Hans Eysenck: summary biography of this famous psychologist

Hans Eysenck was a German-English psychologist of him well known for his theories on personality. He has gone down in history as one of the most influential characters for modern psychology and its theories continue to be discussed and used by both psychologists and other experts in behavior human.

In this article we review the life of this psychologist from a very short biography of Hans Eysenck, detailing some characteristics of his life and work.

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Hans Eysenck: biography of one of the fathers of modern psychology

Hans Eysenck was born on March 4, 1916 in Berlin, Germany. He grew up and lived in that city until 1934, when he was forced to take refuge first in France and then in the United Kingdom by the Nazi regime.

His parents were actors, who when separated and faced with the conditions of the country, moved to France. Eysenck grew up with his maternal grandmother, Frau Werner, with whom he had a free education full of intellectual and cultural stimuli. He quickly stood out as a good student and even a good athlete.

He finally had to emigrate and it was in London that he began to study psychology. (at the University of London). In the same city he worked as a clinical psychologist and even carried out management tasks at the Institute of Psychiatry.

Hans Eysenck is credited with building one of the strongest personality paradigms in the history of psychology. Some even consider him "the father of psychology."

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His areas of work and research

While he was a student, Eysenck participated in various meetings and reviews of theories about intelligence. Along with some American intellectuals, he also developed therapy options different from psychodynamics, which was the most popular at the time.

He, too, realized that psychology as a science was in the background to psychiatry. Eysenck remained interested in claiming the status of the former and seeking cooperation between the two.

In the same way he remained critical of the diagnoses made by psychiatry. He saw many contradictions and difficulties to defend them theoretically. From these experiences he developed his own model of personality, recovering many of the approaches of philosophy and more classical psychology.

Beyond measuring personality, he insisted on the value of knowing it, and interested in solving the problem of taxonomy used in psychiatry, Eysenck argued that personality does not occur in the normality-neurosis-psychosis continuum, but rather the dimensions that best represent this are neuroticism and psychoticism.

From this he conducted studies with many of the people he worked with as a clinical psychologist, people who had a psychiatric diagnosis and people who did not. After analyzing the data, he proposed two key factors for personality: neuroticism and extraversion.

Years later and from new studies, he added a new new dimension: psychoticism. He finally presented a hierarchically organized model in four levels ranging from personality types and their traits, to the specific responses that correspond to each one. This work shaped what is known as the PEN model of personality.

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From personality to intelligence

Through his studies, Eysenck developed the famous psychotic-extraversion-neuroticism personality model, with biological factors for each, that is, highlighting the role of genetic inheritance in the development of the personality. For example, argued that psychological differences and their hereditary determinants can be empirically tested.

This was what finally led him to develop research on topics related to personality, but that go a little further, such as intelligence, creativity, the relationship between genes and culture, criminality, sexuality, the relationship between personality and diseases or addictions, among others.

Many of his studies on IQ and its relationship to cultural systems received much criticism. For example, his theories have been used both to justify racial dynamics and to refute them.

His latest studies focused on the analysis of creativity and its relationship with biological factors. Y his personality model has been adapted to numerous psychometric tests to assess both intelligence and personality traits. Currently they are used in the clinical, educational, vocational and labor areas.

Outstanding works

Among his most important works are: Personality Structure and Measurement 1969 (Personality Structures and Measurement), The Structure of Human Personality 1970 (The Structure of the Human Personality), Genes, Culture and Personality 1989 (Genes, Culture and Personality).

On the specific relationship between intelligence, personality and biology, some of his most important works are The Biological Basis of Personality 1967 (The Biological Basis of Personality) and Personality, Genetics and Behavior 1982 (Personality, Genetics and Behavior).

Bibliographic references:

• Schmidt, V., Oliván, M.E., L, F. et al (2008). Hans Jürgen Eysenck. Life and Work of one of the most influential scientists in the history of psychology. Advances in Latin American Psychology / Bogotá (Colombia), 26 (2): 304-317.