BIOLOGICALLY BASED

FACTOR THEORY
“I always felt that a
scientist owes the
world only one
thing, and that is the
truth as he sees it”
– Hans Eysenck
born on March 4, 1916 in Berlin. His mother
was an actress and his father was a nightclub

born on March 4, 1916 in

entertainer.

Berlin. His mother was an

actress and his father was a
nightclub entertainer.
Eysenck was a prolific writer
and he wrote thousands of
articles and nearly 100 books.
born on March 4, 1916 in Berlin. His mother
was an actress and his father was a nightclub
entertainer.

At the time of his death in

1997, Eysenck held the
distinction of being the most-
cited psychologist in
scientific journals.
The greatest controversy
surrounding Eysenck was
his view of the heritability
of intelligence, more
specifically his view that
racial differences in
intelligence could be
partially attributed to
genetic factors.
The individual differences in
people’s personalities were
BIOLOGICAL, & not merely
psychological aspects of
personality.

Genetic differences lead to

structural differences in the
Central nervous system.
 TEMPERAMENTS
biologically based tendency to behave in
particular ways from very early in life
HIERARCHY OF BEHAVIOR
ORGANIZATION.
 Factor Analysis
Supertrait
(Extraversion)

Traits

Assertive Sociable Active

Habitual Response

Expresses Smiles at Shakes Energetic

Needs Considerate eveyone everyone's Parties in
hand everything

Specific Response Level

DIMENSIONS OF
PERSONALITY
 GENERAL SUPERFACTORS

EXTRAVERSION NEUROTICSM PSYCHOTICISM

 EXTRAVERSION
Extraversion Introversion

Talkative Quiet
Sociable Passive
Impulsive Controlled
Optimistic Pessimistic
Lively Reserved
AROUSAL THEORY OF EXTRAVERSION
Extraversion
Cortical Arousal Level
Sensory Thresholds
Reaction to Sensory Stimulation
Extraversion

Exciting
Activities
AROUSAL THEORY OF EXTRAVERSION
Introversion
Cortical Arousal Level
Sensory Thresholds
Reaction to Sensory Stimulation
Intraversion

Exciting
Activities
 NEUROTICISM
Neuroticism (emotionally Stability
unstable)

Tendency to over-
react emotionally & Physical symptoms
difficult to return to
normal state after Psychological Problems
emotional arousal
DIATHESIS-STRESS MODEL OF
ABNORMALITY

BIOLOGY ENVIRONMENT
DIATHESIS-STRESS MODEL
 NEUROTICISM

INTROVERTED EXTROVERTED

STABLE
 PSYCHOTICISM
O

Psychoticism Superego

toughmindedness, more altruistic,

non-conformity, highly socialized,
inconsideration, caring, empathetic,
recklessness, cooperative,
hostility, anger and conforming,
impulsiveness conventional
PERSONALITY as PREDICTOR.
Eysenck found that
women tend to have
higher neuroticism
scores than men

Men score much higher

in psychoticism than
do women
Eysenck theorized that criminality
and antisocial behaviour are both
positively and causally related to
high levels of psychoticism,
extroversion and neuroticism
(Holman & Quinn, 1992)
END.