised
together.
b. Gene-by-environment studies – how genetic differences interact with
environment to protect certain behavior in some people but not in theirs. It
directly measure genetic variation in parts of the genome itself.
3. Brain imaging techniques
a. Electroencephalography – record the electrical activity of the brain (when brain
activity occurs)
b. functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) – tells us where activity in the
brain is occurring during particular tasks by tracking blood oxygen use in brain
tissue.
BIOGRAPHY
- Hans Jurgen Eysenck
- Born on March 4, 1916
- Ruth Werner and Anton Eduard Eysenck
- According to Eysenck, environmental experiences such as these two have little to do
with personality development. To him, genetic factors have a greater impact on
subsequent behavior than do childhood experiences.
- Permissive upbringing neither helped nor hindered him
- not afraid to take an unpopular stand
- suggested that trait of tough-mindedness, or authoritarianism, was equally prevalent
in both extremes of the political spectrum which he later found a scientific support
for this hypothesis
 - Went to psychology by accident, at the University of London.
- found that two major personality factors - neuroticism/emotional stability and
extraversion/introversion - could account for all the traditional diagnostic groups
- Dimensions of Psychology is his first book
- 1st wife Margaret Davies, 2nd wife Sybil Rostal (3 sons and a daughter)
- son from Margaret is a widely published author of psychology articles and books
- The Structure of Human Personality, wherein he argued for the efficacy of factor
analysis as the best method of representing the known facts of human personality
- He used the factor analysis in treating his patients during the war.

EYSENCK’S FACTOR THEORY

CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING FACTORS

1. Psychometric evidence
- Must be reliable and replicable
- Able to find the factor, and these investigators consistently identify
Eysenck’s extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
2. Heritability and must fit an established genetic model
3. Make sense from a theoretical view
- Employed the deductive method of investigation, beginning with a
theory and then gathering data that are logically consistent with that
theory.
4. Must possess social relevance
- Derived factors have a relationship (not necessarily causal) with such
socially relevant variables as drug addiction…

HIERARCHY OF BEHAVIOR ORGANIZATION

- recognized a four-level hierarchy of behavior organization

a. Specific acts or cognition (lowest level)

- individual behaviors or thoughts that may or may not be characteristic of a
person.
ex. a student finishing a reading assignment
b. Habitual acts or cognition (second level)
- responses that recur under similar conditions.
ex. student frequently keeps at an assignment until it is finished (habitual
response)
c. Trait (third level)
- important semi-permanent personality dispositions
ex. trait of persistent if they habitually complete class assignment
 - although, traits can be identified intuitively, trait and factor theorists rely on a
more systematic approach, namely factor analysis. SO,
- defined in terms of significant intercorrelations between different habitual
behaviors.
d. Types or superfactors (fourth level)
- made up of several interrelated traits.
ex. persistence may be related to inferiority, poor emotional adjustment.. entire
cluster forming the introverted type.

DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY

- Eysenck’s personality dimensions

a. Extraversion (E)
b. Neuroticism (N)
c. Psychoticism (P)

- all three are bipolar so E and Introversion, N and Stability, and P and superego
function.
- each factor is unimodally distributed

four criteria for identifying personality dimensions:

a. strong psychometric evidence exists for each
b. strong biological base exists each for his three superfactors, also claimed that traits
such as agreeableness and conscientiousness.
c. make sense theoretically
d. three factors relate to such social issues as drug use, sexual behaviors, criminality,
preventing cancer and heart disease, and creativity.

EXTRAVERSION
(JUNG) Extraverted people as having an objective or non-personalized view of the world,
whereas introverts have essentially a subjective or individualized way of looking at things.
(Eysenck) Extraverted are characterized primarily by sociability and impulsiveness but
also by jocularity, liveliness, quick-wittedness, optimism, and other traits indicative of people
who are rewarded for their association with others
Introverts are quiet, passive, unsociable, careful, reserved, thoughtful,
pessimistic, peaceful, sober and controlled.

- the differences are rather biological and genetic in nature.

- primary cause of differences between is one of cortical arousal levels: physiological
condition that is largely inherited rather than learned. Because extraverts have a lower
level of cortical arousal than do introverts.
Introverts; characterized by a higher level of arousal, and as a result of a lower sensory
threshold, avoid situations that will cause too much excitement.
 Extroverts; habitually low level of cortical arousal, they need a high level of sensory
stimulation to maintain an optimal level of stimulation.

NEUROTICISM
The second superfactor extracted by Eysenck is neuroticism/stability (N). Like
extraversion/introversion, Factor N has a strong hereditary component. According to several
studies by Eysenck with supported evidence, the genetic basis for neurotic traits are:
- anxiety
- hysteria
- obsessive-compulsive disorders.

People who score high on neuroticism often have a tendency to overreact emotionally and to
have difficulty returning to a normal state after emotional arousal. Eysenck proposed this
emotional reactivity in neuroticism is due to having a highly reactive limbic system including
amgydala and hypothalamus.

