psychological approaches

Question 1

how does media portrays mental illness?

Answer 1

ties to violent anti-social, criminal potential
creates a typification
only highlights negative consequences of mental illness and mislabels
skews public understanding

Question 2

how does entertainment display mental illness?

Answer 2

usually as villains who are violent resulting from mental illness
very simplistic, no emphasis on contributing factors

Question 3

what are the general assumptions of psychological approaches?

Answer 3

crime and criminality are determined by biological dispositions
behaviours learned and reinforced at early age
individual level

Question 4

what does intelligence have to do with crime?

Answer 4

links between low IQ and crime (predictor?)

Question 5

Freuds psychoanalysis of crime?

Answer 5

personality has 3 components
id: unconscious, impulsive, ‘pleasure’ principle
ego: regulator, reality principle
superego: conscience/moral compass embodies social values
over/under developed personality can cause crime (weak ego, overactive superego)

Question 6

what is psychopathy?

Answer 6

1% pop.
usually misunderstood
lack of empathy, manipulation, usually successful in business ~ not violent

Question 7

what is ASPD (sociopathy?)

Answer 7

lack of morality, impulsive, low self-control
created by environmental factors

Question 8

behavioural/operant conditioning?

Answer 8

conditioning personalities and behaviours (ex. Pavlov and dogs)

Question 9

reinforcements?

Answer 9

positive reinforcement: good behaviour rewarded and likely repeated
negative reinforcement: bad behaviour punished, less likely repeated

Question 10

social cognitivism - modeling?

Answer 10

people (especially children) learn and imitate behaviours they see

Question 11

vicarious reinforcement?

Answer 11

observing others’ behaviours being rewarded or punished and internalizing it
children emulate (can be reasoning for smoking, DV, etc.)

Question 12

sex crimes - paraphilia?

Answer 12

sexual arousal to people or things - illegal when there’s no consent

Question 13

treatment of sex offender?

Answer 13

cognitive therapy, relapse prevention
medications for neurotransmitters
chemical castrations

Question 14

criticisms of psychological approaches?

Answer 14

ignored structural, cultural, macro
ignores individual choice
difficult to empirically test
no explain why crime occurs
‘over-medicalization’ issue