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The Psychophysiology of Extraversion and Neuroticism

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A Model for Personality

Abstract

The personality dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism, which are defined at the descriptive level of Eysenck’s system, have been linked to constructs at an explanatory level which are common to hypothetical deductive models in perception, learning, motivation, memory and emotion. As a comprehensive personality system, it is commendable for the attempt to relate personability dimensions to the biological foundations of individual differences in those fundamental psychological processes. The excitation-inhibition hypothesis which was proposed by Eysenck in 1957 referred in particular to the hypothetical constructs of excitation and inhibition which were drawn from those concepts as they were employed by Pavlov (1927) and Hull (1943). Excitation and inhibition were conceived as hypothetical neural processes upon which the acquisition and extinction of behaviour depended. If introverts were characterized by higher levels of cortical excitability and lower levels of cortical inhibition than extraverts, they would be expected to display enhanced sensitivity and efficiency in the processing of sensory stimulation and in conditioning. It was also proposed that such constitutional dispositions may account for individual differences in the social and psychiatric behaviour of introverts and extraverts. The excitation-inhibition hypothesis provoked a good deal of controversy, much of it still unresolved, but the proposal served an important discipline-bridging function and provided a useful and necessary framework for the exploration of the foundations of individual differences in extraversion and neuroticism.

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Authors
  1. Robert M. Stelmack
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, SE5 8AF, London, England

    Hans J. Eysenck

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© 1981 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Stelmack, R.M. (1981). The Psychophysiology of Extraversion and Neuroticism. In: Eysenck, H.J. (eds) A Model for Personality. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67783-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67783-0_2

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