Personality and Mental Illness

Abstract

The new Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was administered to 441 male and 441 female subjects, 63 in each of seven groups (normal, criminal, schizophrenic, endogenous depressive, personality disorder, anxiety state, reactive depression). Means and SDs are reported for the groups, and a discriminant function analysis was performed to estimate the relative positions of the groups in three-dimensional space. The groups were significantly separated (1) along a dimension ranging from normality to abnormality, (2) a dimension ranging from neurotic to psychotic, and (3) a dimension ranging from antisocial behaviour to socialized behaviour. The results are interpreted as showing that personality traits characterize psychiatric groups in a manner not dissimilar to that in which they are characterized by “signs and symptoms” and suggesting that dimensional description of psychiatric abnormality may be superior to categorical nosology.