FP - Psychological explanations of offending behaviour: Eysenck's theory

Question 1

Extraversion

Answer 1

According to Eysenck, this refers to outgoing people who enjoy risk and danger because their nervous systems are under-aroused.

Question 2

Neuroticism

Answer 2

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).

Question 3

Psychoticism

Answer 3

According to Eysenck, this refers to an aggressive, anti-social person who lacks empathy. This may be related to high levels of testosterone.

Question 4

What type of explanation is Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 4

Psychological

Question 5

When did Eysenck develop his theory of the criminal personality?

Answer 5

1967, 1978

Question 6

What did Eysenck develop?

Answer 6

A theory of personality based on the idea that character traits (such as moodiness, talkativeness, etc.) tend to cluster along 3 dimensions.

Question 7

What was Eysenck’s theory based on?

Answer 7

The idea that character traits (such as moodiness, talkativeness, etc.) tend to cluster along 3 dimensions.

Question 8

What are the 3 dimensions of Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 8

Extraversion
Neuroticism
Psychoticism

Question 9

What are the 2 most important dimensions of Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 9

Extraversion and neuroticism.

Question 10

What is the opposite to extraversion?

Answer 10

Introversion

Question 11

What is the opposite to neuroticism?

Answer 11

Stability

Question 12

What is the opposite to psychoticism?

Answer 12

Normality

Question 13

How are extraverts characterised as?

Answer 13

Outgoing, having positive emotions, but may get bored easily.

Question 14

What is neuroticism?

Answer 14

The tendency to experience negative emotional states (such as anger, anxiety and depression) rather than positive emotional states.

Question 15

What are psychotics like?

Answer 15

Egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal, lacking in empathy and generally not concerned about the welfare of other people.

Question 16

How are the dimensions distributed?

Answer 16

Normally distributed

Question 17

What would we expect when the dimensions are normally distributed?

Answer 17

We would expect about 68% of any population to fall within one standard deviation from the mean.

Question 18

What is the personality test devised by Eysenck to assess an individual’s personality called?

Answer 18

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).

Question 19

What did Eysenck (1982) suggest about personality?

Answer 19

Suggested that each trait has a biological basis which is mainly innate.

Question 20

What did Eysenck claim about the variance for traits?

Answer 20

He claimed that 67% of the variance for the traits is due to genetic factors.

Question 21

What is extraversion determined by?

Answer 21

The overall level of arousal in a person’s nervous systen.

Question 22

Explain what Eysenck means in extraversion being determined by arousal levels

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

What is neuroticism determined by?

Answer 23

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).

Question 24

Explain what Eysenck means in neuroticism being determined by level of stability

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

What has psychoticism been related to?

Answer 25

Higher testosterone levels.

Question 26

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?

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

How can the link between personality and criminal behaviour be explained in terms of arousal?

Answer 27

Extraverts seek more arousal and thus engage in dangerous activities.

Question 28

How can the link between personality and criminal behaviour be explained in terms of stability?

Answer 28

Neurotics are unstable and therefore prone to over-react to situations of threat, which would explain some criminal activity.

Question 29

How is psychoticism linked to criminality?

Answer 29

Because individuals are aggressive and lacking empathy.

Question 30

How else other than in terms of the 3 dimensions did Eysenck also explain criminality?

Answer 30

In terms of the outcome between innate (biologically determined) personality and socialisation.

Question 31

How can criminality be explained in terms of the outcome between innate (biologically determined) personality and socialisation?

Answer 31

A person is born with certain personality traits, but interaction with the environment is key in the development of criminality.

Question 32

How can criminality be seen in socialisation and particularly in conditioning?

Answer 32

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).

Question 33

What did Eysenck claim the link between extraversion, neuroticism and conditioning is?

Answer 33

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.

Question 34

What type of explanation is Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 34

Psychological explanation