Psychological explanations

• what are the different dimensions regarding behaviour that Eysenck proposed

  introversion VS extraversion

  neuroticism VS stability

  later added: psychoticism
• how were these behaviour types measured

  through a questionnaire called the Eysenck personality innventory (EPI)
• what is meant by extraversion and introversion

  extraverts = optimistic, sociable, impulsive, craves excitment

  introverts = reserved, reliable, plans actions
• what is meant by neurotics and stables

  neurotics = anxious, worries, overly emotional

  stables = emotionally calm and unreactive
• what is meant by psychoticism

  lacking empathy , loner, aggressive, troublesome
• which of these combinations makes up a criminal personality

  extraversion + neuroticism + psychoticism
• what does the criminal personality theory believe about how our personality develops

  our personality has a biological basis and develops as a result of the nervous system we inherit
• how are extraverts caused

  an underactive nervous system, so they constantly seek stimulation and engage in risk taking
• how is neuroticism caused

  they have an autonomic nervous system that responds quickly to stress, so tend to be over anxious and behaviour is difficult to predict
• what causes psychoticism


  link to testosterone: often unemotional and prone to aggression
• what is meant by the role of socialisation

  personality is linked with criminality via a socialisation process
• how did Eysenck view criminals


  as developmentally immature, selfish and concerned with immediate gratification, whereas normal children are socialised to be able to delay gratification:

  people with high N or E have nervous systems that are difficult to condition to avoid anti-social behaviour
• what is evidence that supports the criminal personality

  Eysenck compared 2070 male prisoners to 2422 controls, the prisoners scored higher on N, P and E

  This supports the criminal personality theory, as there is a link between those that have committed crime and a tendency for thesecriminal traits
• what is an issue with this evidence

  correlational = link established after crime, so the personality could be the effect of being a prisoner which brought out the traits, due to socialising with other inmates
• what is an issue with some of the aspects of the criminal personality

  - little evidence for criminals scoring highly for E or N, whilst P might be linked, the other personality traits seem to differ so has low reliabilty as only some are associated
• what is an issue with how the criminal personality is assessed

  - self report methods from a questionnaire; may have social desirability bias & demand characteristics due to concerns of self appearance - this is an issue as it lowers internal validity
• how is this issue countered

  a lie scale is used to show how accurately someone answers the questionnaire, as they are questions that have an answer that most would have done, so if they lie on this scale then it's likely their other answers aren't truthful
• why is it an issue that this theory gives a fixed personality

  - reductionist explanation as personalities can shift depending on the situation, maybe N in some situations but not in others, so there is no fixed 'true self' that directs behaviour
• why is it an issue that ALL criminals are given the same crime personality

  there is such variation in types of crimes committed, so it's unlikely that all criminals would share the same personality traits or motivation for different crimes; theft compared to murder
• what are the practical applications - pos or neg

  - little ways to prevent crime, or reliability with identifying those that may be vulnerable

  + could be useful for ideas with treating offenders: modify socialisation of children to ensure high N or E learn from their experiences/are conditioned
• what does the cognitive approach believe is the cause of our behaviour

  internal mental processing
• what are the 2 cognitive explanations of offending

  1. cognitive distortions

  2. levels of moral reasoning
• what are cognitive distortions


  a form of irrational thinking, where a person has an error in their processing of information which causes reality to become twisted, so what is percieved is no longer truth/accurate
• what are 2 examples of cognitive distortions

  1. Hostile attribution bias

  2. Minimalisation
• what is someone like if they have a hostile attribution bias

  a person percieves the actions of others as a negative reaction to themself; misreading others actions

  this triggers the person to give a disproportionate response
• what is minimalisation


  downplaying the seriousness of an offence
• what does minimalisation include when offending

  - trivialising the crime

  - blaming the victim

  - rationalising what they did
• why do people minimalise their actions

  to reduce negative interpretations and justify their behaviour to themself, so reduces negative emotions (guilt) over their actions
• what type of offenders are most likely to minimalise

  sexual offenders

  so the influence on crime may depend on what type of crime has been committed
• what evidence supports minimalisation as a cognitive distortion

  35% of child molesters argued they were just being affectionate or the victim had consented

  thus supporting the theory of minimalisation as many of the molesters downplayed the seriousness of the situation and placed blame on the victim
• what evidence supports the hostile attribution bias

  55 violent offenders where presented with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions, when compared to matched non-aggressive controls, the violent offenders where more likely to see the faces as hostile and angry
• what does this evidence support

  this supports the hostile attribution bias as real offenders show this tendency so could explain their violence
• what are the practical applications of understanding a hostile attribution bias


  the anger management side of CBT:

  enables people to see situations more realistically
• what is the evidence for the effects of CBT

  studies have shown reduced distortions and minimalisation correlated with reduced risk of offending:

  a study that worked on reducing cognitive distortions (decision making errors) had a 44% reduction in arrests compared to a control group
• what does this suggest about anger management/CBT

  it effectively reduces hostility so suggests that cognitive distortions affect rates of violenr crime

  However, only 44% so 64% didn't reduce their arrest; not highly effective
• who developed the stages of moral development

  Kohlberg
• what support did Kohlberg find for stages of moral development - what are the stages a result of

  Kohlberg interviewed males about the reasons for their moral decisions which provided support for the stages

  Process through the stages is the result of biological maturity and consequences of discussing their thinking with others
• what are the 3 stages of moral development

  1. Pre-conventional morality

  2. Conventional morality

  3. Post-conventional morality
• what is meant by pre-conventional morality

  child-like: our moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of following or breaking their rules
• what is meant by conventional morality

  authority is internalised but not questioned and moral reasonning is based on the norms of the group to which the persons belongs