Eysenck's theory

• Biological basis 


  Criminal personality is due to the type of nervous system we inherit - how easily the nervous system responds to stimulus influences behaviour potentially leading to innate offending behaviour
• Personality theory


  • Extrovert to introvert - extraverts are outgoing/attention seeking due to chronically under aroused nervous systems, harder to condition/socialise as failing to learn from mistakes.
  • Neurotic to stable - high level of reactivity in sympathetic nervous system - respond quickly to situations of threat - nevous, jumpy, overanxious, difficult to predict behaviour
  • Psychotic - higher levels of testosterone - unemotional and prone to aggression.

  Criminal - neurotic, extroverted and psychotic
• neurotics are unstable therefore prone to overreact to situations of threat

  extraverts seek more arousal and thus engage in dangerous activities

  psychotics are agressive and lack empathy
• role of socialisation


  eysink saw offending behaviour as developmentally immature - selfish and concerned with immediate gratification, impatient

  socialisation - where kids taught to delay gratification

  Criminals have nervous systems that made them difficult to condition so less likely to learn anxiety responses to antisocial impulses and consequently more likely to act antisocially
• w: too simplistic

  All offending behaviur can't be described by personality traits alone - mofitt said personality traits can't predict how long offending behaviour would go on for eg if they are just an adolescent offender or a career offender - thinks environment has an impact, others suggest things like conscientiousness and agreeableness

  --> presents more complex picture than eysenck suggested
• S: Research support 


  Eysenck and eysenck compared 2070 prisoners scores on the yesenck personality questionnaire with 2422 controls

  On measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychotics - across all age groups that were sampled prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls

  agrees with predictions of theory that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions eysenck identified
• measuring criminal personality


  Eyesenck developed eysenck personality questionnaire - form of psychological test which locates respondents along the E, N and P dimensions to determine their personality type

  measurement of personality was v important part of his theory bc it enabled him to conduct research realating personality variables to other behaviours such as criminality.
• W: Cultural factors 


  Cultural factors not taken into account - criminal personality may vary according to culture

  Hispanic and african American offenders in a maximum security prison were studied - divided into six groups based on their offending history and nature of offences - all six groups were less extravert than a non offender control group - possibly because sample was a very different cultural group than eysenck investigated

  --> criminal personality cannot be generalised - it is a culturally relative concept