Hans Eysenck's Personality Theories (continued)

ENDURING ASPECTS OF PERSONALITY (continued)

The major dimensions are independent of one another: for example, normal behavior may take introverted or extraverted forms, as may neurotic behavior. The above table describes some components of introversion(I), extraversion(E), and neuroticism(N), and depicts combinations of these dimensions and accompanying sets of traits. As you can see, for example, the normal extravert tends, among other things, to be lively and responsive, the normal introvert reliable and thoughtful. The neurotic extravert may be touchy and aggressive, whereas the neurotic introvert may be anxious and pessimistic.

The third major dimension, along which people vary, Eysenck proposes, is normality-psychoticism. Note that psychoticism (P) is not equivalent to psychosis as, for example, in schizophrenia-although a schizophrenic person would be expected to score high on psychoticism. The high-P person tends to be hostile and unconventional and considered "peculiar" by acquaintances.

Eysenck has devoted a great deal of study to intelligence. One of his major concerns, the heritability of intelligence focuses on the controversy surrounding this topic.

Produced for Thinkquest Internet Challenge 2000.

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