What is the biological explanation? | Genes influence criminal behaviour, it has been passed down through familes. |
How did people test this explanation? | They used twin studies, seeing as they shared 100% or 50% of the same genetic information |
How did twins help? | Compare the criminal behaviour in genetically identical and non-identical twins |
What was the sample for the Christiansen study? | 3586 pairs of twins |
Concordance rate of male monozygotic twins in Christiansen's study? | 35% of shared criminal behaviour |
Concordance rate of male dizygotic twins in Christiansen's study? | 13% of shared criminal behaviour |
Concordance rate of female monozygotic twins in Christiansen's study? | 21% of shared criminal behaviour |
Concordance reate of female dizygotic twins in Christiansen's study? | 8% of shared criminal behaviour |
What does Christiansen's results show? | Genes play a role because of the greater similarity in identical twins can be explained by their greater genetic similairty |
What did the adoption studies want to find? | Isolate genetic factors and upbrining has on thier behaviour. Criminal records of their biological parents and adoptive parents were compared to the child's |
What did Hutchings find about adopted children and biological parents ? | 21% of adopted children went to commit a crime that their biological father had been convicted of. |
What did Hutchings find about adotped children and their adoptive parents? | 10% children who biological father didn't commit a crime but thier adoptive father did. |
What does extraverison mean? | Behaviour is outgoing and sensation-seeking |
What is introversion? | Reserved, calm and quiet |
What is neuroticism? | Highly emotional and quick to overract |
What is psychotism ? | Lacks empathy, cold and can be agressive. |
What do people with high extraverison tend to seek? | Increased stimuliationot raise thier arousal level becuase they experience low arosual in thier nervous system. |
What do people with high nuerotiscim tend to do? | More likely to overeact beucase they have a nervous sytem that responds quickly to stressors |
What did Eysnck believe with high levels of psychoticism? | Person lacked empthy and likekihood of antisocial behaviour. |
Strength of Eysenck? | Allows for interaction between nature and nuture, nervous system creates perosnlity traits that affect how we are raised. More holistic. |
Strength of biological explanation? | There is supporting edvience from Christiansen's twin study. But they can't be the only correlation becuase the gene hasn't been isolted. |
Weakness of biological explanation? | The EPQ is a self report, the valitiy can be affected by social desirability bias |
Strength of biological explanation? | Applied usefully by parents to identify thier child's perosnilty traits |
Weakness of biological explanation? | Its a biological theory which is fixed at brith so it cannot be applied to help reduce criminal behaviour. |