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Journal of Personality Assessment

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Extraversion: Sociability and Impulsivity?

Robert Plomin Version of record first published: 10 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Robert Plomin (1976): Extraversion: Sociability and Impulsivity?, Journal of Personality Assessment, 40:1, 24-30 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4001_6

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Journal of Personality Assessment, 1976,4O, 1

Extraversion: Sociability and Impulsivity?

ROBERT PLOMIN Institute for Behavioral Genetics University of Colorado, Boulder

Summary: The sociability and impulsivity components of extraversion were studied. Thirty experimental items were written to assess different aspects of sociability and impulsivity. These items, along with the 24 extraversion items of the MPI, were administered to 146 college students. Factor analyses of the experimental items indicated that neither sociability nor impulsivity is unitary. Correlations among these sociability and impulsivity factors and the MPI extraversion items indicated that MPI extraversion is essentially a measure of one aspect of sociability: the quantity of social relationships. Extraversion touches on but does not adequately sample either the intensity (quality) of social relationships or aspects of impulsivity.

"You only get out of factor analysis what you put in" is an underrated maxim in personality research and tends to be swept away in a swirl of statistical sophistry. The maxim assumes greater importance when one considers that much of our modern definition of personality stems from factor analytic research (e.g., Cattell, 1946; Eysenck, 1947). From the welter of factors emerging from factor analysis, extraversion has come into sharpest focus. The extraversion dimension has been advocated primarily by Eysenck (e.g., 1973) and has been measured most often by his factoranalyzed self-report questionnaires. Although most of the extraversion research during the last two decades has been aimed at testing Eysenck's neurological theory of extraversion (e.g., Eysenck, 1967), the descriptive foundation for this theoretical framework rests on his early factor analytic research. Let us examine what was "put in" these factor analyses. In a factor analysis of ratings of neurotic symptoms, Eysenck (1947) discovered a bipolar factor of dysthyrnichysteric symptoms. He concludeci that this dichotomy was closely related to Jung's concept of extraversion. In 1953 Eysenck found that several scales of the Guilford-Martin (Guilford, 1940) personality questionnaire were related to the dysthymic-hysteric dichotomy. One scale, Rhathymia, loaded most highly on an extraversion factor. In a factor analysis that included 24 Rhathymia items, Eysenck (1956) derived a factor which

became the extraversion scale of his Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) (Eysenck, 1959), which was later refactored and revised to produce the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1963a). Thus, for Eysenck's factor analyses, the major extraversion ingredient was Guilford's Rhathymia scale. After the 24 items were settled into an extraversion scale, two factors began to emerge. Eysenck and Eysenck (1963b) labelled these factors "sociability" and "impulsivity." They reported a correlation of .47 between the 14 highestloading impulsivity items and the 14 highest-loading sociability items. However, other researchers have reported lower correlations (e.g., Farley, 1970). There are several arguments for considering these components of extraversion separately (Buss & Plomin, 1975). In addition, we should go further and ask whether the limited pool of items from which these components were extracted adequately represents all aspects of sociability and impulsivity. A logical analysis of sociability and impulsivity reveals their complexity (Buss & Plomin, 1975). One aspect of sociability is the quantity of social relationships (gregariousness); another element is the quality (intensity) of the interaction. Some people need intense relationships, while others are content with superficiality. Impulsivity may also involve several components: (a) Impulse control. Impulsives may have difficulty in controlling

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ROBERT PLOMIN Table 1 EASI Sociability and Impulsivity Items Impulse Control
a 12. I often buy things on impulse. a 18. My impulses often get the better of me.

25

26. a36. a45. a52.

1like to spend my money right away rather than save it for long-range goals. I have trouble resisting my cravings (for food, cigarettes, etc.). When I try self-control, it generally works. (reversled) I can tolerate frustration better than most. (reversed)
Sensation-seeking

a 4.

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10. a27. a32. a35.

1sometimes do "crazy" things just to be different. 1 tend to avoid anything risky. (reversed) 1'11 try anything once. I generally seek new and exciting experiences and sensations. Routine jobs really bug me.
Decision Time
-

a 1, I often have trouble making up my mind. (reversed) a 20. I usually make quick decisions.

