Lesson 5 – Eysenck’s Theory of the Criminal Personality

Question 1

Who came up with the general personality theory and when did they do so?

Answer 1

Eysenck (1947)

Question 2

What is the general personality theory?

Answer 2

Eysenck (1947)- proposed that 🏃‍♂️ represented along 2 dimensions:
1) Introversion/extraversion
2) Neuroticism/stability
Eysenck later added a 3rd dimension- psychoticism.

Question 3

How are personalities formed using the 2 dimensions?

Answer 3

The 2 dimensions combine to form a variety of personality traits

Question 4

According to Eysenck, where do our personality traits come from?

Answer 4

According to Eysenck (1947)- our personality traits biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit from our parents … all personality types, including criminal personality type, have innate, biological basis

Question 5

What are extraverts?

Answer 5

Extraverts- have an under-active nervous system … constantly seeking excitement, and stimulation, and may engage in risk-taking 🏃‍♂️- difficult to condition … ✖️ learn from their mistakes

Question 6

What are neurotic individuals?

Answer 6

Neurotic individuals- nervous, jumpy and over-anxious- general instability means their 🏃‍♂️ difficult to predict

Question 7

What type of personality is the criminal personality?

Answer 7

Criminal personality type = neurotic-extravert (combination of all the characteristics and 🏃‍♂️ of extraversion and neuroticism)
ALSO Eysenck suggested typical offender will score ⬆️ on psychoticism (cold 🥶, unemotional and prone to aggression 😡)

Question 8

How does Eysenck explain criminal behaviour?

Answer 8

Eysenck explains criminal 🏃‍♂️ via socialisation- Eysenck saw criminal 🏃‍♂️ as developmentally immature (selfish and concerned with immediate gratification)
During socialisation 👶 taught to delay gratification and be socially orientated BUT Eysenck believed that ppl with ⬆️ extraversion and neuroticism scores had nervous systems that made them difficult to condition … they ✖️ learn easily to respond to anti-social impulses with anxiety … ⬆️ likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presents itself

Question 9

How did Eysenck measure personality or determine personality type?

Answer 9

Eysenck- developed Eysenck Personality Inventory- psychological test which locates respondents along extraversion and neuroticism dimensions to determine personality type- later scale introduced used to measure psychoticism

Question 10

What are the evaluation points of Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 10

👎- Farrington et al. (1982)- reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score ⬆️ on psychoticism BUT NOT on extraversion and neuroticism than non-offenders
👎- 💡 that all offending 🏃‍♂️ explained by 1 personality type criticised as too simplistic- crime too varied and complex to be due to 1 single personality type
ALSO type of individual who commits murder likely to be very different to one who commits fraud
👎- Bartol and Holanchock (1979)- looked into cultural differences- studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York- divided them into 6 groups based on their criminal history and the nature of their offences- ALL 6 groups found to be ⬇️ extravert than ✖️-criminal control groups … Eysenck’s theory could be culturally biased
👎- Eysenck’s theory based on 💡 that possible to measure personality through psychological tests- critics argued that personality ✖️ reducible to score in this way- ALSO many psychologists believe ✖️ such thing as stable personality- personality changes on daily basis depending who they with and situation they in