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Furnham, Adrian conscientiousness, impulsivity, the work ethic, humor, and money consciousness. Adrian Furnham However, he believes that he is a child of the Institute of Leadership and Organisation, baby-boomer generation: neither victors nor pris- Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway oners but conditioned by the morals and values and hopes of aspirations of his time. So he believes that he is unlike his parents in many Biography ways:

Adrian Furnham was born in Port Shepstone in 1. Ambition: He believes that he is deeply – but the Union of . It was the major center not pathologically – ambitious. He wants to of the South Coast of Natal, the home of the Zulu. “get on.” He wanted to be a professor before It had Norwegian, British, and German settlers in he was 40. He just made it. He wanted to earn the nineteenth century. There was a German as much as the Prime Minister. He didn’t. His church near Oslo Beach. His grandmother joined parents were not at all entrepreneurial. His the Sons of England who met in a shop owned by mother did well being promoted to only one a Swiss business man. His neighbors were Poles; level below the top available in her field. But his mother worked for a Russian doctor who she was ambitious for him rather than herself. changed his name from Rittenski to Ritten. It 2. Exoticphilia/Openness-to-Experience:He was a place of displaced people: of people rejoic- likes the new, the different, and the ing their good fortune with respect to standard of exotic. His parents were somewhere between living but very homesick for another place and its afraid of and distrustful of things not solidly people. Anglo-Saxon. They did not try exotic food or Furnham’s father was a newspaper man: yearn to travel to new places. They expressed printer and publisher; his mother a nurse. Like little interest in foreign cultures which they both of his parents, Furnham was an only child. were surrounded by. He believes that he got his impulsiveness from his Furnham, in contrast, enjoys nothing more mother and his love of books from his father. He than a trip to a far-off place off the beaten track. believes that he looks more like his father but has He longs, not for wild barren places like Law- more of his mother’s (and maternal grandfather’s) rence of Arabia, but for rather exotic urban body shape. Furnham reports having various landscapes particularly of places caught in noticeable, frequently commented on, habits that time. He rejoices in his close quirky “alterna- he attributes to his upbringing. They are time tive,” hippy friends. Cultured, compassionate,

# Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 V. Zeigler-Hill, T. K. Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1712-1 2 Furnham, Adrian

and self-critical, they were a breath of fresh air two). Even though he was a student at an obscure in the arid anti-intellectual Puritanism that was colonial university registered for South Africa. They taught him that being dif- 101, he had to read Freud’s Psychopathology of ferent was sometimes a gift rather than a Everyday Life, Fromm’s The Art of Loving, and handicap. Lorenz’s King Solomon’s Ring as preparation for 3. Curiosity: His parents were not particularly the first year. It was a broad degree and he benefit- curious in the way that Furnham is. They ted from this enormously. took things at surface value. They were amused Furnham entered the local university (the Uni- by human foibles but did not yearn to under- versity of Natal, founded in 1910) in 1970 gradu- stand them. The best his mother did was to read ating with three (not the two usual) major subjects detective novels. And she did so enthusiasti- (Divinity, History, and Psychology). He then cally, often devouring five a week, while hold- completed an honors degree in Psychology ing down a full-time job. His father, a good (1973) followed by an MA (1975). He then went storyteller, enjoyed telling yarns about odd to England to complete two further master people and their behavior. But they never had degrees: M.Sc. Econ at LSE 1976 and an MSc at a great yearning to understand things. Strathclyde in Glasgow (1977). Furnham then went straight to Oxford to complete a doctorate One day his mother who was studying psy- in (1981). He later received a D.Sc from London chology for a diploma was met by a list of differ- (1991) and a D.Litt from Natal in (1997). ent and contradictory personality theories. Without doubt his best experience was at the “Well?” she demanded of Furnham, sage on all LSE where he did an MSc in . things psychological, “Who is right?” She did not The whole atmosphere was exciting. The lecturers deal in ambiguities. had a very broad view of education and the disci- pline of psychology. He maintains contact with a number of the faculty after 40 years. Education Oxford was wonderful. It was there he met his wife and where he met a number of who are now Furnham was in full-time education for the whole his closest friends. decade on the 1970s who believed that staying at university was a wonderful way to postpone adult- hood. At this stage, he has, along with his first Educators degree, three master degrees and three doctorates. He went to university when he was 16. He was Furnham had the great good fortune of being not an amazing precocious child