Psychology paper 1

• Psychoticism


  A personality trait identified by Eysenck, linked to an overactive dopamine system in the brain and high levels of violence
• Traits of a neurotic extrovert

  • Thrill seeking
  • Risk taking
  • Aggression
  • Optimistic (believes they will get away with crimes)
• Eysenck's theory says criminal behaviour is more a product of nature than nurture
• Extraversion


  A personality trait, extroverts are very active and sociable, introverts are passive and shyer
• Neuroticism


  A personality trait, neurotics are worriers and easily agitated, stable people are more in control of their emotions
• Neurotic extroverts who also score high on psychoticism are very likely to become criminals
• Eysenck's theory says personality traits are fixed and part of our genetic makeup
• Reticular activating system (RAS)


  Part of the brain, more active in introverts so they need less stimulation, extroverts need more stimulation
• Dopamine reward system


  Extroverts need more exciting stimuli to produce pleasure compared to introverts
• Autonomic nervous system (ANS)


  Regulates how we respond to stressful situations, more easily aroused in neurotics
• Limbic system


  Part of the brain in control of sexual and aggressive urges, can lead to physical and sexual offences if over-active
• Neurotic extroverts are the most difficult personality type to condition and don't easily learn the association between committing a crime and negative outcomes
• Eysenck's theory underplays individual differences and is too deterministic, suggesting little can be done to control criminal behaviour
• The neurotic extrovert personality links better with some crimes than others
• Self-esteem


  A trait associated with neuroticism
• Heaven's study found a positive correlation between psychoticism and delinquency, a weak positive correlation between extraversion and delinquency, and no significant correlation between self-esteem and delinquency
• Psychoticism was the best predictor of delinquency in Heaven's study
• Males had higher delinquency scores than females in Heaven's study
• Heaven's study had a culturally biased sample and may have had issues with social desirability bias and low construct validity due to using closed questions
• Extraversion showed a weak positive correlation with delinquency at the end of the study
• There was no significant correlation between self-esteem and delinquency
• Psychoticism was the best predictor of delinquency
• Males, who made up approximately half of the sample, had higher delinquency scores than females at both the beginning and the end of the study
• The sample


  • Culturally biased in two main ways: the children were all from one religion and from one particular country. Other religions and other countries may have a different influence on delinquent behaviour
• The participants


  • May have given socially desirable responses, especially when being asked about their delinquency. Even though the questionnaires were anonymous, some children may not have wanted to admit to all the delinquent things they had done
• The use of closed questions

  • May have led to low construct validity as personality and delinquency are too complex to be reduced to scores
• The 20 per cent of children who dropped out of the study


  • May not have been representative of the ones who were left in. For example, children with low levels of delinquency may not have been interested in carrying on with the study
• It is not possible to establish cause and effect with correlational studies. It may be that delinquency affects children's personality (if we assume it's not that fixed) rather than the other way around
• Restorative justice


  An example of rehabilitation that tries to get offenders to behave more pro-socially rather than anti-socially. It normally involves the victim meeting with the person who has offended against them so the criminal can 'face up' to the consequences of their actions. Justice is often restored by the criminal paying for their crime - either in money or through community service, or sometimes through something as simple as an apology or an explanation
• Use of positive role models

  • An example of rehabilitation based on the principles of social learning. If criminals have learned their anti-social behaviour from bad role models then the idea is that they can learn pro-social behaviour from good role models. These role models may be people like mentors who are assigned to offenders, or professional trainers who lead social skills training sessions
• Deterrents


  When it's enough for some people to see others being punished to stop them committing a crime
• Punishments


  • Prisons (taking away freedom and privileges)
  • Community sentences (making offenders give up their time to do unpaid work for the community)
  • Fines (making offenders pay money for their offence)
• Crimes are any acts against the law, but laws differ depending on the society. This is why crime is seen as a social construct
• Norms are what is considered as acceptable and usual. When behaviours deviate from norms they can be defined as crime
• Culture has a role in defining criminal and anti-social behaviour. Criminal and anti-social behaviour are not absolute behaviours, they are determined by what is acceptable at any point in time by the people who make up the culture
• Official statistics


  Statistics produced by the Government's Home Office based on crimes recorded by the police force
• Self-report


  Surveys that allow researchers to find out about crimes that are not reported or detected, including victim surveys and offender surveys
• Social Learning Theory of criminality

  States that criminal and anti-social behaviours are learned behaviours, through a process of identification with role models and imitation of their behaviours
• Vicarious reinforcement


  When a behaviour is imitated because it is seen to be rewarded
• Direct reinforcement


  When a behaviour is repeated because it has been rewarded