5.5. Eysenck Criminal Personality

Question 1

What is a way to measure criminal behaviour linked to personality?

Answer 1

Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)

Question 2

What does the EPQ do?

Answer 2

Places you along 3 dimensions

Question 3

What did Eysenck claim?

Answer 3

67% variance of biological traits are innate

Question 4

Extrovert

Answer 4

Under aroused, seek stimulation more, therefore engage in risk taking behaviour

Question 5

Neurotic

Answer 5

Over-react and gets upset easily (heat of the moment crimes)

Question 6

Psychoticism

Answer 6

High testosterone = aggressive- explains high number of men in prison

Question 7

What is this further linked to?

Answer 7

Immediate gratification

Question 8

What did Eysenck state offenders usually are?

Answer 8

Developmentally immature- they cannot wait- childish

Question 9

The criminal personality

Answer 9

High extrovert and high neurotic

Question 10

What can’t people with the criminal personality be?

Answer 10

Conditioned = hard to re-educate during rehabilitation

Question 11

How are people with the criminal personality more likely to react?

Answer 11

Anti-socially- they’re unable to learn anxiety responses to anti-social impulses

Question 12

Strength: comparing prisoners’ scores

Answer 12

• Eysenck compared 2070 male prisoners’ score using the EPQ with 2433 male controls
• Prisoners scores had higher E,N and P scores than controls
• This backs up the predictions that offenders rate higher than the average across the three dimensions than the average

Question 13

Weakness: Farrington meta analysis

Answer 13

• Revealed that offenders scores high on P but not on E + N
• Implies some of the central assumptions of the criminal personality are incorrect (Eysenck said the criminal personality was high E+N)

Question 14

Weakness: Moffit

Answer 14

• Distinguished between offending behaviour that only occurs in adolescence and those that continue into adulthood
• She found a reciprocal process between the individual’s personality traits and the environmental reactions
• This implies explaining offenders behaviour is a lot more complex and considers nurture rather than just nature.

Question 15

Weakness: theory based on personality being consistent

Answer 15

• The theory is based on personality being consistent, however personality is dependent on the situation
• Mischel asked family, friends and strangers to rate 63 students in a variety of situations and found almost no correlation between traits displayed.
• Any regularity of behaviour is likely to be due to the fact we often tend to be in similar situations.