biological explanation: personality

Question 1

What is personality

Answer 1

Characteristics of a person which makes their behaviour consistent across situations

Question 2

Characteristic traits of a criminal

Answer 2

• aggressive
• impulsive
• extrovert
• lacking empathy
• cold and calculated

Question 3

Summary of Eysenck

Answer 3

• combines bio and social factors
• personality is determined by genes but the effects are entered under the influence of social factors
• criminal behaviour results from their failure to learnt that immature tendencies should be controlled

Question 4

Three concepts of Eysenck

Answer 4

• extroversion
• neuroticism
• psychoticism

Question 5

Extroversion

Answer 5

• sociable
• low arousal in the cerebral cortex so need more stimulation
• like to take risks
• crave excitement
• impulsive

Question 6

Extroversion explained by nature

Answer 6

• nervous system craves arousal- impulsive, risky
• seek arousal from risk taking/anti-social behaviour to stimulate the CNS
• have a dampened RAS (reticular activating system)
• this maintains optimum arousal level
• can excite or dampen sensory info
• so will seek external stimulation in risk taking behaviour to satisfy the biological systems
• also have a stronger dopamine reward system- which means they respond more positively to reinforcers such as money- may acquire illegally

Question 7

Link between introversion and RAS

Answer 7

• introverts are over-aroused
• so lack of inhibition from RAS
• when the brain receives too much stimulation- they will prefer calm and quiet

Question 8

Extroversion explained by nurture

Answer 8

• poor socialisation
• extroverts condition more slowly
• results in poor socialisation and criminal behaviour
• more likely to act emotionally

Question 9

Traits of psychoticism

Answer 9

• aggression
• coldness
• anti-social
• lack of empathy
• impersonal attitude

Question 10

Psychoticism explained by nature

Answer 10

• less is known
• links to high testosterone and high dopamine
• so men more likely to lack empathy due to higher testosterone levels which can lead to violent crimes
• murder/commit crime due to not understanding emotional impactions on victims
• dopamine- excess of dopaminergic neurons which cause an over production of dopamine, leading to a loss of inhibition of impulses

Question 11

Psychoticism explained by nurture

Answer 11

• more likely to be criminal
• have no conscience
• so can commit crime such as shoplifting or be aggressive without remorse
• socialisation without a friendship group- so don’t understand human behaviour

Question 12

Neuroticism traits

Answer 12

• high= irrational
• moody
• react strongly to stimuli
• anxious, worrying individuals
• oversensitive
• unstable

Question 13

Neuroticism explained by nature

Answer 13

• overreacting due to unstable response to fight/flight in sympathetic nervous system
• parasympathetic nervous system (work in opposition to fight or flight) is slow to work
• may lead to aggressive outbursts that can in turn lead to violent crimes
• unstable, difficult to inhibit their emotions, may act aggressively

Question 14

Neuroticism explained by nurture

Answer 14

• conditioning takes longer
• more likely to seek out anti-social activity and resist social conditioning
• thus will find it harder to learn right and wrong during socialisation

Question 15

Gender and Eysenck

Answer 15

• if psychoticism relates to testosterone then men would have a high P score
• women also have testosterone in their bodies and so would account for their criminality, but lower levels
• supported by prison populations

Question 16

Personalities link to biology

Answer 16

• personality is in part fixed- due to genes shaping biological mechanism
• criminal behaviour is brought about by a failure in socialisation which is caused by our biology
• introverts learn through conditioning- they don’t like to take risks
• extroverts condition much more quickly- seek risk taking behaviour
• lack of conditioning results in poor socialisation, increasing risk of criminal behaviour
• do not learn society’s rules and social norms and do not respond well to punishment

Question 17

Supporting evidence for PEN

Answer 17

A strength of this explanation is the supporting evidence from Eysenck, who aimed to classify criminal behaviour in relation to personality. The study used 156 prisoners, aged 18-38 years old, divided into 5 groups on the basis of their crimes, such as violent crimes, property crime, confidence crimes, inadequate and residual, who were all tested on the Eysenck personality questionnaire. Results found that psychosis scores were low for fraud crimes, the neuroticism score was low for property and violent crimes, but high for inadequate and residual, as well as the extroversion score low for inadequate and property, but high for violent and residual.

