PSYCH 2B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Tenseness, Autonomic Nervous System, Impulsivity
2 Jun 2018
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Eysenck’s PEN Theory
Lecture 7
Introduction
• The trait approach is the dominant one because it easily quantifies personality (can put
numbers on these traits) and it is a natural way for people to describe personality
o This doesn’t make the trait approach right or better than others, just more popular
• Assumes that our traits are determined by our genes and are relatively fixed, but can be
changed throughout life
• There are no treatment/counseling models/guidelines for the trait approach; not helpful in
clinical psychology
Structure of Personality: Acts to Factors
• Hans Eysenck was both a behaviourist and believed that personality came from genetics
(recognized both nature and nurture)
• His model of personality contains four levels of analysis:
• Act (bottom) – individual acts/behaviours, whether it is mental (thoughts) or observable
o Acts are often correlated w/ each other; patterns of thinking/behaving are grouped
together
o These patterns are habits
• Habit – a set of related acts
• Trait – habits that occur together
• Factor – traits themselves are also correlated
• Acts are organized into habits, habits organized into traits, traits organized into factors
• Movement from experience-determined aspects of personality to genetically-determined
aspects also move in the direction of his hierarchy
o Acts and habits are determined by experience and learning
o Traits and factors are determined by your genetics and your genotype
• Interaction: your genetics predispose you to liking certain things and seeking out certain
experiences. You will put yourself in certain contexts rather than others → learning
particular things relevant to those experiences
Eysenck’s PEN Dimensions
• His theory focuses on the most general & most genetically-determined aspects of
personality: the factors
• PEN = psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism
• His theory argues three orthogonal (independent) factor dimensions:
o These dimensions are independent and do not have an effect on one another
o Extraversion-introversion – these are not traits, they are factors
▪ Borrowed from Jung; some people oriented primarily to external world,
internal self in others
▪ Traits: sociability, activity, assertiveness, sensation-seeking dominance,
venturesome-ness, carefree-ness
• High in extroverts, low in introverts
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Interaction: your genetics predispose you to liking certain things and seeking out certain experiences. You will put yourself in certain contexts rather than others learning particular things relevant to those experiences. In north america, there is value in extroversion while asians value introversion. Queen"s prisoners (1950s) and found the previous 2 dimensions couldn"t capture their personalities. Personality assessment instruments: eysenck personality inventory (epi) contains 57 statements for individuals to rate how much they reflected themselves, measures only extraversion and neuroticism, eysenck personality questionnaire (epq) contains 90 statements, measures psychoticism as well. Connection to hippocrates-galen type model: eysenck was influenced by the greek/roman theories of personality. Mental illnesses: depression, anxiety, antisocial-psychopathic disorders, hysterical symptoms (physiological complaints) phobias, ocd. Introverts have an over-aroused ras; constantly sending too many impulses to the cortex: staying away from noisy, stimulus-rich environments is what introverts do. Behaviours try to bring arousal down to optimal: adhd hyperactivity is thought to be caused also by and under-aroused ras.
