Eyseneck's theory (psychological explanations)

• personality definition

  • the sum total of individual differences (such as they way people think, feel and act)
• Eysenck's 3 dimensions

  • he proposed that personality could be represented along 3 dimensions:
  • introversion-extraversion (E)
  • neuroticism-stability (N)
  • psychoticism-sociability (P)
  • the dimensions combine to form a variety of personality characteristics or types
• Eysenck = personality types are innate/based on the nervous system we inherit (biological basis for personality types)

  • extraverts = have an underactive nervous system, means they seek excitement and engage in risk-taking
  • neurotic individuals = have a high level of reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system - they respond quickly to situations of threat (f or f). this means they tend to be nervous, jumpy and overanxious so their behaviour is difficult to predict
  • psychotic individuals = suggested to have higher levels of testosterone- they are cold, unemotional and prone to aggression
• criminal personality is a combination (E+N+P)

  • neurotic extravert + high psychoticism
  • neurotics = are unstable and therefore prone to overreact to situations of threat
  • extraverts = seek more arousal and thus engage in dangerous activities
  • psychotics = are aggressive and lacking empathy
• offending behaviour concerned with immediate gratification

  • Eysenck saw offending behaviour as developmentally immature in that it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification
  • offenders are impatient and cannot wait for things
• high E and high N scorers lack ability to learn (be conditioned) - socialisation

  • during the process of socialisation children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and more socially orientated
  • Eysenck believed that people with high E and N scores had nervous systems that made it difficult for them to learn (be conditioned)
  • as a result, they are less likely to learn anxiety responses to antisocial impulses and thus more likely to act antisocially
• personality can be measured using the EPQ

  • the notion that personality can be measured is central to Eysenck's theory and useful in research
  • he developed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) = psychological test that locates respondents along the E, N and P dimensions to determine their personality type
  • him and his wife assessed 2070 male prisoners and compared with a control group (non-prisoners) of 2422 males
  • they found that prisoners scored higher (than the control group) on measures of E+N+P - accords with the prediction of the theory
• strength = evidence support

  • Eysenck and eysenck = compared 2070 male prisoners' scores on the EPQ with 2422 male controls
  • across all age groups that were sampled = on measures of E, N and P = prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls
  • this agrees with the predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the 3 dimensions Eysenck identified
• counterpoint to supporting evidence

  • Farrington et al = conducted a meta-analysis and reported that offenders tended to score high on measures of P, but not for E and N
  • also Kussner = inconsistent evidence of different cortical arousal in extraverts and introverts
  • means that some of the central assumptions of the criminal personality have been challenged
• limitation = view that all offending is explained by personality

  • moffitt = distinguished between offending behaviour that only occurs in adolescence (adolescence-limited) and that which continues into adulthood (life-course-persistent)
  • she considers persistence in offending behaviour to be a reciprocal process between individual personality traits and environmental reactions to those traits
  • => a more complex picture than Eysenck suggested - that offending behaviour is determined by an interaction between personality and the environment
• limitation = cultural factors not taken into account

  • Bartol and Holanchock = studied hispanic and African-American offenders in a New York maximum security prison, dividing them into 6 groups based on offending history and offences
  • all 6 groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group
  • B and H suggested this was because the sample was a different cultural group from that investigated by Eysenck
  • questions the generalisability of the criminal personality - may be a culturally relative bias
• extra evaluation = measuring personality

  • the usefulness of the EPQ is that we can see how the criminal personality differs from the rest of the population across different dimensions
  • BUT = personality type may not be reducible to a 'score' in this way - the criminal personality is too complex and dynamic to be quantified
  • this may undermine any claims Eysenck made about being able to identify 'natural' offenders using the EPQ as personality may not be static