but one whose taught by brilliant academics. At every university mother insisted he go to primary school young: he has attended, he has come across dedicated, over a year younger than the legally prescribed clever, and curious (in every sense of the word) age. He therefore graduated from school around a teachers. What are the characteristics of the inspi- year and a half younger than his peers. rational teacher? His mother brought home one of those early First, there is unbounding enthusiasm, even paperbacks, and Furnham was passion, for their subject. They show the thrill, hooked. The early Eysenck Penguin paperbacks the joy, and the sheer pleasure of acquiring skills were (and are) easy to read, interesting, and pro- and knowledge in a particular area. And they are vocative. He read it in one sitting and was capti- able to communicate this. Indeed, they cannot vated. He resolved in fifth form to read hide it. You cannot easily fake passion – or at psychology rather than math. least not over a sustained period. All great Furnham registered for a liberal arts degree, teachers are passionate. Work becomes play with and as a foretaste of his current workaholism, he them. The motivation is purely intrinsic. They did a degree-and-a-half (three majors instead of define the very concept of Flow. Furnham, Adrian 3

Second, they are evangelists, trying to convert Michael Argyle: Furnham’s D.Phil (PhD) minds rather than achieve exam-oriented goals. Supervisor They want others to share their joy and passion, Argyle wrote around 250 papers on a variety of believing it is good for them. They really want to topics including body language, religion, money, communicate the good news. One of the charac- happiness, and work it was possible to see clear teristics of the inspirational evangelist is that they threads and themes which he pursued. He never retire. They do not want to and neither do believed that social behavior, even the most their employees want them to. They are simply ephemeral aspects like eye contact, was law like too valuable. Further, good administrators know and that one could be taught the rules of social it. They soon become “emeritus” but usually etiquette to improve communication. eschew the titles preferring simply to carry on He had no interest in in-depth psychology, ignoring the passing of the years. psychoanalytic speculation, or grand theories. Third, they set high standards. Inspirational Nor did he rely on advanced multivariate statistics teachers are not merely benevolent, kindly paren- to reveal hidden patterns in data. His experimental tal substitutes. They have the highest expectations work was novel: he designed simple but illumi- of people. They do not compromise, but they do nating studies. His survey work was also charac- encourage. They teach the “hard stuff” but in a terized by innovation. He preferred not to rely on way it can be grasped. They understand the learn- standardized questionnaires but designed his own ing process and the markers along the way. They to measure the sort of things that interested him. are able thus to get the best out of people, and it is Indeed, there were no existing measures of the sort often for this that they are profoundly admired. of thing that most interested him like happiness. They know what individual pupils are capable of, Argyle never bothered with disciplinary dis- and they strive to help them achieve their tinctions and could happily move from anthropol- potential. ogy to zoology when investigating a topic. His Fourth, they update their material, metaphors, books were always distinctive. They always and messages. Every generation needs a different brought together material in a unique way and introduction to the discipline. They come with offered a new way to look at old ideas. Many different experiences and expectations. Their hot remain best sellers. (and cold) buttons are different. They need to be There were many things rather unique about approached differently. It goes without saying that Argyle. For instance, he advised doctorate stu- they have to update their knowledge as well. dents not to read too much initially because it Fifth, there is the issue of adaptation and flex- limited their creativity and channelled their think- ibility. This means knowing how to “package the ing into too well-plowed furrows. He was not brand” differently to appeal to different individ- attracted to theory building often dismissing uals and generations. The intelligence, social those he saw as theoretical baggage that backgrounds, and values of students dictate they imprisoned rather than liberated. have to be addressed differently. Brilliant teachers He was not interested in forming a school of can and do this. thought but was very interested in forming and Furnham has been a lecturer for nearly 40 years maintaining a social group. For nearly 30 years, he starting at Pembroke College Oxford and continu- presided over a very active but heterogeneous ing at University College London. He has tried group of social psychologists at Oxford. The hard, over this period, to follow the example of social group was social in what they studied and those he greatly admires. how they studied it. In many ways, like all PhD Furnham has had many great teachers and col- students, they were marked by their doctoral expe- leagues who have changed his life, but he wanted