[ExI] Eysenck

[Henry Rivera]

As a psychologist, I know of Eysenck. 

I can’t speak to those ideas about neurological correlates or underpinnings of his personality traits. 

He is somewhat responsible for, I suppose part of his legacy is, the NEO PI  instrument which measures the Big 5, in as much as he came up with two of the personality traits it measures. I’m a pretty big fan of the NEO PI as far psychometric instruments go. 

-Henry
  
> On Mar 20, 2020, at 9:53 PM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Have any of you trained in some variety of neuroscience been exposed to the ideas of Hans Eysenck re brain function?
> 
> A basic idea of his is that introverts have a nervous system tuned to excitation - strong excitation, weak inhibition.  Very introverted people are highly sensitive to stimulation and are easily overstimulated.  Their drug of choice is downers like alcohol.  (I once took a pill containing phenylpropanolamine, marketed as Dexatrim.  It was as if my brain went into a seizure of stimulation.  Overstimulated does not even begin to define it.  Headaches, and misery for two hours.  Mild stimulation for extroverts looking for weight loss.)  Introverts can tolerate long periods of low stimulation.
> 
> Extroverts are said to have nervous systems tuned to inhibition, and so have weak excitation.  It takes a lot to overstimulate an extrovert.  Extroverts are drawn to uppers to overcome the strong inhibition.  They do poorly in school sometimes because sitting down and reading a book for a couple of hours is just not enough stimulation.  So they turn on the stereo, get on the phone and talk to somebody - gimme stimulation!  Solitary confinement should be illegal for these people - will drive them crazy.
> 
> I am extremely introverted and could drink 18 beers and drive home (long ago), while my companion went to sleep in the car after 6.  One student, a girl, said that she passed out after two beers - very extroverted indeed.  Cheap date too.  (But not much fun unless you are into necrophilia - sorry, cheap joke.)
> 
> He said that the basis of these ideas was the actions of the RAS - reticular activating system.  This system controls the level of stimulation in the cortex.  When you are highly alert it is firing all over the cortex getting ready for action. When it is inhibited nearly totally you are asleep.  You have to get through it to the cortex to wake up.  So the excitation and inhibition above are the result of the actions of the RAS.
> 
> He took Jung's concept in introversion/extroversion and modified it and hypothesized the physiological ideas above.  
> 
> Any contradictions from your neuroscience knowledge?  Heard of Eysenck?  He is responsible for two of the Big Five personality factors, I/E and N.
> 
> bill w
> 
> 
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