Lesson 5: Eysenck's criminal personality Flashcards
(20 cards)
According to Eysenck, what are the two dimensions behaviour could be represent along?
- INTROVERSION/EXTRAVERSION
- NEUROTICISM/STABILITY
What do these 2 dimensions combine to form?
they combine to form a variety of personality traits
What was the third dimension eysenck added?
Psychoticism
According to Eyesnck, how are personality traits inherited
they are BIOLOGICAL in origin and come about through the type of NERVOUS SYSTEM we inherit from our parents
What type of nervous system do EXTRAVERTS have
UNDERACTIVE nervous system
THEREFORE, they are constantly seeking EXCITEMENT + STIMULATION + may engage in risk taking behaviour
What traits are seen in a NEUROTIC individual
Nervous, jumpy, over-anxious, have behaviour that is difficult to predict
What is the criminal personality type?
NEUROTIC-EXTRAVERT
What dimension do offenders also score highly on?
Psychoticism
What are some of the traits of an individual with high levels of psychoticism
Cold, unemotional + prone to aggression
According to Eysenck’s theory, how is personality linked to criminal behaviour?
via socialisation
What did Eysenck see criminal behaviour as?
saw criminal behaviour as SELFISH + concerned with IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION
What are children taught during socialisation?
to DELAY GRATIFICATION + be SOCIALLY ORIENTATED
What did Eysenck believe about people with high extraversion + neuroticisim scores
They had NERVOUS SYSTEMS that made them difficult to condition.
as a result-> they will not learn EASILY to respond to their anti-social impulses with anxiety
What did Eysenck develop to measure personality?
Eysenck Personality Inventory
What is the Eysenck Personality inventory
A psychological test which locates respondents along the EXTRAVERSION + NEUROTICISM dimensions to determine their personality type
Negative evaluation of Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality
(hint: High psychoticism)
- Farrington et al. (1982) reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score higher on PSYCHOTICISM, but NOT on extraversion and
neuroticism, than non-offenders.
Negative evaluation of Eysenck’s theory
(Hint: simplistic, crime= too complicated)
- The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type has been heavily criticised as being simplistic. Crime is too varied and complex a behaviour to be due to one single personality type, the type of individual who commits murder is likely to be very different to one who commits fraud.
Negative evaluation of Eysenck’s theory
(Hint: Five factor model)
- Eysenck ‘s theory is out of step with modern personality theory.
Digman’s (1990) FIVE FACTOR MODEL of personality suggests that OPENESS, AGREEABLENESS and conscientiousness are important personality dimensions, in addition to EXTRAVERSION and NEUROTICISM .
Using this model multiple
combinations are available
Negative evaluation of Eysencks theory
(Hint: culturally biased, LESS extravert)
BARTOL and HOLANCHOCK (1979) looked into cultural differences.
They studied HISPANIC and AFRICAN-AMERICAN offenders in a maximum security prison in New
York and divided them into six groups based on their CRIMINAL history + the NATURE of their offences.
All six groups were found to be LESS EXTRAVERT than non-criminal control groups.
This means Eysenck’s theory could be CULTURALLY BIASED.
Negative evaluation of Eysenck’s theory
(Hint: personality is not reducible, changes)
- Eysenck’s theory is based on the idea that it is possible to measure personality through psychological tests.
Critics have argued that personality may not be
reducible to a score in this way.
Many psychologists believe there is no such
thing as stable personality, on a daily basis people’s personality changes depending who they are with and the situation they are in.
