Psychological explanations: Eysenck's theory Flashcards
What were the 3 dimensions Eysenck proposed personality could be presented along?
Introversion - extraversion (E)
Neuroticism - stability (N)
Psychoticism - socialbiltiy (P)
What do the 3 dimensions do?
Combine to form a variety of personality characteristics or types.
What does Eysenck believe about personality types?
They are innate and based on the nervous system we inherit.
What do extraverts have?
Underactive nervous system, which means they seek excitement & engage in risk -taking.
What do neurotic individuals have?
High levels of reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system - they respond quickly to situations of threat (fight or flight). This means they tend to be nervous, jumpy & overanxious, so their behaviour is difficult to predict.
What do psychotic individuals have?
Suggested to have higher levels of testosterone - they are cold, unemotional & prone to aggression.
What is the combination for a criminal personality?
A neurotic extravert & high psychotics.
Neurotics = unstable & prone to overact in situations of threat.
Extraverts = more arousal, engage in dangerous activities.
Psychotics = aggressive & lack empathy.
How did Eysenck see offending behaviour?
As developmentally immature in that it is selfish & concerned with immediate gratification. Offenders usually are impatient & cannot wait for things.
What do high E & N scorers lack?
The ability to learn, due to nervous system. During socialisation, couldn’t be taught to delay gratification. As a result, less likely to learn anxiety responses to antisocial impulses & thus more likely to act antisocially.
What is the EPQ?
Esyneck’s Personality Quiz, a psychological test, that locates respondents along the E, N & P dimensions to determine their personality type.
Strength: Evidence supporting Eysenck’s theory
Eysenck & Eysenck compared 2070 male prisoner’s scores on the EPQ with 2422 male controls. On measures of E, N & P prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls. Agrees with the predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the 3 dimensions Eysenck identified.
COUNTERPOINT: strength: Evidence supporting Eysenck’s theory
Farrington et al conducted a meta analysis & reported offender scored high on measures of P, but not E & N. This means some of the central assumptions of the criminal personality have been challenged.
Limitation: cultural factors are not taken into account
Bartol & Holanchock studied Hispanic & African-American offenders in a New York maximum security prison, dividing them into 6 groups based on offending history & offences. All 6 groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group, suggested this was because the sample was a different cultural group form that investigated by Eysenck. Questions the generalisability of the criminal personality - it may be a culturally relative concept.
Limitation: measuring personality
The usefulness of the EPQ is that we can see how the criminal personality differs from the rest of the population across different dimensions. However, personality type may not be reducible to a “score” in this way. The criminal personality is too complex and dynamic to be quantified. This may undermine any claims Eysenck made about being able to identify “natural offenders using the EPQ as personality may not be static.
