AC 2.2 & 3.2 individualisitc - Psychological Flashcards
What are the psychological theories?
Eysenck’s personality theory
What is Eysenck’s personality theory?
Certain personality traits makes someone more prone to criminal behaviour
He created a personality questionnaire to measure peoples personality traits ranking them on an E scale (extroversion) and an N scale (neurotics)
What is extraversion?
-introversion
Thrill seeking, impulsive behaviour
Extroverts are sociable but become bored very easily (high E level)
Introverts need very little stimulation and are often in control of their situations (low N level)
Extra version is determined by the overall level of arousal in a persons nervous system. A person who is under aroused requires more stimulation whereas an overall aroused person avoids this. Extrovert seek external stimulation to increase their cortical arousal. Introverts are innately overaroused and thus seek to reduce or avoid stimulation.
What is neuroticism?
- stability
Emotional instability
Neurotics are often anxious and irrational (high N level)
Stable personalities worry less and a more emotionally well adjusted (low N level)
Neuroticism is determined by the level of stability (amount of reactivity) in the sympathetic nervous system – how much a person responds in situations of threat (fight or flight). A neurotic person is someone who is slightly unstable and reacts/gets easily upset. At the opposite end of this dimension, the stable personality has a more unreactive nervous system. They are calm under pressure.
What is psychoticism?
- normality
Aggressive, antisocial tendencies
People with high P level are cold, uncaring and aggressive to others and will further indicate tendency to criminality
Psychism has been related to levels of higher testosterone, which means that men (who have higher levels of testosterone than women) are more likely to be found at this end of the spectrum
How is extroversion linked to crime?
Need high stimulation from their environment to seek excitement – causes reckless and impulsive behaviour
How is neuroticism linked to crime?
How to condition to follow society’s rules due to high anxiety levels preventing them from learning from punishment for mistakes
How is psychoticism linked to crime?
Tend to have a higher level of testosterone in this can make them more violent
What is conditioning?
Some psychologist argue that through experience we learned to seek pleasure (rewards) and avoid pain (punishment). For example, if we misbehave we are punished and so we learned to stop doing it to avoid further punishment. This process is called conditioning, Eysenck argued that neurotics and extrovert are much harder to condition than normal people due to the nature of their nervous systems. This makes them more likely to overreact in situations or behave impulsively and can lead to criminal behaviour.
Eysenck’s personality test - EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
P – one strength of Eysenck’s personality test is that there is supporting evidence
Extra supporting evidence
E - DeYoung (2010) suggest that there is a link between P, E, and N scores and brain processes such as the release of dopamine being linked to extroversion and high levels of testosterone into psychoticism
E – this supports the fact that the theory does have a biological basis and can be used to explain crime from a biological standpoint
– Developed a measurable test which can identify a persons risk of offending
– Other studies have supported that high E, P, N levels do account for criminality
WEAKNESSES
– Farrington examined a range of studies and found prisoners to be neurotic and psychotic but not extroverted
– E scale maybe testing two things: impulsiveness sociability. Offenders are impulsive but not sociable.
– The personality test may suggest a criminal personality but not why they commit the type of crime they did
– The population examined were in prison, therefore did not account for criminals who haven’t been caught and may not fit on the scale Eysenck suggests
P – Eysenck suggested that personality is based on genetics and has biological basis
Extra point
This also ignores the fact that personality is inconsistent
