Eysencks personality Flashcards
Eysenck proposed behaviour could be represented along 2 dimensions:
- intorversion / extroversion (E scale)
- neuroticism / stability (N scale)
he later added psychoticism (P scale)
neuroticism =
emotional, intense feeling of guilt, anger, anxiety
psychoticism =
aggressiveness, hostility, increased risk of mental illness
the criminal personality
extroversion+ neuroticism+ psychoticism = criminal personality
an individual who scores highly on E, N and P scale
they cannot be easily conditioned, they can be cold, unemotional and prone to aggression
likely to engage in offender behaviour
biological basis
Eysenck says personality comes out through our nervous system - so have an innate biological basis
extravert’s NS= underactive NS; constantly seek excitement, likely to engage in risky behaviors, not conditioned easily and don’t learn from mistakes
neurotic NS = overactive NS; touchy, anxious, instability means their behaviour is difficult to predict.
socialisation =
the developmental process through which individuals acquire the values, behaviours and motivations necessary to become competent members of a culture.
helps children by shaping their skills and fostering companionship and empathy
the role of socialisation
eyesenck said criminal behaviour is developmentally immature, selfish and concerned with immediate gratification (impatient)
by the process of socialisation, children are taught delayed gratification
criminals may not have been taught this because E+N are difficult to condition
evidence: Eysenck personality inventory (EPI)
Eysenck assessed 2070 male prisoners who were compared to a control group of 2422 males
on measures of E,N,P prisoners recorded higher scores than the control group which matches with the prediction of the theory.
strength - supportive evidence
P: evidence to support criminal personality theory
E: Eysenck assessed 2070 male prisoners who were compared to a control group of 2422 males. on a measure of E, N and P, prisoners recorded higher scores than control group
C: strength because research supports Eysenck’s idea of the criminal personality. many of the prisoners had the traits of the criminal personality - high E, N,P scores. this contrasted with the controls group shows distinct evidence for the effect of criminal personality
limitation - male Ps
E: this means his sample is androcentric. so it’s hard to generalise findings to women
C: so it displays beta bias. differences between men and women are ignored where there may actually be differences. So, we don’t know if women would have same measures of E,N,P as men for criminal personality
limitation - contradictory evidence
E: Farrington conducted a meta analysis of studies that have used Eysenck’s questionnaire and found offender to have high P scores but not high E and N scores. meta analysis is a conclusion based on the results of several studies - may be more reliable as it draws on more studies as well as creating a larger overall sample size
C: limitation as meta analysis is considered more reliable than just one study, casting doubt on results from Eysenck’s original study
limitation - questionnaire
E: some Ps may lie on a questionnaire and display social desirability as their real answers may be extreme. this lowers validity as answers may not be genuine
C: limitation as it may lead to inaccuracies in results - which then may have biased the construction of Eysenck’s theory of personality
however, he included a lie scale as he phrased similar Qs differently to see if people were lying about their answers or not. increases validity as he could ignore the Qs that had high lie score.
