Psychodynamic Explanations Flashcards
What does the psychodynamic approach suggest about criminal behaviour?
Proposed that unconscious motivations developed during childhood are responsible for criminal tendencies
What is the superego?
The superego is the final part of personality that develops in the phallic stage of childhood. It is a product of nurture as it develops through interaction with parents. It represents morality principle.
How is the superego linked to crime?
Underdeveloped or weak superego
Overdeveloped or strong superego
Deviant superego
How does underdeveloped superego lead to crime?
A lack of identification with the same sex parent produces a superego unable to control the id’s desires for instant gratification. Lack of punishment by the superego equals no guilt for offending
How does the overdeveloped superego lead to crime?
The person feels guilty all the time and so engages in crime in order to be punished. Alternatively the superego is so over controlling it stops even trivial behaviour that it regards as immoral, resulting in a build upon of pressure in the person until it overwhelms l them and they erupt in violence.
How does the deviant superego lead to crime?
The superego develops normally as a result of internalising the parents moral values, but if those moral values are deviant, the child’s values will also be deviant. This increases the likelihood of offending
What are the defence mechanisms?
Rationalisation
Sublimation
What is an example of rationalisation?
The offender justifies their negative acts by creating positive reasons for it such as stalking someone in order to protect them
What is an example of sublimation?
A strong socially unacceptable desire is expressed in an alternative form of behaviour. A desire to kill a sibling for example might be sublimated to animal cruelty.
What did Freud suggest about defence mechanisms?
Offending behaviour results from ego defences being engaged
How does maternal deprivation link to crime?
Bowlby proposed that disruption of the attachment relationship with the mother or primary caregiver in early childhood led to the development of affection lords psychopathy characterised by a lack of empathy and guilt.
It is suggested that this affects the child’s internal working model as without empathy they become less caring towards other people, do not see victims perspectives and so do not mind hurting them.
finish the evaluation: lack predictive validity
Whilst these theories seem to have face validity in being able to retrospectively explain some criminal acts by some individuals, they lack predictive validity, as they are unable to forecast who will offend and how it will happen.
finish the evaluation: limited evidence
The evidence is limited to case studies and studies such as Bowlby’s which have small samples and are therefore not generalisable, lending only limited validity to the theory
finish the evaluation: not scientific
Psychodynamic concepts are generally difficult to test scientifically because they concern unconscious motivations. These can only be assumed to exist rather than demonstrated experimentally, so the evidence is very limited and the theory lacks validity
Finish the evaluation: Megargees supporting evidence
Some cases do fit with the theory, such as megargee’s description of over controlled violent offenders who have no history of anger or offending but suddenly explode and engage in a violent angry outburst. This fits with the overdeveloped super ego.
