Use of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire in China

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) by Hans and Sybil Eysenck of London University has evolved from prior versions developed by Hans Eysenck: the Maudsley Personality Inventory of 1956, and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) of 1964. The main difference in the EPQ is the addition of a fourth scale, the ‘P’ scale, to the three scales of the most recent version (the EPI). The E, N and P scales each represent one of the dimensions in Eysenck’s multiple-dimension theory of personality; the L scale does not directly measure a personality dimension. The ‘E’ scale measures the extraversion-introversion dimension, the ‘N’ scale measures the level of neuroticism and emotional lability, the ‘P’ scale measures the presence of ‘psychoticism’ (a new term used by Eysenck to imply prepsychotic traits) (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976) and the ‘L’ scale assesses dissimulation or lying and other factors which have not as yet been clearly specified. In addition to the adult EPQ there is a ‘junior’ version for ages 7-15. The adult version has 101 items: the British scoring key uses 90 of these items for scoring. The remaining 11 items are extra questions which may be used for scoring in other cultures. The junior version has 97 items: 8 1 items are used for scoring according to the British scoring key and 16 items are extra questions. Ss answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for all the items. The interpretation of the questionnaire depends on the Ss scores on the various scales: a high E score suggests extraversion while a low E score suggests introversion; a high N score suggests neurotic traits and emotional lability while a low N score suggests emotional flatness; a high P score indicates prepsychotic traits while a low P score implies the absence of such traits; and a high L score suggests dissimulation by the examinee but it may also represent other personality traits, such as conformity.