Discontinuity and correlation: A reply to Eysenck.

"Our original point was to underscore Eysenck's own carefully stated reservations concerning the application of criterion analysis. We erred in not making this sufficiently clear. Here, we have tried to rectify this error and to amplify a suggestion made implicitly in the earlier paper (see 33: 1700), for an experimental approach to the validation of factor analytic procedures in relation to discrete genotypic determinants of human behavior." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and performance: A test of the theory of cortical inhibition.

Hypothesized that extraversion scores should correlate with scores on performance tasks purported to depend on cortical inhibition. Data from 104 undergraduates who performed spatial and internal inhibition tasks did not reveal any significant correlations between extraversion (Maudsley Personality Inventory) and performance measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and vigilance performance: 30 years of inconsistencies.

Deteriorating efficiency in detecting critical events is a pervasive phenomenon. It has been asserted that the personality dimension of extraversion–introversion (E-I) could serve as a selection device: Introverts would be superior in sustained attention. A meta-analysis revealed better performance of introverts, but the effect size was small because of a high incidence of inconsistencies. In a subset of the studies, the effect size was much larger: Introverts were superior in overall level of correct detections but not in maintaining efficiency over time. Inconsistent findings may partly have been caused by inappropriate use of univariate ANOVA in repeated measures designs. The validity of some "classic" findings in the vigilance literature was questioned. The relationship of E-I to electrodermal speed of habituation was discussed. Finally, here also a trend was noted to move to new problems before solving old ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Political ideology and science: A reply to Eysenck.

Comments on an article by H. J. Eysenck (1982) in which he suggested that Marx, Engels, and Lenin failed to support environmentalism. It is contended that Eysenck ignored the overwhelming evidence of radical environmentalism in Marxist theory. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and emotional performance: Extraversion, neuroticism, and self-monitoring.

Using an experimental design, the authors linked personality to performance on two emotional regulation tasks requiring the expression of either anger or enthusiasm. Across tasks, self-monitoring was associated with effective emotional performance. High self-monitors reported less stress and more deep acting than low self-monitors and did not experience elevated heart rate during emotional performance. The authors also examined affective traits, positing that emotional regulation would be less stressful for individuals who were asked to perform personality congruent emotions. As expected, individuals high on extraversion experienced elevated heart rates when asked to express personality incongruent emotions (i.e., anger). However, the association between extraversion and emotional performance was not significantly different for the two types of emotional regulation (anger and enthusiasm). Neuroticism was associated with increased heart rate and poor performance in both tasks. Overall, these data provide partial support for our personality congruency hypotheses and suggest that personality plays an important role in effective emotional performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A transvaluation of psychotherapy: a reply to Hans Eysenck.

In an attempt to answer Eysenck's contention that "the figures fail to support the hypothesis that psychotherapy facilitates recovery from neurotic disorder," the author re-examines three vital questions: What is psychoneurosis? What is psychotherapy? and What is improvement or recovery? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another reply to Eysenck.

The present article disputes Eysenck's attempt to show that the results of the 1971 survey of Luborsky, Chandler, Auerbach, Cohen, and Bachrach (see record 1971-10064-001) "may be simply artifacts." Basic disagreements are pointed out, particularly with Eysenck's reliance upon "spontaneous remission" rates, and his neglect of controlled psychotherapy studies, and of the evidence that not only patient factors but also therapist and treatment factors have an impact on the outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning theory and behavior therapy: A reply to Rachman and Eysenck.

The importance of distinguishing between learning theory, the practice of behavior therapy, and the effectiveness of treatment is stressed. Rachman and Eysenck's reply (see 40:5) presents no new evidence to remedy the inadequacies of the learning theory espoused by the behavior-therapy group. The claim that behavior-therapy techniques are "based on" learning theory is countermanded by the prior existence of the techniques as well as by the great dissimilarity between what goes on in behavior therapy and in most learning experiments. Finally, the additional references cited by Rachman and Eysenck are reviewed. They are either not relevant to the issues under discussion or are fully subject to the biases discussed in our original paper. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minority advances in test performance: A response to Jones.

Suggests that the advances made by minorities in test performance reported by L. V. Jones (see record 1985-26568-001) must be interpreted with some skepticism in light of the self-selecting nature of the College Board Scholastic Achievement Test and the 120-point gap in scores on this test between Blacks and Whites. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and Emotional Reactivity.

Six mood induction studies and a meta-analysis were conducted to test 2 models of the extraversion-pleasant affect relation. The affect-level model suggests that extraverts should be happier than introverts in both neutral and positive mood conditions. The reactivity model posits that extraverts react particularly strongly to pleasant stimuli and that they should be happier than introverts only in positive conditions. In all studies, extraverts failed to exhibit greater emotional reactivity when pleasantness items were analyzed. When activated positive affect items were analyzed, results were mixed. The meta-analysis confirmed that there is only a slight reactivity effect overall, and this effect emerges only in activated positive affect items. Furthermore, the meta-analysis showed that the correlation in neutral conditions is strong enough to support the affect-level model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agreements, disagreements, and inaccuracies--reply to Professor Eysenck.