Diathesis-stress model- this model of psychiatric illness accepted by Eysenck, suggests that some
people are vulnerable to illness because they have either a genetic or an acquired weakness that
predisposes them to an illness.

This predisposition (diathesis) may interact with stress to produce a neurotic disorder. High N
scores may suffer a neurotic reaction as a result of only a minimal level of stress. In other words,
the higher the neuroticism score, the lower the level of stress necessary to precipitate a neurotic
disorder.

PSYCHOTICISM

Where Eysenck’s based the two personality dimensions from his original theory of personality:
- Extraversion
- 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. Like extraversion and neuroticism, P is a bipolar
factor, with psychoticism on one pole and superego on the other.

High P scores are often:

- egocentric
- cold
- unconforming
- impulsive
 - hostile
- aggressive
- suspicious
- psychopathic
- antisocial
People low in psychoticism (in the direction of superego function) tend to be:
- altruistic
- highly socialized
- empathetic
- caring
- cooperative
- conforming
- conventional

Eysenck hypothesized that people high on psychoticism have a high predisposition to succumb
to stress and develop a psychotic illness. During periods of little stress, high P scores may function
normally, but when high psychoticism interacts with high levels of stress, people become
vulnerable to psychotic disorders.

Measuring Personality

Eysenck evolved four personality inventories that measures his superfactors:

1) Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI)- assessed only E and N and yielded some
correlation between these two factors.
2) 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.
3) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)- included a psychoticism (P) scale
4) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised- revised version on the EPQ due to criticism
of the P scale

Biological Bases of Personality

Eysenck cited three threads of evidence for a strong biological component in personality:

a) Researchers (McCrae & Allik, 2002) have found nearly identical factors among people in
various parts of the world, not only in Western Europe and North America but also in
Uganda, Nigeria, Japan, China, Russia and other African and European countries.
b) Evidence suggests that individuals tend to maintain their position over time in the
different dimensions of personality.
 c) Studies of twins (Eysenck, 1990) show a higher concordance between identical twins than
between same-gender fraternal twins, reared together, suggesting that genetic factors
play a dominant part in determining individual differences in personality.

In Eysenck’s theory of personality, psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism have both

antecedents and consequences.
- The antecedent are genetic and biological, whereas;
- the consequences include such experimental variables as conditioning experiences,
sensitivity, and memory as well as social behaviors such as criminality, creativity,
psychopathology and sexual behavior.

- Personality has genetic determinants that indirectly shape biological intermediaries

Personality as a Predictor

Psychometric traits of P, E and N can combine with one another to predict a variety of social
behaviors, including those that contribute to disease.

Personality and Behavior

- Introverts compared with extraverts should be more sensitive to a variety of stimuli and
learning conditions.
- An interaction exists between personality dimensions and learning styles.
- Eysenck hypothesized that psychoticism (P) is related to genius and creativity.
- He also reported that both high P scorers and high E scorers are likely to be trouble makers
as children.
- High E scoring troublemakers tend to grow into productive adults, while P scoring
troublemakers tend to continue to have learning problems , to get into crime and to have
difficulty in making friends.

Personality and Disease

- Kissen & Eysenck (1962) found that people who scored low on neuroticism (N) on the MPI
tended to suppress their emotion and were much more likely than high N scorers to
receive a later diagnosis of lung cancer.
- Eysenck & Gossarth-Maticek, (1991); Gossarth-Matick & Eysenck, (1989); Gossarth-
Maticek, Eysenck & Vetter, (1988) investigated the effectiveness of behavior therapy on
prolonging the life of cancer and CVD patients.

a) Type I- included with people having a hopeless/helpless non emotional reaction to stress
b) Type II- people typically reacted to frustration with anger, aggression, and emotional
arousal
 c) Type III- people were ambivalent, shifting from the typical reaction of Type I people to the
typical reaction of Type II’s and then back again
d) Type IV- individuals regarded their own autonomy as an important condition to their
personal well-being and happiness

Eysenck pointed out that the relationship between personality and disease do not prove that
psychological factors cause cancer and heart disease but rather, these diseases are caused by an
interaction of many factors.

- For cardiovascular disease, these factors include: family, history, age, gender, ethnic
background, hypertension etc.

- For cancer, risk includes: smoking, diet, alcohol, sexual practices, family history, etc.

High P scorers who smoke and who react to stress with anger, hostility and aggression, increase
their risk for heart disease.

Related Research

EPQ has been used in conjugation with neurophysiological and genetic measures to assess the
biological basis of personality.

The Biological Basis of Extraversion

- Personality dimensions are not arbitrary creations of culture but, rather, result from the
basic genetic and neurophysiological makeup of human species

Two key assumptions that should hold a biological basis to personality true:

a. Neurophysiological differences should exist between people high on one end of a

dimension and those high on the other end of that dimension
b. Basic personality dimensions should be universal and not limited to a given culture