Psychological - Eysencks Theory Of The Criminal Personlaity Flashcards
What does Eysencks suggest
Criminal behaviour may be influenced by personality characteristics
Personality is innate and biological
Suggests a criminal personality- traits that predispose you to being criminal
He suggests personality consists of three dimensions
What are the 3
1-neuroticism
2-extravert
3-psychoticism
What is neuroticism
Over arosuased Sympathetic NS-
The limbic system is easily triggered- very emotional = instability where behaviour is hard to predict
-emotional, high anxiety, react quickly to stressors.
-more likely to commit crime in an emotionally charges state.
What is psychoticism
Implicated hormone levels
Eg high testosterone =
aggressiveness, Impulsive, lack of consciousness, heartless, unemotional
What is extraversion(extravert)
Caused by an under-aroused nervous system leads to sensation seeking
So they commit crime for the thrill = impulsive
Don’t learn from mistakes
What does Eysencks suggests about these dimensions of personality
- formula for criminal personality
People who were high in psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion were more likely to commit a crime
High levels of
Psychoticism + extraversion + neuroticism = criminal personality
What does Eysenck’s environmental element of his theory suggest
A person is born with certain personality traits, but interaction with the environment is key in the development of criminality
Socialisation is where children are taught to delay gratification and become more socially oriented
What is conditioning (environmental element)
Conditioning
1. A child is conditioned
2. Child learns sense of right and wrong
3. Child avoids behaviour which leads to punishment
4. Child controls own impulses
Criminals have high levels of Extraversion and Neuroticism scores so cannot be conditioned easily = more likely to act antisocially = criminal behaviour
How did Eysencks measure personality
Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire
Measures where an individual is along the Extraversion, Neuroticism & Psychoticism dimensions to determine their personality type.
By using 90 yes and no questions
How did make sure answers were valid
Gave another questionnaire of 9 questions called this the ‘lie score’
Measures how socially desirable person is trying to be
5+ shows person is just trying to make themselves look good.
Research support of Eysencks criminal personality questionnaire
Compared over 2000 prisoners to over 2000 non-prisoners on the EPQ (eysecnks personality questionnaire)
In all age groups printers scored higher on the questionnaire.
Evaluation of Eysencks criminal personality theory
❌ people could still give socially desirable answers on the questionnaire
Make lack validity, however, they’re cheap and quick to distribute and easy to compare against a control group.
❌too deterministic as it suggests that you are a criminal based on biological factors which result in a criminal personality. Disregards free will.
❌- beta bias- his work was only conducted on men criminals, making his research androcentric so findings can’t be applied to women.
