- 03/12/2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Hans Eysenck is a well-known psychologist and psychotherapist, one of his main tasks he believed was the selection of clinical psychology as an independent discipline. He established his department that was the first to begin training health psychologists using the recently developed methods of behavioral psychotherapy.
Basic research by Eysenck lied in the theory of personality, the study of intelligence, social attitudes, behavioral genetics and behavioral psychotherapy. He saw psychology from the standpoint of science and hostile to humanistic, psychodynamic, and other subjective approaches. (Haggbloom 2002)
The actuality of work is determined by the fact that the person has a special qualities that individual acquires due to the system of social relationships. The basis of dispositional direction in the study of personality is based on two general ideas. The first idea is that people have a wide range of predispositions to react in a certain way in different situations (that are personality traits): this means that people show a certain consistency in their actions, thoughts and emotions, regardless of the time, events and life experiences. The second idea is related to the fact that there are no two people who are exactly alike, as the notion of identity is revealed in part by emphasizing the characteristics that distinguish individuals from each other. Indeed, each theoretical direction in personology remains viable in the psychological science, in one way or another should address the issue of differences between individuals. (Eysenck 1967 )
Despite the fact that until now scientists and psychologists have not yet ascertained the exact impact of genetics on behavior, a growing number of psychologists believe that, perhaps, in this matter Eysenck was right.
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Personality psychology
Personality is a set of features, allowing to predict the actions of a person in certain situation, it involves both the external and internal behavior of the individual. The purpose of psychological studies of personality is the establishment of laws by which people behave in typical social situations. (Engler 2006)
The most popular factor theory of personality was developed by Hans Eysenck – his theory of personality is focused on empirical studies of individual differences in personality.
The study of personality and personal treats was basic in Eysenck thinking and research. He studied man as a biosocial organism whose actions are determined by biological (genetic, physiological, endocrine) and social (historical, economic) factors. He believed that a unilateral approach with emphasis on biological or social factors hinder the development of science.
Eysenck insisted that the man was a product of evolution, which still retained the features inherited from earlier life forms millions of years ago. This view has not always been popular among scientists studying the society, more inclined to emphasize the role of social factors, but Eysenck thought it only true for a proper understanding of man. (Eysenck 1967 )
Theory of Eysenck was built on the hierarchical type and includes a description of three-factor model of psychodynamic properties: extroversion – introversion, neuroticism and psychotism). These properties Eysenck relates to the types of general level of hierarchical organization of personality structure. At the next level there are the features, below this level is the level of habitual reactions, or the actual behavior. (Eysenck 1967 )
A significant contribution to the Eysenck’s factor analysis was the techniques of analysis of the criteria, that allowed to allocate specific criterion of signs. No less important conceptual position of Eysenck is the idea that the hereditary factor differentiating people on the parameters of the reactivity of the autonomic nervous system, speed and strength of conditioned responses, on the genotypic and phenotypic indicators as the basis of individual differences (in neuroticism, and psychotism, extraversion – introversion).
Assuming that the imperfection of psychiatry, diagnoses was due to lack of personal psychodiagnostics, Eysenck developed for this purpose special questionnaires and adjust treatment methods in Psychoneurology. Eysenck tried to identify personality traits on the two main axes: introversion – extroversion (closed or open), and stability – instability (anxiety level).
Thus, the author of these psychological concepts believed that to disclose the substance of personality it was necessary to describe the structure of human qualities. He developed a special questionnaire that could be used to describe the personality, but not the whole individuality. Predicting the future behavior by that qualities is difficult, because in real life people’s reactions are not constant and often depend on the circumstances that people face in a given time. (Eysenck, H & Eysenck, M. 1985)
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