Eysenck Personality

Theory
 What is Eysenck Personality Theory?
Hans Jürgen Eysenck a German-born British
psychologist developed this Eysenck’s personality
theory which is considered a true paradigm and
the most solid theory that psychology has offered.
The theory best explains why each person has
their own personality.
The theory states that there are three large traits
inside each of us. These three traits are
psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism.

The Three Dimensions Of Eysenck’s Personality

Theory:
1. Extraversion/introversion –
Extraverts are sociable and crave excitement
and change, and thus can become bored easily.
They tend to be carefree, optimistic and
impulsive. They are more likely to take risks and
be thrill seekers. Eysenck argues that this is
because they inherit an under aroused nervous
system and so seek stimulation to restore the
level of optimum stimulation.
 Introverts on the other hand lie at the other end
of this scale, being quiet and reserved. They are
already over-aroused and evade sensation and
stimulation. Introverts are reserved, plan their
actions and control their emotions. They tend to
be serious, reliable and pessimistic.
2. Neuroticism/stability –
A person’s level of neuroticism is determined by the
reactivity of their sympathetic nervous system. A stable
person’s nervous system will generally be less reactive
to stressful situations, remaining calm and level
headed.
Someone high in neuroticism on the other hand will be
much more unstable, and prone to overreacting to
stimuli and may be quick to worry, anger or fear.
Eysenck states that those high on neuroticism, are
more prone to be involved in delinquency. They are
overly emotional and find it difficult to calm down once
upset. Neurotic individuals have an Autonomic nervous
system that responds quickly to stress.

3. Psychoticism
It is the level of a person’s psychoticism reflects
their vulnerability to impulsiveness,
aggressiveness, and a lack of empathy. These
 people are often insensitive, antisocial, violent,
aggressive, and extravagant. It incorporates
traits of dominance-leadership, dominance-
submission, sensation seeking, and the lack of a
superego. Children who score high on a
measure of psychoticism tend to have
behaviour problems and learning difficulties.
This has been related to high levels of
testosterone. The higher the testosterone, the
higher the level of psychoticism, with low levels
related to more normal balanced behaviour.

Unlike the other two dimensions, psychoticism

doesn’t have an opposite or inverse extreme.
Instead, psychoticism is present at different
levels in everybody.

 Questionnaire and Responses

 What is EPQ?
The Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) measures
two pervasive, independent dimensions of
personality, Extraversion-Introversion and
Neuroticism-Stability, which account for most of
the variance in the personality domain.
Each form contains 57 “Yes-No” items with no
repetition of items. The inclusion of a falsification
scale provides for the detection of response
distortion. The traits measured are Extraversion-
Introversion and Neuroticism. When you fill out
Eysenck’s Personality Inventory (EPI) you get three
scores.
 The ‘lie score’ is out of 9. It measures how
socially desirable you are trying to be in your
answers. Those who score 5 or more on this
scale are probably trying to make themselves
look good and are not being totally honest in
their responses.
 The ‘E score’ is out of 24 and measures how
much of an extrovert you are.
 The ‘N score’ is out of 24 and measures how
neurotic you are.

What is EPQ used to measure?

Eysenck's personality inventory describes whether
the person is extrovert /introvert / ambivert
(combination of extrovert and introvert) it has
certain questions which tell you in which category
you belong.
Then you have Neuroticism; This indicates
whether you are emotionally stable or not. Higher
the score more neurotic you are i.e. you are not
emotionally stable.