EYSENCK’S

HIERARCHICAL MODEL

MANAV J.

Bharathiar University

Coimbatore

CONTENTS

• EYSENCK

• PERSONALITY

• EYSENCK’S MODEL

• HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE

• BIOLOGICAL UNDEPINNINGS

• PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND EYSENCK’S THEORY

• RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

HANS EYSENCK (1916-1997)

• Born in Germany, in 1916

• Refused to join Nazi regime and moved London at the age of 18

• Joined University of London

• Received his Ph.D. in 1940 in Psychology

• Worked as a research psychologist examining the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis at Mill Hill

Hospital during WORLD WAR II.

• Eysenck was Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London

• Awarded chair of psychology at University of London in 1955

• Awarded Distinguished Scientist Award of APA in 1988

•Eysenck was the founding editor of the journal Personality and Individual

Differences, and authored more than 40 books and 700 articles.

•He was the most cited living psychologist until he died 1998

•He used questionnaires, self-ratings, rating by others, objective behavioral tests,

assessment of physique, physiological measurements, biographical and other

historical information as means of methods of data collection.

•He is critical of other psychologists to the point of sarcasm.

•Sense and Non-sense in Psychology, The Inequality of Man etc. are controversial

books written by Eysenck.

PERSONALITY

The sum-total of actual or potential behaviour patterns of

organism as determined by heredity and environment; it originates

and develops through the functional interaction of four main

sectors into which these behaviour patterns are organised: the

cognitive sector(intelligence), the conative sector(character), the

affective sector(temperament) and somatic structure(constitution).

Eysenck , 1947

EYSENCK’S

MODEL OF PERSONALITY

• Strongly rooted in biology

• Eysenck believed personality traits are heritable and had a psycho-

physiological foundation

• The three main traits, according to Eysenck were

• Extraversion - Introversion (E)

•Neuroticism - Emotional stability(N)

• Psychoticism

• Extraversion can be defined in behavioural terms, as the various traits that correlated

together to define this factor are, traits such as sociability, impulsiveness, activity,

carelessness, liveliness, jocularity and so forth.

( Eysenck, 1976)

• Neuroticism is conceived as strong, labile emotionality, predisposing a person to

develop neurotic symptoms in case of excessive stress.

• He defined Psychoticism as being solitary, not caring for people, often troublesome

not fitting in anywhere, may be cruel and inhumane, lacking in feeling and empathy

and altogether insensitive, may hostile to others, even to his own kith and kin and

aggressive even to loved ones, liking for unusual things and disregard for danger.

HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE

• Eysenck conceptualised each of these three traits (E, N & P) as sitting on

the top of their own hierarchy.

• At the top level, there is a super trait. Eg: Psychoticism

• In the second level there are narrow traits to each super traits.

Eg: Aggressive

• In the third level, there are habitual acts. Eg: Attacking

•In the base level there are Specific acts. Eg: Biting

others

•In his early research Eysenck found only two

factors, E and N

•Later he added P

•At last, he tried to include Intelligence as a fourth

dimension of personality.

EYSENCK’S HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM OF

EXTRAVERSION

EYSENCK’S HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM OF

NEUROTICISM

EYSENCK’S HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM OF

PSYCHOTICISM

TYPE• EXTRAVERSION

TRAIT• SOCIABILITY

HABITUAL

RESPONSE

• PARTIES

SPECIFIC

RESPONSE

• INVITING OTHERS

BIOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS

• Eysenck’s personality system has a biological foundation

• It has two aspects: HERITABILITY and IDENTIFIABLE PHYSIOLOGICAL

SUBSTRATES

• Personality dimensions should have reasonably high heritability. Behavioural

genetics studies confirm this is moderate in case of all the three dimensions (E, N

& P)

• Personality traits should have identifiable physiological substrates ie; one can

identify properties in brain and CNS corresponding to the traits.

•Extraversion- Introversion is linked with chronic levels of excitation in the cortex.

•Introverts are over aroused (ARAS) and easy to stimulate . So, they avoid situations

that are apt to overwhelm them.

•Extraverts are under aroused (ARAS) and thus difficult to stimulate. So, they seek

out exciting situations.

•Neuroticism is thought to reflex the degree to which Autonomic Nervous System

reacts to stimuli. The more reactive a person, the more Neurotic he is.

•Psychoticism is linked with high level of Testosterone and low level of MAO, a

neurotransmitter inhibitor.

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND EYSENCK’S

THEORY

• A theory of psychopathology emerges from Eysenck’s physiological interpretation of personality

• A person who is high on neuroticism and introversion is at risk for anxiety disorders : fears, phobias, obsessions and compulsions.

• A person who is high on extraversion and neuroticism is a candidate for psychopathy (antisocial personality).

• Disorders do not occur automatically. They befall a person with appropriate predisposition and environmental circumstances.

• People learn their problems. One’s personality helps him to learn some things more easily than others and so, different personalities are linked with different problems.

• Trait and therapy are usually strange bedfellows. A trait is fixed

characteristics and belied to be resistant to change including therapy.

• But, Eysenck’s interest of behaviour modification follows naturally

from his theory of emotional disorders.

• He believed what has been learned can be unlearned.

• Traits represents predispositions to learn. As, individuals learn and

unlearn behaviours, their traits do not change ,although their behaviour

does.

• Eysenck thus called the trait , a vehicle of change.

RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

• Eysenck used the Factor Analysis technique in his research

• Because of the criticisms on factor analysis, he developed a method called

Criterion Analysis

• Unlike Cattel, he preferred to extract a rather small number of factors from

factor analysis.

• Like Guilford, he preferred orthogonal factors; Cattel preferred oblique

factors.

CONCLUSION

• EYSENCK PROPOSED A HIERARCHICAL MODEL OF

PERSONALITY WHICH IS STRONGLY ROOTED IN BIOLOGY

• THE MAJOR DIMENSIONS OF EYSENCK’S MODEL ARE

EXTRAVERSION, INTROVERSION AND PSYCHOTICISM

• EYSENCK BELIEVED THAT ALL PERSOANITY TRAITS ARE

CAUSED BY PREDISPOSITION AND ENVIRONMENT

• EYSENCK BELIEVED IN PERSONALITY MODIFICATION

KEY WORDS

• Personality

• Extraversion

• Neuroticism

• Psychoticism

• Heritability

• Orthogonal factors : factors in a matrix in factor analysis where row stands for original factors and column stands for new factors

• Oblique factors : factors in new axes of factor space, but the degree of correlation allowed among the factors is small.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

• Explain the Hierarchical model of Personality of Eysenck

• Explain the biological bases of Eysenck’s hierarchical structure of

Personality

• What are all the differences in physiology of Extraverts and Introverts

• Explain the roles of enzymes and neurotransmitters in personality

• Explain the influence of Eysenck’s theory in psychopathology.

REFERENCE

• Larsen, R.L. & Buss, D.M.(2005).Personality Psychology: Domains of

Knowledge About Human Nature.SecondEdition.533-563.

• Hall, C.S. & Lindsey, G.(1985).Introduction to Theories of Personality. John

Wiley &Sons. New York.436-455.

• Peterson, C.(1988).Personality. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers.

Florida.316-319.

• en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/factor_analysis