Eysenck, Michael W. 1944–

(Michael Eysenck, Michael William Eysenck)

PERSONAL:

Born February 8, 1944, in London, England; son of Hans Jurgen (a psychologist and author) and Margaret (a psychologist) Eysenck; married Christine Kabyn (a psychologist), March 22, 1975; children: Fleur Davina Ruth, William James Thomas, Juliet Margaret Maria. Ethnicity: "White." Education: University of London, B.A., 1965; Birkbeck College, London, Ph.D., 1972. Politics: Liberal. Hobbies and other interests: Travel, sports (tennis, golf, cricket, walking).

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. Office—Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, England; fax: 01784-434347. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of London, Birkbeck College, London, England, lecturer, 1965-80, reader in psychology, 1981-87; University of London, Royal Holloway, Egham, Surrey, England, professor of psychology, 1987—.

MEMBER:

British Psychological Society (chair of Cognitive Psychology Section, 1982-87).

WRITINGS:

Human Memory: Theory, Research, and Individual Differences, Pergamon (New York, NY), 1977.

(Under name Michael Eysenck; with father, Hans J. Eysenck) Mindwatching, Michael Joseph (London, England), 1981, published as Mindwatching: Why People Behave the Way They Do, Anchor Press (Garden City, NY), 1983.

Attention and Arousal: Cognition and Performance, Springer-Verlag (New York, NY), 1982.

A Handbook of Cognitive Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum (Hillsdale, NJ), 1984.

(With Hans J. Eysenck) Personality and Individual Differences: A Natural Science Approach, Plenum (New York, NY), 1985.

Happiness: Facts and Myths, Lawrence Erlbaum (Hillsdale, NJ), 1990.

(Coauthor) Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook, Lawrence Erlbaum (Hillsdale, NJ), 1990, 5th edition, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Anxiety and Cognition: A Unified Theory, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Cara Flanagan) Psychology for AS Level, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Cara Flanagan) Psychology for A2 Level, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2001, 2nd edition published as Key Topics in A2 Psychology, 2006.

Principles of Cognitive Psychology, 2nd edition, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Simply Psychology, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Psychology: An International Perspective, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Fundamentals of Cognition, Psychology Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael W. Eysenck once told CA: "One of the main reasons why I became interested in the psychology of happiness is because there is a move within society for the materialistic eighties to be replaced by the caring nineties. If the quality of life moves center stage, then we need to know about the factors responsible for making life happy and fulfilling."

More recently Eysenck commented: "I enjoy writing and have done for many years. I have a real feeling of satisfaction when I manage to produce a well-organized and coherent account of some topic in psychology. Another reason why I enjoy writing is because, if a book is successful, it has an impact on the ways in which people think about issues in psychology over a period of several years. In contrast, much of the work of an academic has no more than a rather transient impact. It is an interesting challenge to write books at different levels. My writing career has been unusual in that I have written books all the way from textbooks aimed at fifteen-and sixteen-year-olds just starting to study psychology to advanced research monographs aimed at professional researchers in psychology. I have certainly found it a challenge to adapt and modify my style so that (hopefully) it works at different levels.

"I feel especially lucky that psychology is a wide-ranging and intrinsically fascinating area in which to write books. I have a personal interest in most of psychology, and so I have enjoyed doing research and writing about many diverse areas within psychology. My main area of interest is cognitive psychology, but I have often strayed off into social psychology, emotion, personality, developmental psychology, abnormal psychology, and so on. Interest in the subject is the main source of my motivation for writing books, and that interest shows no signs of declining. If the day arrives when it does, then I imagine I will stop writing books."