Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

Personality is a distinguished way of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Personality grips attitudes, moods, and opinions and is most apparently expressed in communications with other people.

It comprises behavioral individuality, both inherent and obtained, that differentiate one person from another and that can be experienced in people’s relations to the surroundings and to the social group.

Personality is defined as the character sets of behaviors, thinking styles, and emotional patterns that evolve from genetics and ecological factors.

Whereas there is no usually settled upon definition of personality, mainly the theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with one’s surroundings. 

In this article, we will discuss the Eysenck personality questionnaire. 

Eysenck’s Personality Theory:

Eysenck’s personality theory is considered a proper model and the most concrete theory that psychology has accessible.

The theory gives the best explanation of why each individual has their own personality.

The theory affirms that there are three great personality traits surrounded by each of us.

These three personality traits are psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism. According to Eysenck, each human being has a diverse level of each trait.

The levels of these three traits are what make up our personalities.

Eysenck’s personality theory affirms that there are three traits from which psychologists can make a diagnosis at the biopsychosocial level.

Hans Eysenck’s Approach:

In England, he received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of London in 1940.

During World War II, he worked as a psychologist at an emergency hospital, where he did research on the consistency of psychiatric diagnosis.

The consequences led him to a lifelong hostility to conventional clinical psychology.

After the war, he taught at the University of London, as well as serving as the director of the psychology department of the Institute of Psychiatry, linked with Bethlem Royal Hospital.

He has written 75 books and around 700 articles, making him one of the most productive writers in psychology.

Eysenck retired in 1983 and persisted to write till his death on September 4, 1997.

Before his death in 1997, Eysenck’s theory remains influential and he was the most quoted existing psychologist, and he is the third most quoted psychologist of all time, after Freud and Piaget.

Eysenck was extremely doubtful about using psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in clinical cases.

On the other hand, he shielded behavioral therapy as the finest treatment for mental illness.

Eysenck’s Personality Structure:

Eysenck classifies personality into four special levels.

At the bottom, you discover particular answers to questions that do not actually exemplify a person.

On the second level, you would uncover reactions that happen more regularly all through unusual conditions.

In the third level are behaviors that the person does often.

Finally, at the peak of the pyramid and the fourth level are the super factors, which we delve into below.

“The notion of personality is intimately related to the notion of stability, consistency, and repeated occurrence of actions. It refers to the covariation of a number of behavioral acts.” -Eysenck, 1987-

Eysenck’s Two-Factor Theory:

Hans Eysenck supported his two-factor theory on these ideas. In order to do this, he studied the way people respond to personality questionnaires.

Eysenck carried out a factorial study, which is a numerical data diminution and agglutination method.

In this situation, he used this system to reduce behaviors to a sequence of reasons with general characteristics: the super factors.

Every one set of factors is grouped below one aspect.

Eysenck acknowledged three independent personality dimensions: Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), and Neuroticism (N), that is why it is called the PEN model.

According to him, these three super factors sufficiently explain personality traits. 

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire:

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is a self-report tool that is based on Eysenck’s theory of personality.

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was developed by Hans J. Eysenck, one of the most significant personality theorists, and Sybil B. G. Eysenck, and is part of a grouping of scales developed by Eysenck and his contemporaries.

The first in print scale in this line of work was the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI; H. J. Eysenck & Knapp, 1962), which considered two personality traits, Neuroticism (N) and Extraversion (E). Following the publication of the MPI, a lie downscale was further added and two alternating forms were devised, forming the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI; H. J. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1964).

Consequently, a third personality trait, Psychoticism (P) was further added, creating the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.

The psychoticism subscale had unwanted psychometric properties and was condemned for having low consistency or reliability, a small range of scoring, and a twisted allocation.

In response, in 1985 the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was modified by getting rid of some items from the P scale and adding up some items to the P, N, and E scales.

The revised assessment, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire‐R is the currently used form of the questionnaire (S.B.G. Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985) and is the most important measure of Eysenck’s personality dimensions.

Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire’s Three Dimensions:

1. Neuroticism (stability/instability): 

Firstly, Eysenck realized neuroticism as the utmost level of expressive instability.

Eysenck used this measurement to give details on why a number of people are more prone than others to experience nervousness, hysteria, hopelessness, or fixation.

He defined neurotic people at the same time as those who respond in an inflated means more habitually and discover it tricky to come back to a normal level of expressive commencement.

At the further extreme of the measurement, there are emotionally steady, composed, and rational natives who have an elevated degree of self-will. 

