Eysencks criminal personality

Question 1

What is Eysencks personality theory?

Answer 1

peoples personality is a mix of biological tendencies and learning experiences which can be used to explain why some commit crime

Question 2

What are the three personalities?

Answer 2

Psychoticism- antisocial aggressive and uncaring behaviour, linked with testosterone, lead to aggression manipulative and lack of empathy
Extraversion- Preference for high or low environmental stimuli, determined by levels of arousal in nervous system, risk taking impulsive, dominant
Neuroticism- determined by stability in sympathetic nervous system, anxious, depressed, obssessive

Question 3

What did Eysenck believe?

Answer 3

Criminality could be due to innate personality traits and socialisation

Question 4

What happens with those with high extraversion and low neutoticism?

Answer 4

Tend to be more risk taking, less likely to be fear conditioned, do not learn to avoid socs rules

Question 5

What did eysenck and Gudjonson find?

Answer 5

Prison inmates scored higher on neuroticism and extraversion and neuroticism, shows support for eysencks theory, however may suffer from social desirability bias and want to appear tough to others, prison may have brought out this personality

Question 6

What did Cochrane find?

Answer 6

Prisoners didnt generally score high on extraversion, Inconsistencies and doesnt support eysencks theory, casts doubt on validity

Question 7

What is a weakness of the personality theory?

Answer 7

-Evidence to contradict- use biological explanation to demonstrate not only personality leads to criminality
-Problems with sample: a lot to do with comparison of prison offender, cannot generalise, also people may not have been caught (may be different), sample bias, lack of validity
-based on personality being the same the whole time- assumes its fixed, however people change over time, theory may not be completely appropriate