Forensics - Eysenck's theory

Question 1

What do psychological explanations focus on in explaining offending behaviour?

Answer 1

Psychological explanations concentrate on factors such as family and environmental influences on offending behaviour, cognitive factors and personality.

Question 2

Outline Eysenck’s theory of offending

Answer 2

• Hans Eysenck (1947) proposed that behaviour could be represented along 2 dimensions:
• Extraversion/introversion
• Neuroticism/stability
  He later added a third dimension:
• psychoticism (cold, unemotional, prone to aggression)

Eysenck suggested that personality traits originate from biology, therefore they are innate. He suggested this was linked to the activity of the nervous system, which is inherited.
- Extraverts have an underactive nervous system, so constantly seek excitement and interest, and don’t learn as well from mistakes.
- Neurotic people are nervous and anxious and generally unstable.

Question 3

What did Eysenck suggest about the personality type of criminals?

Answer 3

Eysenck argued that the criminal personality is a combination of extravert and neurotic characteristics, as well as psychotic characteristics- unemotional and prone to aggression.

Question 4

What did Eysenck suggest about how personality links to criminal behaviour?

Answer 4

Eysenck believes that personality links to criminal behaviour in that people with this behaviour do not respond to socialisation or conditioning.

Criminal behaviour is developmentally immature – selfish, concerned with
immediate gratification, impatient.

People with high E/N scores have nervous systems more difficult to condition -> not learn easily to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety, more likely to act antisocially.

Question 5

How do you measure the criminal personality according to Eysenck?

Answer 5

Eysenck developed the ‘Eysenck Personality Inventory’ (EPI), as test which measures where respondents would be placed along the E and N dimensions, to determine their personality type.

Question 6

Evaluate Eysenck’s theory of criminal behaviour - research

Answer 6

Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) found that criminals scored highly on E, N and P measures than a control group of non-criminals, supporting the theory.
However, Farrington et al (1982) reviewed studies which showed that criminals scored highly on P measures, but not E and N. Therefore, the evidence for the theory is mixed.

Question 7

Evaluate Eysenck’s theory of criminal behaviour - cultural bias

Answer 7

Study into Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York, divided them into six groups based on criminal history and nature of offence, all six groups less extraverted than controls – perhaps this theory does not account for traits of other cultures, not generalizable.

Question 8

Evaluate Eysenck’s theory of criminal behaviour -

Answer 8

Other psychologists have proposed several distinct types of male offender based on timing of first offence, how long offending persists. Also, it can be argues there are many different types of criminal personality, depending on what types of crimes are involved and how they are carried out – suggests it is inappropriate and overly simplistic to type all criminals the same.