Neuroticism or emotionality is differentiated by soaring levels of negative influence such as anxiety and depression.

According to Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire Neuroticism is founded on opening entrances in the concerned panicky system or intuitive brain.

This is the measurement of the intellect that is accountable for the fight or flight response in the face of danger.

Commencement can be measured by heart rate, blood pressure, frosty hands, panic and muscular tension (especially in the forehead).

Neurotic people, who have lowering activation entry, and not capable to slow down or be in charge of their emotional feedback, familiarity negative effect (fight or flight) in the expression of extremely insignificant stressors.

They are effortlessly anxious or distressed.

Expressively steady people, who have elevated high activation entrances and fine emotional, have power over, experience negative have an effect on only in the features of every major stressor they are peaceful and composed under pressure.

2. Extraversion/Introversion:

Secondly, people with higher scores in extraversion have higher personality traits of sociability, spontaneity, lack of shyness, vivacity, confidence, and inventiveness.

On top of, the more introverted people are usually calmer, unreceptive, are less societal, and more negative.

On the other hand, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire believes that the main dissimilar between the two factors is physiological.

It is based on the level of cortical provocation.

Extroversion is exemplified by being sociable, conversational, high on positive influence (good mood), and in a need of exterior motivation.

According to Eysenck’s arousal theory of extroversion, there is a best possible level of cortical arousal, and presentation gets worse as one turns out to be more or less stimulated than this most favorable level.

Arousal can be considered by skin conductance, mind waves, or be agitated.

At very low and very high levels of arousal, presentation is low, but at a supplementary best possible mid-level of provocation, the presentation gets the most out of it.

Extroverts, according to Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire, are constantly under-aroused and uninterested and are consequently in need of external stimulation to get them up to a most favorable level of presentation.

Introverts, on the other hand, are constantly over-aroused and nervous and are consequently in need of peace and quiet to get them up to a best possible level of routine.

3. Psychoticism:

Thirdly, the intensity of a person’s psychoticism gives consideration to their weakness to spontaneity, fierceness, and a lack of compassion.

These inhabitants are often insensible, unsociable, aggressive, hostile, and overgenerous.

If someone scores high on psychoticism, you might be inclined to a variety of mental illnesses, such as psychosis.

Contrasting the other two dimensions, psychoticism does not have a contradictory or opposite severe.

As an alternative, psychoticism is there at dissimilar levels in everyone.

Psychoticism is related not only with the responsibility to have a psychotic episode (or break with real life), but also with hostility and aggression.

Psychotic actions are ingrained in the personality of tough-mindedness, non-conformity, inconsideration, irresponsibility, lack of sympathy, antagonism, and recklessness.

The physiological foundation suggested by Eysenck for psychoticism is testosterone, with high levels of psychoticism associated with high levels of testosterone.

To finish off, personality is one of the most motivating, careful, and important topics in psychology.

Personality is considered in deepness with the target of explanation of why a person is a way they are.

One of the most significant theories in personality psychology is Eysenck’sPersonality Questionnaire, which has become a foundation stone theory.

When Eysenck first formed his theory it laid the groundwork for the methodical study of personality and human behavior.

Measurement of PEN Model of Dimensions:

An assortment of instruments is accessible to assess individual dimensions of the PEN model of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.

Hans and Sybil Eysenck developed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) to deal with the traits explained in the model (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976).

The following table expresses the personality traits that are connected with the three temperaments in Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire:

Psychoticism	Extroversion	Neuroticism
Aggressive	Sociable	Anxious
Assertive	Reckless	Depressed
Self-centered	Dominant	Guilt Feelings
Apathetic	Lack of reflection	Low self-esteem
Controlling	Sensation-seeking	Stressed
Achievement-oriented	Impulsive	Temperamental
Rigid	Risk-taking	Hypochondriac
Masculine	Communicative	Lack of autonomy
Tough-minded	Active	Fixated

 
The further grouping incorporated in the questionnaire is not a primary character but during the comprehensive testing of personality that Eysenck conducted, he also looked into the areas of Sexuality and Political approaches that of course have fun the main part in our lives and a resolute average of performance and point of view with his usual statistical attention to detail.

FAQs about Eysenck Personality Questionnaire 

References:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/personality

https://exploringyourmind.com/eysencks-personality-theory/

https://trans4mind.com/personality/EPQ.html

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0340

https://www.psychologistworld.com/personality/pen-model-personality-eysenck