Psychological - Eysenck

Question 1

Eysenck’s Theory of Criminal Personality

Answer 1

• Offending caused by criminal personality which is biological and comes about through type of NS we inherit
• Personality represented in 3 dimensions: Introversion/ Extraversion, Neuroticism/Stability, Psychoticism/ Normality (added later)
• Dimensions combine to form a variety of personality characteristics or traits

Question 2

Eysenck’s Criminal Personality Type

Answer 2

• Neurotic-Extravert - anxious, nervous, unstable, sensation seeking, outgoing
• Offenders score highly on psychoticism - cold, unfeeling, prone to aggression
• Measured using Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) - later scale introduced to measure psychoticism

Question 3

Contributing Factors to Offending Behaviour

Answer 3

• Biological - type of NS we inherit
• Psychological - criminal personality type
• Social - response to socialisation (reward & punishment)

Question 4

The Biological Basis

Answer 4

• Neuroticism linked to Sympathetic NS
• Extraversion linked to overall arousal of NS
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