Answer the following questions with 5 (very much)‚ 4‚ 3‚ 2‚ or 1 (not at all)‚ then add up the three columns:

1.  Do you have many different hobbies?

2.  Do you stop to think things over before doing anything?

3.  Does your mood often go up and down?

4.  Are you a talkative person?

5.  Would being in debt worry you?

6.  Do you ever feel "just miserable" for no reason?

7.  Do you lock up your house carefully at night?

8.  Are you rather lively?

9.  Would it upset you a lot to see a child or animal suffer?

10.  Do you often worry about things you should not have done or said?

11.  Can you usually let yourself go and enjoy yourself at a lively party?

12.  Are you an irritable person?

13.  Do you enjoy meeting new people?

14.  Do you believe insurance plans are a good idea?

15.  Are your feelings easily hurt?

TOTAL:                                                 
E       N       P

Scoring

E:    5 to 10‚ introverted
20 to 25‚ extraverted
N:    15 to 25‚ neuroticistic
P:    5 to 15‚ psychoticistic

Because this minitest is extremely short‚ it is NOT to be taken as an accurate assessment of your personality.  It is for illustration purposes only!

Eysenck’s theory is  based primarily on physiology and genetics.  Although he is a behaviorist who considers learned habits of great importance‚ he considers personality differences as growing out of our genetic inheritance.  He is‚ therefore‚ primarily interested in what is usually called temperament.

Eysenck is also primarily a research psychologist.  His methods involve a statistical technique called factor analysis.  This technique extracts a number of “dimensions” from large masses of data.  For example‚ if you give long lists of adjectives to a large number of people for them to rate themselves on‚ you have prime raw material for factor analysis.

Imagine‚ for example‚ a test that included words like “shy‚” “introverted‚” “outgoing‚” “wild‚” and so on. Obviously‚ shy people are likely to rate themselves high on the first two words‚ and low on the second two. Outgoing people are likely to do the reverse. Factor analysis extracts dimensions -‎- factors -‎- such as shy-outgoing from the mass of information.  The researcher then examines the data and gives the factor a name such as “introversion-extraversion.” There are other techniques that will find the “best fit” of the data to various possible dimension‚ and others still that will find “higher level” dimensions -‎- factors that organize the factors‚ like big headings organize little headings.

For a better understanding of factor analysis go to Dr. Toru Sato's page on the subject at http://webspace.ship.edu/tosato/factanls.htm.

Eysenck's original research found two main dimensions of temperament: neuroticism and extraversion-introversion.  Let’s look at each one...

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/eysenck.html#For