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History of Intervention: What was Hans Eysenck's critique?

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Final answer:

Hans Eysenck critiqued traditional views on personality by emphasizing its biological basis and the role of genetics. He identified key personality dimensions, including extroversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and later, psychoticism versus superego control.

Step-by-step explanation:

Hans Eysenck's critique centered on the biological basis of personality, proposing that personality traits have a strong genetic component. He and his collaborator Sybil Eysenck theorized that personalities could be understood along two main dimensions: extroversion/introversion and neuroticism/stability, to which they later added a third dimension, psychoticism versus superego control. Hans Eysenck emphasized the importance of temperament, which is the inborn, genetically based personality differences, in the development of personality.

The Eysencks' work suggested that individuals high on the psychoticism scale tended to display attributes such as being independent thinkers, cold, and antisocial, whereas those high on superego control exhibited high impulse control and were more cooperative. The Eysencks' theories contributed to the understanding of personality as a field governed largely by biological factors, rather than being solely the result of environmental influences or experiences.

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