Eysenck

• Eysenck ‘s theory of personality + character traits cluster along three dimensions:

  Extraversion

  Neuroticism

  Psychotism
• Eysenck Extraversion - introversion : extraverts are outgoing, have positive emotions but may get bored easily
• Eysenck Neuroticism - stability : neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotional states rather than positive emotional states
• Eysenck Psychotism - normality : psychotics are egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal, lacking in empathy and generally not concerned about the welfare of other people
• Eysenck suggested that each trait has a biological basis that is mainly innate
• Extraverison - determined by overall level of arousal in a persons nervous system. Extroverts seek external stimulation to increase their brain arousal, whereas introverts are innately over aroused and try to reduce or avoid stimulation
• Neuroticism - determined by level of stability in the sympathetuc nervous system - how much a person responds in situations of threat. A neurotic person is someone who is slightly unstable and gets upset quickly. A stable personality has a more unreactive nervous system
• Psychoticism - has been related to higher levels of testosterone, meaning that men are more likely to be on this end of the spectrum
• Criminal extraversion - Extroverts seek more arousal and therefore engage in more dangerous activities
• Neurotics are unstable and therefore prone to over react in situations of threat which would explain some criminal activity
• Psychotic individuals are aggressive and lacking empathy, meaning they may commit crime
• Eysenck said that conditioning can affect criminality. In a normal person, crime is avoided because of previous punishment. Eysenck proposed that people who were high in extraversion and neuroticism were less easily conditioned, meaning they do not avoid anti social behaviour
• AO3. The genetic basis of personality has research support from twin studies. Zuckerman found a + 0.52 correlation for MZ twins on neuroticism compared to + 0.24 for DZ twins. This shows a large genetic component. However this figure is not as big as Eysenck claimed. Additionally, correlations are based on observations of behaviour, and behaviour is a combination of phenotype and genotype, meaning there may be more than the influence of genes
• AO3. Personality may not be consistent across situations. Mischel supported this theory with research by asking family, friends and strangers to rate 63 students in a variety of situations, and found almost no correlation between traits displayed. This disputes the idea of “ criminal personality “ as we don’t have just one personality
• AO3. Personality tests may not be reliable. The type of personality allocated is based on the answers they provide on a personality questionnaire. People may be giving socially desirable responses or they are forced to answer “ yes “ or “ no “ when they want to respond “ sometimes”, meaning it is not completely representative of their behaviour. This means that personality tests may not be able to reliably allocate personality types.
• AO3. There is research support for a link between personality and criminal behaviour. Dunlop found that both extraversion and psychoticism were good predictors of delinquency. However, in this study participants were students and their friends, and delinquency was an assessment of minor offences in the previous 12 months. Another study found that only small groups of male offenders in a juvenile detention centre had high scores on all three of Eysenck’s variables
• AO3. Eysenck’s theory of personality was a theory of personality before offending behaviour. There is some metric that traits like psychoticism can be found in criminals as they lack empath. However, it is difficult to know what we can do with this information as it is not close enough to use as a method to detect who will become an offender. This lowers the usefulness of the theory