PD psychoanalysis (freud) Flashcards
What are psychodynamic theories?
They look and focus on peoples personalities, looking at what caused someone to do something
What are the three elements to personalities, suggested by Freud?
ID
EGO
SUPEREGO
What is an ID personality? Where is it located?
Someone who’s powerful and selfish, pleasure seeking, dives into things. They will act on any urges.
It’s located in the unconscious part of the mind.
What is an EGO personality?
This is what we find in between ID and SUPEREGO. They strike balance, by satisfying the IDs needs whilst it also stays morally acceptable. This struggle between the two, according to Freud, is what causes our behaviour
What is a SUPEREGO personality? What does it contain?
It contains our conscience and our morals, which we learn through early childhood interactions with family. Through the early socialisation as a child, they internalise their carers ideas of right and wrong
How does this relate to crime? What does this theory see about antisocial behaviour?
This theory sees antisocial behaviour caused by an abnormal relationship with parents due to early socialisation (for example harsh and neglecting parenting). This can lead to either a weak, over harsh or deviant SUPEREGO.
What is a weakly developed SUPEREGO?
The individual will feel less guilty about any anti social behaviour, more likely to act on turn IDs ideas and impulses.
What is a harsh SUPEREGO?
Creates deep feelings of guilt in the individual, they then crave punishment as a release of these feelings. They may engage in compulsive repeat offending behaviour as a way to be punished.
What is a deviant SUPEREGO?
Wheee a child is successfully socialised, but into a deviant moral code. For example, a son may have a perfectly good relationship with his criminal father and so he internalises is fathers criminal values. However typically there’s no guilty feelings even if it’s wrong.
Weakness: why is this theory unscientific and subjective?
Psychoanalytic explanations rely on accepting the psychoanalysts claim, that they see into the individuals mind to discover inner conflicts. Realistically this might not be accurate
Weakness: why is it so bad thing that these theories are no longer credited?
They aren’t credited due to the level of difficulty when testing concepts such as the unconscience mind, this is a bad thing because it therefore lacks reliability and validity.
Strength: is there real life application surrounding the policies?
Yes, these explanations have had some influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance. Therefore these theories have been generalised into real life scenarios and situations
Strength: what does this theory say about early childhood and the importance?
It points to the importance of early childhood and family relationships, in understanding criminal behaviour. We can use in real life.
