Forensics: Psychological Theory Of Offeending: Eysenck

Front 1

What dimensions did Eysenck originally create?

Back 1

EPI
Neuroticism-----Stability
Extraversion-----Introversion

Front 2

What other dimension was added by Eysenck later on and what did he rename his theory?

Back 2

EPQ
Psychoticism

Front 3

What are the common characteristics of an extrovert?

Back 3

Outgoing, positive emotions, loud, easily bored, sociable, active, impulsive

Front 4

What are the common characteristics of an introvert?

Back 4

Antisocial, pessimistic, quite, passive, throughtful, careful

Front 5

What are the common characteristics of neuroticism?

Back 5

Anxious, unstable, worried, restless, rigid, wary

Front 6

What are the characteristics of psychoticism?

Back 6

Egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal and lacking in empathy and a general disregard for people

Front 7

What did Eysenck believe was the biological cause of extroversion?

Back 7

Someone with an under-aroused nervous system that requires external stimulation to increase their brain arousal

Front 8

What did Eysenck believe was the biological cause for introversion?

Back 8

Over-arousal of the nervous system, making people avoid external stimulation

Front 9

What did he believe was the biological cause of neuroticism?

Back 9

An over-reactive nervous system, causing instability and makes them easily upset.

Front 10

What did he believe was the biological cause of psychoticism?

Back 10

Higher levels of testosterone, making the persoon more prone to aggressive outbursts. men are more likely to score (highly) in this section due to their higher testosterone levels.

Front 11

Which personality traits did Eysenck say caused someone to start committing criminal offences? In what terms did he believed this behaviour could be explained?

Back 11

Neuroticism and extroversion due to the over-arousal of the nervous system, causing over-reactions to threats and their engagement in dangerous activites

Front 12

Evaluation: What did Zuckerman find in support for the biological part of Eysenck's theory?

Back 12

.52 correlation between MZ twins on neuroticism and a .24 for DZ twins.
.51 and 0.12 (respectively ) correlations for extroversion

Front 13

What are the issues with Zuckerman's research into twins?

Back 13

Cannot generalise twin studies to the wider population due to the fact not everyone is a twin.
Concordance is never 100%, therefore other factors must have a role in the development of criminality.
MZ twins are treated similarly, meaning environment may have been the cause- not genetics

Front 14

Evaluation: inconsistent personality

Back 14

Mischel and Peake found no correlation between the traits displayed by 65 children across different situations, according to interviews with the children's family, friends and teachers. Therefore, no personality is rigid and consistent across all situations

Front 15

Evaluation: unreliable testing

Back 15

People are more likely to lie in questionnaires
Ppts may lie to give the researcher results they believe is wanted or to make themselves seem a different way to how they actually are (demand characteristics)
People tend to go for socially desirable answers- not truthful ones.

Front 16

Evaluation: cultural bias

Back 16

African-american and Hispanic men in an american prison were divided into groups according to crime, and it was found that they scored lower on extroversion than a non-criminal control group.
This questions the generalisability of Eysencks theory as his original sample and this sample provided very different results

Front 17

Evaluation: is there really a single criminal personality that explains all behaviours?

Back 17

Not all criminals can be explained as extroverted and neurotic- and not all neurotic extroverts are criminals. The theory is difficult to apply to modern personality explanations

Front 18

Evaluation: what did the Eysenck's find in their study on prisoners?

Back 18

2070 prisoner and 2422 non-prisoner males were tested using the EPI.
Prisoners all recorded high for E, N and P when compared to the control group of males. This supports this theory

Front 19

Evaluation: issues and debates?

Back 19

Reductionist
Androcentric/beta bias
Determinist?