Sheldon Flashcards
Is the theory genetic or physiological?
Physiological
What does he believe determines crime?
Your somatotype
What is a somatotype?
A category of body shape
What are the 3 somatotypes?
Endomorphs (overweight), Mesomorphs (muscular) and Ectomorphs (skinny)
Which somatotype is the criminal?
Mesomorphs
What crimes do mesomorphs commit?
Violent and aggressive crimes
Which somatotype is least likely to commit crime and why?
Ectomorphs as they are introverted and restrained
What did he use for his study?
Over 200 photographs of college students and delinquents
How did he decide which body type they had?
He rated them on a scale for resemblance to the mesomorphic body type
What was the result of his study?
Delinquents had a higher average rate of mesomorphic than the college students
What are the strengths of this study?
There’s supporting evidence as Glueck and Glueck discovered 60% of delinquents were mesomorphs but only 31% of non-delinquents were.
He has a sample of 200 (representative).
Sheldon had a control condition (students) to compare to.
What are the weaknesses of the study?
Labelling mesomorphs may lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy meaning the cause is labelling instead of somatotypes.
Doesn’t have an explanation of endomorphs or ectomorphs being criminals.
Social class may be the true cause as the WC has manual jobs (mesomorphic) and are convicted more.
