Eyseneck's theory of the criminal personality

Question 1

what is the Eysenck personality inventory ?

Answer 1

• form of psychological test which locates respondants along the extraversion and neuroticism dimensions to determine their personality type

Question 2

what did Eysenck believe ?

Answer 2

• he believed that personality has a biological basis
• personality is innate
• criminals have particular personalities
• we inherit the type of nervous system that predisposes us to offending so criminality has a biological basis

Question 3

what did Eysenck believe that extraverts have ?

Answer 3

• believed extraverts have an underdeveloped nervous system which means that they constantly seek enjoyment through risk taking behaviour

Question 4

AO3
Problem with the Eysenck personality inventory ?
example ?

Answer 4

• questions are too vague and open to interpretation
• Are you rather lively ?

Question 5

what is Eysenck a link between ?

Answer 5

Eysenck is a link between biological and psychological explanations of offending

Question 6

According to the EPI personality varies along which 3 dimensions ?

Answer 6

• neurotic - stable
• extravert - introvert
• psychotism

Question 7

when was psychotism added to the EPI ?

Answer 7

1976

Question 8

why do extrovert enjoy the thrill of a crime ?

Answer 8

• because it involves risk taking therefore satisfying their under aroused nervous systems
• joy riding

Question 9

Describe the criminal personality according to the EPI ?

Answer 9

• high levels of extraversion
• high levels of neuroticism
• High psychotism
  -often cold and unfeeling
• cannot be conditioned easily through socialisation

Question 10

what do high levels of psychotism relate to ?

Answer 10

• vulnerability and mental illness
• reckless , inappropriate emotional expression

Question 11

AO3 evidence for Eysenck criminal personality
SUPPORT

Answer 11

McGurk and McDougall
- investigated the link between criminality and personality type
- 100 students defined as delinquents and 100 control students completed the EPI

Question 12

AO3
- McGurk and McDougall findings

Answer 12

• there was significant differences in scores on all 3 dimensions with the delinquent group having high PEN scores
• suggesting there is a relationship between personality type and delinquent behvaiour

Question 13

AO3
- the idea of a single criminal type is too simplistic

Answer 13

• Terrie Moffett
• proposed several distinct types of adult male offenders based on the timing of the first offence and for how long offending persists
• 2 types = life course persistent + adolescent limited

Question 14

AO3
- cultural bias

Answer 14

• Bartol + Holanchock
• looked into cultural differences
• they studied hispanic + african-american offenders in a maximum security prison in New York
• divided into 6 groups based on criminal history and nature of offence
• revealed that all 6 groups were found to be all less extroverted than a non-criminal control group
• Bartol suggested that was because the sample was a very different cultural group than what eysneck investigated
• ## questions the generalisability