Eysenck's Theory of the Criminal Personality Flashcards
What did Eysenck (1947) propose?
That behaviour could be represented along two dimensions
What are the two dimensions in Eysenck’s proposal?
Introversion/extraversion (E)
Neuroticism/stability (N)
What did Eysenck later add to his original idea?
Psychoticism
What did Eysenck believe personality traits have?
A biological origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit
What does he believe personality traits are?
Innate and have a biological basis
What are qualities of an extravert?
They have an underactive nervous system meaning they constantly seek excitement, stimulation and are more likely to engage in risk taking behaviour
Tend not to condition easily and learn from their mistakes
What are qualities of neurotic individuals?
Tend to be nervous jumpy
Over anxious
General instability means they are often difficult to predict
What is believed to be a criminal personality type?
Neurotic-extravert
Score highly on psychoticisim
How is personality linked to criminal behaviour?
via the socialisation process
What is criminal behaviour concerned with?
Immediate gratification
What does socialisation teach?
Usually teaches children to be able to delay gratification and become more socially orientated
What did Eysenck believe those with high N and E score had and would do?
A nervous system that made them difficult to condition
They would not learn easily to respond to anti-social impulses with anxiety
They would more likely to act anti-socially in situations where the opportunity presented itself
What did Eysenck use to measure the criminal personality?
Developed the EPI
What did Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) find?
Compared 2017 male prisoner scores on the EPI with 2422 male controls.
Groups were subdivided into age groups ranging from 16-69.
On measures of N, E and P in all age groups, prisoners scored higher scores than the controls which supports the predictions of the theory
What did Farrington et al (1982) find?
Reviewed several studies and reported that offenders have a high P measure but not on E and N.
What is there little evidence of?
Consistent differences in EEG measures between extraverts and introverts which casts doubt on the physiological basis on Eysenck’s theory
What did Moffitt (1993) find?
Proposed several distinct types of adult male offenders based on the timing of the first offence and how long the offending persists
This is criticism for the idea that all criminal behaviour is a result of a personality type
What did Digman (1990) find?
a five factor model of personality suggests that alongside E and N, there are additional dimensions of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Multiple combinations are available therefore a high E and N score does not necessarily mean more offending
What did Bartol and Holanchock (1979) look into?
The cultural differences of Hispanic and African American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York.
What did Bartol and Holanchock (1979) find? (cultural bias)
Divided them into 6 groups based on their criminal history and the nature of their offences
It was found that all 6 groups were found to be less extravert than a non-criminal control group
Bartol suggested that this was because their sample was a very different cultural group than the investigative group used by Eysenck
What did critics such as Mishcel (1988) suggest?
Personality may not be reducible in a score way
It is argued there is no such thing as personality
We play different parts of our personality depending on who we are with and the situation we are in, there may be no unchangeable or fixed personality.
What does Eysenck recognise about personality?
That is has a biological basis and therefore fits well with other biological explanations
What are characteristics of psychoticism?
Cold, unemotional, prone to aggression
