Eysencks theory

• Eysenck developed the criminal personality

  he said behaviour could be represented along 2 dimensions

  introversion-extraversion

  neuroticism-stability

  he later added a third dimension- psychoticism-sociability
• Extraversion

  chronically underaroused nervous system, which ends to sensation seeking and risk taking behaviour
• neuroticism

  unstable, unpredictable behaviour, moody, insecure and anxious
• psychoticism

  cold, heartless offender who has an inability to feel remorse or guilt
• Biological basis 

  Eysenck suggested each trait has a biological basis which is mainly innate

  extroverted people ave an under active nervous system and seek excitement and external stimulation to increase their arousal, whereas introverted people are naturally aroused

  neuroticism is a general instability in the sympathetic nervous system, whereas stable people are calm under pressure

  psychoticism has been related to higher levels of testosterone, making it more apparent in men
• the criminal personality type is neurotic - extravert - psychotic

  Extroverts- seek arousal and engage in dangerous activities

  Neurotics- unstable and prone to over react to situations of threat

  Psychotics- are aggressive and lacking empathy
• Role of socialisation

  offenders are impatient and was immediate gratification

  the process of socialisation allows children to be taught to be able to delay gratification and be more socially orientated

  eysenck believed people with high Extraversion and Neuroticism scores are difficult to condition, as a result they are more likely to act anti socially
• measuring criminal personality

  EPQ - eysencks personality questionnaire

  psychological test which puts respondents along the E, N and P dimensions to determine their personality type
• Research support

  Eysencks compared 2070 prisoners scores on the Eysenck personality questionnaire with 2422 controls.

  On measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls

  this supports the predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the 3 dimensions Eysenck identified
• The EPQ may not be valid way of measuring personality

  its difficult to reduce personality to a score, critics say you can’t quantify a personality type as its too complex. 

  as its a self report, the questions can be misinterpreted, the answers are subjective and we may not know ourselves well enough to answer correctly 

  social desirability bias, people may answer to look a certain way, weather this be less like a criminal or more like a criminal

  this suggest the EPQ may not be a valid way of testing for a criminal personality.
• one limitation is its too simplistic

  that personality traits alone were a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for, in the sense of whether someone is likely to become a ‘career offender’.

  persistence in offending behaviour is said to be the result of a reciprocal process between individual personality traits , and environmental reactions to those traits

  this presents a more complex picture than Eysenck suggested, that the course of offending behaviour is determined by an interaction between personality and the environment.
• the criminal personality may vary according to culture

  study of Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York, the researches divided these offenders into 6 groups based on their offending history and the nature of their offences.

  It was found that all 6 groups were less extrovert than a non-offender control group whereas Eysenck would expect them to be more extravert.

  This may be because the sample was a different cultural group from that investigated by Esyenck.

  this questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised