(p. 345). Each individual combines desires, thoughts, responses, and expression in ways that are unique to that person, but psychologists acknowledge that certain patterns can be perceived and are useful in understanding why an individual may behave in a particular way.
Hans Eysenck argued that personality can be reduced to an understanding of just two dimensions, neuroticism versus emotional stability and extroversion versus introversion (Wortman, 1988, pp. 506-507); Gleitman (1996) notes that Eysenck has recently added a third dimension, which he terms psychoticism (p. 360), to cover particular cases of sociopathology. However, Eysenck's original two scales describe a wide range of behaviors, responses, and emotional states that "are analogous to the classification schemes that have proved so successful in the field of sensory psychology, such as, the color solid, which accommodates all possible colors on the basis of just three dimensions - brightness, hue, and saturation" (Wortman, 1988, p. 506).
Extroversion and introversion describe the degree to which an individual actively reaches out to the world. Extroverts are social animals, gregarious and interactive. Introverts tend to keep their focus within themselves and are either unable or unwilling to become involved with others. Few people are completely at one end or the other of this continuum, and Eysenck does not contend that any particular place on the scale is optimum.
The terms neuroticism and emotional stability, however, imply his preference for a personality that tends more toward the latter end of the scale. Characteristics he attributes to more neurotic descriptions include rigidity, anxiousness, moodiness, touchiness, restlessness, and aggression, all qualities that are neither socially nor personally desirable.
Eysenck argues that his simple classifications, particularly his extroversion/introversion scale, have a biological basis. Preliminary st...