psychological explanations - Eysenck's theory

Question 1

theory of the criminal personality - personality theory

Answer 1

• Hans Eysenck proposed that behaviour could be represented along two dimensions: introversion-extraversion (E) and neuroticism-stability (N)
• these combine to form a variety of personality characteristics or traits
• later added a third dimension: psychoticism-sociability (P)
• this is a dispositional explanation

Question 2

theory of the criminal personality - biological basis

Answer 2

• Eysenck said that our personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit
• extraverts have an underactive nervous system, constantly seek excitement, simulation and are likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours, tend not to condition easily and therefore do not learn from mistakes
• neurotic individuals have high level of reactivity in sympathetic nervous system, respond quickly to situations of threat, tend to be nervous, jumpy and overanxious, instability means their behaviour is difficult to predict
• psychotic individuals are suggested to have higher levels of testosterone, they are unemotional and prone to aggression

Question 3

theory of criminal personality - the criminal personality

Answer 3

• criminal personality type is neurotic-extravert-psychotic
• neurotics are unstable and prone to overreact to situations of threat
• extraverts seek more arousal and therefore engage in dangerous activities
• psychotics are aggressive and lack empathy

Question 4

theory of criminal personality - the role of socialisation

Answer 4

• in Eysenck’s theory, personality is linked to offending behaviour via socialisation processes
• saw offending behaviour as developmentally immature, it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification (offenders are impatient and cannot wait for things)
• process of socialisation is one in which children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and more socially oriented
• Eysenck believed that people with high E and N scores had nervous systems that made them difficult to condition
• therefore, less likely to learn anxiety responses to antisocial impulses and therefore they would be more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presented itself

Question 5

theory of criminal personality - measuring the criminal personality

Answer 5

• Eysenck developed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)
• a form of psychological test which locates respondents along the E, N and P dimensions to determine their personality type
• gives a quantitative score for each dimension
• measurement of personality was a very important part of Eysenck’s theory, enabled him to conduct research relating personality variables to other behaviours such as criminality

Question 6

evaluation strength - research support (this is AO1 as well as AO3) ⭐️

Answer 6

• Sybil Eysenck and Hans Eysenck compared 2070 prisoners’ scores on the EPQ with 2422 controls (all males)
• on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism (across all age groups), prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls
• this agrees with predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions
• validates the theory

Question 7

evaluation limitation - issues with this sample

Answer 7

• androcentric sample because only men were studied
• personalities may have changed during the time spent in prison in comparison to personalities at the time of committing the crime
• partial investigation because the prisoners were not categorised into what type of crime they committed
• likely to be people in the control population who have actually committed crimes (eg. white collar crime), they may not discuss this to other people and just haven’t ended up in prison (more introverted), they only investigated convicted criminals

Question 8

evaluation limitation - counterpoint to research support

Answer 8

• David Farrington conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies and reported that offenders tended to score higher on measures of psychotics, but not for extraversion and neuroticism
• there is also inconsistent evidence of differences on EEG measures (cortical arousal) between extraverts and introverts, casting doubts on physiological basis of Eysenck’s theory
• some central assumptions of the criminal personality have been challenged

Question 9

evaluation strength - methodology of EPQ

Answer 9

• provides a quantitative measure
• enables individuals to be compared easily
• provides correlational evidence to show criminals / non-criminals to have high or low criminal personality traits
• criminals can therefore be categorised and there is some way of providing a measure for the theory

Question 10

evaluation limitation - too simplistic

Answer 10

• all offending behaviour can be explained by personality traits alone
• Terrie Moffatt drew distinction between offending behaviour that only occurs in adolescence and that which continues into adulthood
• argued that personality traits alone were a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for
• she considered persistence in offending behaviour to be the result of a reciprocal process between individual personality traits on the one hand, and environmental reactions to those traits on the other
• presents a more complex picture than Eysenck suggested, course of offending behaviour is determined by interaction between personality and the environment

Question 11

evaluation limitation - cultural factors ⭐️

Answer 11

• cultural factors are not taken into account
• criminal personality may vary according to culture
• Curt Bartol and Howard Holanchock studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York
• divided these offenders into six groups based on their offending history and the nature of their offences
• found that all six groups were less extravert than a control group, whereas Eysenck would expect them to be more extravert
• it was suggested that this was because the sample was a very different culture group from that investigated by Eysenck
• questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised, may only be culturally relative

Question 12

evaluation strength and limitation - level of explanation / not as reductionist

Answer 12

• this theory can be explained at the psychological / cognitive level, because it is to do with personality
• Eysnck’s explanation is not as reductionist as other explanations because it does accept some biology but also looks partly at the environment and socialisation
• not completely holistic, does not provide a full explanation
• a more holistic view would be to also consider that traits such as impulsivity and risk-taking may be due to brain dysfunction, perhaps in the pre-frontal cortex