ABSTRACT
OF the papers constituting this part, four are concerned with the presentation of experimental data while the other represents an attempt to integrate some of the findings of the separate experimental studies by the technique of discriminant function analysis. In each paper differences in both interests and emphases may be discerned; some showing more concern with processes and effects as such and others with their implications for the description of personality. It would be incorrect to conclude from this statement that each contributor was not concerned, to some extent, with both aspects, even if one is given greater emphasis than the other. What gives cohesion to this set of very different papers is the systematic framework common to each. This framework has been provided by Eysenck (1957a, 1957b) and constitutes an expansion of his approach to the general problem of objectively describing personality. Two functions characterize the usefulness of such a framework. First and foremost, it serves to orientate and guide research. Secondly, it provides a reference system whereby the diversity of research problems it suggests may be inter-related. We are thus taking Eysenck’s system as a general or universal proposition, to use Stephenson’s term (1952), and it is instructive to recall here the distinction Stephenson drew between regarding a theory as a general or universal proposition, and as ‘rational’.
