DISPOSITIONAL/TRAIT THEORIES

4.3. Biologically-based Factor Theory: Hans Eysenck

Eysenck’s Factor Theory

 with strong psychometric and biological components;
o psychometric sophistication alone is not sufficient to measure the structure of
human personality

 he derived only three, rather than five, dimensions of personality

 individual differences in people’s personalities were biological, and not merely
psychological, aspects of personality

Evidence for the biological basis

1. Temperament is the biologically based tendency to behave in particular ways from very
early in life
a. The prenatal environment may play an important role in shaping personality
(e.g., high heart rate and eating and sleeping habits; mother’s amount of stress)

2. Behavioral generics – the scientific study of the role of heredity in behavior

a. Twin-adoption (identical and fraternal) studies
b. Gene-by-environment interaction research allows researchers to assess how
genetic differences interact with environment

3. Brain imaging techniques

a. Electroencephalography (EEG)
b. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Biography of Hans Eysenck

ͽ Hans Jurgen Eysenck | March 4, 1916 | Berlin
ͽ As a teenager, moved to England to escape Nazis
ͽ Received his PhD in psychology at the University of London in 1940
ͽ Published Dimensions of Personality in 1947
ͽ One of the most prolific and controversial psychologists in the world
ͽ Died in 1997 at age 81

Criteria for Identifying Factors

1. Psychometric evidence for the factor’s existence must be established
2. The factor must also possess heritability and must fit an established genetic model
a. This criterion eliminates learned characteristics

3. The factor must make sense from a theoretical view

a. Deductive method of investigation, beginning with a theory and the gathering
data that are logically consistent with that theory
4. It must possess social relevance; it must be demonstrated that mathematically derived
factors have a relationship with such socially relevant variables as drug addiction,
proneness to unintentional injuries, outstanding performance in sports, psychotic
behavior, criminality, and so on.

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Four-level hierarchy of behavior organization:

First level: Specific behaviors or cognitions – individual behaviors or thoughts that may or
may not be characteristics of a person

Second level: Habitual acts or cognitions – responses that recur under similar conditions;
must be reasonably reliable or consistent

Third Level: Traits, or personal dispositions – important semi-permanent personality

dispositions; more systematic approach
 Most of Cattell’s 35 normal and abnormal primary source traits are at this level of
organization

Fourth Level: Types or super factors – made up of several interrelated traits

Dimensions of Personality: Three General Superfactors

1. Extraversion/introversion (E)
2. Neuroticism/stability (N)
3. Psychoticism/superego function (P)

 All three are bipolar – one pole and opposite pole

 Each factor is unimodally, rather than bimodally distributed (normal distribution)

Extraversion
 Extraverts are characterized by
sociability, impulsiveness, jocularity,
liveliness, optimism, and quick-
wittedness
 Introverts are quiet, passive,
unsociable, careful, reserved,
thoughtful, pessimistic, peaceful,
sober, and controlled.

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 Eysenck, however, believed that the principal difference between extraverts and
introverts is one of cortical arousal level.

Neuroticism
 Like extraversion/introversion,
neuroticism/stability is largely
influenced by genetic factors.
 People high in neuroticism have such
traits as anxiety, hysteria, and
obsessive-compulsive disorders.
 They frequently have a tendency to
overreact emotionally and to have
difficulty returning to a normal state after emotional arousal.
 They often complain of physical symptoms such as headache and backache, but they
also may be free from psychological symptoms.

Psychoticism
 The latest and weakest of Eysenck's
personality factors is
psychoticism/superego.
 High psychotic scores may indicate
anxiety, hysteria, egocentricism,
nonconformance, aggression,
impulsiveness, hostility, and
obsessive-compulsive disorders.
 Both normal and abnormal individuals may score high on the neuroticism scale.

