AC2.2 Describe individualistic theories of criminality

Question 1

What are psychodynamic theories?

Answer 1

1. Freud’s theory 1856 to 1939
2. Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory

Question 2

Key points of Freud’s theory:

Answer 2

According to Freud, the human personality contains three elements: the ego, id, and superego. These elements are in tension with one another.

Question 3

The ID:

Answer 3

• Is located in the unconscious, instinctive, ‘animal’ part of the mind.
• It contains powerful, selfish, pleasure-seeking needs and drives, such as the desire for sex, food, and sleep.
• Know as ‘the pleasure principle’ – the blind desire to satisfy its urges at any costs.
• They often lead to anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Question 4

The superego:

Answer 4

• Contains our conscience or moral rules, which we learn through interactions with our parents during early socialisation.
• The child internalises its parents’ idea of right and wrong, and the superego develops as a sort of internal ‘nagging parent’.
• Act or even just think of acting – it punishes us with feelings of guilt and anxiety.

Question 5

The ego:

Answer 5

• Saw our behaviour as the result of the struggle between the id, and the superego.
• Driven by ‘the reality principle’ – it learns from experience that in the real world, our actions have consequences.
• A weakly developed superego means the individual will feel less guilt about anti-social actions and less inhibition about acting on the id’s selfish or aggressive urges.
• A too harsh and unforgiving superego creates deep-seated guilt feelings in the individual , who craves punishment as a release from these feelings.
• A deviant superego is one where the child is successfully socialised, but into a deviant moral code.

Question 6

Key point of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory:

Answer 6

• He argues that there is a link between maternal deprivation and deviant or anti-social behaviour.
• In his views, a child needs a close, continuous relationship with its primary carer (Bowlby assumed would be the mother). From birth to the age of 5 in order to develop normally.
• If the mother-child attachment is broken through separation, even for a short period, it can leave the child unable to form meaningful emotional relationships with others. He describes this as ‘affectionless psychopath’.

Question 7

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation evidence:

Answer 7

• Bowlby based his theory on study of 44 juvenile thieves who had been referred to a child guidance clinic.
• He found that 39% of them had suffered maternal deprivation before the age of 5, compared with only 5% of a control group of non-delinquents.

Question 8

Key points of Eysenck’s personality theory:

Answer 8

Hans Eysenck developed a theory of criminality based on his theory of personality. He argues that criminality is the result of a particular personality type.

Question 9

Our personality is made up of two dimensions:

Answer 9

• Extraversion versus innovation (E)
• Neuroticism versus emotional stability (N)

Question 10

Extraverted personalities are:

Answer 10

• Outgoing
• Sociable
• Excitement-seeking
• Impulsive
• Carefree
• Optimistic
• Often aggressive
• Short-tempered
• Unreliable

Question 11

Introverted personalities are:

Answer 11

• Reserved
• Inward-looking
• Thoughtful
• Serious
• Quiet
• Self-controlled
• Pessimistic
• Reliable

Question 12

Neurotic personalities are:

Answer 12

• Anxious
• Moody
• Often depressed.
• Prone to over-reacting – whereas emotionally stable personalities are clam, even-tempered, controlled, and unworried.

Question 13

Conditioning:

Answer 13

• Some psychologists argue that through experience, we learn to seek pleasure (reward) and avoid pain (punishment).
• Eysenck argues that we learn through conditioning, but that some individuals inherit a nervous system that causes them to develop a criminal personality.

Question 14

Extraverts:

Answer 14

• Have a nervous system that needs a high level of stimulation from their environment, so they are constantly seeking excitement.
• This leads to impulsive, rule-breaking behaviour.
• In turn, this is likely to lead to punishment.

Question 15

Neurotics:

Answer 15

Are harder to condition into following society’s rules because their high anxiety levels prevent them learning from punishment for their mistakes.

Question 16

Psychoticism:

Answer 16

• In his research, Eysenck added psychoticism (P) as a further personality dimension.
• People with high P score are more likely to engage in criminality.
• They tend to be solitary misfits who are cruel, insensitive, aggressive ad lacking in empathy.
• High P can overlap with serious psychiatric illness such as schizophrenia.

Question 17

Learning theories of crime generally emphasise three key features:

Answer 17

1. Criminal behaviour is learned behaviour.
2. The influence of our immediate social environment, such as the family and peer groups.
3. They key role of reinforcement and punishment in the learning process.

