eysenck's theory

• personality theory


  - Eysenck was an important figure in personality and intelligence research during the middle of the 20th century

  - proposed that behaviour could be represented along two dimensions: introversion-extraversion and neuroticism-stability

  - the two dimensions combine to form a variety of personality characteristics/traits

  - later added a third dimension: psychoticism-sociability
• biological basis


  • each trait has a biological basis which is innate; 67% of the variance for the traits is due to genetic factors

  • extraverts have an underactive nervous system which means they constantly seek excitement, stimulation and are likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours. They also tend not to condition easily and therefore do not learn from their mistakes

  • neurotics have a high level of reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system - respond quickly to situations of threat, tend to be nervous, jumpy and overanxious and their general instability means their behaviour is often difficult to predict

  • psychotics are suggested to have higher levels of testosterone, are emotional and prone to aggression
• the role of socialisation

  • the link between personality and criminality is due to the socialisation process

  • criminality is associated by developmental immaturity i.e. they are selfish and seek immediate gratification which socialisation usually controls as we develop socially-orientated behaviour

  • people with high E & N scores are difficult to condition due to their nervous system; they wouldn't learn to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety and so will act in an antisocial manner if given the opportunity
• immediate gratification


  • Eysenck believed criminals are fundamentally selfish and immature

  • they are concerned with immediate gratification

  • criminals are impatient and cannot wait for things

  • therefore, they are more likely to act anti-socially
• strength


  P - evidence to support the criminal personality

  E - Eysenck (1977) compared 2070 prisoners' scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire with 2422 controls

  E - on measure of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls

  L - this agrees with the predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions Eysenck identified

  COUNTERPOINT

  - Farrington (1982) conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on psychoticism but not extraversion and neuroticism

  - also inconsistent evidence of differences on EEG measures between extraverts and introverts (Kϋssner 2017)

  - means some of the central assumptions of the criminal personality have been challenged
• limitation


  P - idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by personality traits alone

  E - Moffitt (1993) drew a distinction between offending behaviour that only occurs in adolescence and continues into adulthood

  E - she considers persistence in offending behaviour to be a reciprocal process between individual personality traits and environmental reactions to those traits

  L - this is a more complex picture than Eysenck suggested, that offending behaviour is determined between personality and the environment
• limitation


  P - cultural factors are not taken into account

  E - Bartol and Holanchock (1979) studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a New York maximum security prison, dividing them into 6 groups based on offending history and offences

  E - all six groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group. Bartol and Holanchock suggested this was because the sample was a different cultural group from that investigated by Eysenck

  L - this questions the generalisability of the criminal personality - it may be a culturally relative concept