The growing interest in research on temperament during the last decade has been re corded by several authors (e. g. , R. Plomin; J. E. Bates) from such sources of informa tion as the Social Sciences Citation Index or Psychological Abstracts. The editors' inquiry shows that the number of cases in which the term temperament was used in the title of a paper or in the paper's abstract published in Psychological Abstracts reveals an essential increase in research on temperament. During the years 1975 to 1979, the term temperament was used in the title and/or summary of 173 abstracts (i. e. , 34. 6 publications per year); during the next five years (1980-1984), it was used in 367 abstracts (73. 4 publications per year), whereas in the last five years (1985 to 1989), the term has appeared in 463 abstracts, that is, in 92. 6 publications per year. Even if the review of temperament literature is restricted to those abstracts, it can easily be concluded that temperament is used in different contexts and with different meanings, hardly allowing any comparisons or general statements. One of the consequences of this state of affairs is that our knowledge on temperament does not cumulate despite the increasing research activity in this field. This situation in temperament research motivated the editors to organize a one week workshop on The Diagnosis of Temperament (Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany, September 1987).

This is the original work on which Hans Eysenck's fifty years of research have been built. It introduced many new ideas about the nature and measurement of personality into the field, related personality to abnormal psychology, and demonstrated the possibility of testing personality theory experimentally. The book is the result of a concentrated and cooperative effort to discover the main dimensions of personality, and to define them operationally, that is, by means of strictly experimental, quantitative procedures. More than three dozen separate researches were carried out on some 10,000 normal and neurotic subjects by a research team of psychologists and psychiatrists. A special feature of this work is the close collaboration between psychologists and psychiatrists. Eysenck believes that the exploration of personality would have reached an advanced state much earlier had such a collaboration been the rule rather than the exception in studies of this kind. Both disciplines benefit by working together on the many problems they have in common. In his new introduction, Eysenck discusses the difficulty he had in conveying this belief to scientists from opposite ends of the psychology spectrum when he first began work on this book. He goes on to explain the basis from which Dimensions of Personality developed. Central to any concept of personality, he states, must be hierarchies of traits organized into a dimensional system. The two major dimensions he posited, neuroticism and extraversion, were in disfavor with most scientists of personality at the time. Now they form part of practically all descriptions of personality. Dimensions of Personality is a landmark study and should be read by both students and professionals in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and sociology.

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.

The second volume in the Advances in Personality Psychology series, this book presents an authoritative collection of works by leading experts in the field. It focuses on three of the major issues in personality psychology: personality, affect and arousal; personality and intelligence; and personality structure. The first part of the book seeks to analyse cognitive biases dependent on anxiety and the biological foundations of thought and action. It also looks at the influence of temperamental traits on reaction to traumatic events. In the second part, contributions consider the mutual relations between personality and intelligence, the similarities and differences between personality and intelligence, and the cognitive mechanisms of human intelligence and personality. The final part analyses personality structure across cultures and presents a model of personality relevant to situational descriptions. All the authors are experienced and renowned experts in the field of personality psychology. The volume incorporates critical reviews, bringing the reader up-to-date with key issues, and unique data from contemporary empirical research projects, reflecting the diversity and vigour of current work on personality psychology.

Based on Eysenck's biopsychological trait theory, brain arousal has long been considered to explain individual differences in human personality. Yet, results from empirical studies remained inconclusive. However, most published results have been derived from small samples and, despite inherent limitations, EEG alpha power has usually served as an exclusive indicator for brain arousal. To overcome these problems, we here selected N = 468 individuals of the LIFE-Adult cohort and investigated the associations between the Big Five personality traits and brain arousal by using the validated EEG- and EOG-based analysis tool VIGALL. Our analyses revealed that participants who reported higher levels of extraversion and openness to experience, respectively, exhibited lower levels of brain arousal in the resting state. Bayesian and frequentist analysis results were especially convincing for openness to experience. Among the lower-order personality traits, we obtained the strongest evidence for neuroticism facet 'impulsivity' and reduced brain arousal. In line with this, both impulsivity and openness have previously been conceptualized as aspects of extraversion. We regard our findings as well in line with the postulations of Eysenck and consistent with the recently proposed 'arousal regulation model'. Our results also agree with meta-analytically derived effect sizes in the field of individual differences research, highlighting the need for large (collaborative) studies.