54. Before I do something, I like to have every detail spelled out. (reversed) a48. It bugs me when people take a long time to make up their minds. "49. I tend to hop from interest to interest quickly.
-

Sociability: Quantity

a 7. 1generally prefer to do things alone. (reversed) a 13. I tend to be shy. (reversed) a 15. I almost always prefer to work and study with others rather than alone. a 19. I tend to be a loner. (reversed)

a41. I prefer parties with lots of people.

a42. a47. a 5 1. a53.

I make friends very easily and quickly. I have more friends than most people. 1 am very sociable. I like to feel independent of people. (reversed) Sociability: Quality

8. People 1like best express a lot of affection.

a 14. With people that I know well, I am a very "warm" person.

a25. I tend to be a very affectionate person. a40. It is important for me to feel very close to people I like. a43. I always seem to get involved with others' problems.
a

Loaded above .30 on its appropriate factor and no higher on the other factors. Factor loadings are available from the author.

Extraversion: Sociability and Impulsivity? impulses involved in delaying gratification (Mischel, 1961) and in resisting temptation (Aronfreed & Reber, 1965). (b) Decision time. Impulsives may make snap decisions. Kagan's (e.g., Kagan, Pearson, & Welch, 1966) dimension of reflectionimpulsivity may be related to decision time. (c) Sensation-seeking, Impulsives may be sensation-seekers. Zuckerman (1971) has studied individual differences in "optimal stimulation level." The purpose of the present study was threefold: (a) to assess the two aspects of sociability and the three aspects of impulsivity, (b) to assess their interrelationships, and (c) to assess their relationship to the sociability and impulsivity factors of extraversion. Method Items from an experimental questionnaire called the EASI Temperament Survey (Buss & Plomin, 1975) were used to tap the impulse control (Ic), sensationseeking (Is) and decision-time (Id) cornponents of impulsivity and the gregariousness (S-quantity) and intensity (S-quality) components of sociability. These 30 items and the 24 extraversion items from the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) were administered to 146 college students (70 men and 76 women) enrolled in an introductory psychology course at the University of Texas at Austin. The EASI sociability and impulsivity items and the MPI extraversion items were factor analyzed separately, using both orthogonal and oblique rotations. The computer programs were part of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Me, Bent, & Hull, 1970).' The factorial structures of the EASI sociability and impulsivity components were examined, and the factored scales were correlated with each other and with factors from the MPI extraversion items.
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Standard options were employed: Comrnunality was estimated using an iterative process, Kaiser's Varimax procedure was used for orthogonal rotations, and the delta value for oblique rotations was set at zero. Factors were extracted for rotation to the criterion of an eigenvalue of 1.0.

Results EASI Sociability and Impulsivity Table 1 lists the EASI sociability items (S-quantity and S-quality) and impulsivity items (Ic, Is, Id). These items had been factor analyzed previously (Plomin, 1974), and their factor structure corresponded to their a priori placement. The present sample replicated these earlier findings with few exceptions. For this analysis, as for subsequent factor analyses, the oblique rotations yielded essentially the same results as the orthogonal rotations. Only the oblique loadings are discussed, because oblique rotations do not impose orthogonality on the data; this permits intercorrelations of the factored scales. Space does not permit inclusion of the factor loadings in the tables, but they are available from the author. The factor analysis of the sociability items yielded three factors. The first factor was S-quantity, involving five of the nine a priori items (13, 41, 42, 47, 51). The second factor was S-quality, which included all five of the a priori items. A third factor, called a "loner" factor (S-loner), emerged from the remaining S-quantity items. The a priori components of impulsivity were also verified by factor analysis. The first factor consisted of three items, one from each of the three a priori scales of impulsivity. This composite factor was ignored because two of the three items also loaded on factors reflecting their respective a priori categories. The second factor was clearly Ic, with five of the six appropriate items loading above .39 and the sixth item loading .25. Is was also clearly delineated: All five of the a priori sensation-seeking items and no other items loaded on the third factor. I d items split into the fourth and fifth factors, but a decision was made to retain the four items (1, 20, 48, 49) loading on these two factors as a preliminary measure of decision time. All the a priori Ic and Is items were retained for their respective scales. Table 2 presents the mterco~relatioss among the factored sociability and