rience and very loyal to Argyle and no doubt to his to draw attention to two of them in particular. memory. There were many sides to Argyle, at one stage the fourth most cited British Psychologist. On the 4 Furnham, Adrian other hand, he was the epitome of the English why these measures have stood the test of time: gentleman: polite, slightly formal, and kind. He parsimony, explanation of process, experimentation, knew about social rules and obeyed them care- wide application, and continuous improvement and fully. But he was also a fun-loving maverick. He development. described his hobbies as “utopia speculation” and “playing the goat.” He was almost child-like in his playfulness and love of school-boy jokes and His Modest Contribution humor. What did Furnham learn from him? He learned Furnham is not sure if indeed he is a personality that it was OK, indeed desirable, to “plough new psychologist. In fact, he reports being uncertain as field,” to start out on new areas of research. He to what type of psychologist he is, if indeed he has learned what was required of a good doctoral to be labelled at all. This has caused his depart- supervisor. He learned to be cooperative with ment consternation over the years. Furnham has other academics. He learned to work hard and been labelled an applied, differential, economic, play hard. health, occupational, and social psychologist at different times. He is, however, a BPS chartered Hans Eysenck: Furnham’s Role Model occupational and a chartered health psychologist. Furnham met Hans Eysenck while doing his PhD. Furnham thinks his personality and upbringing Once Furnham became a lecturer, he made contact has led him to be curious about all sorts of issues and would cycle from his office to Eysenck’s within and outside the discipline. office (6 miles) two or three times a year to work Furnham has always been interested in person- in their excellent library and have tea with him. ality psychology. This was first stimulated by a Eysenck impressed Furnham enormously with his brilliant lecturer (Bruce Faulds) who lectured him intellect, courage, and foresight. as an undergraduate. In his 2nd year, Furnham had It has been argued that Eysenck’s approach to a Wednesday afternoon psychometric class that science was characterized by very specific princi- involved students doing a test and the following ples. He always argued, even at a time when this week analyzing it. This was done very thoroughly was deeply unfashionable, that there was a phys- in a 3-h session. Furnham completed projective ical/biological basis to personality. He maintained techniques, standard personality tests, and the that taxonomization was the beginning of science rod-and-frame in a dark room, as well as tests of and that personality research could not proceed artistic and musical ability. The instructor was an without it. He insisted on a hierarchical model enthusiast and the test library was well stocked. with highly specific behavioral responses at the As a result, to this day, Furnham knows about a lowest level, leading up to broad habitual very wide range of tests from obscure psychoan- responses at the facet level (e.g., sociability, live- alytic projective techniques (Blackies Pictures), liness, and excitability) and culminating into three through tests of aesthetics (the Meier Art test) to giant super-factors at the apex of the hierarchy. He more standard tests. was one of the earliest theorists to advocate a Furnham was always interested in the relation- biologically based theory of personality and to ship between personality and social psychology promote a continuous theory refinement approach doing his PhD on the topic. This experience lead in order to link up specific stimulus properties him to become more interested in differential psy- with general personality functioning. chology as he became aware how powerful per- Furnham became an Eysenckian through his sonality and intelligence factors are in books and papers. He started using his tests during determining so many life outcomes from income his PhD and became an enthusiastic psychometri- to longevity (Furnham 2008). cian. Furnham et al. (2008) suggested five reasons Furnham, Adrian 5

Some Themes The relationship between tests of preference and power: Furnham has long been interested Psychometric housekeeping and reviews: in the relationship between those two great Furnham has done a number of reviews pillars of which have where he looked at developments and progress never had a very close relationship. Personality in various personality tests, some very old. psychologists and those interested in intelli- These are always very extensively quoted, gence seem to have drifted apart, yet the early even though they are not meta-analyses, but differential psychologists like Cattell and they attempt to be comprehensive and critical Eysenck were always aware of both playing reviews off the major (extant) literature over a an important role in all behaviors. Furnham set period. Occasionally he has updated these gave his International Society for the Study of reviews. Three examples may be Tolerance of Individual Differences presidential address on Ambiguity (Furnham and Ribchester 1995; this topic. He worked on this topic for years, Furnham and Marks 2013), Belief in a Just and still does, ably assisted by some of his most World (Furnham 