Eysenck's Criminality Personality AO3

• how is Eysenck and Eysenck research support?

  • Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) sampled 2070 male prisoners and 2422 male controls using the EPQ and found higher average scores for extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism than controls.
• how is Farrington research support for ECP?

  • However, lack of consistency: Farrington (1982) conducted meta-analysis and found offenders tended to score high on measures of psychoticism, but not extraversion and neuroticism. 
• how is social desirability bias a scientific basis issue in ECP?

  • A problem with questionnaires and psychological tests is that respondents may lie due to social desirability bias. Most people want to present a positive image of themselves and so may lie or bend the truth to look good, e.g. they might not tick agree to negative or undesirable personality traits, such as being selfish. Questionnaires may lack validity for this reason.
• what is another issue for ECP's use of questionnaires?

  • Another key issue with questionnaires is that people may not understand or may misinterpret the question, which leads to inaccurate information being gathered by the researcher, which again impacts of the validity of the method.
• how is the ECP too simplistic?

  • A limitation of Eysenck’s theory of personality and offending is that it is based on the idea that personality traits are stable constructs, but this has been disputed. 
  • For example, Mischel (1988) argues there is no such thing as a stable personality, as we adopt different personality types depending on the situation we are in. 
  • If this is true, we would never be able to predict criminality based on personality, therefore the personality theory of offending may not be very useful as it is based on invalid measures.
• how is cultural bias an issue with ECP?

  • A further limitation of Eysenck's theory is that cultural factors are not taken into account. 
  • The criminal personality may vary according to culture. 
  • Studies into Hispanic and African-American offenders found all studied groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group whereas Eysenck would expect them to be more extravert. 
• how is biological determinism an issue with ECP?

  • Eysenck’s theory is an example of biological determinism, as he suggests criminal behaviour is not chosen but caused by factors outside an individual’s control, namely their biology.
  • This means that the inherited nervous system governs the personality type a person has and, in some cases, is the cause of their criminal behaviour.
  • This is problematic, when it comes to explaining crime, because individuals cannot be expected to have free will, i.e. no ability to take control of their behaviour.