Eysenck's Theory of the Criminal Personality

Question 1

What did Eysenck (1947) propose?

Answer 1

That behaviour could be represented along two dimensions

Question 2

What are the two dimensions in Eysenck’s proposal?

Answer 2

Introversion/extraversion (E)

Neuroticism/stability (N)

Question 3

What did Eysenck later add to his original idea?

Answer 3

Psychoticism

Question 4

What did Eysenck believe personality traits have?

Answer 4

A biological origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit

Question 5

What does he believe personality traits are?

Answer 5

Innate and have a biological basis

Question 6

What are qualities of an extravert?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What are qualities of neurotic individuals?

Answer 7

Tend to be nervous jumpy
Over anxious
General instability means they are often difficult to predict

Question 8

What is believed to be a criminal personality type?

Answer 8

Neurotic-extravert

Score highly on psychoticisim

Question 9

How is personality linked to criminal behaviour?

Answer 9

via the socialisation process

Question 10

What is criminal behaviour concerned with?

Answer 10

Immediate gratification

Question 11

What does socialisation teach?

Answer 11

Usually teaches children to be able to delay gratification and become more socially orientated

Question 12

What did Eysenck believe those with high N and E score had and would do?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What did Eysenck use to measure the criminal personality?

Answer 13

Developed the EPI

Question 14

What did Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) find?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What did Farrington et al (1982) find?

Answer 15

Reviewed several studies and reported that offenders have a high P measure but not on E and N.

Question 16

What is there little evidence of?

Answer 16

Consistent differences in EEG measures between extraverts and introverts which casts doubt on the physiological basis on Eysenck’s theory

Question 17

What did Moffitt (1993) find?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What did Digman (1990) find?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What did Bartol and Holanchock (1979) look into?

Answer 19

The cultural differences of Hispanic and African American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York.

Question 20

What did Bartol and Holanchock (1979) find? (cultural bias)

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What did critics such as Mishcel (1988) suggest?

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

What does Eysenck recognise about personality?

Answer 22

That is has a biological basis and therefore fits well with other biological explanations

Question 23

What are characteristics of psychoticism?

Answer 23

Cold, unemotional, prone to aggression