Psychological explanations : Eysenck's theory Flashcards
What essays can this theory be talked about in?
Biological and psychological explanations of offending
What does Eysenck’s theory suggest?
Our behaviour has a biological basis through the nervous system that we inherit but also has an aspect of socialisation as if a child cannot learn to delay gratification then offending is more likely. He says the criminal personality consists of high neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism
How does having a high extravert score link to criminality ?
It suggests that they have an underachieve nervous system. This means they constantly seek excitement and stimulation to gain a thrill that those with a lower score can get doing more ‘normal’ things. This often means they engage in more risk taking behaviour which often involves committing criminal acts to make up for their underachieve nervous system. They need lots of external stimulation. They’re often hard to condition so they stuggle to learn from their mistakes.
How does having a high neuroticism score link to criminality ?
Thos who have high neuroticism have high levels of reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system which means their fight or flight is very easily triggered, making them highly reactive and unpredictable. This means that they tend to be nervous and jumpy making their behaviour unpredictable and hard to predict which can increase the chances that they will commit crime
How does having high psychotics link to criminality ?
This was added later on and simply suggests that criminals have higher levels of testosterone meaning they’re more likely to commit crime as they’re unemotional and aggressive meaning they’re more prone to violent acts
What is the criminal personalty ?
It’s a neurotic-extravert-psycotic personality which makes an individual more likely to commit a crime. This is because neurotics are unstable so are more likely to overreact in situations of threat. Extraverts have an under active nervous system meaning they seek high levels of external stimulation through risk taking and dangerous behaviour. Psychotics are aggressive and lack empathy
What did Eysenck use to measure personality and how does it work ?
The Eysenck’s personality questionnaire (EPQ)
Participants answer questions with either the answer YES or NO and their answers determines their N-score, E-score and P-score and the higher these are, the more likely the individual will be involved with criminal behaviour.
How does socialisation link to Eysenck’s theory ?
During socialisation, children are taught how to delay gratification however this with high E and N scores had a nervous system that was hard to condition making it less likely that they will learn anxiety responses to anti-social impulses. This means they are more likely to act antisocially in situations. Eysenck describes criminals as being developmentally immature and demanding immediate gratification
Strengths of Eysenck’s theory
P - Standardised testing
E - Through the EPQ all participants are asked the same questions and then ranked on a scale
E - Predictions can be made if criminals scores are compared to others and if they have high scores.
L - Therefore, a strength of Eysenck’s theory is that it has a standardise method of testing for each personality type which increases the reliability of his theory
P- Supporting evidence
E - Eysenck and Eysenck - Compared 2070 male prisoners with 2422 controls on their EPQ scores. The prisoners scored high on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism across all ages of the prisoners compared to controls
E - This supports the idea that criminals score high on the all three aspects of the criminal personality due to their higher scores on the EPQ test
L - Therefore, this is a strength as it shows that having higher psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism is linked to criminality which increases the validity of Eysenck’s theory as it has credible evidence to support it
Weaknesses of Eysenck’s theory
p- Conflicting evidence
E - Farrington et al - Conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies and found that offenders tended to score higher on psychoticism but not on extraversion and neuroticism
E - This is a weakness as it suggests that Eysenck was incorrect in saying criminals had a high E and N when evidence suggests that they do not
L - This decreases the validity of his theory as there is evidence to contradict with what he is. saying so it cannot be completely accurate
P - Not a full explanation
E - Personality cannot be reduced down to 3 different dimensions as it is much more complex and there are many more factors involved in why people commit crime other than their nervous system and socialisation. For example, stealing food to survive
E - This is a weakness as his theory may not explain all criminal behaviour as not all aspects of a personality can be reduced to N, E and P
L - Therefore, it can be argued that this theory is not developed enough to explain all types of criminal behaviour so lacks usefulness
