Eysenck’s PEN Theory- personality psychology PDF

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Eysencks PEN theory ...

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Eysenck’s PEN Theory Trait based approach// The dominant perspectives// not clinical -The belief that it was inappropriate and wrong to see personality as just one analysis but rather we have to see it as a hierchy organized into variable of increasing complexity - Individual acts: a single movement or a single thought. Very often groups of these acts tend to occur over and over again with each other. Acts as a habit. In addition, we can see a collection of habits that occur together… ie; traits. Those traits see interrelation trait values that are factors. (factors are interrelated traits) -argues that the intercorelated traits are determined biologically by the factors, these factors are related by the traits and the positions are determined by the habit. (top bottom) -this is why we learn certain things and not others Eysenck’s PEN Dimensions -he determined that there were two important traits in personality and between these two we can see what is significant 1. Extraversion  Introversion: if you look at individuals with high extraversion we see they are also high in sociability, activity, assertiveness, dominance etc. and if you look at introversion we see that they are also low in all of those areas. Neuroticism  stability: Where you stand on the extraversion and introversion line doesn’t have any correlation with the stability neuroticism. If you are neuroticism you are high in anxiousness, depression, low self-esteem, shyness, moodiness, tenseness, irrationality, emotionality and the opposite in stability -in the western countries, they want an extraversion child and in the east, they want introversion. For Eysenck, he doesn’t care. -up until the 1950s this was his theory, he was working with normal occupations -he began working with criminals after the 1950s and realized that these four aspects were not enough to categorize these people. Here came the P. -Psychoticism  Ego control (think of it as an in and out arrow not a diagonal): the reason he did not find this before is because normal people do not have this trait but when working with criminals you can see more psychopathic tendencies. Psychoticism is high in aggressiveness, coldness, egocentricity, impulsivity, antisocial, unempathic, tough-mindedness, creativity and like always is the opposite in ego control.

-he wanted to understand the biology around personality, why do people fall in specific places. Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) -measures only extraversion, neuroticism (says yes or no only) -57 questions: “do you prefer to have few but special friends?” “do you get attacks of shaking or trembling” Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) -Measures all factors (yes or no) -90 items: “do you enjoy hurting people you love” “do you worry a lot about catching disease” “would it upset you to see an animal or person suffer” Arousal and Efficiency -it is good to be pumped up to a degree but if you are too much than it will mess you up. -The arousal distinguishes how you are in the introvert/extrovert. -Extravert: a very low arousal cortex, they are below the optimal level. Their behaviour is a compensation of the low level of arousal. RAS: is not sending enough waking or activating messages to the cortex, and in order to fix that they have to increase the social activity risk taking etc. Most likely to come down with somatic symptoms and antisocial behaviours.

highly retreat optimal

-Exactly the opposite position, and is aroused. There pattern of behaviour is to from social situation in order to meet the arousal.

-Introverts anxiety,

are more likely to be diagnosed with phobias, OCD and do better in school.

-it isn’t -introverts -introverts study with noise

about people it’s about stimulation aren’t antisocial but rather a party study with a quieter area as extraverts’

Research Findings re E-1 Introverts: faster pupillary contraction slower dilation (inhibitory response) Extroverts: Require lower levels of sedation to reach sedation threshold (introverts need more sedation to be able to go under satiation) Introverts: Prefer lower levels of stimulation when learning Extroverts: Higher pain tolerance than introverts

Introverts: Learn more quickly, forget more slowly (you can think of someone with ADHD has extreme extroversions) Highly Stable -looks at autonomic system -sympathetic nervous system is in charge of the fight or flight -a very high threshold, it takes a very intense very emotionally driven in order for them to respond to this fight or flight stimulation and it will be a very small response Highly Neurotic -very low autonomic system, big emotional response to the same level of challenge with a stable individual psychoticism -Associated with HIGH levels of testosterone (the male sex hormone), this is why a lot of people who are psychoticism are males. -Associated with LOW levels of MAO (a chemical which breaks down transmitters) (monoamine oxidase) -MAO levels negatively correlated with impulsivity -MAO levels negatively correlated with aggressiveness *****(the lower the level the higher the reaction) *** Factor Analytic Trait Theories -Most quantifiable -all languages have trait development words (honest, integrity etc.) around 10,000 in English -the assumption that these traits are genetic, genes inherited through development -factor analysis tries to explain the interrelations between various traits. It can be applied to all sorts of data. Can we explain these relations by a little factor? -what we want to notice here is a lot of them are inter correlated, we assume that high inter correlation indicate that some one thing is influencing or shaping the way these traits are. So how do we mathematically model how these traits are coming. -We can eliminate the low levels (0) and only keep the highly correlated factors. -we assume there is an underlying aspect on why all these are inter correlated.

