Internal Inconsistency in the Eysenck Psychoticism Scale

We explored emotional accompaniments to stages of a musician's cycle of creativity through interviews with musicians. Creativity was defined in terms of performance or composition. These musicians described strong emotional vacillations that occur across the creative cycle and discussed ways of dealing with emotional issues involved in moving from one work to the next. Parallels were drawn between emotional aspects of completing a performance or composition to emotional aspects of termination in psychotherapy. Suggestions were offered to musicians for means of dealing with naturally occurring but powerful emotional components of creativity. In addition, some of the musicians suggested that music educators consider teaching students about potential emotional issues that may accompany creative effort. An integration of these issues into music education programs might better prepare students for careers as professional musicians.     

The theory behind Psychoticism: a reply to Eysenck

In this reply to Eysenck, we attempt to clarify why we have criticized Eysenck's Psychoticism model and have found it necessary to introduce our own alternative model. It is concluded that the validity of the P scale as a measure of Psychoticism has not been demonstrated and that the P construct itself is untenable.     

Psychoticism as a dimension of personality: a multivariate genetic test of Eysenck and Eysenck's psychoticism construct

In this study, we applied multivariate genetic analysis, a generalization of factor analysis and behavior genetic analysis, to responses to items of the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire by 2,903 adult same-sex Australian twin pairs. Item loadings on genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental common and specific factors were estimated. The genetic factor structure differed considerably from the environmental structures, particularly in men. The genetic correlation between suspiciousness items and items reflecting unconventional or tough-minded attitudes or hostility to others was negative, but the environmental correlation was positive. Thus, conventional behavior genetic studies that have reported significant heritability of psychoticism, on the basis of analyses of scale scores, are misleading as to what trait is being inherited.     

Psychoticism scores in graphic design students

Of a group of graphic design students, males were found to have higher psychoticism and neuroticism scores than normal on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Extraversion and lie scores were not significantly different from normal. Females did not differ significantly from the normative data on psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism or lie scores. A further group of new 1st year students showed raised psychoticism scores for females but not for males. The meaning of psychoticism in relation to the personality of artists is questioned by way of two paradoxes.     

在艾森克人格问卷L量表上说谎的语音频谱特征

本研究探索艾森克人格问卷说谎量表上说谎与不说谎的语音频谱差别。我们录下被试在做艾森克人格问卷时回答“是”或“不是”的声音。使用Praat语音分析软件对/bu/,/sh/、/i/的前三个共振峰频率和波段（F1、F2、F3、B1、B2、B3）进行分析。结果发现：说“是”时说谎和说真话在/sh/的F1、F3、B1上存在差异,说“不是”时在/sh/的F1、F2、F3上存在差异。本研究表明说谎和说真话在语音频谱上存在差异,同时说谎在不同音素上的效应可能不一样。     

Drug postulate of Eysenck in the rat

The present work is an attempt to investigate the Drug Postulate of Eysenck in the animal field. The Ss were 36 male Wistar rats. The extraversion measure used was animal ambulation in a low-frightening open-field. d-Amphetamine, reserpine and saline were administered before the extinction of a lever-press FR 25 schedule for food. The results show that reserpine produces a decrement in the resistance to extinction (RExt), while d-amphetamine produces a biphasic effect, increasing the RExt in high-ambulatory (extravert) rats and leaving the RExt of low-ambulatory (introvert) rats unaffected. Therefore, reserpine acted as a depressant drug, d-amphetamine as a stimulant drug and ambulation as extraversion.     

Personality factors in the Eysenck personality questionnaire

Hierarchical factor analyses were carried out on raw scored EPQ data yielded from two samples of subjects, a Gallup adult quota sample of 1198 subjects and 406 university undergraduates. Each sample was split by sex providing six data sets for analysis. Results at the second order level clearly indicated the recovery of practically all the E, N and L items as three distinct factors, P item recovery differed among males and females. Adult female and student female subject groups did not show clear recovery of a substantial majority of P items. Although P, as a factor, did not appear recognisably in the male student sample, this was interpreted as being due either to the low subject: variable ratio and/or to the low subject number (N=171) and its resultant lack of definition of initial P item variance. The P factor appeared most strongly as a second order in the total Gallup, total student, and male Gallup sample.     

