Forensic psychology - Psychological explanations for offending behaviour: Psychodynamic explanations

Question 1

What is the psychodynamic explanation for offending behaviour?

Answer 1

-The psychodynamic explanation for offending behaviour suggests that there is a role of the parent-child relationship & unconscious mental processes in developing a criminal personality

Question 2

What is the superego explanation for offending behaviour?

Answer 2

• The superego is the “The morality principle” formed in the phallic stage by identifying with a same sex parent
• The superego attempts to regulate behaviour by giving feelings of guilt and pride
• An underdeveloped superego is caused by a lack of identification with a same sex parent
• An overdeveloped superego is due to over identification with a same sex parent, an individual with an overdeveloped superego would commit crime in order to satisfy their need to punish themselves
• A deviant superego is caused by normal identification with a same sex parent but the parent is a criminal, so the imitated behaviours are criminal behaviours/offending behaviours

Question 3

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 3

• Defence mechanisms are unconscious mental processes that are used to avoid anxiety:
• Denial is when the criminal would reject the reality/serious nature of crimes
• Displacement is when the criminal would release their anger onto weaker targets
• Rationalisation is when a criminal would argue that the crime that they have committed is “Justified” in some way

Question 4

What is attachment theory?

Answer 4

• Attachment theory states that, due to an insecure attachment to the primary caregiver as an infant, the individuals internal working model for relationships lacks trust
• This leads to negative interactions/crime
• Maternal deprivation results in affectionless psychopathy (No empathy), this can lead to criminal behaviour (Delinquency)

Question 5

What is a strength of the psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour?

Answer 5

• Theories on the link between early childhood experience and later criminality can be applied to reduce crime
• Freud’s ideas can be used to ensure that children’s superego is not under or over developed with the use of parenting classes

Question 6

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour?

Answer 6

• Many Freudian concepts like the superego are not directly observable or falsifiable
• This means that, as an explanation for offending behaviour, they cannot be empirically tested so they could be seen as an unscientific explanation of criminality

Question 7

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour?

Answer 7

• Freud suggests that as females don’t resolve the Oedipus complex, they should have weaker superegos and so be less moral
• This is an example of alpha bias which was likely due to Freud’s own androcentric world view
• Offending data clearly shows that across cultures, females are less likely to be offenders than males
• This is a direct counter to Freud’s theory