-a way of mathematically of showing the interrelationships between a number of measures. -you can do this in many ways- orthogonal factors or non-orthogonal factors (you will find more with orthogonal) Naming Our First Factor F1= .8C + .6D + .5E + .6F + .7G C= “likes to party” D= “seeks out sensations” E= “likes to take risks” F= “learns more solely” G= “Has leadership skills” Introverted//extroverted -we take the interrelation between the two and produces a module of how you would account for the inter correlations. What Factor Analysis Does -Does not find “real” things -makes up a story on how you might find these correlations -hypothetical -Does not identify factors -we have to make up these names ourselves -Not necessary traits -although we talk about it in trait aspects it does not have to be that way. -Results depend on measures -what sort of underlying factor structures could make sense of this data -Results depend on parameters -Orthogonal vs. non-orthogonal -exploratory (put data in and have no idea what it is to come) vs. confirmatory (already have an idea of the underlying factor for a particular data is) What makes a factor “basic”? (Costa & McCrae) -The big 5: you can tell when a factor is basic because it will share a consistent trait -Reliable: stable over time and observers -used by both theorists and laypersons. -Appears across cultures -must have some biological basis Early Factor Analytic Theories Catell’s 16PF: student to famous statistic, wanted to know basic underlying factors

The Big Five: (dimensions) 1. Extroversions//Introversions: social adaptability, assertiveness, sociability and ambition, positive emotionality, interpersonal involvement 2. Agreeableness: conformity, friendliness-hostility, likeability, friendly compliance, sociability, love, level of socialization 3. Conscientiousness – Will: steady, going along, staying with things, will to achieve, dependability, prudence, impulsivity 4. Neuroticism – emotional stability: emotional control, emotionality, adjustment, emotional stability 5. Intellect (openness): Neo-pi is the tool they use to calculate / diagnose Change in the big five factors with age -social dominance increases in age (extroversions, especially between 20 and 40) -Conscientiousness increase with age (20 and 40) -emotional stability (neuroticism, especially between 20 and 40) -social catality (extroversion, especially up in adolescence and down in old age) -Openness (up in adolescence; down in old age) -Agreeableness (up in old age) -different genes are active at different points in life Cultural Difference in Big 5 European/American vs. Asian and African - Individuals in the west tend to be more extraversion than Asian and African. - It is considered to be more desirable in American cultures to be extraverted but introverted in Africa/Asia -genetic selection: Canada is a nation of immigrants, if you consider the personality characteristics of the people who left their old culture and families… who are these people likely to be? Adventurous - also, higher levels in openness -lower level in agreeableness Zuckerman & Kulmans Alternate Five -an alternate way in capturing using factors -sociability -neuroticism / anxiety -impulsive sensation-seeking -aggression/ hostility -activity -has a complex model

don’t really need to know Low blood Platelet MAO and Alternate 5 -there is no way to tap into the human brain unless one is dead -MAO is to degrade break down and destroy transmitters if there is a lot of them there is a diminished level of neuro activity -positively associated with -impulsive sensation-seeking -aggression-hostility -correlated with -chronic marijuana use: individuals that use marijuana frequently has low levels of MAO, could also be that people with low levels are more prone to be addicted -chronic schizophrenia -adults with borderline, antisocial PD -children with ADHD, conduct disorder Zuckerman and Arousal high sensation seekers may have a higher optimal levels of catecholamine activity than low sensation seekers… (they may be) chronically under aroused and seek stimulation to activate the system. (but) “cortical arousal is not the source of reward for sensation-seeking activity” HEXACO trait model -No dimension 5 (openness) in several lexicons: Italian Hungarian Greek -Extraversion-conscientious dimension in Filipino (Tagalog) -Six factors emerge in 7 language lexicons: Dutch, Hungarian, Polish, Korean, French, German, Italian -reanalysis of English lexicon also extracts 6 factors dimensions HEXACO six-factor model -Honesty-humility -Emotionality -extraversion -agreeableness -conscientiousness -openness

De Raad et all (2014) -combined trait lexicons from 10 languages De Raad et all (2014) 3- to 6-factor model -affiliation, dynamism, order

-openess is always the wacky outliar Critiques of Trait Theories -little about personality development -little clinical relevance -lots of overlap among factors -no mention of unconscious at all -relation between traits, cognitions? -no better at predicting behaviour...