Research on the Psychophysiology of Personality

Abstract

Like no other differential psychophysiological approach, H.J. Eysenck’s biological theory of personality has stimulated attempts at finding relationships between physiological activation and personality, in particular the questionnaire scales of extraversion and neuroticism (see below). Eysenck (1967, 1981) presents a theory that aims at explaining, instead of describing, these personality traits. Insofar as Eysenck’s theory of the relationship between levels of activation and personality has not found unanimous empirical support (Fahrenberg, 1987b; Myrtek, 1984), the more recent expansion of his theory, which emphasizes the role of the stimulus situation (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985), is of particular interest in the present context of a differential psychophysiology. The shift in emphasis from habitual to situationally varying activation characteristics of personality types implies a shift in the assessment model used, namely from the “pure” trait perspective of Assessment Model 1 to the moderator perspective (situations moderate trait expressions) of Assessment Model 6. Such a shift is one of the recent responses to the inadequacies of a “pure” trait model in personality theory (see Chapter 2.2).