Question 18

Supporting evidence for Eysenck (R+C)

Answer 18

A strength is the supporting study from Rushton and Christ John. They compared PEN and self reports of delinquency for schoolchildren and students. They found that high delinquency is positively correlated with high PEN scores. Therefore it is consistent with Eysenck predictions that….

Question 19

Supporting evidence form (M+M)

Answer 19

A. Strength is the supporting evidence from McGurk and McDougall. They used a personality questionnaire to compare students identified as ‘delinquent’ and ‘not-delinquent’ and conducted administered it to these students. They couldn’t at in the delinquent sample, there was a number of students with high PEN scores, however in the non delinquent sample, the percentage of those with low NE scores was significant. Therefore, these results align with Eysenck’s predictions that high PEN relates to anti-social, even aggressive behaviour.

Question 20

Weakness of research

Answer 20

Research such as rushton and Christjohn lacks validity as it uses correlational data. They simply found a link between delinquency and PEN scores, meaning that causation cannot be determined- as the high PEN scores could be as a result of their delinquency, not a cause of it, reducing the credibility of its conclusions.

Question 21

Applications of Eysenck

Answer 21

• positive applications- suggested that underlying criminal tendencies are detectable in childhood through not being able to be conditioned correctly, so cannot socialise to learn right from wrong
• therefore, this allows early interventions based on parenting or early treatment for delinquency to reduce criminal behaviour.
• pre screening can lead to early interventions, anger management programmes can be put in place and job interviews could use the questionnaire to identify suitable candidates
• therefore will improve persons quality of life and make society safer

Question 22

Alternative theory

Answer 22

Social learning theory- learn criminality from role models engaging in criminal behaviour- leading to an observer imitating this behaviour. Therefore environmental factors play a bigger role than what this theory describes - so more holistic explanation is necessary

Question 23

Weakness of the research- offender type

Answer 23

• research makes comparisons between convicted offenders and the general population
• the only offenders in the sample are those who have been caught and convicted of crimes
• therefore- only provides data for those who are unsuccessful offenders
• so sample bias inherent- reducing validity of results

Question 24

Freud summary

Answer 24

• personality formed from early childhood experiences
• id, ego, superego

Question 25

Superego

Answer 25

* weak superego- can be formed from the absence of a same sex parent and so cannot take on their superego- so fail to internalise the morals of this parent * weak superego also present in females- cannot get castration anxiety so develop their a parents superego- and so are morally inferior * consequences of weak superego= morals not learned, more likely to act on pleasure principle as superego doesn’t enforce guilt, behave to gain immediate reward= crime * harsh superego= from identifying with a strict parent, will lead to guilt when the id demands any satisfaction, so will commit crime to satisfy need for punishment * deviant superego= child internalises morals of a criminal or same sex deviant parent * consequences of deviant superego= child develops skewed morals, don’t feel guilt- believe its acceptable= crime

Question 26

Id

Answer 26

* pleasure principle, irrational, demands to be satisfied * dominant id= may engage in impulsive, selfish or aggressive behaviours such as theft or violence so this is satisfied

Question 27

Ego

Answer 27

* reality principle- aims to satisfy the id based on what is practically possible at that point in time * poorly developed ego= may be unable to control the id’s impulses or manage the moral pressures of the superego * could lead to inappropriate or antisocial behaviour if the person can’t find realistic ways to resolve internal conflict.

Question 28

Supporting evidence for Freud

Answer 28

A strength is the supporting evidence from Glueck and Glueck. They compared 500 young people in offender institutions and 500 controls and found that young offenders were 1.5x more likely to have experienced distant relationships with their mother, supporting frauds theory of criminality that it stems from childhood experiences wit your parents.

Question 29

Criticism of Freud

Answer 29

A weakness of Freud is that it is unfalsifiable. For example, the deviant superego and dominant id cannot be proved true as it is impossible to test scientifically. Therefore, this limits the usefulness of the explanation as it lacks credibility.

Question 30

Criticism of research

Answer 30

A weakness is that the assessment of childhood experiences is difficult as it is retrospective information. For example, self report data is open to distortions in memory, and so childhood recollections may not be accurate, reducing their validity.