2.2 - Individualistic theories

Question 1

Psychodynamic theories

Answer 1

One’s personality having urges that cause them to act certain ways. One not solving these conflicts can lead to criminal behaviour

Question 2

Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud

Answer 2

Early childhood experiences affect adulthood.
personality has three elements

id - powerful+ selfish - pleasure seeking. We would be criminal if this dictated our personality

Superego - Conscience / moral rules which we learn from parents

Ego- the ego is the balance between the id and the superego

Question 3

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation

Answer 3

There is a link between maternal deprivation and and anti-social behaviour.
if a relationship between a child and a parent (mother) is broken, it can mean the child will be unable to form meaningful emotions which can lead to a lack of empathy and criminal behaviour.

Question 4

Eyesenck’s personality theory

Answer 4

A diagram which can determine if one may be criminal. It had 2 axis :
extroversion —- introversion
neuroticism —- emotional stability.
He claims that criminals have high extroversion and neurotic scores
He later added psychoticism. High P = criminal. Overlaps with mental illness like schizophrenia.
Extroverts need constant stimulation which leads to criminal behaviour
Neurotics are hard to condition as their high anxiety prevents them from learning from punishments

Question 5

Differential association - Sutherland

Answer 5

Sutherland argues that criminals learn behaviours through peers
The two factors of this are
Imitation - they acquire criminal skills through observing people around them
Learned attitudes - Socialising with criminals can lead to learning different attitudes and values on the law. Learning ones that don’t support the law can lead to criminality.

Question 6

Social Learning - Bandura

Answer 6

We learn behaviour (criminal) from others who Bandura calls models. We commonly imitate behviours of those who are of higher status. However, our imitating mainly depends on the consequences of those actions. We imitate if rewarded, don’t if punished.
Bandura conducted an experiment with 3 groups of 4/5 year olds watching a video of adults hitting a bobo doll
group 1 saw the adults be rewarded
group 2 saw the models punished
group 3 saw the models not punished nor rewarded
group 1 imitated
group 2 were least likely to
group 3 imitated but were less likely to

Question 7

Cognitive theories

Answer 7

Referring to how we think and believe

Question 8

Kohlberg’s moral development

Answer 8

He believes our morals develop through a series of stages through childhood to adulthood. At a younger age, people see right and wrong as to what is rewarded and punished.
When older, there are underlying principles and values.
He believes criminals are stuck at a lower stage (child like)