Replies to Eysenck (June 1981) regarding his agreements and disagreements with the present author and charge of inaccuracies and carelessness. Though Eysenck (June 1981) ignores my major points (Samelson, 1980), I am delighted to see that he agrees with some others: that (1) there are discrepancies in Watson's reports on Little Albert (though by themselves they are not the problem); (2) it does look as though Burt "fudged" some of his data (though not long ago Eysenck, 1977, considered any label beyond "error" to be "McCarthyite character assassination"); (3) Jensen did not replicate Burt's data, but used them as his centerpiece (see Jensen, 1969, pp. 47, 51); (4) almost exclusively, Hearnshaw's explanation of Burt's actions is based on--posthumously-- calling "pathological" some of the aging Burt's behaviors that may have been ethically questionable, but hardly that uncommon or bizarre (at least in his lifetime people did not seem to think so); (5) there are other cases, in various sciences, of problematic or fudged data (and for all we know, unless we look, there may or may not be more). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: A longitudinal analysis.

Used data from a 4-yr longitudinal study of young adults to examine the causal pathways between personality and life events. To reduce measurement artifacts, analyses were conducted using reports of more objective life events. It was found that extraversion predisposed participants to experience more positive objective life events, whereas neuroticism predisposed people to experience more negative objective events. In contrast, personality was somewhat stable, and life events were found not to have a prospective influence on it. Objective positive and negative life events covaried, suggesting that people who experience more of 1 type of event are also likely to experience more events of the opposite valence as well. The findings indicate that life events cannot be viewed as a source of influence independent of personality. Although factors that are independent of the person undoubtedly influence life events to some degree, the personality of the individual also appears to do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and reciprocation of interviewer disclosures.

Hypothesized that introverts would be more sensitive to situational variables (i.e., would vary their amount and depth of disclosure with the disclosure of the target person more than would extraverts). Regardless of the dependent measure of disclosure used (actual time talking or intimacy level), Ss (undergraduates) could not be differentiated on the basis of extraversion-intraversion. Implications of the finding of a consistently strong dyadic effect are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental genetic analysis of adult personality: Extraversion and neuroticism from 18 to 59 years of age.

Developmental genetic analyses were conducted on Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N) scale scores from nearly 15,000 male and female Finnish twins, ages 18–53 yrs at baseline, who were tested on 2 occasions, 6 yrs apart. Significant genetic effects on both traits were found, at all ages, in men and women, on each measurement occasion. For E, heritability was invariant across sex but decreased from late adolescence to the late 20s, with a smaller additional decrease at about 50 yrs of age. Heritability for N also decreased from late adolescence to late 20s and remained stable thereafter. For all ages after the early 20s, heritability of N was significantly higher among women. Means for E and N were sex-dependent and, apparently, influenced by cohort and time of assessment, as well as by age. There was little evidence of new genetic contributions to individual differences after age 30; in contrast, significant new environmental effects emerged at every age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion, neuroticism, and motor learning.

"The Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the Maudsley Personality Inventory were administered to 72 college students who were dichotomized on the basis of their scale scores. The inverted alphabet printing task was used to provide measures of motor learning performance. Analyses of variance of the motor learning scores showed that the women learned significantly faster than the men, but the main effects of Extraversion and Neuroticism were not significant." 17 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion, verbal learning, and memory.

Reviews the literature relating extraversion and human learning and memory. There appear to be several replicable differences in learning and memory between introverts and extraverts. Current theorizing emphasizes the concept of arousal and indicates that most of the obtained results are consistent with the notion that introverts are more chronically aroused than extraverts. While this approach appears to be a valuable one, several difficulties with such theorizing are noted. A major inadequacy in the work in this area is seen as the relative failure to use current advances in our understanding of the processes of storage and retrieval in the design of experiments and the subsequent interpretation of the results. (21/2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Will the real factor of extraversion-introversion please stand up? A reply to Eysenck.

H. J. Eysenck (see record 1978-01109-001) insisted that his Extraversion (E) factor is a 2nd-order variable, resting on 2 1st-order factors; S (Sociability) and R (Rhathymia, or impulsiveness as opposed to seriousness and self-restraint). Evidence is presented in this reply for the independence of S and R, as shown when proper measurement scales are used. Evidence is also provided for the affiliation of R with Factor T (Thoughtfulness), which serves as the basis for a different 2nd-order factor that has a better claim to the label of Extraversion. Eysenck's own factor-analytic results fail to support his claimed 2nd-order factor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inevitability and automaticity: A response to Fisk.

Responds to the comments of A. D. Fisk (see record 1986-16289-001) on the present authors' (see record 1985-27168-001) work on automatic processing of fundamental information. The present authors use the term automaticity as a process by which some attributes of an attended to stimulus are encoded into memory. It is suggested that Fisk's view of automaticity is derived from the study of automatic search mechanisms, particularly as they slowly develop in multiple frame visual search tasks; therefore, several methodological problems that Fisk addresses do not fit the concerns of the present authors or are irrelevant to them. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bishop, Eysenck, Block, and psychoticism.

J. Block (see record 1978-28560-001) questioned evidence for the validity of the Eysenck Psychoticism (P) scale based on the psychophysiological findings of G. S. Claridge and H. J. Chappa (see record 1974-02520-001) that Ss high in psychoticism showed an unusual and counterintuitive relationship between 2-flash threshold and skin conductance. The present authors argue that Block's criticism that the result may be ephemeral is incorrect for 3 reasons. First, the cut-off point used to define the low skin conductance range over which the relationship was most evident was not as arbitrary as Block suggests. Second, replication data demonstrated the same result. And third, the unusual psychophysiology found in high P Ss has also been observed in normal Ss under LSD-25 and in acute schizophrenics. However, the present authors also point out that all their work on psychoticism was based on an earlier version of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (the Psychoticism-Extraversion-Neuroticism Inventory), whose items may have more face validity than the published version. Finally, D. V. M. Bishop's (see record 1978-30744-001) interpretation of the present authors' dimensional concept of psychoticism is corrected. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)