Psychological explanations of offending Flashcards
Who had the theory of the criminal personality?
Eysenck
What is the criminal personality?
Eysenck stated that personality is innate, that each of us is born with specific personality traits and temperament
Eysenck believed that criminal behaviour is associated with individuals who score high on both E & N
What is E & N?
Scores of extroversion and neuroticism
What is extroversion?
The amount of external stimulation a person craves
What is neuroticism?
A personality trait associated with negative emotions
What is a person who is high on the neuroticism scale prone to?
Anxiety, variable moods and depression
What is said about an individual low on the N scale?
They are emotionally stable
How does extroversion relate to offenders?
Extroverts are typically impulsive - relevant to many offenders
What does the combination of scoring high on the E&N scale mean?
That individuals can be impulsive, constantly seek stimulation and fail to learn from their punishments
What was the third dimension that Eysenck later added to the criminal personality?
Psychoticism
What are the characteristics of a psychotic individual?
Uncaring, aggressive and solitary (and more likely to be involved in criminal activity
What did Eysenck state about criminals and psychopaths?
He stated that criminals and psychopaths exhibit distinctive personality traits or behaviour patterns that are a product of inherited types of nervous system
What did Eysenck state about criminals’ central nervous system?
Criminals are more likely to have a chronically underactive central nervous system leading them to display extraverted behaviours
What are the extroverted behaviours criminals are said to display?
Sensation seeking and risk taking
What is said about extroverts and conditioning?
Extroverts do not condition easily and do not learn from mistakes
What is the cause of criminals scoring high on the neuroticism scale?
This is a result of the autonomic nervous system responding quickly to stress
What are 2 of the unstable, unpredictable behaviour caused by neuroticism?
Prone to overreacting stimuli and volatile
What did Eysenck state about criminals maturity?
Eysenck believed that criminals are developmentally immature - they have failed to develop a conscience (which functions to restrain deviant behaviours)
What did Eysenck explain that the selfishness and immediate gratification was caused by?
Failed socialisation
What is the process of socialisation?
→ Children are taught to delay gratification and become more socially oriented
→ This is learned through conditioning:
- When children act in immature ways they are punished, consequently, they come to associate anxiety with antisocial behaviour
- Where this process is successful, even thinking about behaving antisocially produces anxiety, so the person avoids doing it
What would happen in socialisation in a criminal?
Because criminals are typically extraverts, they cannot be conditioned easily and so they do not learn to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety. This means they are more likely to act antisocially.
Who provided supporting evidence for the criminal personality?
Furnham
Farringdon
What did Furnham do?
210 UK non-delinquents were tested for personality, level of moral guidance and social skills.
The best predictor of self-reported delinquency was P, then N, then moral guidance, followed by E, then social skills.
What did Farringdon do?
Farringdon (1992) found that research depends on the measure used for level of offending behaviour, ‘official offenders’ (caught and convicted) are high in N and low in E, whereas when a self report measure is used for criminal activity, those who report criminal behaviour are actually low in N and high in E
What is another psychological theory of offending?
Digman’s 5 factor model
What is Digman’s 5 factor model?
A psychological model that describes five broad dimensions of personality
What are the 5 dimensions of personality in Digman’s model?
Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism
How are individuals measured by Digman’s 5 factor model?
Individuals are ranked on a scale between the two extreme ends of these 5 broad dimensions
In Digman’s 5 factor model, which is the strongest predictor of all 5 traits?
Conscientiousness
- Low conscientiousness predicts juvenile delinquency (John and Srivastava)
What does low agreeableness predict?
Juvenile delinquency, and individuals may be suspicious, manipulative and uncooperative
What did Buecker et al discover?
Those who score high on neuroticism are more likely to experience loneliness and it is also a risk factor for many health problems including depression, schizophrenia and other mood disorders
