Psych exp: Eysenck

• What is Eysenck's theory of general personality?

  Our personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit

  He proposed that behaviour could be represented along 3 dimensions.

  ·         Introversion/extroversion (E)

  ·         Neuroticism/stability (N)

  ·         Psychoticism (P)
• How can Eysenck's personality theory be applied to criminal personality?

  • an individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism and cannot easily be conditioned is cold and unfeeling and is likely to engage in offending behaviour
• Research support for the criminal personality theory? (AO3)

  • SYBIL EYSENCK AND HANS EYSENCK (1977)
  • 2070 male prisoner’s EPI scores compared with 2422 male controls
  • Groups were subdivided into age groups, ranging from 16-69 years.
  • Measures of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism, across all age groups
  • prisoners recorded higher scores than controls which accords with the predictions of the theory
  • Strong evidence to support his theory, especially with all 3 dimensions supported.
• Limitation of Eysencks research support (AO3)

  • it could be seen as androcentric and demonstrates beta bias due to the focus on male ppts only and therefore assumes women would be the same as men.
  • This could be tested by studying female prisoners in the same way.
  • Overall limitation on generalisability of research
• Counter evidence, limitation of Eysencks research? (AO3)

  • DAVID FARRINGTON ET AL
  • reviewed several studies (META ANALYSIS)
  • reported that offenders tended to score high on P measures but not for E and N
  • Very little evidence of consistent differences in EEG measures (used to measure cortical arousal) between extraverts and introverts
  • casts doubt on the physiological basis of Eysenck’s theory
  • This study doesn’t support the idea of high extraversion or neuroticism scores as a cause of offending, perhaps Eysenck’s theory has limited validity.
• Limitation of criminal personality type ideas (AO3)

  • Offending behaviour can't be explained by a single personality type
  • Eysenck’s criminal type doesn't align with modern personality theories.
  • E.g. JOHNDIGMAN’S (1990) Five Factor Model of personality suggests that alongside E and N, there are additional dimensions of openness/conscientiousness
  • Multiple combinations are available and therefore a high E and N score doesn’t mean offending is inevitable
  • Therefore an oversimplification as an explanation for offending behaviour and criminal personalities.