The son of famous parents, Hans Eysenck was one of the most controversial and prolific psychologists of the 20th century; at the time of his death in 1997, he was the most cited psychology researcher. Eysenck has made a significant contribution in this area, publishing around 80 books and writing hundreds of articles. He was also editor and founder of the influential personality and individual differences magazine.
Born in Germany in 1916, he had to flee because of his opposition to the Nazi party, arriving first in France and then in the United Kingdom, where he completed his doctorate in psychology at the University of London (1940). During World War II. Hans Eysenck worked in the emergency department of Mill Hill Hospital as a psychiatrist; between 1945 and 1950 he was a psychologist at Maudsley Hospital, and then became director of the Department of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London. office he held until 1983.
- Hans Eysenck has developed a very influential personality theory because.
- Among other qualities.
- He focuses on very concrete and easy to connect with everyday events.
- His personality theory is based on biological factors.
- Arguing that individuals inherit a certain type of nervousness.
- System that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment.
- However.
- Eysenck’s work has been criticized for suggesting that biological or genetic factors influence personality and the possibility of an individual adopting criminal behavior.
Using factor analysis to develop his theory, Hans Eysenck identified three dimensions of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism (PEN) Each dimension of Eysenck’s theory is a bipolar dimension, meaning that each has its opposite:
Eysenck believed that biological factors, including cortical activity and hormone levels, as well as environmental factors, such as behavior learned through conditioning, influence a person’s classification in these personality dimensions.
It should be noted that Eysenck gave special meaning to the term “psychoticism”. When you use it in your model, it refers to certain antisocial behaviors, not mental illness. Before developing the PEN model, Eysenck sought to measure personality in two dimensions: extraversion-introversion and neurotic-emotional stability.
People with high levels of extroversion become more involved in social activities, tend to be more communicative and feel more comfortable as a group, in general extroverts like to be the center of attention and often have a large circle of friends and partners. measured in a continuum, going from high (extroveri) to low (introverted).
In contrast, introverts tend to be quieter, avoid large social gatherings, and may feel uncomfortable interacting with strangers; on the contrary, they maintain small groups of close friends and probably prefer more contemplative activities.
Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung has suggested that extraversion-introversion levels depend on how an individual’s psychic energy is channeled. Among the extroverts, he believed that this energy would be directed outward, towards other people, resulting in more social interactions. On the other hand, the psychic energy of introverts would be projected inwards, leading them to engage in less social activities, focused on internal processes (Jung, 1921).
However, Eysenck believed that extraversion was related to levels of brain or cortical activity; extroverts experience lower levels of cortical activity, which would lead them to look for external stimuli; higher levels of activity in introverts would lead them to avoid external stimuli that could lead to increased activity.
On the other hand, and for observation, according to Yerkes-Dodson law, activity levels can affect an individual’s performance capacity. The theory suggests that activity and income follow a bell-shaped curve and that the second curve decreases during periods of high or low activity (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908).
Hans Eysenck also proposed a second dimension: emotional stability in the face of emotional instability or neuroticism. People with a high neurotic score tend to experience higher levels of stress and anxiety, worry about relatively insignificant problems, exaggerate their importance, and feel unable to cope. with stressful situations.
Focusing on the negative aspects of a situation, rather than the positive aspects, can lead a person to take a disproportionately negative perspective. You may feel envious or jealous of others you think are in a more favorable position.
Neuroticism is also characterized by perfectionism and dissatisfaction, on the other hand, a person with a lower neurotic score will generally experience greater emotional stability, we are talking about people who generally feel more able to cope with stressful situations and set goals People with low levels of neuroticism tend to be more tolerant of other people’s failures and stay more relaxed in difficult situations.
Psychoticism is a late addition to Hans Eysenck’s personality theory, included in 1976. This third dimension of personality ranges from normality (low psychoticism) to high psychoticism.
People with higher scores in psychoticism are more likely to behave irresponsiblely or thoughtlessly. They can also contradict established social norms and need immediate satisfaction, regardless of their consequences.
However, psychoticism also has positive aspects. In a 1993 study, Eysenck compared the scores of participants on the Barron-Welsh Art Scale and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and found that people with high psychoticism scores tended to have more advanced creative skills.
Eysenck suggested that psychoticism was influenced by biological factors and correlated with hormone levels, such as testosterone. According to the PEN model, high levels of psychoticism reduce a person’s ability to respond to conditioning, meaning it would be harder for them to adapt. to social norms that we generally learn through rewards and punishments.
As a result, the theory suggests that these individuals may be more prone to criminal behavior because they seek to satisfy their own interests, violating the rules of behavior accepted by others. The association of personality traits, such as psychoticism, with criminal tendencies, as well as Eysenck’s emphasis on the genetic component that affects these traits, generated criticism of his theory for adopting a deterministic view of behavior.
Twin studies can be used to check if the personality is genetic; however, the results are contradictory and inconclusive. Shields (1976) found that monocygotic (identical) twins were significantly more similar in introverted-extraverted and psychotic dimensions than dicigotic twins (not identical or fraternal). Loehlin, Willerman and Horn (1988) found that only 50% of variations in personality dimension Scores are due to inherited traits, suggesting that social factors are also important.
One of the qualities of Eysenck‘s theory is that he considers both natural and educational aspects as influences, and says that biological predispositions to certain personality traits, associated with conditioning and socialization during childhood, shape our personality.
This inter-actionist approach can therefore have greater validity than a purely biological or environmental theory, and also perfectly refers to the model of deatic stress, which holds that a biological predisposition is combined with an environmental trigger for certain behavior to arise.