Criminal Behaviour - Individual - Personality

Question 1

Who’s theories does the theory of personality centre around and what did they believe?

Answer 1

This theory centres around Eysenck. Who believes that our personality is split up into three different dimensions being Neuroticism, Psychoticism and Extraversion.

Eysenck suggests that some personality types are more predisposed towards Criminal Behaviour than others.
On top of this, he claims these personalities are formed from both our genetics and our environment. Meaning this theory is interactionist as it considers the effects of both nature and nurture.

Eysenck created the EPQ (eyesnck personality questionaire) which is a series of questions to determine the levels of these traits in an individual.

Question 2

What are the traits associated with each personality type in low and high?

Answer 2

Psychoticism:
High: Aggressive, selfish, lack of empathy or remorse.
Low: Warm and very aware of others.

Neuroticism:
High: Tense, anxious, irrational
Low: Calm and relaxed

Extraversion:
High: Sociable sensation Seeking
Low: Unsociable, overly cautious

Question 3

What is Extraversions biological link to criminality

Answer 3

Extraverts are sociable people; this is because they need stimulation. Other things they will do to fill this stimulation often includes risk taking behaviours.

This is because they inherit an under-aroused nervous system so need stimulation to restore the optimum level of cortical arousal.

While on the other end, introverts are already over-aroused so shun away any extra stimulation

Question 4

What is Extraversions Environmental link to criminality

Answer 4

Suggests that we learn through operant conditioning to not repeat acts that result in punishment.

Introverts learn quickly through conditioning, but extraverts are far less easily conditioned.

This means they find it much harder to learn society’s rules and social norms and don’t respond well to punishment, increasing the likelihood of them engaging in criminal behaviour.

Question 5

What is Neuroticism’s biological link to criminality

Answer 5

Neuroticism is biologically determined by the reactivity of someone’s sympathetic nervous system.

This makes those high in Neuroticism highly unstable under pressure and prone to overreacting to stimuli resulting them getting quickly upset or angry - which could then result in criminal behaviour.

Question 6

What is Psychoticism’s biological link to criminality

Answer 6

Psychoticism is linked to high levels of testosterone, with those thought to be high in psychoticism also being high in testosterone.

Many studies have found direct links between testosterone and aggressive behaviours. This also explains why Men commit more violent offences than woman as they have far higher levels of testosterone.

Question 7

Describe the study using EPQ in support of personality theory?

Answer 7

Dunlop et al (2012)
Used Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire to measure the three traits in students aged 15-75 years old.
Results found that both extroversion and neuroticism were strong signs of delinquency

Question 8

Describe the twin study in support of personality theory?

Answer 8

Zuckerman (1987)
Twin study that found:
Neuroticism: 52% MZ correlation – 24% DZ correlation.
Extroversion: 51% MZ correlation = 12% DZ correlation.

Question 9

Strengths and weaknesses of Personality theory?

Answer 9

Application to MOD
Holistic

Reductionist
social desirability bias

Question 10

Name a strength of the Personality explanation of criminality

Answer 10

Strength 1) Application to methods of modification

One strength of Eysenck’s personality theory is that it could be reverse-engineered to help prevent crime. This is because the personality theory suggests that the underlying tendencies we have, such as of anger or impulsiveness can eventually manifest themselves as criminal behaviour that are detectable during childhood.

This is a strength as it means that it may be possible to modify socialization experiences of high-risk individuals who show many of these traits, so they don’t develop into offenders. This could lead to interventions for parenting for treating and dealing with early signs of delinquency to reduce criminal behaviour.

Question 11

Name a strength of the Personality explanation of criminality

Answer 11

Strength 2) - Holistic

Another strength of Eysenck’s personality theory is that it can be considered less reductionist than other theories explaining criminal behaviour.

This is because it takes an interactionist approach and argues that a criminal personality is based on both biological predispositions as well as conditioning and socialisation, especially during childhood. This could make the approach more valid and complete than a biological or environmental theory alone

Question 12

Give a weakness of personality theory (SDB)

Answer 12

Weakness 1)
Eysenck’s personality theory and studies that use it such as Dunlop et al lack internal validity, this is because EPQ uses a self-report method to gather data meaning we have no way to know if the responses are truthful as they will suffer from social desirability bias where people will alter their responses to be more favourable towards themselves which can become a confounding variable when using that data in research studies.

Question 13

Give a weakness of personality theory (reductionist)

Answer 13

Weakness 2)
Despite being an holistic approach, it could be considered reductionist as some critics may argue that the explanation oversimplifies human personality and that the three dimensions of just extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are not enough to explain the full range of human personality traits that can be associated with criminal behaviour