Michael William Eysenck (/ˈaɪzɛŋk/ EYE-zenk; born 8 February 1944)[1] is a British academic psychologist, and is an Emeritus Professor in Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London.
In the late 1990s, he developed the theory of the "hedonic treadmill",[2] stating that humans are predisposed by genetics to plateau at a certain level of happiness, and that the occurrence of novel happy events merely elevates this level temporarily.
Eysenck's research focuses mainly on cognitive factors associated with anxiety in normal and clinical populations.
First, there is attentional control theory (with Nazanin Derakshan, Rita Santos, and Manuel Calvo), which provides a cognitive account of the effects of anxiety on performance.
Overall, he has written 42 books, many of which are in the area of cognitive psychology, and have a grand total of over 200 publications There is a photographic portrait of Hans and Michael Eysenck in the National Portrait Gallery permanent collection, by Anne-Katrin Purkiss.