ROBERT PLOMIN Table 2 Correlations among the EASI Sociability and impulsivity Factored Scales (N= 146) EASI Sociability Quantity EASI Impulsivity
-

27

1 Quality "Loner"

Impulse Control

Sensation- De'cision Seeking Time

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impulsivity scales. There were marginally significant interrelationships within the components of sociability and impulsivity. Although all the correlations were significant, none except the correlation between S-quality and S-loner was greater than .30. Moreover, the correlations between sociability and impulsivity were even lower: Only one of the correlations was significant, and the average correlation was only .08. W may draw two conclusions from e these data. First, there are several components in both sociability and impulsivity, because the components of each are factorially distinct and are only marginally interrelated. Second, correlations between the components of impulsivity and the components of sociability are low and insignificant, with only one exception. This implies that, when care is taken to write items to assess the components of sociability and impulsivity, the two dimensions are independent. MPI Extraversion We have seen that neither sociability nor impulsivity appears to be unitary.

The major question of interest, then, is which components of socialnlity and impulsivity underlie extraversion as measured by Eysenck. The factor analysis of the MPI extraversion items yielded seven factors, although the last three factors culled were not interpreted. The first factor represented the sociability factor that has been found by other investigators. It included seven items (MPI items 4, 9, 14, 20, 22, 26, 38) that loaded above .30 on that factor and loaded on no other factor. The highest-loading items included having many social engagements and taking the initiative in making new friends. This set of items is referred to here as "MPI sociability." The impulsivity factor that other researchers have found among extraversion items was more finely differentiated in the present study. The second factor included three items (MPI items 8, 24, 42) which referred to taking work casually or as a matter of life or death. The third factor also included three items (MPI items 1, 12, 16); these involved preference for rapid action. The fourth

28

Extraversion: Sociability and Impulsivity?

Table 3 Correlations Between EASI Sociability and Impulsivity Components vs. Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) Sociability, Liveliness, and Total Extraversion Scores (N = 146) EASI Sociability Factors EASI Impulsivity Factors Impulse Control Sensation. Decision Seeking Time

MPI Scales Quantity MPI Sociability MPI Liveliness Downloaded by [79.117.209.156] at 17:00 20 February 2013 MPI Extraversion Quality "Loner"

.3gb .2sb .37b

.04 .15 .09

.30b .27b .3sb

factor included five items (MPI items 8, 32, 44, 46, 48) which involved liveliness, having a ready answer, and playing pranks. Both the second and third factors involved doublets consisting of two similar items. For this reason, a decision was made to use the fourth factor as an "MPI impulsivity" factor, even though this factor is better labelled "liveliness" rather than "impulsivity." (We will also report an MPI score composed of all of these impulsivity-related items - despite the fact that they have been differentiated factorially in the present study - in order to make our results more comparable to those of previous investigations which did not differentiate these factors.) To what extent do our MPI sociability and impulsivity factors resemble those found by other researchers? The MPI sociability factor of the present study is nearly identical to the sociability factor found by Eysenck and Eysenck (1963b) because five of the six highest-loading sociability items (4, 9, 14, 20, 22, 36) from the Eysenck and Eysenck study were included among the seven items used to define the MPI sociability factor

in the present study. Although the five items of our MPI liveliness factor only overlapped with one of the six highestloading impulsivity items (1, 5, 12, 34, 42, 44) from the Eysenck and Eysenck study, the correlation between the two sets of items was .72, suggesting substantial covariance. In the Eysenck and Eysenck study, the sociability and impulsivity clusters correlated .47; in our study, the MPI sociability and MPI liveliness factors correlated .57.

