ABSTRACT

The scale was designed to measure the two major personality traits of neuroticism (stability/emotionality) and extraversion/introversion. (The inventory also contains a lie scale for the detection of faking.) The construction of an experimental set of 108 items was begun by carefully selecting, adapting and re-writing items contained in the adult version of the E.P.I., and adding further items. Items presented below (Table 21.1) are adapted with permission from the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory, copyright 1965 by Educational and Industrial Testing Service, San Diego. All references in this chapter will be to the items and numbers as given in this Table. (Occasionally reference to items in the course of the test will be in abbreviated form, or with the wording slightly changed so as to conform to the grammatical structure of the sentence.) From these items were finally chosen the 24 items which constitute the final E scale, and the 24 items which constitute the final N scale; the items in this Junior E.P.I, are also numbered, and these numbers are of course different to those in the Table below. Items adapted from the Junior E.P.I, are also printed in the text on a later page, and on that occasion the numbers of the items in Table 21.1 will also be given again for each item, to make comparisons easier.

Like plenty of excitement going on around you

Often need kind friends to cheer you up

Like working alone best

Often get a feeling that you want something but you don't know what

Often long for exciting things to happen

Sometimes feel happy and at other times sad for no special reason

Shy of speaking first when you meet new people

Say things you are thinking quickly

Usually happy and cheerful

Sometimes go quiet when you are angry

Stop and think before doing things

Find it very hard to take no for an answer

Usually feel if things go badly that they will work out right in the end

Moody

Usually say things quickly without stopping to think

Sometimes feel specially cheerful and at other times sad without any good reason

Rather lively

Ever feel ‘just miserable’ for no good reason

Suddenly feel shy when you want to talk to someone you don't know

Find it hard to get to sleep at nights because you are worrying about things

Do almost anything if someone dared you to do it

Often make up your mind when it is too late

Like to plan things carefully before you do anything

Often worry about things you should not have done or said

Often make up your mind to do things suddenly

Feelings rather easily hurt

Usually feel that things are bound to work out badly for you

Often feel tired for no good reason

Like mixing with other children

Often feel fed up

Call yourself happy-go-lucky

Your mind often wanders off when you are doing a job

Rather be alone instead of meeting other children

Like to stick to one game for a long time

Nearly always have a quick answer when people talk to you

Sometimes bubble over with energy and sometimes do things seem an awful effort

Rather sit and watch than play at parties

Soon tire of your toys

When you get cross, it helps if you have somebody friendly to talk to

Often think of your past

Like going out a lot

Grown-ups think you are a naughty child

Like to have just a few really good friends you can trust

Often cry

When children shout at you, you shout back

Often feel lonely

(for boys) Usually shy when you meet girls (for girls) Usually shy when you meet boys

After you have done something important you afterwards feel you could have done better

Usually let yourself go and enjoy yourself at a gay party

Ideas run through your head so that you cannot sleep

Too shy to ask strangers to give you money for some good cause, like the Scouts

Touchy about some things

Like practical jokes

Sometimes get so restless that you cannot sit in a chair long

Usually do a job better by thinking it out alone than by asking others about it

Have ‘dizzy turns’

Often get into trouble because you do things without thinking first

Get thumping in your heart

Other people think of you as being very lively

Get attacks of shaking or trembling

Rather be at home than at a dull party

Lots of things annoy you

When someone quarrels with you, you prefer to have it out rather than keep quiet hoping that things will blow over

Worry about awful things that might happen

Mostly quiet when you are with others

Have many frightening dreams

There are many foods you hate

Ever get short of breath without having done heavy work

Rather plan things than do things

Suffer from nerves

Often like a rough and tumble game

Troubled by lots of tummy aches

Like the kind of work that you have to keep thinking about and attending to

Get frightened in places like lifts, trains or tunnels

An easy going person who does not worry about having things just so

Sweat a lot without having done much

Hate being with a crowd who play jokes on one another

Get very bad headaches

Like doing things where you have to act quickly

Call yourself a nervous person

When you make new friends you usually make the first move

Bother you if people watch you work at school

Slow and unhurried in the way you move

Give up easily when things go wrong

Like talking to people so much that you would talk to anybody you meet

Worry for a long while if you feel you have made a fool of yourself

Find it hard to go to sleep at bedtime

Sometimes feel life is just not worth living

Be very unhappy if you could not see lots of people most of the time

Easily hurt when people find fault with you or the work you do

Sometimes say the first things which come into your head

Usually feel fairly sure you can do the things you have to

Find it hard to really enjoy yourself at a lively party

Feel shy and awkward when you are with important people

Usually not say much except to your nearest friend

Feel you are no good and can't do anything right

Get a party going

Worry about getting ill

Take things very seriously rather than laughing them off

Often get ‘butterflies in your tummy’ before an important occasion

Like playing pranks on others

Hate to do more than one thing at a time

Very much afraid of the dark

On T.V. you like watching Cowboy films better than stories with animals in them

Like telling jokes or funny stories to your friends

Feel awkward when you are dressed up and in new clothes

Still think it is worth having a go at a game even if you are not sure you will win

Lie awake a lot during the night