Lesson 8: Psychodynamic Explanations

Question 1

Inadequate Superego

Answer 1

The superego, along with the id and the ego make up personality. The id operates on the pleasure principle; it wants immediate gratification regardless of morality. The ego mediates between the impulsive demands of the id with the reality of the external world, it therefore operates on the reality principle. It may delay the gratification that the id wants until there is a more appropriate opportunity to satisfy its demands. The ego must also compromise between the impulsive demands of the id and the moralistic demands of the superego. The superego operates on the morality principle, it contains our conscience, the internalisation of societal rules. It determines which behaviours are morally acceptable and causes feelings of guilt when rules are broken, or pride when we exhibit moral behaviour.

The superego is the last aspect of personality to form. It develops at the end of the phallic stage of psychosexual development at 3-6 years old. The major conflict of this stage is 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 internalise their father’s superego, creating their own. Girls go through a similar process, called the Electra complex, but because 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.

Question 2

Blackburn (1993) types of inadequate superego

Answer 2

Blackburn (1993) argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is not properly controlled. Three types of inadequate superego have been proposed:

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 3

Disadvantages of inadequate superego

Answer 3

• 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.
• 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).
• 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.