Ch 12 Biological Traits Hans Eysenck

Factor-analytic

Studies provide a description of personality

Causal analyses

based on experimental tests of deductions to identify biological causes

Step 1: Eysenck’s theory

Hypothesize the relationship between various personality traits

Step 2: Eysenck’s theory

Conduct factor analytic studies to identify clusters of traits that indicate underlying superfactors

Step 3: Eysenck’s theory

Construct a biological theory to account for the behaviors associated with the underlying superfactors

Step 4: Eysenck’s theory

Generate hypotheses from the theory concerning specific testable psychophysical, neurological, or hormonal components.

Step 5: Eysenck’s theory

Conduct experimental studies to validate the theoretical prediction

Step 6: Eysenck’s theory

Revise the theory where needed in light of experimental studies

Hierarchical model of personality

• Specific responses of behaviors that we can actually observe

• Habitual response clusters of specific behaviors that characteristically reoccur when in similar circumstances

• Traits are clusters of related habitual responses

• General dimensions or basic types are clusters of traits

Introversion versus Extraversion

Degree to which a person is outgoing and participative in relating to other people

Emotionality versus Stability

Individual’s adjustment to the environment and the stability of his or her behavior over time

Psychoticism

Characterized by the loss or distortion of reality and inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy

Intercorrelation of Traits

Neuroticism, introversion, emotional stability, and extraversion correlate with Melanocholic, Choleric Phlegmatic, and Saguine

Early suggestion:

variations in central nervous system levels of inhibition and excitation

Revised suggestion:

specific biological functions responsible for excitation and inhibition