FP - Psychological explanations of offending behaviour: Eysenck's theory Flashcards
Extraversion
According to Eysenck, this refers to outgoing people who enjoy risk and danger because their nervous systems are under-aroused.
Neuroticism
According to Eysenck, this refers to people with a negative outlook who get upset easily. Their lack of stability is due to an over-reactive response to threat (fight-or-flight).
Psychoticism
According to Eysenck, this refers to an aggressive, anti-social person who lacks empathy. This may be related to high levels of testosterone.
What type of explanation is Eysenck’s theory?
Psychological
When did Eysenck develop his theory of the criminal personality?
1967, 1978
What did Eysenck develop?
A theory of personality based on the idea that character traits (such as moodiness, talkativeness, etc.) tend to cluster along 3 dimensions.
What was Eysenck’s theory based on?
The idea that character traits (such as moodiness, talkativeness, etc.) tend to cluster along 3 dimensions.
What are the 3 dimensions of Eysenck’s theory?
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
What are the 2 most important dimensions of Eysenck’s theory?
Extraversion and neuroticism.
What is the opposite to extraversion?
Introversion
What is the opposite to neuroticism?
Stability
What is the opposite to psychoticism?
Normality
How are extraverts characterised as?
Outgoing, having positive emotions, but may get bored easily.
What is neuroticism?
The tendency to experience negative emotional states (such as anger, anxiety and depression) rather than positive emotional states.
What are psychotics like?
Egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal, lacking in empathy and generally not concerned about the welfare of other people.
How are the dimensions distributed?
Normally distributed
What would we expect when the dimensions are normally distributed?
We would expect about 68% of any population to fall within one standard deviation from the mean.
What is the personality test devised by Eysenck to assess an individual’s personality called?
The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).
What did Eysenck (1982) suggest about personality?
Suggested that each trait has a biological basis which is mainly innate.
What did Eysenck claim about the variance for traits?
He claimed that 67% of the variance for the traits is due to genetic factors.
What is extraversion determined by?
The overall level of arousal in a person’s nervous systen.
Explain what Eysenck means in extraversion being determined by arousal levels
A person who is under-aroused requires more stimulation, whereas an over-aroused person doesn’t require this.
Extraverts seek external stimulation to increase their cortical (brain) arousal. Introverts are innately over-aroused and thus seek to reduce or avoid stimulation.
What is neuroticism determined by?
The level of stability (i.e. amount of reactivity) in the sympathetic nervous system - how much a person responds in situations of threat (fight-or-flight).
Explain what Eysenck means in neuroticism being determined by level of stability
A neurotic person is someone who is slightly unstable and reacts/gets upset quickly.
At the opposite end of this dimension the ‘stable’ personality has a more unreactive nervous system. They are calm under pressure.
What has psychoticism been related to?
Higher testosterone levels.
What does the fact that psychoticism has been related to higher testosterone levels mean in terms of where men and women would place on the spectrum?
Means that men (who have higher levels of testosterone than women) are more likely to be found at this end (psychotic end) of the spectrum.
How can the link between personality and criminal behaviour be explained in terms of arousal?
Extraverts seek more arousal and thus engage in dangerous activities.
How can the link between personality and criminal behaviour be explained in terms of stability?
Neurotics are unstable and therefore prone to over-react to situations of threat, which would explain some criminal activity.
How is psychoticism linked to criminality?
Because individuals are aggressive and lacking empathy.
How else other than in terms of the 3 dimensions did Eysenck also explain criminality?
In terms of the outcome between innate (biologically determined) personality and socialisation.
How can criminality be explained in terms of the outcome between innate (biologically determined) personality and socialisation?
A person is born with certain personality traits, but interaction with the environment is key in the development of criminality.
How can criminality be seen in socialisation and particularly in conditioning?
In a ‘normal’ person, wrongdoing is avoided because of previous punishment - when a person does something wrong they are punished and this reduces the likelihood that the behaviour is repeated (operant conditioning).
What did Eysenck claim the link between extraversion, neuroticism and conditioning is?
He claimed that people who were high in extraversion and neuroticism were less easily conditioned and therefore they do not learn to avoid anti-social behaviour.
What type of explanation is Eysenck’s theory?
Psychological explanation