Measuring Personality: Eysenck evolved four personality inventories that measure his
superfactors
 Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) – assessed only E and N and yielded some
correlation between these two factors

 Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)

o Contains a Lie Scale (L) to detect faking
o Measures E and N independently, with a near zero correlation between E and
N
o Extended to children 7 to 16 years of age

Biological Bases of Personality

 Three-fourth of the variance of all three personality dimensions can be accounted for
heredity and about one-four by environmental factors
 Nearly present among people in various parts of the world
 The different dimensions are stable over time
 High concordance between identical twins than between same-gender fraternal twins
reared together
 The three dimensions have both antecedents and consequences
o Antecedents are genetic and biological
o Consequences include such experimental variables as conditioning
experiences, sensitivity, and memory as well as social behaviors

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Personality as a Predictor

Personality and Behavior

 An effective theory of personality should predict both proximal and distal
consequences
 Many psychology studies have reached erroneous conclusions because they have
ignored personality factors
 Comparing the effectiveness of discovery learning and traditional reception learning
have often produced either conflicting differences or no differences
o These studies did not consider that extraverted children prefer and do better
with the more active discovery learning

 Eysenck also hypothesized that P is related to genius and creativity

o Many children have creative ability, are nonconforming, and have unorthodox
ideas; but they grow up to be noncreative people
o People lack persistence of high P scorers
o Children with the same creative potential who are also high in P are able to
resist the criticisms of parents and teachers and to emerge as creative adults

 Both high P scorers and high E scorers are likely to be troublemakers as children
o High E scoring troublemakers tend to grow into productive adults
o High P scoring troublemakers tend to continue to have learning problems

 Psychologists can be led away if they do not consider the various combinations of
personality dimensions in conducting their research

Personality and Disease

 People who scored low on N on the MPI tended to suppress their emotion and were
much more likely than high N scorers to receive a later diagnosis of lung cancer
 Effectiveness of behavior therapy on prolonging the life of cancer and CVD patients
Type I – hopeless/helpless nonemotional reaction to stress
Type II – typically reacted to frustration with anger, aggression, and emotional arousal
Type III – ambivalent, shifting from Type I to Type II, and vice-versa
Type IV – regarded their own autonomy as an important condition to their personal well-
being and happiness

 Type I people were much more likely than others to die of cancer
 Type II people were much more likely to die of heart disease
 Type III and Type IV individuals had very low death rates from either cancer or CVD
 These do not prove that psychological factors cause cancer and heart disease

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 These diseases are caused by an interaction of many factors

 Cigarette smoking alone does not cause cancer or CVD, but when it is combined with
stress and personality factors, it helps contribute to death from these two diseases

Collected Studies

The Biological Basis of Extraversion

 Extraverts would be less cortically aroused and show worse performance on a boring
and monotonous task
o Introverts are more reactive on various measures of arousal
o Extraverts are quicker to respond on simple motor task
o It was only motoric response rate, not cognitive processing speed, that
differentiated introverts and extraverts
o Extraverts may move faster but they do not think faster than introverts
o Eysenck theorized that introverts should work best in environment of relatively
low sensory stimulation, whereas extraverts should perform best under
conditions of relatively high sensory stimulations

 Twin studies have found that most basic personality traits have heritability estimates
of between 40% and 60%
o Between 50& and 55% of the difference in N is due to genetics
o Specific gene location involved in producing neurotransmitters, such as
serotonin, that are connected to traits of E, N, P

The Biological Basis of Neuroticism

 The amygdala, which is responsible for processing fearful and threatening stimuli, is
divided (as with hemispheres) into the right amygdala and left amygdala
o Right amygdala is more strongly associated with negative emotions (e.g., fear
and sadness)
o Left amygdala has been associated with both positive and negative responses
o Increased amygdala activity is found more in the left than right amygdala

 People high in N are biased toward and more sensitive to negative emotional
experiences partly due to an overactive amygdala
 Increased physiological reactivity is also associated with N
o Reactivity is both stronger and longer lasting in people high in neuroticism

Other Studies
 Extraverts experience more pleasant emotions
 Neurotics have low self-esteem and high guilt feelings
 Neurotics function well in fast-paced, stressful jobs
 Neurotics score lower in verbal ability
 Psychotics can be cruel, hostile, and insensitive
 Psychotics have more problems with alcohol and drug abuse
 Psychotics are aggressive, antisocial, and egocentric

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Critique of Trait and Factor Theories (including McCrae & Costa’s)

 Very High on Generating Research and Parsimony
 High on Organizing Knowledge
 Moderate on Falsifiability
 Moderate to Low as a Guide for Practitioners and Internal Consistency

Concepts of Humanity
 Eysenck, McCrae, and Costa are not concerned with concepts of determinism versus
free choice, optimism versus pessimism, and causality versus teleology
 Biology over Social Influence
 Conscious over Unconscious
 Uniqueness over Similarity

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