2003), and the Protestant talented PhD students (e.g., Chamorro- Work Ethic (Furnham 1990). Perhaps the Premuzic and Furnham 2003a; b; Moutafi most extensive has been his review of Locus et al. 2003). of Control measures (Furnham and Steele Self-appraisal and awareness: From the very 1993). Furnham’s interest has been in beginning, Furnham was interested in the abil- documenting different scales supposedly mea- ity of people to predict their own personality suring the same thing and comparing their and intelligence scores. Although his early psychometric qualities. There seem to be research was on self-awareness about person- more interest in developing new scales in the ality, he has published many studies on self- hope of eponymous fame than testing and estimated intelligence (Furnham 2001; improving those tests which already exist. Furnham 2016a). These studies have yielded Test development: Over the years Furnham has various consistent findings. First, males of all developed a number of tests. Sometimes he has ages and backgrounds tend to estimate their simply adapted ideas to make specific tests like (overall) general intelligence about 5–15 IQ his Economic Locus of Control measure points higher than do females. Always those (Furnham 1986) and the Organisational Attri- estimates are above average and usually butional Style Questionnaire (Furnham et al. around one standard deviation above the 1992). He also developed the Trait Emotional norm. Second, people believe these sex differ- Intelligence Questionnaire which he worked ences occur across the generations: people on with his PhD student Dino Petrides and believe their grandfather was/is more intelli- the High Flyer Trait Inventory which he gent than their grandmother, their father more worked on with his colleague Ian Macrae than their mother, their brothers more than their (Macrae and Furnham 2014). Indeed, sisters, and their sons more than their daugh- Furnham’s most quoted publications are with ters. Third, sex differences are cross-culturally Petrides, and the measure has been enormously consistent. While Africans tend to give higher successful (Petrides and Furnham 2000a; b; estimates and Asians lower estimates, there Petrides and Furnham 2001; Petrides et al. remains a sex difference across all cultures. 2003; Petrides et al. 2008). Furnham and his Fourth, the correlation between self-estimated colleagues have spent a great of effort in the and test-generated IQ is positive and low in the pure psychometric work checking factor struc- range of r = 0.2 to r = 0.5 suggesting that you ture, internal reliability, etc. but also struggling cannot use test scores as proxy for actual to find appropriate behavioral measures to scores. Fifth, with regard to outliers, those check the predictive and construct validity of who score high on IQ but give low self- the tests. estimates tend nearly always to be female, 6 Furnham, Adrian

while those with the opposite pattern (high and helped him. Of his colleagues, he needs espe- estimates, low scores) tend to be male (Storek cially to mention Barrie Gunter, Chris McManus, and Furnham 2013; Swami and Furnham Alistair McClelland, and David Pendleton. How- 2010; Szymanowicz and Furnham 2013). ever, it has been his various PhD students over the Dark side: It was Robert Hogan who introduced years who have helped him most. He needs to Furnham to the dark side personality research mention Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Dino based on the concepts found in DSM-III. He Petrides, Viren Swami, Luke Treglown, and had the brilliance and insight to see that the Simmy Grover. personality disorders scheme offered a won- derful opportunity to study misbehavior at work. Furnham had used his Hogan Develop- References ment Survey in many studies and was very fortunate to get large amounts of very good Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2003a). Person- quality data from friends serving as consul- ality traits and academic examination performance. tants. Furnham has also written two books on European Journal of Personality, 17, 237–250. this topic (Furnham 2010, 2015) and many Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2003b). Person- ality predicts academic performance: Evidence from papers. His interest is the paradox of how and two longitudinal university samples. Journal of why people with certain dark side characteris- Research in Personality, 17, 237–225. tics get selected and promoted (Furnham Furnham, A. (1986). Economic locus of control. Human – 2016b; Furnham et al. 2012a, b, 2013, 2014). Relations, 39,29 43. Furnham, A. (1990). A content, correlational and factor My students love this research and I have three analytic study: A study of seven questionnaire mea- at the moment working on these topics. sures of the Protestant Work Ethic. Human Relations., 43, 383–399. Furnham, A. (2001). Self-estimates of intelligence: Culture and gender difference in self and other estimates of both Conclusion general (g) and multiple intelligences. Personality and Individual Differences, 31(8), 1381–1405. Furnham was delighted and honored to be asked Furnham, A. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research pro- to write this contribution. He is currently working gress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 795–817. on two books: one on the Psychology of Disen- Furnham, A. (2008). Personality and intelligence at work: chantment and the other on New Perspectives in Exploring and explaining individual differences at PsychoBiography. So far he has published two work. London/New York: Routledge. books this year: a second edition of his book on Furnham, A. (2010). The elephant in the boardroom. London: Palgrave Macmillan. leadership (Pendleton and Furnham 2016) and a Furnham, A. (2015). Backstabbers and bullies: How to third edition of his quirky alternative textbook cope with the dark side of people at work. London: (Furnham and Tsivrikos 2016). Furnham has Bloomsbury Publishing. published 92 books and over 1,200 peer-reviewed Furnham, A. (2016a). Measuring the dark side. In B. Cripps (Ed.), Psychometric testing: Critical views. journal articles: surely a sign of a workaholic. Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley. Furnham has noticed how some great psychol- Furnham, A. (2016b). “Whether you think you can, or you ogists seem to “disappear” from the literature soon think you can’t – You’re right.” Differences and con- after their death, while others thrive. He is not sure sequences of beliefs about your ability. In R. Sternberg, S. Fiske, & D. Foss (Eds.), Scientists making a differ- why this is the case: but he hopes to be the latter. ence: The greatest living behavioral and brain scien- Finally, he must acknowledge that whatever he tists talk about their most important contributions. has achieved academically it has often been Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. because of the help of various mentors, col- Furnham, A., & Marks, J. (2013). Tolerance of ambiguity: A review of the recent literature. Psychology, 4, leagues, and graduate students, as well as those 717–728. mentioned above. Among the mentors, he must Furnham, A., & Ribchester, T. (1995). Tolerance of ambi- mention the brilliant Robert Hogan whose wit, guity: A review of the concept, its measurement and – wide reading, and courage has always impressed applications. Current Psychology, 14, 179 199. Furnham, Adrian 7

Furnham, A., & Steele, H. (1993). Measuring locus of Pendleton, D., & Furnham, A. (2016). Leadership: All you control: A critique of general, children’s, health, and need to know. London: Palgrave MacMillan. work-related locus of control questionnaires. British Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2000a). Gender differ- Journal of Psychology, 84, 443–479. ences in measured and self-estimated trait emotional Furnham, A., & Tsivrikos, D. (2016). All in the mind: intelligence. Sex Roles, 42, 449–461. Psychology for the curious. London: Routledge. Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2000b). On the dimen- Furnham, A., Sadka, V., & Brewin, C. (1992). The devel- sional structure of emotional intelligence. Personality opment of an occupational attributional style question- and Individual Differences, 29, 313–320. naire. Journal of Occupational Behaviour, 13,27–39. Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2001). Trait emotional Furnham, A., Eysenck, H., & Saklofske, D. (2008). The intelligence: Psychometric investigation with reference Eysenck personality measures: Fifty years of scale to established trait taxonomies. European Journal of development. In G. Boyle, G. Matthrews, & Personality, 15, 425–448. D. Saklofske (Eds.), Handbook of personality testing Petrides, K. V., Jackson, C., Furnham, A., & Levine, (pp. 199–218). California: Sage. S. (2003). Exploring issues in personality measurement Furnham, A., Hyde, G., & Trickey, G. (2012a). Do your and structure through development of a short form of dark side traits fit? Dysfunctional personalities in dif- the Eysenck Personality Profiler. Journal of Personal- ferent work sectors. , 63(4), ity Assessment, 81, 272–281. 589–606. Petrides, K. V., Furnham, A., & Mavroveli, S. (2008). Trait Furnham, A., Trickey, G., & Hyde, G. (2012b). Bright emotional intelligence: Moving forward in the field of aspects to dark side traits: Dark side traits associated EI. In G. Matthews, M. Zeidner, & R. Roberts (Eds.), with work success. Personality and Individual Differ- Emotional intelligence: Knowns and unknowns ences, 52(8), 908–913. (pp. 151–166). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Furnham, A., Hyde, G., & Trickey, G. (2013). The values Storek, J., & Furnham, A. (2013). Gender, ‘g’, and fixed of work success. Personality and Individual Differ- versus growth intelligence mindsets as predictors of ences, 55, 485–490. self-estimated Domain Masculine Intelligence Furnham, A., Hyde, G., & Trickey, G. (2014). The dark (DMIQ). Learning and Individual Differences, 25, side of career preference: Dark side traits, motives, and 93–98. values. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 44(2), Swami, V., & Furnham, A. (2010). Self-assessed intelli- 106–114. gence: Inter-ethnic, rural–urban, and sex differences in Macrae, I., & Furnham, A. (2014). High flyers. London: Malaysia. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(1), Bloomsbury. 51–55. Moutafi, J., Furnham, A., & Crump, J. (2003). Demo- Szymanowicz, A., & Furnham, A. (2013). Gender and graphic and personality predictors of intelligence. gender role differences in Domain-Masculine Intelli- European Journal of Personality, 17,79–94. gence and beliefs about intelligence. Journal of Social Psychology, 153, 399–423.