9 - Psychodynamic Explanations Flashcards
What did Freud say were the components of personality? Briefly explain them and the principles they work on
Id - pleasure principle; wants immediate gratification regardless of morality.
Ego - reality principle; mediates between impulsive demands of id
with reality of external world. May delay gratification the id wants until there is a more appropriate opportunity to satisfy its demands. Compromise between impulsive demands of id and moralistic demands of superego.
Superego - morality principle; it contains our conscience, the internalisation of societal rules. Determines which behaviours are morally acceptable and causes feelings of guilt when rules are broken, or pride when we exhibit moral behaviour.
What conflicts occur at the superego stage?
Develops at the end of the phallic stage of psychosexual development at 3-6 years old.
Oedipus complex - male child unconsciously wishes to possess their mother and get rid of their father. As a result of this desire boys experience castration anxiety, they fear their father will remove their penis to punish them for their desire of their mother.
In an attempt to resolve this anxiety the child identifies with their father and will eventually internalise their father’s superego.
Electra complex- for girls, but as they do not have castration anxiety, they do not internalise their mother’s superego to the same extent, and so their own superego is less well developed than a male superego.
What did Brackburn suggest about a criminals superego?
If the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is not properly controlled.
Describe the 3 types of inadequate superego
- Weak Superego – same-sex parent absent during phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego because there is no opportunity for identification.
- Deviant Superego - superego that child internalises has immoral or deviant values this can lead to offending behaviour.
- Over-Harsh Superego – A healthy superego has rules, but is also forgiving of transgressions. Very punitive superego means an individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety. Unconsciously drives the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.
Evaluate the theory of an inadequate superego
- An assumption of the Psychodynamic approach is the idea that girls develop a weaker superego than boys. The implication is that females should be more prone to criminal behaviour. This is simply not supported by crime statistics. Hoffman (1975) tested children’s ability to resist temptation. He found hardly any gender difference, although girls were slightly more moral than boys.
- Very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding as adults (or have less of a conscience).
- If children raised by deviant parents go on to commit crime themselves this could be due to genetics or learning rather than a deviant superego.
- The idea that some criminals have an unconscious desire for punishment is implausible, most offenders go to great lengths to conceal their crime and so avoid punishment.
What did Bowlby theorise about the bond between mother and child?
Ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the child forming a warm and continuous relationship with a mother-figure.
Maternal bond is unique and superior to any other and vital to a child’s well-being and emotional development.
Failure to establish such a bond can lead to affectionless psychopathy, characterised by a lack of guilt and empathy.
What research did Bowlby do and what did he find?
Studied 88 children, 44 of whom had been caught stealing (thieves).
Bowlby found that some of the thieves were affectionless psychopaths. Those individuals who had been diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths had experienced frequent early separations form their mothers.
86% of the affectionless psychopaths (12 out of 14) experienced frequent separations from their mothers compared with only 17% (5 out of 30) of the thieves who were not classed as affectionless psychopaths. Almost none of the control group had experienced early separations from their mothers.
Evaluate the theory of Maternal Deprivation
- Failed to distinguish between deprivation (when the mother-figure is no longer there) and privation (when there was never a mother-figure). Argued that privation is more damaging than deprivation. Many of the affectionless psychopaths had actually suffered privation not deprivation.
- Found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending. Suggested that there are countless reasons for a link between maternal deprivation and delinquency, such as genetic factors. The gene that causes criminal behaviour could also cause women to be absent from her children (especially if she is absent because she is in prison).
