Why We Are What We Are (from Jerry Burger’s book named “ Personality ”, Chapter 9)

1. Why We Are What We Are(from Jerry Burger’s book named “Personality”, Chapter 9)

2. New Vocabulary • hierarchically: ordered, ranked • dimension: range, scope • impulsive: instinctive • uninhibited: relaxed, unrestrained • retiring: quiet, reserved • introspective: inner-directed • stimulation: encouraging sth to happen • aversive: unsympathetic • ample: abundant, bountiful • subtle: thin, delicate or faint

3. Hans Eysenck’s(1916-1997) research strategy… …begins by dividing the elements of personality into various units that can be arranged hierarchically.

4. The basic structure… …in this scheme is the specific response level, which consists of specific behaviors. For example, if we watch a man spend the afternoon laughing and talking with friends, we would be observing a specific response.

5. If this man spends many afternoons each week having a good time with friends, we have evidence for the second level of Eysenck’s model: a habitual response.

6. If you watch long enough, you may find that he lives for social gatherings, discussion groups, parties and so on.

7. In Eysenck’s terms, this person exhibits the trait or character of sociability. Traits such as sociability are part of a still larger dimension of personality.

8. Sociable people also tend to beimpulsive, active, lively and excitable. All these traits combine to form the supertrait Eysenck calls extroversion.

9. How many of these supertraits are there? • Eysenck’s research yielded evidence for two basic dimensions: • extraversion-introversion and neuroticism.

10. If you are a prototypic extravert, • You are outgoing, impulsive and uninhibited; you have many social contacts and you frequently take part in group activities. • The typical extravert is sociable, needs to have people to talk to, does not like reading or studying by him/herself.

11. An introvert is… …a quiet, retiring sort of person, introspective, fond of books rather than people; s/he is reserved and distant except to intimate friends.

12. Of course most people fall somewhere between these two extremes but each of us is perhaps a little more of one than the other.

13. Eysenck argues that introverts and extraverts differ not only in terms of behavior but also in their physiological makeup. They have different levels of cerebral cortex arousal.

14. Extraverts generally have a lower level of cortical arousal than do introverts. They seek out highly arousing social behavior because their cortical arousal is well below their desired level when doing nothing.

15. In a sense, they simply try to avoid unpleasant boredom. • Their problem is feeding their need for stimulation.

16. Introverts typically operate at an above-optimal cortical arousal. They select solitude and nonstimulating environments in an effort to keep their already high arousal level from becoming too aversive.

17. There is ample evidence that introverts are more sensitive to stimulation rather than extraverts are.

18. That is, for example, introverts are more quickly aroused when exposed to loud music. They are more responsive to chemical stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine.

19. Extraverts are quickly bored by slow-moving movie plots and soft music because they are less likely to become aroused by these subtle sources of stimulation than introverts are.