Psychological explanations of offending behaviour - Eysneck

Question 1

What is Eysenck’s theory

Answer 1

a general theory of personality however it has subsequently been applied to offending behaviour. It suggests that all personalities are made up of certain traits and the extent to which you have those traits determines your personality.

Question 2

What did Eysenck initially propose

Answer 2

that there were two personality traits that existed along dimensions: Extroversion (E) & Neuroticism (N). He later added a third personality trait: Psychoticism (P).

Question 3

What is an extravert

Answer 3

sociable, impulsive, expressive and risk taking.

Question 4

What behaviours does someone, who scores high on the neuroticism scale, exhibit

Answer 4

nervousness, anxiety and obsessiveness

Question 5

What is someone who measures high on the psychoticism scale like

Answer 5

insensitive, unemotional and lack a conscience is considered psychotic

Question 6

Why did Eysenck believe that psychoticism was different to neuroticism and extroversion

Answer 6

he believed most people would gain a low score on psychoticism whereas most people would fall in the middle of the E & N spectrum.

Question 7

How did Eysenck measure extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism

Answer 7

Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)

Question 8

Even though Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality is psychological, what does he argue

Answer 8

all personality types - including the criminal personality - have an innate, biological basis. Therefore we have a predisposition to inherit certain traits, some of which could make it more likely for an individual to develop a criminal personality.

Question 9

Eysenck evaluation

Answer 9

1. support for personality types having a biological basis
2. it takes into account both nature and nurture
3. farrtignton et al contradicts Eysenck’s findings

Question 10

Evaluation: support for personality types having a biological basis

Answer 10

A key element to Eysencks theory is that personality types have a biological basis. Support for this comes from twin studies. Zuckerman (1987) found a +.52 correlation for MZ twins on neuroticism compared with a .24 for DZ twins, showing a large genetic component. For extraversion the figures were +.51 and +.12. Zuckerman provided similar data for psychoticism. However even though this shows a considerable biological component, it is not as high as Eysenck had claimed. This indicates that some genetic factor is involved in personality traits, although the correlation is not as high as Eysenck suggested.

Question 11

Evaluation: how does it take into account both nature and nurture

Answer 11

One good element of Eysenck’s theory is that it takes into account both nature and nurture. Eysenck’s theory argues strongly that biological predispositions towards certain personality traits combined with conditioning and socialization during childhood in order to create our personality.This interactionist approach may, therefore, be much more valid than either a biological or environmental theory alone.

Question 12

Evaluation: farrtignton et al contradicts Eysenck’s findings

Answer 12

Farrington et al (1982) reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on P measures but not for E & N. These findings therefore do not fully support Eysenck’s theory for all three traits. There is also very little evidence of consistent differences in EEG measures (used to measure cortical arousal) between extraverts and introverts, which casts doubt on the biological basis of Eysenck’s theory.