Eysenck’s Personality Theory
Hans Eysenck’s professional career and his more than 700 published articles on personality finally secured him a place in the list of the most influential psychologists after years of work. His personality theory is considered a true paradigm and a solid theory of psychology. The theory explains why everyone has their own personality.
The theory is that there are three main dimensions in each of us, namely psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism. According to Eysenck, each person has each of these characteristics to a different degree. The levels of these three qualities create our personality.
Features: personality scanner
When the Second World War broke out, the German psychologist had to emigrate to England, the United Kingdom. In London, he worked as an emergency psychologist at Mill Hill Emergency Hospital, where he was responsible for the psychiatric treatment of soldiers. Eysenck was deeply skeptical about the use of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in clinical cases. He, on the other hand, defended behavioral therapy as the best treatment for mental disorders.
Eysenck’s approach was based on his personality theory. To understand these, we have to take into account that human behavior is determined by a number of attributes. These traits or genetically determined traits are the foundations of personality. They predispose us to act in a certain way.
In addition, Eysenck’s theory assumes that these characteristics vary between individuals, but are otherwise coherent across different situations and remain stable within the individual over time. The psychologist also assumed that by isolating these traits we could reveal the deeper personality structure.
Eysenck and individual differences
According to this psychologist, our characteristics are influenced by genetics and are the source of individual differences. Of course, Eysenck has not ruled out other types of environmental influences. In fact, as we come into contact with our surroundings, existing properties can be enhanced.
Take family interactions in childhood as an example. Affection is the basis of communication between parents and children, and it can have a stronger or weaker effect on child development. According to Eysenck, there is a mixture of biological, psychological and social factors. He combined all of these factors as determinants of behavior in his personality theory.
Personality structure according to Eysenck
Eysenck categorized personality in four levels. At the base we find answers to specific questions that are given once and that can characterize a person, but do not have to. Answers to everyday questions given more frequently on the second level. The third category contains the habits that make up people. Finally, at the top of the pyramid and in the fourth category are the super factors, which we will discuss below.
“The concept of personality is closely related to the concept of stability, consistency and the repetitive occurrence of actions. It refers to the covariation of a number of acts of behavior. “
Eysenck, 1987
Eysenck’s two-factor theory
Hans Eysenck based his two-factor theory on these ideas. To do this, he analyzed the way people filled out personality questionnaires. Eysenck carried out a factorial analysis, which represents statistical data reduction and technical agglutination. In this case, he used the technique to reduce behaviors to a number of factors with common characteristics: the super factors. Each group of factors is combined in a super factor.
Eysenck identified three independent super factors: psychoticism (P), extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N); which in turn is the reason that his model is also called the PEN model. In his opinion, these three super factors adequately describe personality.
Neuroticism (stability vs. emotional instability)
Eysenck understood neuroticism as the highest degree of emotional instability. Eysenck used this dimension to explain why some people are more likely to experience anxiety, hysteria, depression, or obsession.
He defined neurotic people as those who are more likely to react strongly emotionally and have difficulty returning to normal emotional behavior. At the other end of the dimension are emotionally stable, calm, sensible people who have a high degree of self-control.
Extraversion (extraversion vs. introversion)
In addition, people with a higher level of extraversion are more likely to exhibit traits of sociability, lack of inhibitions, vitality, optimism, and ingenuity. On the other hand, introverts tend to be more calm, passive and less sociable, and prone to pessimism.
According to personality theory, this super factor is essentially physiological. It is based on the intensity of the cortical stimulation.
Psychoticism
Third, a person’s level of psychoticism reflects their susceptibility to impulsiveness, aggressiveness, and a lack of empathy. Psychotic people tend to be insensitive, antisocial, violent, aggressive, and extravagant. If you have a high psychotic score, you may be prone to various mental disorders, such as psychosis.
In contrast to the other two dimensions, psychoticism has no partner, no opposite extreme.
In summary, the personality is one of the most interesting and therefore most studied subjects of study in psychology. The personality is explored intensively with the aim of explaining why people are what they are. One of the most important theories in personality psychology is Eysenck’s personality theory, which has become a cornerstone of science. When Eysenck presented his theory, he laid the foundation for scientific studies of personality and human behavior as they are carried out to this day.