Question 18

What are learning theories?

Answer 18

1. Sutherland’s differential association
2. Operant learning theory
3. Social learning theory

Question 19

Sutherland’s differential association theory:

Answer 19

Edwin Sutherland argues that individuals learn criminal behaviour largely in the family and peer groups. It is the result of two factors:

1. Imitation of criminal acts: individuals can acquire criminal skills and techniques through observing those around them.
2. Learned attitudes: Socialisation within the group exposes the individual to attitudes and values about the law. Some of these may be favourable to the law and others unfavourable. If the individual internalises more unfavourable than favourite attitudes and values, they are more likely to become criminals.

Question 20

Key points of operant learning theory:

Answer 20

It is the work of the psychologist B.F. Skinner. Its basic idea is that if a particular behaviour results in a reward, it is likely to be repeated.

Question 21

Behaviourism:

Answer 21

• The cause of someone’s behaviour lies of reinforcements and punishments that shape it.
• This focus on behaviour-shaping has led to operant learning theory becoming known as behaviourism.

Question 22

Different reinforcement theory:

Answer 22

• Skinner argues that all behaviour is the result of reinforcements and punishments.
• If so, then this must explain criminal behaviour too.
• Jeffery argues that criminal behaviour is learned through the reinforcement of particular behaviours.
• If crime has more rewarding consequences than punishing ones of an individual, they will be more likely to engage in criminal behaviour.

Question 23

Key points of social learning theory:

Answer 23

Bandura argues that we earn much of our behaviour – including aggressive behaviour – by imitating other people.

Question 24

Models:

Answer 24

• Bandura calls these other people ‘models’ because we model our behaviour on how we see them behaving. However, we don’t copy just anybody’s behaviour.
• Whether we imitate their behaviour mainly depends on the consequences of that behaviour.

Question 25

Evidence:

Answer 25

• A series of experiments with 4 to 5 year olds. They divided the children into three groups. All three were the shown a film of an adult model being verbally and physically aggressive towards an inflatable Bobo Doll.
• Group 1 saw a version of the film where the model was rewarded with praise.
• Group 2 saw a version in which the model was punished.
• Group 3 was control group. In the version they saw, the behaviour was neither rewarded nor punished.

Question 26

Findings:

Answer 26

• Group 1 imitated the aggressive behaviours they had seen being rewarded.
• Group 2, who had observed the model being punished, were the least likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour.
• Group 3, the control group, also imitated the model, though less so.

Question 27

Define cognition.

Answer 27

The term ‘cognition’ refers to thinking and mental processes such as attitudes, beliefs, reasoning, problem-solving, decision making, our self-concept, and how we interpret the world around us.

Question 28

What are cognitive theories of crime?

Answer 28

1. Criminal personality theory
2. Kohlberg’s moral development theory

Question 29

Key points of criminal personality theory:

Answer 29

• Yochelson and Samenow have applied cognitive theory of criminality. Their key idea is that criminals are prone to faulty thinking, and this makes them more likely to commit crime.
• Their criminal personality theory is based on a long-term study of 240 male offenders, most of whom had been committed to psychiatric hospital.

Question 30

Thinking errors:

Answer 30

• They argue that criminals show a range of errors and biases in their thinking and decision-making.
• These include lying; secretiveness; need for power and control; super-optimism; failure to understand other’s positions; lack of trust in others; uniqueness and the victim stance.
• These errors and biases lead the individual to commit crime.

Question 31

Key points Kohlberg’s moral development theory:

Answer 31

• This is theory of how we develop our moral thinking. As such it is potentially relevant to understanding criminal’s thinking.
• Kohlberg argues that our ideas of right and wrong develop through a series of levels and stages from childhood to childhood.
• At the ‘pre-conventional’, young children define right and wrong simply in terms of what brings punishment or rewards, whereas by adulthood, our ideas of right and wrong involve an understanding of underlying moral principles and values.
• This suggests that criminals’ moral development is stuck at a less mature level than everyone else’s. They are likely to think solely in terms of whether their actions will lead to a reward r punishment, rather than how it might affect others.

Question 32

Cognitive behaviour therapy:

Answer 32

• See delinquents’ thought patterns as different from those of normal people have led to a range of treatments for offenders.
• These come under the general heading of cognitive behavioural therapy.