H.J. Eysenck

Originally published in 1953, this third edition was first published in 1970. It was one of the early attempts at bringing together theories of personality organisation and finding empirical evidence to test their hypotheses. This third edition includes additional chapters and updated references to current research of the time. It is a particular feature of this book that a large number of figures are reproduced in the text; this is essentially a consequence of the writer's belief that diagrammatic representations are better suited to the transmitting and remembering of information than are words or numbers. The first chapter outlines the theories and discusses some of their implications, the second and third look at methods of analysis and projective techniques, while the rest of the book is devoted to a critical presentation of the evidence, arranged according to the technique employed - rating, self-rating, objective testing, constitutional assessment, autonomic measurement, and so on. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

The Structure of Human Personality

Originally published in 1960, the two volumes of Experiments in Personality report a number of experiments in psychogenetics, psychopharmacology, psychodiagnostics, psychometrics and psychodynamics, all of which formed part of the programme of research which had been developing from the late 1940s at the Maudsley Hospital. Presenting the studies together in a book, rather than the more usual route of journal articles, was itself felt to be an experiment at the time, especially given the wide area covered. The decision was deliberate because all the studies reported formed part of a larger whole, which would have been lost if published separately. Volume II looks at psychodiagnostics, psychodynamics and psychometrics.

Psychodiagnostics and psychodynamics

Experiments in Personality: Volume 2 (Psychology Revivals)

H. J. Eysenck This book is not an introduction to personality research, it is not a textbook, and above all it is not a model of personality. The title, A Modelfor Personality, was chosen on purpose to indicate that we are here concerned with a discussion of how models in this field ought to be constructed, what their functions were, and whether such models or paradigms could with advantage be produced at this stage of development. One particular aspect of personality, extraversion introversion (E), has been chosen to exemplify the desiderata which emerge from such a discussion. It is not suggested that personality and E are synonymous - merely that this particular dimension is perhaps better known than any other, has had more experimental work done on it than any other and has acquired a better theoretical substructure, and more links with genetics and physiology, than any other. Hence it seems most likely to serve as an example of how a satisfactory model of personality might ultimately be constructed, i. e. by analogy with E. Other dimensions of personality, such as neuroticism-stability or psycho tic ism-superego functioning, are mentioned in the discussion, but only when they overlap or interrelate with E. The book uses E as an example to illustrate the way in which a model of personality can be constructed, but it is in no way a summary of all that is known about E.

A Model for Personality

When Crime and Personality was first published in 1964, J.A.C. Brown, writing in the New Statesman, commented: ‘There can be no doubt of the importance of Professor Eysenck’s book on the nature and treatment of criminal behaviour.’ This third edition, originally published in 1977, had been completely revised and brought up to date, and although the major theory linking personality and crime has been retained, many of the details have been changed in conformity with recent research of the time. The book presents a theory concerning the personality of criminals, and offers evidence to show that these personality features characterising criminals are based on genetic foundations. It is argued that criminality as a whole is not exclusively based on environmental factors as has so often been suggested, but has a strong biological basis. A good deal of evidence is reviewed showing that there are many data supporting this view, from studies of identical and fraternal twins, adopted children, and comparisons between criminals and non-criminals both in the Western world and in Communist countries. Professor Eysenck suggests that important consequences follow from such an attempt to redress the one-sided emphasis on environmental factors which had been so characteristic of the previous fifty years, and some of these consequences are described in detail. He further suggests that only proper understanding of the psychological factors making for antisocial behaviour will help in reversing the increasing burden that criminality places upon society. The book also takes issue with political arguments of the time regarding the origins of criminality, and shows that criminals behind the Iron Curtain show the same personality characteristics as do criminals in Western countries.

Crime and Personality (Psychology Revivals)

S. Rachman

Originally published in 1965 this book was an introduction to post-Freudian methods of diagnosing and treating neurotics of the time. These methods were known collectively as ‘behaviour therapy’, a term indicating their derivation from modern behaviourism, learning theory, and conditioning principles. In the early twentieth century John B. Watson pointed out that ‘psychology, as the behaviourist views it, is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behaviour.’ Behaviour therapy attempts to extend this control to the field of neurotic disorders, and in doing so it makes use of experimental laboratory findings, and of theories based on these. It was seen as the very opposite of the position taken by psychoanalysis. The authors believed that, by the late twentieth century, behaviour therapy would be ‘firmly established as one of the most important, if not the most important, weapon in the hands of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists’.

An introduction to modern behaviour therapy based on learning theory and the principles of conditioning

The Causes and Cures of Neurosis (Psychology Revivals)

Originally published in 1953, this third edition was first published in 1970. It was one of the early attempts at bringing together theories of personality organisation and finding empirical evidence to test their hypotheses. This third edition includes additional chapters and updated references to current research of the time. It is a particular feature of this book that a large number of figures are reproduced in the text; this is essentially a consequence of the writer’s belief that diagrammatic representations are better suited to the transmitting and remembering of information than are words or numbers. The first chapter outlines the theories and discusses some of their implications, the second and third look at methods of analysis and projective techniques, while the rest of the book is devoted to a critical presentation of the evidence, arranged according to the technique employed – rating, self-rating, objective testing, constitutional assessment, autonomic measurement, and so on. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

The Structure of Human Personality (Psychology Revivals)

Originally published in 1960, the two volumes of Experiments in Personality report a number of experiments in psychogenetics, psychopharmacology, psychodiagnostics, psychometrics and psychodynamics, all of which formed part of the programme of research which had been developing from the late 1940s at the Maudsley Hospital. Presenting the studies together in a book, rather than the more usual route of journal articles, was itself felt to be an experiment at the time, especially given the wide area covered. The decision was deliberate because all the studies reported formed part of a larger whole, which would have been lost if published separately. Volume I looks at psychogenetics and psychopharmacology.

H.J. Eysenck

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