The genetical relationship of impulsiveness and sensation seeking to Eysenck's personality dimensions.

The genetical analysis of covariance structures is used to explore the genetical and environmental intercorrelations of impulsiveness and sensation seeking factors and their conformity to Eysenck's principal personality dimensions. The independent dimensions of psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism, and lie scale are not found to give a very satisfactory account of the genetical factor structure. In particular, it is clear that impulsiveness and sensation seeking are not simple reflections of extraversion.