Criminal Behaviour - Individual Differences Explanation

Question 1

1 What is Eysenck’s criminal personality?

Answer 1

Eysenck (1967, 1978) - developed a theory of personality based on the idea that character traits tend to cluster along three dimensions:
- Extraversion-introversion - outgoing, having positive emotions and may get bored easily
- Neuroticism-stability - experience negative emotional states rather than positive emotional states
- Psychoticism-normality - egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal, lacking empathy and generally not concerned about the welfare of others

Question 2

1 What did Eysenck (1982) suggest?

Answer 2

Each trait has a biological basis which is mainly innate - 67% of the variance for the traits is due to genetic factors.

Question 3

1 Biological basis for extraversion?

Answer 3

Determined by the overall level of arousal in a person’s nervous system. A person who is under-aroused requires more stimulation compared to someone who is over-aroused who avoids this.
- Extroverts - seek external stimulation to increase cortical arousal
- Introverts - innately over-aroused and seek to reduce or avoid stimulation

Question 4

1 Biological basis for neuroticism?

Answer 4

Determined by the level of stability in the sympathetic nervous system - how much a person responds in situations of threat
- Neurotic - slightly unstable and reacts/gets upset easily.
- Stable - more unreactive nervous system, calmer under pressure

Question 5

1 Biological basis for psychoticism?

Answer 5

Related to higher levels of testosterone - men are more likely to be found at the end of this spectrum

Question 6

1 PEN link to criminality?

Answer 6

• Extroverts - seek more arousal and thus engage in dangerous activities
• Neurotics - prone to over-react to situations of threat, explaining some criminal activity
• Psychotics - aggressive and lack empathy of others

Question 7

1 How did Eysenck explain criminality?

Answer 7

In terms of the outcome between innate personality and socialisation.
A person is born with certain personality traits but interaction with the environment is important in the development of criminality.

Question 8

1 Supporting research (delinquency) for Eysenck’s criminal personality?

Answer 8

Dunlop (2012) - both extraversion & psychoticism were good predictors of self-reported delinquency

Question 9

1 Limitations of Dunlop’s study?

Answer 9

Ppts were all students and their friends (15-75) and delinquency was an assessment of minor offences in the previous 12 months (traffic offences, theft) - low ex. validity

Question 10

1 Supporting research (twin studies) for Eysenck’s criminal personality?

Answer 10

Zuckerman (1987) - +0.52 correlation for MZ twins on neuroticism compared with +0.24 for DZ twins
Extraversion - +0.51 and 0.12
Shows Eysenck’s personality traits do appear to have a substantial biological basis as MZ are more likely to share more personality traits than DZ

Question 11

1 Limitations of Twin studies?

Answer 11

Not as high as Eysenck had claimed, a +0.50 correlation means that about 40% of the variance in these traits is due to genes

Question 12

1 Why is the notion of criminal personality flawed? Mischel & Peake (1982)?

Answer 12

A number of psychologists support a situational perspective, suggesting that people may be consistent in similar situations but not across all situations
Mischel & Peake - asked family, friends and strangers to rate 63 students in a variety of situations and found almost no correlation between traits displayed. Any regularity is due to them often being in similar situations

Question 13

2 What are cognitive explanations focussed on?

Answer 13

The way that thinking affects behaviour decision making

Question 14

2 What is Hostile Attribution bias?

Answer 14

When someone is more inclined to always think the worst. e.g if someone smiles at you but you think that person is actually thinking bad thought about you.
Such negative interpretations then lead to aggressive behaviour

Question 15

2 What is hostile attribution bias an example of?

Answer 15

Cognitive distortion - ways that reality has become twisted so that what is perceived no longer represents what is actually true

Question 16

2 What have researchers found?

Answer 16

People who show consistent and high levels of hostile attribution bias are much more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour toward others

Question 17

2 What is hostile attribution bias thought to be? Dodge (2006)?

Answer 17

One important pathway through which other risk factors, such as bullying by peers or harsh parenting behaviours, can lead to aggression.
Dodge - children exposed to peer teasing at school or child abuse at home are more likely to develop high levels of hostile attribution bias.

Question 18

2 What 6 steps are suggested before taking action in a social situation?

Answer 18

1. Accurately encode information in the brain and store it in short term memory
2. Accurately interpret or give meaning to encoded information
3. Decide on a goal/aim for the social interaction
4. Think about multiple potential behavioural responses
5. Evaluate potential responses and select the ‘best’ response
6. Carry out chosen behavioural responses

Question 19

2 What has hostile attribution bias been linked to? (6 steps)
Dodge?

Answer 19

Problems during step 2 as well as other steps including step 1 and 4. e.g children with high levels of hostile attribution bias may generate fewer potential responses than other children.
Dodge - hostile attribution bias arises from an individuals hostile schemas about the world - formed through an interaction between a persons brain activity and their early exposures to hostile socialisation experiences

Question 20

2 Supporting research (faces) for hostile attribution bias?

Answer 20

Schonenberg & Justye (2014) - showed emotionally ambiguous faces (angry, happy or fearful) to 55 antisocial violent offenders and compared responses to matched control non violent offenders.
- Violent offenders - more likely to interpret any picture that had some expression of anger as an expression of aggression - misinterpretations of non-verbal cues may partly explain aggressive-impulsive behaviour

Question 21

2 Supporting research (children) for hostile attribution bias?

Answer 21

Dodge (1980) - conducted a study on students (8-11) and found that children who were rejected by others were more likely than other children to show hostile attributions in ambiguous social situations. Those showing hostile attribution bias went on to show the most aggression.

Question 22

2 Limitations on children?

Answer 22

Hard to generalise those students who are not ages 8-11 as well as to generalise to adulthood.

Question 23

2 Supporting research (meta-analysis) for hostile attribution bias?

Answer 23

DeCastro (2002) - carried out a meta-analysis of over 100 studies.
Found a strong relationship between hostile attribution bias and aggressive behaviour across various samples ranging in age, gender, race, countries and clinical populations

Question 24

2 Methodological issues (lab) with hostile attribution bias?

Answer 24

Measured with a lab task where ppts are presented with staged interactions (video, picture, audio etc) after the stimulus is presented, the ppt is asked to make attributions about the intent of the actor. May not reflect to real life as ppts know that it is staged.