Psychological expl - Eysencks theory of criminal personality Flashcards
What did Eysenck argue about our personality type
our personality type has a biological basis, as a criminal, personality is due to the type of nervous system we inherit
how easily the nervous system responds to stimulus (arousal) influences/ predisposes behaviour, potentially leading to innate offending behaviour
How many dimensions in Eysencks theory of the criminal personality
3
3 personality dimensions
- Extravert to introvert
- Neurotic to stable
- Psychoticism
Extravert to introvert personality dimension
Extraverts are outgoing/ attention seeking due to chronically under-aroused nervous systems. Harder to condition/ socialise as failing to learn from mistakes
Introverts have an over-aroused nervous system so do not seek attention
Neurotic to stable personality dimension
Neurotics are easy to upset, overly anxious and show obsessive behaviours due to a nervous system that is easily triggered by threats.
People who are stable generally demonstrate calm/ positive behaviour
Psychoticism personality dimension
Measured on a scale of low to high, psychotics are emotionally cold and dont feel compassion (heartless)
Eysencks theory strength
McGurk and McDougall gave the Eysenck personality questionaire to 100 convicted inmates and 100 trade based students eg bricklaying, age 17-20. Social class was controlled for and the results showed a higher number of people with extravert, neurotic and psychotic personality types in the delinquent group
While there is neurological evidence that criminality may be innate, in suggesting criminality is based on the type of nervous system you inherit raises the same issues around biological determinism eg ENP as a mitigating factor in sentencing
Eysencks theory limitation
Eysencks theory depends on one stable criminal personality type over time. Moffitt argues this is too simplistic and suggests a dual taxonomy.
Life course persistent, people who are stable in offending behaviour over their life and adolescent limited, those who stop anti-social behaviour in adulthood. This better explains offending figures that show 10x higher levels of crime in adolescence
More modern personality theorists like Digman also suggest Eysenck is too simplistic. Digman’s 5 factor model includes other important dimensions of personality like conscientiousness and agreeableness, those may be more important in criminality, as not all NE types become criminals.
