Hans Eysenck's Personality Theory

Vegeta, one of the main protagonists of the anime series Dragonball Z, showed conflicting attitudes, feeling of superiority, lust for power, pessimistic attitudes as well as internal struggle between being good and bad throughout the series. His ability to maintain his superior attitude when he lost his race and planet as well as events that lead him from being evil and self centered person to a caring and good person can be explained through many psychological viewpoints.

Vegeta’s personality was mostly due to his upbringing and childhood. Vegeta was the prince of the fallen Saiyan race. The Saiyans were a race of strong people who lived in the Planet Vegeta and had the ability to increase their powers as well as transform into great apes.

So being the prince Vegeta grew up feeling superior in every way to the rest of the Saiyans as well being spoiled.
After Planet Vegeta was destroyed only few of the Saiyans survived, Vegeta was one of them. While growing up Vegeta was working for the villain Frieza, who sent Vegeta to other planets to destroy them. While working for Frieza, Vegeta felt alone because he had no one to support him while growing up which affected his personality development and lead him to be self oriented. Thus, this leads Vegeta to think he was the strongest Saiyan in the universe.
Vegeta’s personality started to change after he met Goku who was also a Saiyan but who resided on planet Earth. Vegeta had gone to destroy planet Earth but Goku had defeated him, which made Vegeta realize there was someone stronger than him out there in the universe. Soon after Vegeta would come to know that Frieza the tyrant he worked under was who had destroyed his planet and annihilated his Saiyan race. Thus, Vegeta knowing the truth about Frieza and meeting Goku had started to change Vegeta and his personality.
After Goku had defeated Frieza by becoming a Super Saiyan Vegeta was overwhelmed with the feeling of inferiority to Goku. Super Saiyan was a transformation only very few of the Saiyans could do that would increase their strengths and powers many folds. Vegeta being the prince of Saiyans and not being able to transform into a super saiyan, while Goku a normal Saiyan could achieve such power made Vegeta feel weak and worthless. From then on Vegeta would start training and do anything it took to surpass Goku.
As time went on and Vegeta lived on planet Earth with many people he started to feel emotions, which lead him to marry Bulma who was an earthling and have a son later on named Trunks who was half saiyan and half earthling. But even when he developed emotions and a sense to protect Earth his lust for power to defeat Goku was never gone. There came a time where he let this wizard control him and awaken his power which lead Vegeta to increase his power and transform into a Super Saiyan 2. He thought he had surpassed Goku but he realized that Goku was able to transform beyond a super saiyan as well. Actually Goku was able to transform even one step higher than Vegeta. But, Goku was being nice and let Vegeta feel superior.
So as time went on Vegeta realized that Goku was in a level of his own and that no one could compete with him. Vegeta decided to settle down and protect his family and friends. There was several time where Vegeta and Goku had to combine bodies to protect the planet Earth. Vegeta hated the fact that he wasn’t strong enough to take down villains all alone but he put aside his ego and did what was best for everyone. Thus, Vegeta was one of the strongest fighter in the world but not as strong as few people and he accepted that.
Hans Eysenck’s psychological thought process was that people’s personalities are linked to a certain degree that can be separated into two dimensions.

Depending on the personality factors a person can be either classified as Introversion/ Extroversion and Neuroticism/ Stability. Vegeta was a prince who was alone almost all his life growing up because his planet was destroyed therefore his people were gone. Therefore, he developed skills and personality to whatever was suitable for him to stay alive alone. According to Eysenck’s factor analysis Vegeta would be an introverted person and neurotic. An introverted person is someone who is reserved and doesn’t like being too social with others. Vegeta grew up alone so he never learned how to be social with others. He just felt superior to everyone based on his strengths and killed who ever disagreed with him. A neurotic person is someone who is very anxious and moody. They have a hard time calming down once they are upset. Vegeta once his angry he won’t come down until whatever made him upset is destroyed. Eysenack related personality to the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). So, according to Eysenck, Vegeta would have an autonomic nervous system that responds quickly to stress. This means Vegeta quickly acts on his

emotions.
Vegeta’s feeling of superiority over everyone even after he was alone can be explained by Alfred Adler’s individual psychology theory.

The individual psychology theory basically explains that human are motivated to feel according to their social structures. According to Adler one of the single motivating forces that can subsume all other motives was if a person began their life with feelings of inferiority. Since Vegeta was prince of all the Saiyans he felt as if he was stronger than all the other saiyans. Vegeta was also pampered a lot by his dad King Vegeta when he was alive about how his family is royal and they are the strongest amongst the saiyans. Adler said, “Pampering robs the child of independence and adds to the feeling of inferiority.” So, having that sense Vegeta felt superior to rest of his

race.
Vegeta after his planet and his people were destroyed still maintained an arrogant ego. He still felt proud of himself and felt he could do anything he wanted. This type of personality is described by Erik Erikson’s ego psychology. Ego psychology was Erikson’s approach to personality. According to the Erikson the principal function of the ego is to establish and maintain a sense of identity. So even though Vegeta lost everything he still maintained his personality which made him still feel superior to other people and things. Throughout his life Vegeta has demonstrated many of Erikson’s developmental stages but the stage that mostly supports him after losing his race was the “Identity versus Role Confusion” during his adolescent ages. According to Erikson people in this stage with a sense of identity make decisions about personal values and religious questions. This basically means they know who they are and what they are striving for. Vegeta shows this by staying strong and still dominating other people with his feeling of superiority.
Vegeta’s transformation from the beginning of the series to the end showed major changes in his personality. He developed many skills and changed for the good. But, Vegeta’s ability to stay strong and keep his feeling of superiority throughout his life could be explained in many different psychological theories. Out of all the theories I do believe that Erik Erikson’s ego psychology theory makes the most sense. Everything Vegeta did was based on his ego personality and he maintained his identity throughout the series as well as change but he stayed himself and followed his ego till the end.