psychological theories - Eysenck

3 factors that make up our personality according to Eysenck

1. Introversion/ extraversion

2. Neuroticism/stability

3. Levels of psychoticism

Extroversions/ Introversion

They are typically outgoing and sociable who get energy from being around other people. He argues this is as they inherited a under-aroused nervous system so seek stimulation from the environment

Neuroticism/stability

Neuroticism - having anxiety and emotional instability

Stability - calm and even-tempered

Psychoticism

Has cold, aggressive, anti-social and hostile behaviour

How does Eysenck’s personality theories link to criminality

He argues that people who score high on extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism (PEN). are mostly likely to be criminal/deviance.

Supporting studied of Eysneck’s theories

Rushton and Christjohn compared PEN scores with delinquent school children and found they would mostly score high on PEN.

Farrington Et Al found 16 studied of the relationship between PEN measured with criminal convictions. They find that majority of the cases offenders scored was ‘P’ and ‘E’.

Evaluation of Eysenck

Strengths:

He predicts that high PEN scores lead to criminality and some studies support this

Limitations:

Farrington does not agree with The ‘E’ personality type being criminal in PEN criminals.

Convicted offenders may not be typical offender as a whole. For instance, they may be less impulsive offenders who may not get caught

The questionnaires may not show valid responses