AC 4.1 - psychological Flashcards
psychoanalysis
Founded by Freud.
Therapy where patients say their thoughts.
Aim to access the unconscious mind, where repressed trauma may cause criminality.
Goal is to bring trauma to the conscious mind to deal with it.
Treatment can be very lengthy - months to years.
types of psychoanalysis
Free association - patients lay down comfy and say thoughts so that repressed memories may slip out
Dream analysis - Freud said dreams had clues of what is happening in the unconscious.
Slip of the tongue - person uses a word but means another. Analyse wrong words to uncover unconscious.
psychoanalysis - crime control
Aichorn applied psychoanalytic ideas to policies to treat young offenders on an institution whose parents were uncaring/absent.
Normal socialisation had not occurred so no superego developed.
Aichorn rejected harsh treatments from institutions and said treating them well helps to develop the superego.
psychoanalysis - evaluation
:( - not effective as Eysenck found only 44% of patients treated by psychoanalysis for neursosis showed improvement compared to 775 from hospitals/GP’s.
:( - costly and time consuming so hasn’t been used on a large scale.
:( - gives the analysts the power to define what is normal or not e.g., Freud said that homosexuality is abnormal.
:) - Shelder concluded that it works as well as CBT and other psychotherapy treatments.
:( - ethical issues as patients could discover a potentially repressed memory that was deliberately repressed.
operant learning and token economy
Involves behaviour modification where criminals should be taught desirable behaviours and undesirable behaviours should be extinguished.
Criminal behaviour is learnt through reinforcement and punishment.
A token economy is a behaviours modification programme used in prisons where prisoners get a reward for desirable behaviour e.g., praise points
operant leaning and token economy - evaluation
:) - FO and O’Donnell (1975) found a buddy system in which adult volunteers reinforced socially acceptable behaviour to a young offender. This improved the behaviour but it was less effective for non-serious young offenders
:( - Evidence suggests token economy only works in the short term but the improvement don’t last once the criminal leaves prison.
Aversion therapy and Eysenck
Eysenck states criminals are strongly extrovert and neurotic.
This makes then harder to condition as they resist learning through punishment.
This was applied to sex offenders as the conditioning needs to be stronger.
Aversion therapy and Eysenck - crime control
Offenders think about unacceptable sexual fantasises until they are aroused.
A strongly aversive stimulus is administered e.g., electric shock.
The procedure is repeated until the offender associates the deviant arousal with the stimulus.
Aim to stop offenders thoughts of and so deviant behaviours.
Aversion therapy and Eysenck - evaluation
:( - has had limited success as only works in the short term.
:( - has had ethical issues as it can been seen as going against human rights.
operant learning and token economy - crime control
Prison sets a list of desirable behaviours.
If prisoners behave in the right way they get a token.
Tokens can be exchanged for a reward e.g., sweets or a phone.
Selective reinforcement makes good behaviour.
Cognitive theories and CBT
Cognitive theories state our thought processes shape our behaviour.
Offenders have a distorted cognition and that makes them offend.
CBT aims to change these thought processes and attitudes to elicit a change in behaviour.
Cognitive theories and CBT - Think first
Programme of groups of 1 on 1.
Sessions for repeat offenders on probation.
Teaches: problem solving, consequential thinking, decision making and seeing things from other peoples POV.
30% less likely to reoffend if they complete the programme.
There is a high non completion rate though.
Cognitive theories and CBT - Aggression replacement training (ART)
For violent offenders.
Involves: interpersonal skills training, anger management, moral reasoning training to challenge attitudes and confront them.
Shown lower reoffending rates but there is evidence that this hasn’t worked due to the lack of behavioural change.
Cognitive theories and CBT - evaluation
:( - not all CBT programmes are equally successful or suitable.
:) - The home office use a ‘what works’ policy which aims to reduce offending and so it only is used for those people who meet the criteria.
