1. Fill in the questionnaire. Don’t think too hard about your answers.

2. What do you think the questionnaire measures?

3. Today’s session You are learning about... You are learning to...
Eysenck’s theory of the criminal personality
Apply psychological concepts to explain and predict behaviour
Use evidence to evaluate psychological theories

4. Eysenck’s personality theory
Biological
Psychological
Social
Functioning of the nervous system
Stable psychological traits
Responses to socialisation (reinforcement & punishment)
Behaviour in situations where criminal behaviour is a possible outcome

5. Eysenck’s personality theory
People’s personality varies along two dimensions:
Extraversion – how much stimulation they need
Neuroticism – how emotionally unstable they are

6. People who have very changeable emotions; prone to anxiety and depression
High N
These traits are normally distributed. Most people have moderate scores; few people have extreme scores.
Low E
High E
People who need little external stimulation
People who need lots of external stimulation
Low N
People who have very stable emotions

7. E & N and the nervous system
Eysenck suggests that E and N measure characteristics of the nervous system:
E measures your central and autonomic arousal level. The lower this is, the more stimulation you need from your environment and the harder you are to condition successfully.
N measures how strongly your nervous system reacts to aversive stimuli. The stronger your responses the more extreme your emotional changes. High N-scorers are also hard to condition.

8. Nomological reductionism
Eysenck suggests that each person’s unique personality is determined by their particular pattern of E and N, which is determined by their nervous system (and, probably, their genes).
What makes this a nomological view?
What makes this a reductionist view?

9. Psychoticism
Eysenck later added a third dimension (P). High P-scorers tend to be:
Cold
Uncaring
Solitary
Aggressive
He also believed P to be largely genetically determined.

10. Which pattern of E, N and P scores is most likely to lead to criminal behaviour? Why?

11. Eysenck’s theory predicts that people who have high E, N and P will run a higher risk of offending, principally because it is difficult for them to learn to control their immature impulses.

12. Evaluating Eysenck’s theory
Evidence
Fairly consistent support for high N and P scores but not high E scores
Response bias from self-report measures
Sampling bias when using convicted offenders
Concepts
Circular definitions – what does P measure?
Personality trait may not be stable across situations

13. Evaluating Eysenck’s theory
Usefulness
Makes broad statements about criminals in general; does not address specific crimes
May assist in identifying those at risk of later offending so prevention can take place