Psychoticism and response to treatment in neurotic patients

A study is reported of neurotic patients at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, who were given the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and who were rated by their doctors for prognosis and final assessment after treatment. The results indicated that those patients who had elevated psychoticism scores took longer to improve and that doctors rated them harder to treat at final assessment. It is suggested that early knowledge of patients with a poor prognosis, in the form of their Psychoticism score, might prove helpful to psychiatrists and psychologists, both for diagnosis and (primarily) for choice of appropriate treatment.     

Cross-validation of the Mood Disorders Questionnaire, the Internal State Scale, and the Hypomanic Personality Scale

Previous research indicates that the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), the Internal State Scale (ISS), and the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) have the capacity to assess symptoms of bipolar spectrum disorders. The present study cross-validates these scales in a sample of 167 undergraduate students. Individuals were divided into high, medium and low likelihood of caseness (HLC, MLC and LLC) groups based on operationalised cut-off criteria on the MDQ. Scores on the ISS Perceived Conflict subscales were positively and proportionately associated with elevated likelihood of caseness. The HLC group was distinguished from the other two groups by high levels of ISS Depression, whereas the LLC group was distinguished from the other two groups by low levels of ISS Activation and hypomanic personality traits. The majority of individuals reported a history of isolated (hypo)manic experiences, and a quarter of the sample reached screening criteria for a bipolar spectrum disorder (Isometsae et al., 2003). The results are discussed in the context of the role of activation, depression, and interpersonal conflict in bipolar spectrum disorders.     

The factor structure of the Eysenck Personality Profiler in Russia

One hundred and seventy seven males and 399 females completed a translated short version of the Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP-S). Two hundred and ninety four Ss also completed the EPQ. By means of item analysis, further shortening of the EPP was achieved, while retaining adequate psychometric characteristics and convergent validity with EPQ scales. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the Eysenck hierarchical model of personality with three basic dimensions and showed stability of the EPP factor structure across genders and sub-samples of different origin. However, CFA showed that only E and P were independent, while N was correlated with E and P.     

Inconsistency in mathematics and the mathematics of inconsistency

No one will dispute, looking at the history of mathematics, that there are plenty of moments where mathematics is “in trouble”, when paradoxes and inconsistencies crop up and anomalies multiply. This need not lead, however, to the view that mathematics is intrinsically inconsistent, as it is compatible with the view that these are just transient moments. Once the problems are resolved, consistency (in some sense or other) is restored. Even when one accepts this view, what remains is the question what mathematicians do during such a transient moment? This requires some method or other to reason with inconsistencies. But there is more: what if one accepts the view that mathematics is always in a phase of transience? In short, that mathematics is basically inconsistent? Do we then not need a mathematics of inconsistency? This paper wants to explore these issues, using classic examples such as infinitesimals, complex numbers, and infinity.     

Tolerance for inconsistency in foreign-accented speech

Are listeners able to adapt to a foreign-accented speaker who has, as is often the case, an inconsistent accent? Two groups of native Dutch listeners participated in a cross-modal priming experiment, either in a consistent-accent condition (German-accented items only) or in an inconsistent-accent condition (German-accented and nativelike pronunciations intermixed). The experimental words were identical for both groups (words with vowel substitutions characteristic of German-accented speech); additional contextual words differed in accentedness (German-accented or nativelike words). All items were spoken by the same speaker: a German native who could produce the accented forms but could also pass for a Dutch native speaker. Listeners in the consistent-accent group were able to adapt quickly to the speaker (i.e., showed facilitatory priming for words with vocalic substitutions). Listeners in the inconsistent-accent condition showed adaptation to words with vocalic substitutions only in the second half of the experiment. These results indicate that adaptation to foreign-accented speech is rapid. Accent inconsistency slows listeners down initially, but a short period of additional exposure is enough for them to adapt to the speaker. Listeners can therefore tolerate inconsistency in foreign-accented speech.