Psychological explanations: Eysenck’s theory

Question 1

What is Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 1

It’s a theory of personality based on the idea that character traits tend to cluster along three dimensions. Two of the dimensions are extroversion and neuroticism, which are the most important. He added the third dimension, psychoticism, later
- Each of these dimensions are normally distributed, we would expect about 68% of any population to fall within one standard deviation from the mean

Question 2

What is extraversion?

Answer 2

• Extraverts are relatively outgoing, gregarious, sociable and openly expressive. They gain energy from socializing and the outside world.
• Introverts prefer calm, minimally stimulating environments. They feel drained after socializing and enjoy solitude.
• Linked to criminal behaviour as they seek arousal, hence why they engage in dangerous activities.

Question 3

What is neuroticism?

Answer 3

• Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotional states (such as anger, anxiety and depression) rather than positive emotional states
• Linked to criminal activity as they are unstable, therefore prone to overreact to situations of threat.

Question 4

What is psychoticism?

Answer 4

• Psychotics are egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal, lacking in empathy and generally not concerned about the welfare of other people
• Self explanatory why it is linked to criminal behaviour

Question 5

What is the biological basis?

Answer 5

• Our personality traits are biological in origin and come through the type of nervous system we inherit (eg: overactive or under-active)
• The type of nervous system affects the ability to learn and adapt to the environment, leading to the development of certain personality characteristics.

Question 6

What is the biological basis of extraversion?

Answer 6

• They have an under-aroused nervous system. They seek excitement, external stimulation and are likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors to increase their cortical (brain) arousal.

Question 7

What is the biological basis of neuroticism?

Answer 7

• It is determined by the level of stability in the sympathetic nervous system, how much a person responds in situations of threat (fight or flight)
• A neurotic person is someone who is slightly unstable and reacts/gets upset quickly
• At the opposite end of this dimension is the stable personality , it has a more unreactive nervous system and these individuals remain calm under pressure

Question 8

What is the biological basis of psychoticism?

Answer 8

• Related to higher levels of testosterone. Men who have higher levels of testosterone than women are likely to be found on this end of the spectrum

Question 9

What is the role of socialisation?

Answer 9

• A person is born with certain personality traits, but interaction with the environment is key in the development of criminality.
• Those high in extraversion and neuroticism were less easily conditioned, therefore they do not learn to avoid anti-social behaviour.

Question 10

Limitation: Cultural factors not taken into account

Answer 10

• Bartol and Holanchock studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in prison
• Divided them into 6 groups based on offending history/nature of offence
• All 6 groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group
• Questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised, may be a culturally relative concept

Question 11

Limitation: Too simplified

Answer 11

• Offending behaviour can’t be explained by personality traits alone
• Moffitt argues that personality traits alone were a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for, in the sense of whether someone is likely to become a career offender
• Saw personality as unchanging and stable but personality is complex and hard to quantify
• Paints a more complex picture, reductionist explanation

Question 12

Strength: Research support

Answer 12

• Sybil Eysenck and Hans Eysenck (1977) compared 2070 prisoners’ scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) with 2422 controls. On measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism - across all the age groups that were sampled - prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls.
• This agrees with the predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than
  average across the three dimensions Eysenck identified.

Question 13

Weakness: contradictory evidence

Answer 13

• Farrington et al. (1982) conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on measures of psychoticism, but not for extraversion and neuroticism.
• Only supporting evidence for one of the personality types