Eysenck, Hans J.: Crime and Personality

Gisli H. Gudjonsson

In his landmark book, Personality: A Psychological Interpretation , Gordon Allport defined personality as “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to the environment” (p. 48). Donald R. Lynam and Karen J. Derefinko have simplified this definition as “Personality refers to an individual's characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and acting” (2006, p. 133). They identify three core features of personality: (1) it is internal (i.e., lies within the individual); (2) it has cognitive, affective, interpersonal and behavioral components; and (3) it is reasonably stable over time and across situations. In accordance with the above definitions, a number of personality theories have been developed and applied to delinquent and criminal behavior, including Hans J. Eysenck's PEN model and the Five-Factor model, which are two influential and competing models. These two theories differ in terms of the number of factors they measure (i.e., three ...

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