Individual differences presentation exploring whether personality or the environment have more of an effect on criminal behaviour.

1. Is Criminal Behaviour determined by
Personality or Environmental factors?
PS2040 - Individual Differences
Olivia Duggan

2. How is Criminal Behaviour defined?
• “…Violates criminal law… followed by criminal proceedings and
appropriate punishments” – Hollin (2006)
(The Telegraph, 2013)

3. How is Personality defined?
“Characteristics or blend of
characteristics that make a
person unique”.
(Weinberg & Gould, 1999)

4. What are our personality traits?
• Little agreement in identifying & defining traits (Kline, 2000)
• 3 key trait theorists, in relation to deviancy
– Cattell (1905-1988)
• 16 Personality Factors; +/- poles
– Eysenck (1916-1997)
• Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism
– Costa & McCrae (1942/49-Today)
• Five Factor Model (OCEAN)
(Herrero & Colom, 2008; Klama & Egan, 2011; Schenk, Ragatz & Fremouw, 2012)

5. • Inheritance of parent’s deviant personality
– Twin studies (Raine, 2013)
– Adoption studies (Farrington, 2011)
• Body types related to personality
– Endomorphs, Ectomorphs, Mesomorphs (Sheldon, 1949)
• Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory
– Behaviour Activation System (BAS)
– Behaviour Inhibition System (BIS) (Gray, 1976, 1982, 2000)
Biological Personality Theories & Criminal Behaviour

6. Personal Construct Theory
• Experience through lens of constructs
• Fundamental postulate
• 11 Corollaries
Perceptual Differences
• Field dependence vs. Independence
• Sensory reducers vs. Augmenters
Belief
system
Emotional &
Behavioural
consequence
Activating
event
(Ellis, 1979; Impara, 2016)
(Kelly, 2003; Janssen, 2013)
(Larsen & Buss, 2008; Schwerdtfeger & Heer, 2008)
Cognitive Personality Theories & Criminal Behaviour

7. Self-actualisation
Esteem
Social
Safety
Physiological
Self
Worth
Self
Image
Ideal
Self
Self
Image
Self
Worth
Ideal
Self
Congruent
Incongruent
Humanistic Personality Theories & Criminal Behaviour
(Garofalo, 2016)

8. • Topographic model
• Id, Ego, Superego
• Psychosexual stages of development
Freud (1923)
• 8 stages of personality development
Erikson (1963)
• Ruling
• Avoiding
• Getting
• Socially useful
Adler (1923)
Psychodynamic Personality Theories & Criminal Behaviour
(Teitetman, 2008; Thomas et al., 2013)

9. Conditioning &
Reinforcement
(Pavlov, 1927; Skinner, 1950; Akers,
2011; Raine, 2013)
Habits
(Hull, 1943; Serin & Lloyd, 2009)
Social Learning Theory
(Bandura, 1977; Akers & Jensen, 2006)
Strain Theory & Drives
(Merton, 1968; McShane, 2013; Downes,
Rock & McLaughlin, 2016)
Family
(Smith, 2007; Farrington, 2011;
Omboto et al., 2013)
Self Fulfilling Prophecy
(Merton, 1968; Rosenthal & Jacobson,
198; Goodwin & Davis, 2011)
Learning, Environment & Criminal Behaviour

10. BOTH!
• Remember all have weaknesses
• Neither personality or environmental factors are perfect
Explanation Weakness
Trait No clear number of traits; inconsistent
Psychodynamic Based on case studies; unrepresentative
Biological Does not explain how personality changes
Cognitive Focuses more on beliefs than behaviours
Humanistic Difficult to define concepts
Environment Biased stats; observations; social desirability
Which determines Criminal Behaviour more?

11. References…
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