Eysenck's personality theory

We humans are curious beings, it seems that it is part of our nature to question us about many things, especially with respect to our existence, at least, at some point in our life. Many philosophers and scientists throughout history have tried to solve many questions about man and his behavior or his way of proceeding, finding others in his path. Why do we act in a certain way to some circumstances? What makes us "similar" and at the same time different from others?

Content

• Approaches that influenced Hans Jürgen Eysenck
• PEN: Dimensional and hierarchical structure of personality
• Hierarchical Structure of Eysenck's personality
• Cortical excitation-infection theory
• Arousal-Cortical Activation Theory
  • Conclusion
  • Links
  • Bibliographic references

Approaches that influenced Hans Jürgen Eysenck

To develop his theories he was based on the typology Hypocratic-gallenic, In the update made by Kant and Wundt, which tries to explain the similarities and differences between people, through the description of the 4 types of human temperament, made up of the Personality: blood, choleric, phlegmatic and melancholic. However, he also relied on the contributions of great theorists within psychiatry such as: Gross, Heymans and Wiersma, Kretchmer and the famous Carl Gustav Jung, to quote only some.

Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a great English scientist and psychologist of German origin. He believed that largely Personality was also determined by physiological aspects of the individual such as genes, which can arrange for a subject to conduct themselves in a particular way.

His arduous work led him to agree that Each person has certain characteristics or features, which are relatively stable despite the time And the circumstances affirmed that individual differences in behavior are due to the nervous system, thus participating in the establishment of the bases to carry out more studies in this regard and contributing to the development of psychometry.

Through his investigations, he could observe that these differences and similarities between individuals are also influenced by situational and environmental factors, that is, that Personality traits are also composed of sociocultural elements. Around this, he affirmed that:

"It is the most stable and lasting organization of the character, temperament, intellect and physical of a person, which determines its unique adaptation to the environment".

The search for the answer to your questions, drives you to be a great researcher, used the correlational tradition, with its taxonomic or descriptive model and the experimental, The latter was influenced by the Russian school, because at that time many experimental studies were developed about the differences of each individual in psychophysical aspects, this last tradition, followed it through the causal or explanatory model.

PEN: Dimensional and hierarchical structure of personality

He tried to find the basic dimensions of personality as Cattell, although the latter was based on the terms described to the personality within the language; instead Eysenck spoke of three inherited primary dimensions and physiological basis, this was measured by the reactivity of the autonomic nervous system. Through the taxonomic or descriptive model, it proposes a personality model based on the traits that configure it, it does so through the factor analysis to describe the personality, then the three dimensions with their types of structure and some corresponding features:

PSicoticism: It has to do with the features of aggressiveness, impulsivity (or under impulse control), creativity, coldness, cruelty, egocentrism and hardness (immovable), do not usually empathize, can be difficult or impossible for them to confront reality.

Extraversion-Introversion: The features of vitality, brilliance, sensation search engine, sociability, impulsivity and activity belong to this item, can be dogmatic and dominant.

Neuroticism-Emotionability: In this dimension the features of variability, emotionality, irrationality, shyness, taciturnity, low self -esteem, guilt, anxiety and restlessness are understood.  The associated brain structure would be specifically the limbic system, which is involved in emotional regulation. Individuals with a high degree of neuroticism are people whose autonomic nervous system can be activated with great ease.

It correlates it with the explanatory or causal model of personality by anchoring biological structures at the basis of these dimensions and confirming them experimentally.

Hierarchical Structure of Eysenck's personality

He said that the hierarchical structure of personality has:

1. Specific answers: Behaviors that are observed once and can be characteristic of the subject or not.
2. Usual responses: Behaviors with some stability.
3. Traits: Constructs resulting from the interrelation of various habits.
4. Guys: Constructs resulting from the interrelation of different features.

Cortical excitation-infection theory

The extraversion-irversion dimension is determined by the differences between the processes of excitation and cortical inhibition. Eysenck used physiological processes without locating them any specific part of the cortical system, basing in concepts of Pavlov and Hull, mainly. He said that people who develop introverted behavior patterns and that they usually have distlic problems, in case psychopathology is generated, are characterized by a strong excitation plus a slow and weak cortical inhibition, which produces that a behavior is inhibited.

While in the dimensions of extraverted, it is quite the opposite, he proposed that people who are predisposed to develop extraverted behavior guidelines and have hysterical-psychopathic alterations, also in the event that there are any psychopathology, a weak excitation and an intense but rapid cortical inhibition, which produces uninhibited behavior. Here, the concept of physiological inhibition is inversely proportional to behavioral inhibition, that is:

Greater cortical inhibition, lower behavioral inhibition, as shown in the behavior of extraverted and vice versa.

Arousal-Cortical Activation Theory

The concept of Cortical or arousal activation, It can be understood as a continuum of excite.

Try to explain the differences related to extraversion-introversion and determine through the level of cortical excitation (Aroual-, which is controlled by a type of "Door with access to stimulation": Ascending reticular activation system (SARA), Funge as a neurological base responsible for the level of attention.

In natural resting circumstances, introverted people seem overestimulated, as they show an elevated arousal level, while extraverted ones are hypoestimulated by what they will tend to seek stimulation, the latter have a low -rowing level of rough arousal.

Sara activates and deactivates the upper parts of the brain (cerebral cortex), participates in the maintenance of the alert and concentration state, as well as in the control of the sleep-vigilia cycle. One of the most direct strategies to test the highest level of cortical activation has been to work with evoked potentials, their hypotheses have tried to verify indirectly through performance studies.

For better understanding of the issues, I leave here a table that includes some important aspects that were taken into account within Eysenck's biofactorial theory.

Conclusion

Hans Eysenck He was a great researcher who dedicated his life to the study of human behavior, thanks to his work we have been able to advance in areas as important as psychometry and the measurement of personality traits, since his work established an important antecedent in this area ; One of its main objectives was Analyze the neurophysiological bases of human behavior, performed theories, models and tests for the measurement of certain features that they typified, which represented a great advance in the study of behavior.

In addition, He laid the empirical bases of cognitive and behavioral approach therapies. The theories presented by him have their framework within the psychobiological models of personality, sustenance and fruit of them resided under the scrutiny of experimental methodology.

Links

• http: // www.Paidopsiquiatria.CAT/Files/Eysenck.PDF
• https: // www.psychoactive.com/Blog/Los-4-Tipos-Temperamento-Humano/

Bibliographic references

• Bermudez Moreno, J., Pérez García a. M. and Sanjuán Suárez, P. (2017). Personality Psychology: Theory and Research. Volume I. Spain: Didactic UNED
• Eysenck, h.J. And Eysenck, S.B.G. (1994). Manual of the eysenck personality Questionnaire. California: Educational and Indu