In order to measure extroversion in individuals, Eysenck in 1959 developed four personality questionnaires. The first of these was the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) which only measured E and N which in turn showed some correlation between the two. As a result of this, Eysenck then went on to develop another test called the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) which had another scale called the Lie (L) scale, which detected faking but measure E and N independently. (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1964, 1968). As the EPI only measured two factors, Eysenck went on to further develop a third personality test called the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). This third test included the P scale, however, the EPQ was only a revised version on the EPI and due to many criticisms of the P scale, Eysenck developed a revised version of the EPQ. (Feist & Feist, 2006 & Gross, 2005).
According to Eysenck (1997), the tests should be able to predict the results of any experimental study and social behaviour. As Eysenck’s theory stated, extraversion is due to low cortical arousability and therefore, introverts in contrast to extraverts should be more sensitive to a wider diversity of stimuli and learning conditions. Eysenck went onto argue that personality theories which were efficient should predict immediate and future consequences. (Feist & Feist , 2006).
A study conducted by D. Zakay, J. Lomranz and M. Kaziniz (1983) on extraversion-introversion and time perception, Zakay et al stated that there was a negative relationship between extraverts and time perception. They go on to explain that the rationale for this as extraverts needing constantly high external stimulation due to their inability to work in low external stimulation. Their study was also consistent with Eysenck (1970) and Hogan’s (1978) extraversion-introversion model. They went on to conclude that although results were consistent, further experimentation would be required to confirm these findings.
The aim of this practical investigation was to find a relationship between extraversion-introversion and time perception.
H1: = There will be a negative correlation between time perception and extraversion.
H0: = There will not be a negative correlation between time perception and extraversion.
Method
Design
The design of this practical investigation was a correlational survey and it was surveying Extraversion which was measured using an EPQ-r-s and time perception of 7 minutes (secs). These variables were tested for a relationship.
Participants
Sixty nine first year psychology students aged 18+ participated in this practical investigation, where the greater part of these student’s were mature adults. There was a large majority of female students. The participation in this practical investigation was on a voluntary basis for all students that took part as a component of their psychology course.
Materials
Hand-held stopwatches to measure the time perception of 7 minutes by participants,
The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire revised short version (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991) which measures Extraversion-Introversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism (ENP), which has 48 questions with 12 components for each personality model. Within this questionnaire several items are reverse scored and only the 12 E scale items were scored; they weren’t separated as this would have impaired the validity of the questionnaire.
Procedure
The participants were all handed the questionnaire at the beginning of the class and were requested to complete it without trying to derive a meaning from each of the questions. The participants were given approximately 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire. The participants were then requested to place marks next to questions number 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 32, 36, 44 & 48 if they answered yes. Next, the participants were requested to place a mark next to questions number 41 and 27 if they answered no, and following on count the number of marks they had made in total and make a note of this total at the bottom of the questionnaire. Each group was appointed a student timer equipped with a stopwatch; following on from this, all the participants were requested to remove their watches and turn off all mobile phones and sit facing towards a wall with a distance between each participant. The participants were forbidden from communicating with each other to avoid influencing their adjacent participant’s estimation of time, which in turn would invalidate the results. The participants were then requested to estimate the time span of seven minutes and then raise their hand when they believed this time span to be up. The student timer then recorded the time each participant raised their hand and this procedure continued until each participant had raised their hand. The student timer recorded the actually time that was indicated on the stopwatch when the participant raised their hand on the bottom of the questionnaire. The participants were then requested to record their questionnaire and time scores on a sheet of paper.
Results
The data collected through this practical investigation was input into SPSS to obtain the following results.
Table one: Descriptive statistics for EPQ-r-s scores and time estimation of 7 minutes.
Table one indicates that there were higher E scores which indicated that the mean time was not close to 7 minutes.
Figure one: Scattergraph showing correlation between extraversions scores and time perception in year one psychology students.
This scattergraph indicates that as the score of one variable increases the other decreases. This indicates a negatively skewed distribution of data.
The results obtained can confirm that H1: was accepted and a Pearson’s r test was used as the data was parametric due to semi interval data. The Pearson’s r correlation showed a significantly negative relationship at a p level of .01 (r= 0.33, N= 69, p=0.003).
Discussion
The main aim of this practical investigation was to see how closely extraverts time perception scores were to 7 minutes and to see if these scores would be negatively or positively skewed. The H1 was accepted for this practical investigation. The H1 was ‘There will be a negative correlation between time perception and extraversion’ which was confirmed by the results. The investigation was consistent with Zakay et al (1983) study in which they reported that there was a negatively skewed correlation between time perception and extraversion.
It can be said that the results were consistent with Eysenck’s personality theory as extraverts overall had the longest time perception span in contrast to introverts and required constant external stimulation. However, the theory did not provide sufficient explanations for instants where introverts time perception was longer than that of an extravert or vice versa. Also, the theory does not take into account the N, P and L scales of the test which all participants answered.
One of the difficulties that were faced during this investigation was the location where it was carried out. The participants were in line of easier being influenced by their neighbouring partner. A possible modification to this could have been a screen or parting between them to avoid any kind influence or communication. Another hindrance that was shown was the way in which the participants were timed. As they were timed by the accuracy of a student timer the results may not have been accurate enough, therefore, invalidating the results. A possible modification to this could be digital timers that the participant uses to indicate their time perception is complete. Another modification that could have been made to this practical investigation to improve the results would have been the number of male to female participant’s ratio. As mentioned, there was a majority of female participants in this investigation; however in a future study the same number of male participants to female participants may produce alternative results. On the other hand, groups of all male or all female could used to compare results. Another modification that could have been implemented would be the age range to be closer rather than a broader range, for example, group equal number of males and females in age ranges between 18-22, 23-27 etc. The third modification would be on the length of time perception, instead on 7 minutes use longer or shorter periods of time with different age groups.
References
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Feist, G.J. and Feist J., Theories of Personality. 6th Ed. McGraw-Hill: New York.
Gibson, H.B., (1981), Hans Eysenck – The Man and His Work. Peter Owen Ltd: London
Gross, R., (2004), Psychology The Science of Mind and Behaviour. 5th ed. Hodder Headline: London.
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