Eysenck’s theory of personality

Question 1

Theory of personality

Answer 1

personality is made up of traits and the level of each trait determines the
personality

Question 2

What are the three traits of personality?

Answer 2

• extraversion
• neuroticism
• psychoticism

Question 3

Extraversion and Introversion

Answer 3

• extrovert is sociable, impulsive, expressive
  and risk taking
• introvert is the opposite, much more cautious

Question 4

Neuroticism and Stable

Answer 4

• neurotic people are nervous, anxious, and obsessive
• stable people have a care free attitude and appear much calmer

Question 5

Psychoticism

Answer 5

psychotics are egocentric, aggressive,
impulsive, impersonal, lacking empathy,
non-concerned about others’ welfare

Question 6

Distribution

Answer 6

• people would score in the middle for extraversion and neuroticism
• people would score low for psychoticism

Question 7

The Eysenck Personality
Questionnaire

Answer 7

Over 100 questions including things like:
- do you like to talk a lot?
- do you worry about things that might happen?
- do you laugh at people hurting themselves?

Question 8

Biological basis of personality

Answer 8

• Eysenck believed that predisposition to
  develop certain traits is inherited
• people are born with a higher chance of being an introvert of extravert

Question 9

Biological basis of extraversion

Answer 9

• level of
  cortical arousal in the brain
• brains are less active so they seek
  stimulation to raise this
• introverts withdraw from the environment to try and reduce the stimulation
  their brain receives

Question 10

Biological basis of neuroticism

Answer 10

• nervous systems react stronger to stimuli than others (higher in neuroticism)

Question 11

Biological basis of psychoticism

Answer 11

linked to male hormones such as testosterone

Question 12

Criminal personality

Answer 12

Score highly in all
- extraverts (thrill of crime)
- neurotics (suffer form high levels of emotions and more likely to be conditioned to commit crime)
- psychotics (aggressive and no conscience)

Question 13

Furnham (1984)

Answer 13

• 210 non delinquents tested for personality, moral guidance, and social skills
• best predictor of self reported delinquency was psychoticism

Question 14

Farrington (1992)

Answer 14

Found that official offenders (caught and convicted) are high in neuroticism but low in extraversion

Question 15

Positive evaluation of theory of personality for crime

Answer 15

• research evidence supports

Question 16

Negative evaluation of theory of personality for crime

Answer 16

• evidence for extraversion in mixed
• hard to pin down which trait is related to which crime
• personality changes over time
• questionnaires are used so possibility of social
  desirability bias and demand characteristics
• not everyone who scores highly resorts to crime
• can’t be generalised as research only applies to those who have been caught