Lesson 5 - Eysenck’s Theory of the Criminal Personality Flashcards
What are the two dimensions which Eysenck proposed that behaviour could be represented along?
Introversion/extroversion
Neuroticism/stability
What third dimension did Eysenck later add?
Psychoticism
Does Eysenck’s theory of personality support nature or nurture and why?
Eysenck suggested that all personality types, including the criminal personality, have an innate, biological basis which come from the type of nervous system we inherit from our parents. Therefore, Eysenck’s theory supports the nature side of the nature/nurture debate.
What is an extravert?
Extraverts have an under-active nervous system meaning they are constantly seeking excitement and stimulation and many also engage in risk-taking behaviour. Extraverts are difficult to condition and so do not learn from their mistakes.
What is a neurotic individual?
Neurotic individuals tend to be nervous, jumpy, and over-anxious, and their general instability means that their behaviour if often very difficult to predict.
What is psychoticism?
A personality trait to describe someone cold, unemotional and prone to aggression
According to Eysenck, how is personality linked to criminal behaviour?
Via socialisation
What is the criminal personality type?
A neurotic-extravert who will also score highly on psychoticism
Why does socialisation link personality and criminal behaviour together?
Eysenck saw criminal behaviour as developmentally immature as it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification. During socialisation, children are taught to delay gratification and be socially orientated (not selfish). However, Eysenck believed that neurotic extraverts had nervous systems that made them difficult to condition/socialise meaning they will fail to learn easily to delay gratification and be socially orientated where they will be more likely to respond to a situation anti-socially, with anxiety.
What is the Eysenck Personality Inventory?
A psychological test which locates individuals along the two dimensions of introversion-extraversion and neuroticism-stability in order to determine their personality type.
What are the four names of personality types and what do they mean?
Melancholic - neurotic introvert
Choleric - neurotic extravert
Phlegmatic - stable introvert
Sanguine - stable extravert
What are 5 weaknesses of Eysenck’s theory?
- Farrington et al. (1982) reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score higher on psychoticism than non-offenders, but not on extraversion and neuroticism
- The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type has been criticised as being too simplistic. Crime is too complex a behaviour and too varied to be limited to single personality type where the personality of a murderer will be highly different to that of the personality of someone who commits fraud.
- Eysenck’s theory is out of step with more modern personality theories. Digman (1990) developed the Five Factor Model which suggested that along with neuroticism and extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness are important personality dimensions too.
- Eysenck’s theory may be culturally biased. Bartol and Holanchock (1979) looked into cultural differences regarding the personalities of criminals. They studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York and discovered that all offenders were actually LESS of an extravert compared to non-criminal control groups.
- Eysenck’s theory is based on the theory that is it possible to measure personality thorough psychological testing. However, critics have argued that personality may not be reducible toy score in this way due to personality constantly changing depending on the situation a person is in and who they are with.
