Personality Factors of Extraversion and Anxiety in New Zealand's Persistent Offenders*
| Author | A. J. W. Taylor |
| Published date | 01 December 1968 |
| Date | 01 December 1968 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486586800100406 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
Personality
Factors
01
Extraversion
and Anxiety in New Zealand's
Persistent
Offenders·
A. J.
w.
TAYLORt
INTRODUCTION
~
hypothesis
that
criminals were extraverted
and
lacking anxiety
(Eysenck,
1957a,
Ch. 6) provided
the
basis for a general theory of
criminal behaviour according to which
many
potential criminals could be
detected
and
treated
early (Eysenck,
1964,
p. 163).
It
was hypothesised
that:
The person who fails to develop conditioned moral
and
social responses,
due to his low conditionability
and
his
extraversion,
tends
to become
the
psychopath
and
the
criminal.
uma,
p. 111)
"Low conditionability"
had
prevtouslv been related to a lack of anxiety
because "conditioned reflexes are formed very
much
more easily
in
anxious
than
in non-anxious people" (Eysenck,
1953,
p. 203). Subsequently,
the
emphasis was placed upon
the
introversion-extraversion dimension of
personality, because
the
anxious neurotic groups were
not
necessarily
high-
er
on
the
dimension of "neuroticism"
than
criminal groups
but
they
were
more introverted
and
highly conditioned (Eysenck,
1965,
p. 267).
The
ease
of response to conditioning procedures was considered
important
because
"conditioning
(is)
the
essential
substratum
of
the
socialisation process"
(Eysenck,
1957b,
p. 262),
and
"while
...
neurotics
...
(tend) to form con-
ditioned responses firmly
and
strongly . . .
the
absence of conscience
in
criminal
and
psychopathic persons may be due to
the
fact
that
they
form
conditioned responses very poorly, if
at
all" (Eysenck,
1965,
p. 267).
Experimental
evidence
Franks
(1956a) found
that
neurotics condition
much
better
than
hysterico-psychopaths,
but
he considered
that
introversion-extraversion
was a more
important
variable for conditioning
than
neuroticism (see also
Franks, 1956b). Lykken
(1957)
discriminated between "primary"
and
·This
research was conducted with the co-operation of the staff and inmates of several
training and penal institutions, and the data was processed by Mrs. G. Maxwell, M.A.,
with financial assistance from the Internal Research Committee of Victoria University
of Wellington, and the use of an Elliot 503 computer.
tPhD. Head of the Student Counselling Service, Victoria University of Wellington,
New Zealand.
243
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