U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

BEHAVIORAL CORRELATES OF THE EEG (ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM) IN DELINQUENTS

NCJ Number
57048
Journal
Journal of Psychology Volume: 79 Issue: 1 Dated: (SEPTEMBER 1971) Pages: 141-146
Author(s)
J A BESHAI
Date Published
1971
Length
6 pages
Annotation
TO STUDY BEHAVIORAL CORRELATES OF ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAMS (EEG) IN DELINQUENTS, A GROUP OF NORMAL SUBJECTS WAS MATCHED WITH TWO DELINQUENT GROUPS DIFFERENTIATED BY THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF SIGNS OF EEG DYSRHYTHMIA.
Abstract
THE SELECTION OF THE DELINQUENT SUBJECTS WAS MADE INDEPENDENTLY AT THE OUTSET IN ORDER TO TEST WHETHER EEG DYSRHYTHMIC DELINQUENTS, IN PARTICULAR, AND DELINQUENTS, IN GENERAL, SHOWED PERSONALITY TRAITS AS DESCRIBED BY EYSENCK (1964) AS EXTROVERTED NEUROTICISM. EYSENCK THEORIZED THAT DELINQUENTS FAILED TO CONDITION RAPIDLY AND WERE BOUND TO BE SLOW LEARNERS OF SOCIAL MORES. THE DELINQUENT AND CONTROL SAMPLES WERE COMPARED TO TEST TWO HYPOTHESES: (1) EEG DYSRHYTHMIC DELINQUENTS DIFFER FROM NONDYSRHYTHMIC DELINQUENTS ON FOUR BEHAVIORAL MEASURES (I.E., THE MAUDSLEY PERSONALITY INVENTORY, PLAYING MINIMAX GAMES, THE SPIRAL TEST OF MOTOR INHIBITION, AND SELF-RATINGS ON AN INVENTORY OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS); AND (2) THE COMBINED DELINQUENT GROUPS DIFFER FROM NONDELINQUENTS ON THE SAME MEASURES OF EXTROVERSION-NEUROTICISM, RISK TAKING, PSYCHOMOTOR INHIBITION, AND FUTURE-PAST DISCREPANCY RATINGS. THE RESULTS INDICATED SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO EEG GROUPS ON THE FIRST TWO MEASURES, BUT NONE ON THE LAST TWO. ALL TESTS SHOWED SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DELINQUENTS AND NORMAL SUBJECTS. FURTHER RESEARCH ON MEASURES OF SENSORY AND MOTOR CONTROL MAY STILL SUPPORT THE EEG AS A RELIABLE PREDICTOR OF DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DELINQUENTS. REFERENCES AND TABULAR DATA ARE PROVIDED. (KBL)

Downloads

No download available

Availability