HANS EYSENCK: BIOLOGICALLY - impulsiveness but also by jocularity,
BASED FACTOR THEORY
Criteria for Identifying Factors
1. Psychometric Evidence - the
factor’s existence must be
established; the factor must be
reliable and replicable
2. Heritability and must fit an
established genetic model -
eliminates learned characteristics
(ex. ability to mimic the voices of the
well-known people)
3. Make sense from a theoretical
view - uses deductive method of
investigation (theory➝gathering
data)
4. Must possess social relevance -
must be demonstrated that
mathematically derived factors have
social relevant variables (drug
addiction, proneness to unintentional
injuries)
Hierarchy of Behavior Organization
1. Specific Acts (Cognitions) &
Individual Behaviors (Thoughts) -
lowest level of behavior
organization; may or may not be
characteristic of a person.
2. Habitual Acts (Cognitions) -
responses recur under similar
conditions.
3. Trait - important semi-permanent
personality disposition; defined in
terms of significant intercorrelations
between different habitual behaviors.
4. Superfactors/Types - made up of
several interrelated traits.
Bipolar Dimensions of Personality
1. Extraversion (E) - characterized
primarily sociability and
1
liveliness, quick-wittedness, and
optimism; (Introversion - opposite
of extraversion)
● Cortical arousal level - a
physiological condition that is
largely inherited rather than
learned
2. Neuroticism (N) - people have such
traits as anxiety, hysteria, obsessive-
compulsive disorders.
(Stability - opposite of neuroticism)
● Diathesis - stress model -
suggest that some people
are vulnerable to illness
because they have either a
genetic or an acquired
weakness that predisposes
them to an illness
● Psychoticism (P) - a bipolar
factor; High P scores are
often egocentric, cold,
nonconforming, impulsive
hostile, agressive,
suspicious, pscyhopathic and
anti-social. (Superego -
opposite of psychoticism)
Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) -
assessed only E and N and yielded some
correlation between these two factors
Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) - a
two - factor inventory that contains a lie (L)
scale to detect faking; measures
extraversion and neuroticism independently
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
(EPQ) - includes a psychoticism (P) scale
Biological Bases of Personality

Eynsenck believed that all 3 personality

factors (ENP) have a powerful biological
determinants. He estimated that about:
● ¾ = heredity
● ¼ = environmental factors (culture &
language)

Three thread of evidence:

1. nearly identical factors among
people in various parts of the world.
2. individuals tend to maintain their
position over time on the different
dimensions of personality
3. genetic factors play a dominant part
in determining individual differences
in personality (study of twins)

Eysenck’s theory of personality has

antecedents and consequences;
➔ Antecedents - genetic and
biological
➔ Consequences - experimental
variables ( conditioning experiences,
sensitivity, memory, social behaviors,
criminality)