Lesson 8 - Psychodynamic Explanations

Question 1

What 3 things make up personality?

Answer 1

Superego
Id
Ego

Question 2

What is the id?

Answer 2

The id operates on the pleasure principle where it wants immediate gratification regardless of morality.

Question 3

What is the superego?

Answer 3

The superego operates on the morality principle where it determines which behaviours are morally acceptable. The superego contains our conscience which is the internalisation of societal rules. The superego causes feelings of pride when we exhibit moral behaviour and causes feelings of guilt when we exhibit immoral behaviour.

Question 4

What is the ego?

Answer 4

The ego operates on the reality principle where it mediates between the impulsive demands of the id with the reality of the external world. The ego must also compromise between the impulsive demands of the id and the moralistic demands of the superego by delaying gratification until there is a more appropriate opportunity to satisfy its demands while meeting more moralistic demands.

Question 5

What is the last aspect of personality to form?

Answer 5

The superego

Question 6

When does the superego form?

Answer 6

At the end of the phallic stage of the psychosexual development at 3-6 years old.

Question 7

What is the Oedipus Complex?

Answer 7

During the phallic stage of the psychosexual development, male children unconsciously wish to possess (sexually) their mother and get rid of their father.

Question 8

What does the Oedipus Complex result in?

Answer 8

Castration anxiety

Question 9

What is Castration anxiety?

Answer 9

This is where male children fear that their father will remove their penis to punish them for desiring their mother.

Question 10

How is Castration anxiety overcome?

Answer 10

The male child will attempt to identify with their father by internalising their superego, creating their own.

Question 11

What is the Electra Complex?

Answer 11

This is where female children will internalise their mother’s superego, creating their own. However, as female children do not experience castration anxiety (don’t have a penis), they do not internalise their mother’s superego to the same extent at which male children do meaning that it is less well developed (don’t have a desperate need to identify with their mother as they do not have a penis to lose).

Question 12

What did Blackburn (1993) suggest?

Answer 12

Blackburn argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate, then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id will not be properly controlled. (Superego operates on the morality principle meaning that if it is inadequate, the id wont be properly controlled and a person will succumb to their impulsive demands).

Question 13

What are the three types of inadequate superego?

Answer 13

Weak superego
Deviant superego
Over-Harsh superego

Question 14

What is a weak superego?

Answer 14

If the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage of psychosexual development, the child will not be able to internalise a fully formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification. This makes offending behaviour more likely.

Question 15

What is a deviant superego?

Answer 15

This is where the superego which the child internalises has immoral or deviant values which can lead to offending behaviour.

Question 16

What is an Over-Harsh superego?

Answer 16

A healthy superego has rules but is also forgiving of transgressions (acts that go against the law). An excessively punitive superego means that a person is constantly crippled by guilt and anxiety. This may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s desire for punishment (superego says that the person is not good enough so they deserved to be punished).

Question 17

What are 5 weaknesses of the inadequate superego?

Answer 17

• An assumption of the Psychodynamic approach is that girls are more prone to performing criminal behaviour as they have a less well developed superego than boys. However, this is not reflected in crime statistics.
• Hoffman (1975) tested children’s ability to resist temptation and found very little gender difference, although, girls were slightly more moral than boys.
• There is very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent parent (and therefore having a less well developed superego) are less law-abiding as adults (or have less of a conscience).
• If children who are raised by deviant parents and go on to commit crime, this could be because of genetics instead of developing a deviant superego.
• The idea that some criminals have an unconscious desire for punishment is implausible/unlikely as most offenders go to great lengths to cover up and conceal their crime in order to avoid punishment.