Lesson 5: Eysenck's Criminal Personality

Question 1

What was his General Personality Theory?

Answer 1

Behaviour can be represented along 2 dimensions: Extraversion/Introversion and Neuroticism/Stability
A third was later added: psychoticism

Question 2

Where do our personality traits come from?

Answer 2

• Biological in origin, innate

- Inherit our parents nervous system

Question 3

What is the criminal personality type?

Answer 3

• Neurotic-Extravert
• Extraverts have an under active Nervous System so engage in risk-taking behaviour to seek excitement. They are difficult to condition and do not learn from mistakes
• Neurotics are nervous, jumpy and over anxious. General instability means behaviour is difficult to predict
• A typical offender will score highly on psychoticism (cold, unemotional + prone to aggression)

Question 4

How is Eysenck’s Theory related to criminal behaviour

Answer 4

• Via Socialisation
• Developmentally immature = selfish and concerned with immediate gratification
• As children, we are taught to delay gratification and to be socially orientated
• People with high extraversion and neuroticism had nervous systems that were difficult to condition so will not learn easily to respond to their anti-social impulses with anxiety. They are more likely to act anti socially in situations where opportunity presents itself

Question 5

What was his test called and what did it measure?

Answer 5

Eysenck Personality Inventory

Measuring extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism

Question 6

Evaluation (-)

Answer 6

• Offenders score higher on psychoticism but not on extraversion/neuroticism than non-offenders
• Simplistic that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type, crime is too varied e.g murder and fraud committed by different people
• Out of step with modern personality theory. The five factor model suggests openness, agreeableness and conscientious are important as well as the other two
• Culturally biased. Study into Hispanic and African American offenders and divided them into 6 groups based on their offence and criminal history. All six groups were less extravert than the non-criminal control groups
• Stable personality do not exist, as it can change daily depending on their environment. It cannot be reducible enough to measure