5. psychological explanations: eysenck's theory

what did eysenck propose

behaviour can be represented along three dimensions

1. introverstion-extraversion (E)

2. neuroticism-stability (N)

3. psychotism-sociability (P)

biological basis

personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit - all personality has an innate, biological basis

extraverts

• underactive nervous system

• constantly seek excitement, stimulation and are likely to engage in risk taking behaviours

• tend not to condition easily so dont learn from mistakes

neurotic

• high level of reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system

• respond quickly to situations of threat (fight or flight)

• tend to be nervous, jumpy and overanxious

• general instability means behaviour is often hard to predict

psychotic

• higher levels of testosterone

• unemotional and prone to aggression

the criminal personality

an individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and cannot be easily conditioned, is cold and unfeeling, and likely to engage in offending behaviour

role of socialisation

personality is linked to offending behaviour via socialisation processes

• socialisation = process where children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and more socially orientated

• those with high E and N scores have nervous systems hard to condition - so theyre less likely to learn anxiety responses to antisocial impuslses

• means theyre more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presented itself

measuring the criminal personality

eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ)

• locates respondents along the E, N and P dimensions to determine their personality type

• enabled him to conduct research relating personality variables to other behaviours like criminality

• uses a dichotomous scale to measure each dimension asking questions with yes/no responses

evaluation

1. research support (& counterpoint)

2. cultural factors

3. measuring personality

research support

• eysenck compared 2040 prisoners EPQ scores with 422 controls and prisoners scored higher on extraversion, neuroticism and psychotisim - supports prediction offenders tend to have higher scores across these dimensions

• suggests personality contributes to criminal behaviour

• existence of empirical evidence increases scientific credibility

counterpoint

• contradictory evidence

• farrignton found american offenders scored high on psychotism but not on extraversion or neuroticism - also little consistent evidence linking E and N scores to psychological arousal differences

• suggests offenders do not always match the full EPN profile and biological assumptions may not be valid - weakens reliability of his theory as a universal explanation

cultural factors

• theory may not account for cultural difference in offending behaviour

• bartol studied hispanic and african-american offenders and found they were more extravert than a control group - may have been as sample was culturally different

• suggests personality traits may be culturally relative, meaning criminal personality profiles may not generalise across societies so theory lacks cross cultural validity

measuring personality

• personality is hard to measure accurately using questionnaires ie EPQ

• although it allows personality differences to be quantified, critics argue personality is too complex and dynamic to be reduced to numerical scores - if personality cannot be reliably measured then identifying a clear criminal personality type becomes problematic

• weakens theory as its main evidence relies heavily on self report psychometric testing