The Relationship Between EASI and MPI Now we can turn to the major question: Which components of sociability and impulsivity underlie the two factors of extraversion? Table 3 presents the correlations between S-quantity, S-quality, S-loner, Ic, Is, and Id, on the one hand, and MPI sociability, liveliness, and total extraversion on the other. MPI sociability was significantly correlated with all three EASI sociability factors, but it was much more closely allied with the S-quantity factor (correlation of 31). Thus, the sociability items of the MPI extraversion scale seem to converge on

ROBERT PLOMIN the quantity of social relationships rather than the quality of relationships. Turning to the second row of Table 3, it is apparent that the MPI liveliness factor is n~ota measure of impulsivity. Although MPI liveliness was marginally but significantly correlated with sensation-seeking, it is not significantly correlated with either impulse control or decision time. Moreover, MPI liveliness is highly correlated with S-quantity. This suggests again that extraversion items even the less "pure" sociability items focus on the quantity of social relationships. This effect is not limited to the MPI impulsivity items in the liveliness factor of the present study: When all the MPI impulsivity items (from factors 2,3, and 4) were correlated with the EASI factors, a similar pattern and magnitude of correlations emerged. Thus, the component of extraversion that has been labelled "i~~~pulsivity" related more to is an aspect of sociability than to any of the components of impulsivity. The third row of Table 3 generalizes the preceding results to the total MPI extraversion scores. The correlations clearly indicate that S-quantity is foremost among the extraversion items (correlation of .81), although lower but significant correlations were obtained with all the other scales except impulse control. Finally, all correlational and factor analytic work was reanalyzed separately by gender. The pattern of results for men and women did not differ substantially from the results just reported. indicated that extraversion is not unitary and that it consists of primary factors, sociability and impulsivity, which are highly correlated. In the present study, we have shovvn that, when the components of sociability and impulsivity are analyzed and adequately represented in the factor analyses, they emerge as separate factors. Moreover, sociability and impulsivity were essentially uncorrelated. As others have noted, factor analysis only describes which items of those sampled tend to be answered in a similar direction. It cannot create dimensions of personality. Guilforcl (e.g., Guilford & Zimmerman, 1956) advocated a more reasonable use of factor analysis as a tool to verify the coherence of logically derived traits. W subscribe to this view. e The self-report data of the present study require confirmation from rating data and experimental criteria, but it is safe to assert that we have much to learn about both sociability and impulsivity. For example, one question concerns the heritability of the traits. There is considerable evidence to suggest that sociability is to some extent inherited (e.g., reviewed in Scarr, 1969); however, the evidence conc~erning the heritability of impulsivity is mixed and inconclusive (reviewed in Buss & Plomin, 1975). Although evidence bearing on the inheritance of the sulbcomponents of sociability and impulsivity is for the most part lacking, there is a suggestion that most have an inherited aspect (Plomin, 1974). Moreover, a unique analysis (Horn, Plomin, & Rosenman, in press) indicated that the consistent evidence for the heritability of sociability is due to the Squantity component rather than the S-quality component, although it is possible that their result was due to the general neglect of the quality (intensity) aspects of relationships as measured by S-quality. Clearly, there is much to learn about inheritance of these traits and particularly, about covariance among them. Another question concerns the developmental (course of the components of sociability and impulsivity. For example, impulsivity is the focal point of

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Discussion The results clearly indicate that extraversion, at least as measured by the MPI, is essentially a measure of one type of sociability - the quantity of social relationships. It touches on but does not at all adequately sample either the quality of social relationships or aspects of impulsivity. These results also point out the limited usefulness of factor analysis. Eysenck's factor analytic research suggested that extraversion is an important dimension of personality. Subsequent factor analyses

Extraversion: Sociability and Impulsivity? the socialization process, with some components seeming to be emphasized more than others. Impulse control is crucial because it involves delay of gratification and resistance to temptation. Sensationseeking, however, may be somewhat more tolerable. Finally, gender differences may be important, particularly within a developmental perspective. For example, in the present study college men and women did not differ in S-quantity, but college women rated themselves considerably higher on S-quality (t = 14.7, df = 1, r44, p < .001). This suggests that the traditional gender stereotype of women as more sociable may be based on the quality rather than the quantity of social relationships. Some research on these questions is in progress; other research and theory addressing these questions have been reported (Buss & Plomin, 1975).
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