Explanation of crime and ASB: Personality explanation Flashcards
Who was the main theorist of criminal personalities?
Eysenck
Define personality
The combination of traits that are thought to form the distinctive character of a person
What were the 2 scales Eysenck belived personality could be measured.
Extraversion - Introversion
and
Neuroticism - Stability
How can Extraversion - Introversion account for a criminal personality
Extraverts crave excitement and stimulation so they are prone to dangerous and risk-taking behaviour.
- Don’t condition easy (don’t learn from mistakes)
- Extraverts aren’t affected by punishment as much as introverts
How can Neuroticism - Stability account for criminal personalities
Neurotic individuals are nervy and anxious. Their instability makes them dificult to predict.
What did Eysenck say was the typical criminal personality
Extravert - neurotic
Biological bias:
What is one biological explanation of personality traits
personality traits are based off the nervous system we inherit.
Biological bias:
How does the nervous system account for extraverts constant need for excitment?
They have an underactive nervous system - requires high level of arousal
Biological Bias:
How does the nervous system account for people high on the nueroticism scale?
act volatile and react strongly to situations others would find less stressful, or even nuetral
A third dimension:
What was the third dimension Eysenck eventually developed?
Psychoticism
A third dimension, Psychoticism:
What did Eysenck describe psychoticism to be
individuals who are cold, self-centered and lack empathy for others
A third dimension, Psychoticism:
What did Eysenck then develop the ‘criminal type’ to be
a person who scored high on all three dimensions, psychoticism, extraversion and nueroticism.
The socialisation process:
What did Eysenck say would determine whether someone would become law-abiding or not?
Socialisation process in someones childhood will determine whetehr they are law abiding or not.
The socialisation process:
What did Eysenck say about socialisation in extraverts and nuerotics
Extraverts - reward-seekers makes them less receptive to operant conditioning, and therefore less affected by punishment
Nuerotics - nueroticism interferes with efficient learning, nuerotics may find it dificult to learn basic social rules
Strength of the theory
Theres evidence supporting the existence of the criminal type
Strength of the theory:
Research evidence suggesting prevalence of Eysecks criminal character type
Baduszek et al - investigated prevalence of Eysencks criminal persoanlity type on repeated offenders.
133 violent
179 non - violent
males
Strength of the theory:
What did Baduszek et al suggest?
criminal thinking style is correlated with high levels of psychoticism, extraversion and nueroticism
Strength of the theory:
What does this evidence from Baduszek et al suggest?
Eysencks theory has validity as the personality he identified are associated with repeated offending
What is a weakness of the theory
There is only 1 type of criminal personality
Weakness of the theory:
What is an example that has challenged Eysenck’s model of criminal personality?
The five-factor model
Weakness of the theory:
What does the five-factor model state?
- Accepts concepts of extraversion and introversion
- adds openness, conscientiosness and agreeableness
- low levels of agreeableness and conscientiosness relate to offending
Weakness of the theory:
What does this evidence suggest
Criminal personality may be more complicated than Eysenck originally thought
Another strength of theory
criminal personality may be related to activity of the nervous system
Another strength of the theory:
Evidence to support the nervous system link to criminal activity
Raine et at (1990) took physiological measures from 15 yr old participants and related these to later criminal status
Another strength of the theory:
What did Raine et al (1990) find
those showing more signs of under-arousal in the nervous system at age 15 had more crimes committed 24 years later than non criminals
Another strength of the theory:
What does evidence from Raine et al (1990) suggest?
suggests link between biological factors and offending
What is a competing factor of Baduszek’s study
evidence for criminal personality is not conclusivem as seen by Farrington et al
Competing factor:
Farrington et al findings
little evidence thet Eysenck’s questionnaire was an adaquate measure in predicting criminal behaviour in juviniles or adults
Competing factor:
what do Farrington’s findings suggest
That Eysencks original idea of the nature of a criminal personality may lack some validity.
