Criminal Behaviour: Individual Differences

Question 1

Which do you write about in an essay

What are the two individual differences for criminal behaviour?

Answer 1

• Eysenck’s criminal personality theory (write in an essay)
• Cognitive factors

Question 2

What are the three personality dimensions and what are the personality traits?

Answer 2

• Extroversion=sociable,lively and optimistic
• Neuroticism=high levels of anxiety, can be moody and irratible
• Psychotisim=impulsive,impatient,agressuve and creative

Question 3

How do the personality dimensions link to criminal behaviour?

Answer 3

• Extrovert=more arousal needed, seeks out dangerous situations and impulsive actions e.g murder
• Neurotic=unstable,over-react to stimuli,more likely to lead criminal acts that aren’t planned e.g. assult after an arguement
• Psychotic=agressive,impulsive and lacks empathy e.g. murder

Question 4

How are the three dimensions of personality linked to a person’s biology?

Answer 4

• Extraversion=under aroused NS~seek stimulation to restore the level of optimum stimulation
• Neuroticism=unstable and prone to overreacting stimuli and may be quick to anger or fear
• Psychotisim=related to high levels of testosterone~higher levels lead to higher levels of psychotism

Question 5

Give examples

How are the three dimension of personality linked to criminal behaviour?

Answer 5

• Extrovert=seek arousal/stimulation from dangerous situations e.g theft
• Neurotic=over-react to stimulu, more likely lead to criminal acts that aren’t planned (from an escalated event) e.g assult after an arguement
• Psychotic=agressive and lack of empathy e.g murder

Question 6

What did role does socalisation play in criminal personality according to Eysenck?

Answer 6

Criminal behaviour could be explained through a combination of innate personality traits and socalisation
* Certain personality traits may predispose them to criminality, but the interaction with the environment is important in the development of criminal behaviour

Question 7

What personality traits link to conditioning

How does the role of socialisation in criminal personality link to conditioning?

Answer 7

Sociaisation element occurs during, where children are taught that bad behaviour is punished (operant conditioning)
High score in extroversion and neuroticism were less easily conditioned (aren’t scared of punishment)

Question 8

What does this suggest

What case is used to support the role of socialisation in criminal personality and describe it

Answer 8

Eysenck (1977)
2070 male prisoners and 2442 non-prisoners
Prisoners had higher scores in P,E,N than controls, they did fall with age
PEN traits are associated with criminal personalities, regardless of age

Question 9

Which parts of cognitive factors do you write about in an essay?

Answer 9

Cognitive distortions or faulty thinking patterns
Minimalisation

Question 10

Give an example

What is a hostible attribution bias and how does it link to crime?

Answer 10

An individual has a leaning towards always thinking negatively
It is most likely linked to increased levels of agression as they always believe that others act agressive towards them e.g assult or murder

Question 11

What is minimalisation?

Answer 11

The criminals minimise the situations which they are in to result in them being able to engage in a criminal behaviour without there being any guilt experiance

Question 12

Car crash

Give an example of minimalisation

Answer 12

They may think that it is okay to drive away without leaving their number if the car looks rich or is a good brand as the owner of the car can afford to pay for the damage to the car

Question 13

What are the evalution points of Eysenck’s criminal personality theory?

Answer 13

Research support, issues with measuring personality and considers influence of nature + nurture on criminality

Question 14

What is the research support paragraph for Eysenck’s criminal personality theory?

Answer 14

• Eysenck (1977) found that male prisoners socred higher than controls on PEN scales
• However, Eysenck may have interpreted his findings to support his theory due to research bias
• Even though research supports the theory we must remain critical about the validity of the findings

Question 15

What is the issues with measuring personality paragraph for Eysenck’s criminal personality theory?

Answer 15

• Accuracy of the personality measures can be questioned
• Eysenck’s criminal personality questionaire is self-report as P’s answer Qs that correlate to personality traits~open to S.D.B as ppl may change their answers to change their personality traits
• However, a lie scale was included~help identify P’s that weren’t answering truthfully~data could be discarded
• Even though S.D.B was controlled for, but a questionaire isn’t a truly accurate measure of personality as it is a self-report

Question 16

Describe the influence of nature and nurture paragraph of Eysenck’s criminal personality theory

Answer 16

• Eysenck explain that criminal behaviour is based on a combination of innate personality traits and socialization
• For example children of high scores and extroversion and neuroticism were less easily conditioned as they don’t Fear punishment
• Strength as the theory is interactionist allowing a more complete explanation for criminal behavior

Question 17

What is the research support for cognitive factors?

Answer 17

• Research support for minimalisation as a cognitive distortion in criminals
• Pollock and hasmall: 35% of a sample of child molesters said that the crime they committed was non-sexual 36% said that victims had consented
• This shows that criminals will downplay their actions and consequences in order to reduce their own guilt
• Strength as it supports the theory that criminals have cognitive dysfunctions increasing the various validity