FP- Psychodynamic Explanations

Question 1

Which three aspects make up personality? What principles do they focus on?

Answer 1

• Superego: Operates on the MORALITY PRINCIPLE, contains conscience
• id : Operates on PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, wants immediate gratification regardless of morality.
• Ego: Mediates between impulsive demands of the id with the reality of the external world, focuses of REALITY PRINCIPLE.

Question 2

What is the last aspect of personality to form?

Answer 2

The Superego

Question 3

When does the superego form?

Answer 3

The superego develops at the end of the phallic stage of psychosexual development at 3-6 years old.

Question 4

Why do boys internalise with their fathers superego?

Answer 4

• Due to the Oedipus complex in which the 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 internalisetheir father’s superego, creating their own.

Question 5

Why don’t girls internalise their mother’s superego?

Answer 5

• Girls go through the Electra complex, but because they do not have castration anxiety, they do notinternalisetheir mother’s superego to the same extent, and so their own superego is less well developed than a male superego.

Question 6

What are the main three types of inadequate superego?

Answer 6

1) Weak Superego –If the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego because there is no opportunity for identification.
- This would make offending behaviour likely.

2) Deviant Superego –If the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values this can lead to offending behaviour.

3) Over-Harsh Superego –A healthy superego has rules, but is also forgiving of transgressions.
- An excessively punitive superego means an individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety.
- This may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

Question 7

Evaluate inadequate superego. (Disadvantages)

Answer 7

1) 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.
2) Hoffman (1975) tested children’s ability to resist temptation. He found hardly any gender difference, although girls were slightly more moral than boys.
3) There is very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding as adults (or have less of a conscience).
4) 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.
5) 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.