Lesson 6.1.6

6.1.6 Individual and developmental differences in criminal behaviour Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 6

20 questions

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Lesson 6.1.6, Individual and developmental differences in criminal behaviour: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 6: Criminological psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which personality dimension is linked in the specification to criminal or anti-social behaviour?

    • Height and body weight in childhood, which are recorded at school medicals and linked to later health
    • Personality as a factor in criminal or anti-social behaviour
    • Musical ability as measured by a school test, which is used to place pupils in music groups
    • Handwriting style in adult life, which is sometimes analysed by experts for identity purposes

  2. What does an individual difference affecting whether a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs mean?

    • Labels never affect any individual, because people act on their own choices regardless of others
    • Some people are more likely than others to act in line with a label, depending on personal characteristics
    • Individual differences only matter for physical health, and not for how people respond to labels
    • Every person responds to a label in exactly the same way, so individual differences make no difference

  3. What is social learning theory?

    • A theory that only physical punishment changes behaviour, since rewards and models have no effect
    • A theory that behaviour is fixed by the genes at birth, so experience has little effect on what people do
    • A theory of how behaviour is acquired through observation, imitation and reinforcement
    • A theory of how memory is stored in the brain, based on the connections between nerve cells

  4. According to social learning theory, how is criminal behaviour acquired?

    • By inheriting a criminal gene from a parent, which fixes the behaviour across the whole lifespan
    • By random accident with no learning involved, so the behaviour appears without any cause at all
    • By observing and imitating models whose behaviour is rewarded
    • By only reading legal texts about crime, which gives the person the knowledge to offend

  5. Which is a developmental explanation of criminal behaviour that is linked to social factors?

    • The Strange Situation test of infant attachment, which measures how infants respond to separation
    • Psychological formulation of a single offence, which explains the reasons for one particular act
    • Cognitive interview techniques for witnesses, which improve how well they recall the details of events
    • The self-fulfilling prophecy, in which labels from others shape later behaviour

  6. Which developmental factor could be part of a biological explanation of criminal behaviour?

    • The choice of a university course at eighteen, which is linked to the person's later social mobility
    • A preference for a particular school subject, which is linked to later career choice and earnings
    • A preference for a particular food in adulthood, which is linked to diet and general health later on
    • Early brain injury or a difficult temperament that influences later behaviour

  7. A child who is frequently labelled as naughtiest in class starts to see themselves as a troublemaker. Which concept applies?

    • Monotropy
    • Stratified sampling
    • Self-fulfilling prophecy
    • Operant conditioning of attention

  8. Why should individual differences be considered when studying developmental causes of crime?

    • Two children exposed to the same risk factors may develop different outcomes
    • Development is fixed before birth and cannot be affected by experience
    • All children respond to risk in an identical way
    • Individual differences are irrelevant to development

  9. Which evaluation of social learning theory is most balanced?

    • It has no relevance to development at all, since it deals only with adult behaviour in prison
    • It is based only on genetic evidence from twin studies, so it cannot explain learned behaviour at all
    • It fully explains every criminal act without exception, so no other theory is needed for any case
    • It explains how behaviour can be acquired, but it may underplay biological and individual factors

  10. A researcher tests whether children who watch an aggressive model are more likely to imitate aggression. Which theory is being tested?

    • Social learning theory
    • Monotropy
    • The cognitive interview
    • Formulation theory

  11. Which statement about the role of gender in developmental explanations of crime is most accurate?

    • Offending rates differ by gender, and developmental explanations should account for this
    • Gender affects only physical appearance, not behaviour, so explanations need not consider it at all
    • Gender is irrelevant because all children develop in the same way, whatever their sex or background
    • Gender only affects which school children attend, since it has no other effect on behaviour

  12. Why might a biological explanation be combined with a social one when explaining development?

    • Biological vulnerability may interact with social experiences to produce different outcomes
    • Biology and social factors never interact, so each one must be studied in complete isolation
    • Social factors always cancel out biological ones, so the biology of a person has no effect on crime
    • Biology has no role in development at all, since everything is decided by the social environment

  13. A longitudinal study follows children from age five to age twenty-five. What is the main advantage for studying developmental causes of crime?

    • It can measure only adult behaviour at one moment, so it cannot show how early factors matter
    • It can show how early factors predict later offending within the same individuals
    • It removes the need for any consent from participants, because they are followed without being asked
    • It avoids all attrition over the study period, so every participant is always followed up in full

  14. Which is a limitation of relying only on social learning theory to explain adult offending?

    • It only applies to animals and not to humans, so it cannot be used to explain criminal behaviour
    • It may not explain offending that arises from biological or personality factors
    • It cannot explain any form of learned behaviour, because learning plays no part in the account
    • It has been disproved by every study ever carried out, so it is no longer used in research

  15. A young person with a history of impulsive behaviour and a poor learning environment offends. Which explanation best fits the interaction described?

    • A cognitive explanation based only on memory, which looks at how the person stores and recalls events
    • A purely social explanation with no individual factors, which ignores the person's own temperament
    • An interactionist explanation combining individual vulnerability with social learning
    • A purely genetic explanation with no environment, which treats the behaviour as fixed from birth

  16. Which individual difference might make a self-fulfilling prophecy less likely to occur?

    • A lack of any social contact at all, which means the person has no one to check the label against
    • Strong self-esteem and supportive relationships that buffer against negative labels
    • A tendency to accept labels without question, which makes the person more likely to act them out
    • Frequent exposure to negative labels from peers, which strengthens the expectation that the label will be lived up to

  17. A school intervention aims to stop a label from shaping a child's later behaviour. Which theoretical principle does it apply?

    • Making the child's label permanent and public, so that everyone can see and respond to it
    • Removing all supportive relationships around the child, so that the child depends on the label alone
    • Reducing the self-fulfilling prophecy by changing how the child is labelled and treated
    • Increasing the child's exposure to criminal models, which teaches the child what is expected of them

  18. Which statement best describes the link between individual differences and developmental explanations of crime?

    • Individual differences are always caused by criminal behaviour, so they cannot be a cause of it
    • Individual differences have no effect on development, because children follow the same path wherever they live
    • Individual differences shape how developmental risks are experienced and whether they lead to offending
    • Individual differences only matter for adult offenders, and have no role in the lives of young people

  19. What does reinforcement mean in social learning theory?

    • A punishment that removes all future learning, so the person stops responding to any form of consequence
    • A label given by a teacher to a pupil, which the pupil then uses to describe their own behaviour
    • A consequence that increases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated
    • A model who never displays any behaviour, so there is nothing for the observer to copy or learn from

  20. In a study of 200 young people, 30 per cent showed early behavioural problems and 25 per cent of those later offended. How many later offended?

    • 45
    • 60
    • 15
    • 30

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